376 Something Wicked This Way Comes

Although Baiyi did not doubt the Bard Walker's literary accomplishments, he could not fathom the fact that a heretical altar, which had been designed with a style prominent to an Abyss Lord, would have a god's emblem on it.

"This God of Power… Is he an evil god?" Baiyi asked.

"No; oh, no. He's pretty benevolent. His religion and ties in God's grace both support this, so how could he be evil? He just has not bothered with granting miracles or making oracles of his followers. The number of followers he had was minuscule in comparison with God's Grace, so in the end, his cult died out," the Bard Walker replied in a serious tone of voice. "From the records I collected, his cult was pretty low-profile, and his followers were few and meek."

God's Grace was a surprisingly open-minded religion, and it never actively persecuted any heretics or pagans. As long as its followers kept themselves within the confines of the law, the Church did not pay them any mind. However, in terms of the theological missions and virtues, these smaller cults could not hold a candle to God's Grace; hence, in the end, these smaller cults slowly died out because their followers opted for something else.

However, if a cult began doing serious business, causing it to attract a lot of attention, God's Grace would immediately label it 'blasphemous', and that would be the end of the cult.

This information did not help their case, though. Why would Godsfall inscribe this god's insignia on their own altar? If it was an altar really intended for summoning, would Godsfall really summon a god — an act that was in line with their own philosophy?

"Looks like we're out of leads. Let us just meet up with the students, first, as soon as possible. Who knows, maybe Mr.Bear would have some insights to share," Baiyi said. He sped up, hurrying to the place he was to rendezvous with his students.

After speaking with Baiyi, the students and the other villagers began to head to the rendezvous point. Hence, it did not take long for Baiyi to reach them; he met them close to a beautiful creek.

After the events of the night before, as well as the hard work that had occurred after, the students and others were exhausted. Many dropped all pretense just to rest.

Little Mia was still a little excited from her last battle. Nota was also awake, but she was still in her little fairy form — a form in which she wore no clothes whatsoever. The Kitty-cat Maid sat with them, but she was moments away from falling asleep. However, when she saw Baiyi approach them, she jerked awake and threw herself at him, with wide open arms.

Baiyi caught the maid, only to discover that she had somehow fallen asleep in midair.

Tisdale was fast asleep, lying atop Zakum's fluffy back. She had fallen asleep before the group reached the rendezvous point.

Little Mia, who was holding the sabercat in her embrace, beamed proudly at Baiyi. "Mr. Hope! We saved so many people this time! Even this cat!"

'It resembles a leopard more than a cat, though.' Baiyi thought. Watching the little cub pat Mia's cheeks with its paws, he decided not to share his thoughts with the little girl.

However, he praised Mia for her effort. After tossing Attie onto his shoulder, he reached out to ruffle Mia's hair. He brought out a storage pouch, which was filled with clothes for the girls, and tossed it to Nota. The little fairy caught the pouch, which was almost as big as she currently was, then she raced to the woods to transform back and wear her clothes.

That was when Mr. Bear, who now looked like a chewed toy, emerged from the crowd. It looked pitiful, but as soon as it saw Nydore standing safely behind Baiyi, it grinned in relief. "Looks like you won your battle pretty nicely, too. It was difficult, but we prevailed."

After sparing a few seconds to think, Baiyi decided to not tell the bear about other battles they would have to fight. Instead, he looked at its wounds. "Are you alright? Do your injuries need some…sewing?" He asked in concern.

Mr. Bear looked embarrassed at the suggestion, but it shook its head sideways at the offer, nonetheless. It brought out a young sapling and said, in grief, "He's… He's hurt really badly. He would need to recover here."

The sapling, who was actually Grandfather Tree, slowly, and with clear signs of struggle, opened its eyes and looked at Baiyi. With a sigh, it said, "I'm now…only as strong… as a sapling." After that, the sapling said no more; the great druid had fallen into a deep sleep.

After gently putting the sapling away, Mr. Bear used its profound ability to construct large treehouses for the surviving fairies to rest in. Baiyi helped, too, by levitating the fairies with his mana and tossing them into the tree houses; he was like a workman working with burlap sacks. Different cries soon filled the woods. "Oww! Ouch! Aiieek!"

After every fairy had been tossed into their respective treehouse, Baiyi took out large sleeping bags from his storage pouch, along with blankets, covers, and bedsheets. Then, he began to prepare a room for the students.

"Whoa! Grandpa has had all these with him the entire time?" Nydore exclaimed in jealousy, silently hinting that he not leave her, his granddaughter-in-law, out. 

