CH 116

Rode smiled and replied, "It's just a misunderstanding. If I were weak, how could I clean the sewers alone? How could I dare to hunt down the Doomsday Cultists?"

Blackfish looked a bit gloomy.

"You can both scout and kill enemies. Does that mean I'm useless?"

Rode comforted him, "Of course not. Your badge is very useful."

Blackfish immediately smiled, "That's right. This is a sensing badge made from the ashes of evil spirits. Whenever there are evil spirits nearby, it will vibrate like crazy. But unfortunately, it's just a crude sensor. It can only alert us to the presence of evil spirits, but cannot indicate their exact location."

Rode smiled and said, "It's perfect for me then. Evil spirits seem to have the ability to teleport. I clearly looked in that direction just now, but when I turned my head, it appeared."

Blackfish exclaimed in surprise, "Evil spirits are pure spirits and can freely travel in the spirit world. When they enter the spirit world, of course, you can't see them."

Rode's mind moved and he asked, "Then how can I see them?"

"Unless your spirit is also in the spirit world."

"Then there's no way to deal with evil spirits?"

"What do you mean there's no way? Blackfish looked at him in astonishment. "Entering and exiting the spirit world is an instinctive behavior for evil spirits. Do you think they would use it to attack or escape?"

"Uh, wouldn't they?"

Blackfish covered his forehead, "You must be an idiot who hates learning and only loves fighting. All living beings infected by the black mist have no reason and only have madness, chaos, silence, and instincts imprinted in their souls. Evil spirits are the same. They enter the spirit world periodically and return from it irregularly. When they are provoked, they will directly and fiercely attack you. Our biggest difficulty in dealing with them is that even when they are in the material world, we can't see them. Their spirits have strong concealment abilities. Those with spirit vision below fifty can't even see their shadows."

"Then how do you fight them?"

"The scouts will report to us, but several blind people in our fortress have poor eyesight and their reports are slow and inaccurate. I can only use spiritual power to protect my whole body and randomly slash with a knife."

"Can physical weapons harm spirits?"

"As long as there is spiritual power. By the way, I still don't know what it looks like. Tell me."

Rode briefly and accurately described the appearance of the evil spirits.

Blackfish shivered, "It's really terrifying. Fortunately, I can't see them."

In this way, for the next two hours, they searched for evil spirits on the wasteland while chatting casually.

Searching for evil spirits was purely a matter of luck. They followed the established route, and sometimes the evil spirits would fly towards them, and sometimes they would suddenly appear in the air.

The sensing badge did provide a lot of convenience. After all, Rode's Soul Eye couldn't rotate 360 degrees all the time.

His neck would break.

Rode was not particularly satisfied with this efficiency until they returned, they had only hunted down thirty evil spirits in total.

Rode did all the work, while Blackfish shouted and cheered on the side.

Towards the end, Rode didn't even want to use the Sealing Bullets anymore. Silver bullets could also deal with evil spirits.

Their weaknesses were so obvious, it was like giving them away for free.

After two hours, although Rode wanted to continue hunting, Blackfish insisted on returning.

Because it was about to be nighttime.

This was the darkest period of the day, when the power of fire was weakest and the power of the black mist was strongest. Many monsters hidden underground in the wasteland would also come out to move around.

The most dangerous thing was that the dormant state of many ancient monsters buried deep in the wasteland would weaken, and their perception would become sharp.

Reliant on the power of fire, they might awaken these ancient beings.

This was not only very dangerous but also posed unexpected threats to nearby human strongholds.

"Unexpected threats" were the last thing Thalorian wanted to see.

Compared to the vast darkness, the power of Thalorian was extremely weak, relying on the observers and prophets on the White Tower to maintain a fragile balance.

Once something "unexpected" happened, it usually meant that they would suffer significant losses and require complex actions and a long time to adapt and restore a new balance.

Because of this, any action during nighttime was prohibited in the dark world outside the royal city, which was common knowledge.

Blackfish realized that this guy was particularly ignorant. He was not just an ordinary idiot, but a super idiotic orangutan.

He didn't even know what an orangutan was.

"Don't you have a childhood? Didn't your mother tell you stories about the 'Bright World' when she put you to sleep? Haven't you heard of 'Why Orangutans Have Red Hair'? 'The Little Princess and the Seven Snow White Dwarfs'? 'The Little Girl Who Illegally Sold Ignition Materials'? These are all classic fairy tales and stories that were our spiritual food when we were young... You're really pitiful."

Blackfish's words finally made Rode understand why, even though he had learned a lot of customs and habits, he always felt out of place with them.

It turned out that he lacked a childhood.

Okay, when he goes back, he will borrow "The Bright World" to read it.

And bring his childhood along, so that they can experience what it's like to have "Pleasant Sheep vs. Water Ice Moon."On the way back, Blackfish constantly educated Rode on various common knowledge. This guy was very talkative and in high spirits. Today's harvest was huge for him. Previously, they couldn't even kill thirty evil spirits in a whole day.

And it was effortless. He could kill the evil spirits with just two slashes.

After returning to the Sword Gate Fortress, he said so.

