377 A Fog of Mystery

When Baiyi deduced that he may be up against a god of evil, an electrifying discussion broke out in the Void. The Voidwalkers were most excited to see how the Fifth Walker, with his current constraints and abilities, would fare against a real god-level foe.

Only the Bard Walker was unsettled by this, and he tried his best to explain his reservations to the other Voidwalkers. "Guys! Hold up! Do you know that, theoretically, there is no such thing as a ' god of evil'? The only way to classify someone as a god is if the person has the unbridled power to Rewrite the Laws. Hence, if an evil god really existed, it would be against the Laws. If this was the case, it would have long since plunged our world deep into chaos!"

"Hence, I really believe that an evil god is either a concept deliberately made to fool the unlearned or a product of some belligerent cult, after the cult perverts the god's name in order to commit their atrocities. There is no such thing as a real evil god!"

"So, you're saying that whoever I may be going up against is not an evil god per se, but a real god? Following that train of thought, could it be this God of Power who we just talked about?" Baiyi asked. "Did you not say that the God of Power was largely beneficial? That is a trait I'm pretty sure I share with him; I protect the weak, save the innocent, and punish the evil. If the God of Power does get summoned, he should not be fighting me. Instead, he should punish the bastards in Godsfall!"

"Why are you all claiming that the formation is a summoning circle, which will be used to summon a twenty-foot whatever? Are you saying that this formation cannot be a Soul Sacrificing Circle, which is used to birth a powerful amalgamation of dead souls?!" The Lich Walker demanded.

"Of what use is a bloody dead soul?! It'll be pretty useless against Sir Hope, the Lord of the Void!" Another Voidwalker snapped at the Lich Walker. 

"Ha! Your short-sightedness and ignorance are showing! If a mighty dead soul is combined with all of the bodies in the nation, it can create an empire-sized army of the undead!"

"Our enemy is called the Wise Mad King, not some goddamned Shaman King! In the first place, why would he even want his people to be turned into dead souls?"

The discussion had now turned into an argument. Disinterested in listening any further, Baiyi prepared to venture into the woods. From what Mr. Bear had sensed, there were two key locations of interest that were close to where the villagers had taken refuge. Even though these two locations did not emit as much evil aura as some other locations Mr. Bear had mapped out, Baiyi still wanted to check them out.

However, he did not expect to find much at these two locations. In such a supermassive formation, exploring the two weakest points was akin to looking through a peephole; he was bound to miss out on so much information. If Baiyi went to explore the larger and more important key locations, which Mr. Bear had used larger rocks to indicate, there was a higher chance of obtaining valuable information. However, such locations were very far away from where he was, and Baiyi was not keen on leaving the fairy villagers behind.

Even as Baiyi was leaving, Mia and Nydore were still awake, unlike the other girls. Baiyi had placed Nydore's sleeping bag close to Mia's, so seeing as the both of them had yet to fall asleep, apart from looking into each other's beautiful eyes in curiosity, they had nothing else to do. Between their sleeping bags was the sabercat cub. It was rolling around between them, in an attempt to look cute.

After watching each other for a while, Nydore finally broke the silence; she spoke in a hushed voice, but she used the fairy language, which she supplemented with hand gestures. Mia, who had no idea what was being said, tilted her head in confusion, then she mumbled to herself. "Maybe she's saying that I look adorable."

With that in mind, she politely replied, "Hey there. You look just as beautiful and adorable! I really love the color of your hair…"

With that, she reached out and caressed Nydore's unique, full, silvery-white hair.

Nydore's cheeks instantly turned bright red, but she responded by pinching Mia's soft cheeks.

Although both girls did not understand what the other was saying, they were still friendly with each other. This caused them to chuckle.

The Fairy Walker, who was standing outside, heard their laughter and walked into the treehouse. When she saw the two girls chuckling, she quietly asked, "Why aren't the two of you sleeping? What's so funny?"

"I greeted her, and she touched my hair, so I pinched her cheeks. It was fun," Nydore explained.

"Big Sister Mar-Mar, what did she say?" Little Mia asked.

"Nothing too important." The Fairy Walker shook her head. "She's Nydore, my granddaughter. In terms of family hierarchy, you are her aunt… Er, maybe we should just say, big sister."

After saying that in humans' common language, the Fairy Walker repeated it in fairy language for Nydore. The silvery-white haired girl became a little upset. "I'm 500 years old! She's smaller than me!"

"Even if you are 1000 years old, according to family hierarchy, you will still be her junior. You should be grateful that you're her little sister!" The Fairy jovially replied as she ruffled Nydore's hair.

"Huh? I'm a Big Sister now?" Mia was excited. Back in the Aegis Mansion, she was the youngest. Her tiny frame and childish attitude made her resemble… a child. This was why her fellow students treated her as the youngest sister. However, now, it turned out there was someone else even younger than she was, and that made her happy.