He did not. He made a bed for Nydore as well. When he was done, he had the girls sleep in the best part of the treehouse that was constructed for them.

After that, he brought the Fairy Walker with him to look for Mr. Bear. They found it trying to heal its injuries with some mud. "Alright, now I can talk to you about something."

He informed the bear of everything that had transpired, including the clues he had gathered.

The bear's round, beady eyes narrowed as it patiently listened to him. When he finished, it shook its head sideways and sighed. "I knew things would not be that simple. Even if the Wise Mad King does not see eye to eye with us, he should not have gone to such extremes. Seeing as the druid who is in charge of the area where Nydore and the others were cornered did not show up, it can only mean that it has long since been killed. I guess this is not just petty revenge against Eom Village; it is a straightforward attempt to massacre us all!"

"Now, I need more intel, and I need your help," Baiyi said, then he described the strange hallucinatory-like trance that he felt after touching the Eight Walker. Baiyi obviously wished to enter that state again, in order to obtain more information. With what he would gather, he could effectively foil the Wise Mad King's plot.

Unfortunately, Mr. Bear's reply was a disappointing sideways shake of its head. "That's Nature's Eye — something I'm not so adept in. I could try to use it, but I won't be able to bring you with me."

"I see. That would have to do, then. Please, do remember to tell me what you see in that trance, especially the things that make you feel uncomfortable, or things you consider hostile," Baiyi said, resorting to his Plan B.

Mr. Bear nodded before closing its eyes. At that moment, it resembled a meditating old monk. Although the sight of a stuffed toy assuming a meditative pose was funny and insult-worthy, Baiyi was not in the mood for such things.

After entering the trance, Mr. Bear's expressions changed often; sometimes it looked agitated, and other times it looked relaxed. It gestured with its paws frequently as well, moving some rocks around. Soon, the rocks were stacked in a certain order.

When the bear finally opened its eyes, it pointed at one of the rocks with a certain shape and began to explain, saying, "These rocks signify the locations that made me feel uncomfortable. The larger the rock, the more uncomfortable the location made me feel—"

Before the bear could finish, it toppled over. Alarmed, the Fairy Walker rushed over to the fallen bear, only to see that it was fast asleep. Had it been that tired all along?

'But it had looked quite awake only moments before. Does Nature's Eye expend that much stamina?' Baiyi thought to himself. He left the Fairy Walker to care for Mr. Bear while he carefully studied the rock structure that the bear had arranged.

He was dazed. That Wise Mad King! He had actually set up this many evil altars in the Eternal Tree Ocean?! He had tampered with every inch of the place! The place was called an 'ocean', not a 'forest', because of its area; hence, one could only imagine how long it had taken the villain to set up all these. For how long had he planned this? What sort of monster would this formation spawn?!

Even though Mr. Bear was only able to sense the general locations of these altars, if one looked at the rocks it had arranged, the person would see that the rocks were linked by some lines, which, when looked at from up high, formed a large formation the shape of a large star within a larger circle. It was a pentagram. Not only did it mean 'the love of a father is as heavy as the mountain', but it was also the symbol of evil and sinister forces, as well as the dawn of the Apocalypse.

That Wise Mad King would not really be intent on constructing a Transnational Transmutation Circle, would he?

Even if the alchemy stuff was set aside, the formation had to be as large as the Empire Complex of the Ancient Rohserlian Empire. Baiyi was not yet sure what the formation was for, but one thing he did know was: if it were activated, it would spell only doom!

"So, this Wise Mad King really wants to summon a certain Abyss Lord to this realm, huh…" The Devil Walker said.

"If only that was it! All I would have to do is slay the Abyss Lord," Baiyi replied. "But, would one even need this much preparation for a measly Abyss Lord? What about that insignia belonging to the God of Power?"

"A formation as complex as this one should be enough to summon you," the Archmage suddenly said. "And, by you, I meant your essential body, with, at least, half of your real power."

"This large a formation can only summon half your true power?!" The Devil Walker exclaimed.

"Just an estimation; no need to get hung up over the details," the Archmage said, casually changing the subject. "We still need to see what exactly was being laid out like this, as well as the materials used… Regardless, the power that this formation will accumulate should be able to pierce through the barriers between realms. Thus, if they are really planning to summon anything, it can't be something as simple as a demon."

Baiyi's reply to that was surprisingly mirthful. "Oh. So, I guess I should be prepared to meet a god of evil, then."I have no idea how did this even come to be related to the pentagram. Honestly, I even tried investigating through the angle of lewdness and it still eluded me.