Rode didn't care much, but the other four teams were very envious. The most Anna Bell's team could only kill ten.

Anna Bell looked at Blackfish proudly showing off his handful of evil spirit ashes and sighed, "Don't envy him. In front of him, I'm just a stone core. Fortunately, he is more fragile."

Rode said unhappily, "You haven't tried it, so how do you know I'm fragile? Only those who have experienced it are qualified to answer this question."

Turning his head, he raised his voice and asked, "Blackfish, am I tough?"

Blackfish, who was blowing wildly on the side, hurriedly replied, "Tough, tough, tough. I've tried it. There is no one tougher than Brother Rode."

Anna Bell snorted, "Tomorrow, I must go with you to see how tough you really are."

"Forget it." Rode didn't want to be with her all the way. "Magic Liberation" was said to be one of the seven major characteristics, sounding like a powerful long-range attack method. Moreover, her spiritual vision was not weak. She might even snatch his monsters. Blackfish, the captain, was the most suitable teammate. He had short hands, thick skin, and blind eyes, just like a shield, and he wouldn't steal his soul.

Blackfish happily said, "See, Brother Rode thinks I'm the best partner."

Anna Bell glanced at him and hummed, "You guys are up to something." She raised her chin, turned around, and left, leaving them with a proud back.

---

In this way, Rode settled down in the Sword Gate.

The defenders of the Sword Gate welcomed their arrival with great enthusiasm. As the outermost defense circle, they had never been valued before and had never received such great support.

They had never enjoyed the warmth of the Guardian Fire.

When the human life fire took root here, its power became stable and strong, illuminating an area of three hundred yards with its light.

Although it was still small compared to the darkness on the wasteland, the warriors felt as if it was dawn.

Before the arrival of the Guardian Fire, they used the residual fire containing sparks separated from the Guardian Fire. Its power couldn't even light up the fortress, and when the warriors fought on the city walls, they had to wear red tear stones to resist the erosion of the black mist.

But now, they could freely run on the city walls, look into the distance, and use defensive weapons such as crossbows to attack monsters.

The most important thing was that they could finally sleep well.

The number of night guards was reduced by half, and no dark presence could bypass the fire to attack them. Once they stepped into the range of the fire, it would continue to burn until it turned to ashes.

The recovery speed of spiritual energy also increased. Sitting by the burning Guardian Fire, meditating and feeling the warm breath entering the soul and spreading throughout the body, it was definitely the highest enjoyment.

Much better than taking potions or gnawing on cold soul red crystals.

Unfortunately, the Sword Gate Fortress had the smallest fire protection sacrificial site, with only ten positions.

The fire protector, Mole, was a very strict and eccentric old man. If one more person squeezed in, he would drive them out.

"By the Guardian Fire, no more than the quota of people are allowed to meditate. This is a basic rule," he coldly warned everyone.

Except for Rode, everyone else could understand. This was to avoid damaging the Guardian Fire and causing the loss of power.

Under the arrangements of the defense chief, Steel Hand, Captain Beowood, and Raisin, a rule of rotating meditation was established, based on the time each person spent on tasks and the intensity of battles, determining each person's meditation time in front of the Guardian Fire.

And Rode, with his outstanding achievements, undoubtedly ranked first.

During this time, he went hunting evil spirits on the wasteland with Blackfish every day.

They set off at dawn and returned before nightfall.

In a day of sixteen clock hours, he worked for twelve clock hours, wishing to skip eating and going to the bathroom.

Blackfish was full of energy on the first day, but became listless on the second day, and on the third day, he couldn't leave the fortress.

Rode had to find another warrior to accompany him.

He could actually act alone, but he was not familiar with the route and didn't know how to use the star compass. He couldn't find his way in the vast darkness. Once his peripheral vision or red tear stones ran out, he would be left with a miserable fate of being eroded by the black mist.

Moreover, having a teammate to rely on was also a good thing.

In this unknown dark world, who could guarantee that nothing unexpected would happen?

Rode could kill about a hundred evil spirits every day, which was not very efficient and far lower than his expectations.

This was because evil spirits generally appeared more in the evening, and there were fewer in the morning and noon.

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There were the most at night, but no one was allowed to leave the fortress during that time, except for the sake of the Sword Gate Fortress's safety.

What annoyed Rode the most was that during the sacrifice, he found that there were very few evil spirit souls, far lower than expected.The sacrificed souls and soul crits only amounted to less than 80 soulless souls in total.

In other words, he only earned 8,000 soulless souls in a day.

But even so, it far exceeded the efficiency in the sewer.

It would only take a few more days to reach the 50,000 soulless souls.

Moreover, the souls of evil spirits were not entirely useless. They were very spiritual, with at least two souls per spirit.

By sacrificing so many evil spirits, Rode obtained about 800 souls. These translucent jelly-like objects piled up to half his height, far surpassing the richness of his humanity.

Rode could only put them all into storage. The internal space was quite large and could accommodate everything.

The Corpse Wasteland was also much emptier than expected. It was not as crowded with monsters as Rode initially thought when he heard its name.