As the older sister, she would have to start acting like one by treating her younger sister, Nydore, properly. Mia took out her favorite toy, the hammerhead shark plushie, and handed it to Nydore in an act of goodwill.

"Aaahh? How adorable!!!" The Zephyr hurriedly received the plushie and embraced it tightly. It was at this point that the little sabercat got tired of acting cute. In jealousy, it watched the plushie being played with. After a while, it rested its head on a sleeping bag, without its prior vigor.

The hammerhead shark plushie, who had now scored the affection of another female, seemed to be eyeing the sabercat cub in contempt. Its mischevious eyes seemed to say, "Tsk, tsk. Why do the weak always think they stand a chance?"

Baiyi had no idea what had unfolded in the treehouse. It had not taken him long to check out the two points he had set out to explore.

There were no altars at these two locations, but he did find some simple runes, which had been set up in a mysterious manner. After observing them for a while, Baiyi realized that these runes were not a part of the supermassive formation that Mr. Bear had shown him.

The runes of the first location were set up for the purpose of emitting a terrible stench that would repel both humans and animals. The runes of the second location were set up to activate a low-grade Deimos spell, which would cause those that came near its area of effect to feel intense fear.

'This is all they do? Chasing away animals and people who have no business being here? Is this so that they don't mess up their work? Really now, anyone repelled by such weak stench and fear spells would not have the power required to destroy the huge formation in the first place! So why make such unnecessary effort?'

Baiyi walked further and observed other key locations that were close to the two points he had come to inspect. These locations also emitted weak evil auras, and when Baiyi reached them, all he found were simple runes set up to repel weak entities. These locations were also not part of the supermassive formation.

Baiyi began to wonder how many locations Mr. Bear found which actually contained altars. The locations he had visited so far only contained simple rune setups.

What was Godsfall trying to do? Were they just concerned with repelling weak critters and humans? Thinking back to Mr. Bear's rock formation, the locations with minor setups were extensive; hence, Baiyi had to wonder if Godsfall was just focused on forcing every critter out of the Tree Ocean.

Baiyi was annoyed to realize that these lesser setups may have badly clouded the accuracy of Mr. Bear's divination. This made the bear's rock formation less credible than he had thought, and it also voided the credibility of the Voidwalkers' deductions thus far.

'Okay, this is really a drag.'

Baiyi felt like he had returned to square one. He now wanted to explore the key locations that were much further away, which the bear had assigned large rocks. However, it was getting late in the night. He had spent the entire evening moving around just to discover nothing new.

After quickly looking around the area to make sure he did not miss anything, he returned to the temporary abode of Eom Village's displaced fairies.

After an evening's rest, the fairies regained their spirits. They raised their swollen heads, hips, and joints and began to decorate their new homes.

Mia greeted Baiyi in excitement by jumping into his arms and rubbing her head against him. Afterward, she glanced at the busy fairies and asked, "I thought they were all patched up. Why do they look like they were just injured?"

"Um... They didn't sleep very well?" Baiyi lied.

At that point, the sky had turned completely dark. Mia leaned on Baiyi like the child that she was, and then she looked at the sky and exclaimed, "Look at their night sky! It's just as pretty as ours!"

"Really?" At her behest, Baiyi looked up as well. Sure enough, the sky was pretty, but it was also fake. The people who knew nothing of the concept of galaxies and planetary objects would also not know that the sky was fake.

Suddenly, the Astrologer Walker, who only thought about licking girls and setting new lows, pipped in, "Sir Hope, please look at the sky again. I think I saw something strange up there!"

"And I care because? You did tell us that astrology in this universe is a con."

"Look, the con part is when someone claims to use astrology to predict the luck and fate of another person. Now those are utter shams. However, using astrology to predict the weather, climate, and breeding months of animals is possible," the Astrologer Walker explained.

"This month is the month of the plague. All crop and livestock productions are expected to halve?" Baiyi said, giving an example.

"Yes, something like that. However, the night sky above us is acting very differently. Their orbital movements are not regular, and some of its stars are blinking the wrong way!" The Astrologer Walker pointed out, a little too passionately. "You already know that the stars in our world are fake, and their movements and shimmers are based on preset Laws. If nothing changed those Laws, then they would not change as well.

"According to the Astrologists' Association's record, the stars in the sky have only displayed this anomaly once before. This instance was recorded six thousand years ago — back when the Ancient Rohlserlian Empire still existed — by Rohlserlian sorcerers. The reason why this anomaly had appeared back then was because a supermassive Empire Complex was activated. This complex generated an energy field strong enough to affect the sky above," the Astrologer Walker continued.

Baiyi quickly asked, "So you're saying that the Godsfall cult's formation has already been activated?"