In fact, there were only some dust floating around besides the evil spirits.

Rode had no interest in these things with only a few soulless souls. He handed them all over to the guards to handle.

Even so, most of the guards couldn't last a day.

After going out with Rode and returning, they would lie in the fortress like dead pigs for several days before recovering their spirits.

Meanwhile, Rode remained energetic and full of vitality, not needing to meditate by the Guardian Fire.

He gave all the opportunities to others, which deeply moved the guards who were responsible for guarding the sword.

Of course, this was not because Rode was selfless, but for a reason.

Firstly, he didn't particularly need to restore his spiritual power.

The recovery effect of [Frosty Blue] was very significant. The longer the battle lasted, the more enduring he became.

The intensity of the battle on the wasteland was actually low, but it lasted for twelve hours, which didn't put any pressure on him.

Then, Rode discovered that when he was too close to the Guardian Fire, not only did his recovery not speed up, but he also felt very uncomfortable, a strong sense of rejection.

This feeling didn't occur when the Guardian Fire was in the lamp, but it became apparent after it fell to the ground.

As long as he was within twelve yards, there was a strong sense of induction. But beyond twenty yards, there was no discomfort, only a gentle warmth and comfort like theirs.

This immediately reminded Rode of the scorching Holy Grail during the Trial of Fire.

In reality, he didn't pass the trial and wasn't in the sequence of Firebearers.

Rode had already completely let go of it, but now he had to be more careful and cautious. He had many secrets that couldn't be revealed. If he made a mistake and exposed himself during an inspection, it would be over.

Rode carefully recalled and realized that besides some changes in his personality, the biggest flaw was the Cult of the Polluted.

After returning, he must find a way to intensify the siege against them and eliminate them as soon as possible.

But for now, no one suspected anything in that regard.

Steel Hand, Beowood, Raisin, and others even joined forces to persuade him, explaining countless times. But after discovering that Rode indeed didn't need to recover, they stopped mentioning it.

Instead, they marveled at how powerful Rode's second fire seed, "Grass," was. How could such a powerful fire seed not exist in themselves?

For a while, even the members of the Firebearer Sequence regretted it. If they had awakened as Starfires, maybe they would have had "Grass" themselves.

Regardless of whether it was the guards of the Sword Gate or the members of the Hidden Branch, they were envious. They came to Rode every day, taking turns to ask him how it felt to have "Grass." Some even wrote the original text of "Grass" on their clothes, weapons, armor, and even their bodies, hoping to gain the protection of "Grass" and restore a bit more spiritual power.

Some eccentric individuals even tattooed the word in places that couldn't be described, hoping to gain more lasting power.

At some point, it became popular in the small path to associate spiritual endurance with another kind of endurance, believing that the two were connected.

From this, it was inferred that Rode's endurance surpassed that of ordinary people.

This made Rode quite troubled. Wherever he went, both men and women looked at him with extremely respectful and longing eyes.

Of course, what they respected and longed for was different.

There was only one person who firmly didn't believe it, and that was Annabel.

This senior sister from the fourth semester of the academy insisted that rumors were just rumors unless she personally tried it with Rode. Otherwise, she would never admit that Rode was strong.

But her scheming was mercilessly mocked by Mina, who said she was an old cow wanting to eat tender grass, a dung that wanted to be served on the dining table.

This infuriated Annabel. If it weren't for Beowood and Raisin standing in between them, they would have fought.

Although there was a slight disharmony, the overall work at the Sword Gate Fortress was very smooth, even more so than ever before.

The team hunting evil spirits achieved unprecedented results, greatly weakening the number of evil spirits and having no impact on the Sword Gate Fortress.Beowood and Raisin's patrol team efficiently cleared a large area behind the Sword Pass, ensuring that the supply materials from the Giant Fortress were not delayed. The environment of the rear Rock Village and South Wind Town greatly improved, and Snow, the guardian of the Seventh Defense Zone, even wrote them a letter to commend their efforts.

The team that went to the Great Marsh to hunt Crawlers also returned with a full load, successfully retrieving many Crawler ashes.

Under Mina's maintenance, the spiritual energy generator can now be used normally.

The released spiritual energy, following its established course, strengthened the entire Sword Pass Fortress, greatly enhancing its hardness and also effectively reducing the impact force, making it extremely difficult to destroy.

And the best news is that the battle at the Liguang Fortress in front of the Sword Pass went extremely smoothly. The super giant spiritual energy cannon "Liguang" at the top of the fortress evaporated more than half of the incoming Black Tide. The elite combat clusters and defenders in the fortress rushed out of the city gate, killing the remaining monsters.

Therefore, there will be very few monster tides overflowing into the Sword Pass, and the defending warriors of the Sword Pass now have more preparation time.

After replacing seven followers in a row, Rode finally gathered 50,000 Soulless Souls to make the Soul Firewood.

There are fewer and fewer evil spirits on the wasteland, and the profits are almost lower than the sewers. He no longer wants to go there.

So, after returning to the best room in the entire fortress specially prepared for him by Steel Hand, Rode locked the door, rolled up his sleeves, and entered the dream.