The Witch's Taste

"No need." Chen Ziang felt relieved at last, but replied calmly, "Zili and Suzuna will take care of it for me."

"Now that you already have people who love you, you should cherish them more, instead of staying in this palace and talking to a statue." Xia Qingyu's voice said.

Although there is no sarcasm or ridicule, it still has that preaching flavor, which is very authentic and very... nostalgic.

"Maybe." Chen Ziang felt his nose was a little sore. He slowly raised his head and looked upward, "But they all supported me in paying off the debt I owed."

"……lie."

"No. Zili said that I must bring my sister back." Chen Ziang continued to stare at the ceiling and said, "What Suzuna means is that she doesn't want to compete with a dead person, because that means she will never be able to beat you. .”

The statue made no further response.

Chen Ziang was not in a hurry to continue to express his position, and just continued to be in a daze.

I don’t know how long it took—perhaps two or three hours later, Xia Qingyu’s voice sounded again:

"The souls who stay in the Mandala Temple have never left."

Chen Ziang was silent for a moment, then said:

"Then, it will be available soon."

He stood up and walked towards the outside of the temple.

--------

In the large study room, the three witches were tied up by thorns again and began to extract the knowledge from them.

Chen Ziang looked at the mandala flower blooming in the center and asked directly:

"I want to take a soul away from the Mandala Temple. How can you let her go?"

The mandala flower did not answer, but slowly extended the vine in front of him, and once again condensed a small fruit.

After eating the fruit, Chen Ziang understood what he meant:

Come and change.

The value determination of the Mandala Magic Sword basically uses fire as the unit.For example, killing an ordinary ghoul will return three fire seeds to Chen Ziang, which means that Fajian believes that the value of the ghoul is equal to three fire seeds.

How much is Xia Qingyu worth?As a witch, even a small piece of soul fragment is definitely not comparable to a lower-ranking race like a ghoul.

Although it doesn't require him to kill gods with his hands, it won't be any simpler than that.

----------

Half a year later, the starship humans finally set off again.

The direction of the jump of the Forever this time is the Centaur constellation on the northern border of the empire.

A consensus was finally reached within the empire.If the starship humans are refused to join, it will undoubtedly mean creating divisions among the humans in the galaxy - creating a confrontation between the Imperial humans and other humans.

Today's all-out confrontation with the Elf Federation is about to become the main theme in the next decades or even centuries. If all humans in the galaxy cannot be united, the possibility of victory will be even slimmer.

On the edge of the Centaur constellation, there is a sector called the "Triumph Sector".Orbiting the star are two rocky planets, a gas giant, and an ocean planet filled with liquid water.

The Imperial Pioneer Colonial Team established a preliminary exploration base on it, and the survey results showed that it was relatively complicated:

First of all, the planet has an atmosphere and liquid water, and the temperature is also very suitable. It is the kind of high-quality environment that can become a colonized planet with a little modification.

Secondly, the ocean area here is too large and the land area is too small, which means that the population that can be accommodated is not large. The Imperial Ministry of the Interior will be losing money when it allocates funds for development.If the number of immigrants does not increase, the cost of colonial ships will not be evenly distributed.

Finally, there is a serious monsoon effect on Triumph.Summer is dominated by the hot and humid air currents from the equatorial seas. It rains nine out of ten days on land, and typhoons are common. In winter, cold air currents from the polar seas bring heavy snowfalls.Extreme climatic environments require a strong-willed human population to adapt - so we come back to the previous question: Since the population that can be accommodated is not large and the requirements are high, why waste allotments for colonization?

Now we finally have the perfect solution: let the starship humans make their home in the past.

There are tens of millions of interstellar humans in total, and they will not dislike the small living area of ​​the Triumph Planet.At the same time, no matter how harsh the planet's surface climate is, can it be worse than wandering in the galaxy?

As expected by the Imperial Administration Department, the starship humans did not dislike the climate problem of Triumph Planet. Everyone showed a high degree of enthusiasm and enthusiasm for "living on a down-to-earth planet".

The Forever has arrived at the Triumphal Planet and is sending a preliminary engineering team to build a colonial city.The first phase of the project is expected to take one year and three months, and the entire resettlement is expected to take about ten years.

Not that this is a problem.As long as the goal is set here and the deadline is clear, everyone is still willing to wait. The Starship human society expressed that its mood is stable.

However, the Imperial Ministry of the Interior began to worry about another hidden danger.

They are the top brass of the Starfleet humans.

There are several witches among the top brass. This is no secret, otherwise starship humans would not be alive to this day.The reason why the empire is willing to accept them is that it hopes to harness the power of the witch for its own use. Of course, the cabinet cannot know what the old emperor is thinking. It is just purely from the perspective of national security that it believes that these high-level officials, especially The witch monitors closely.

Generally speaking, the top management of human forces who have returned from foreign countries are usually immersed in the joy of "taking over the mountain and becoming king" and concentrate on managing their newly obtained one-third of an acre, so it is not difficult to monitor them.

But the top brass of Starfleet Humanity took a different approach.Chen Ziang, Xia Zili and Yuegong Suzuna spent most of their time traveling around the empire, only returning to the Triumph sector every once in a while to check on the progress of the immigration project there.

travel?No kidding?

In fact, they really did this.According to intelligence from the Ministry of Etiquette, they visited a total of 118 star districts in three years. They were not visiting scenic spots, but specifically looking for places with folk culture and catching local elderly people asking questions.

The Chief Supervisor of the Ministry of Rites felt like he was facing a formidable enemy.They are responsible for managing supernatural things in the territory, which is equivalent to the Countermeasures Section [-] of the Jibei City Public Security Department in the past (of course, the scale and organization are much larger). They originally had strong doubts about whether the two witches would lose control, and now they are even more suspicious. I got an insight into what these people were doing.

They are looking for the source of supernatural pollution!

What to do, is to release pollution?We know that these witches are unreliable. How can there be safe and harmless witches in the world?Must hit hard!

The Imperial Cabinet rejected their request for "physical restrictions on the witch."Politically speaking, the Empire has just accepted the starship humans and hopes to turn them into a model - a model of the so-called "community of human destiny for the entire galaxy". Of course, it will not make such a decision just because of such suspicion without evidence. From the act of slapping.

So Si Mingjian sent his ace investigators to personally confirm whether these guys were fanatical believers and what ulterior conspiracy they were planning.

Shi Qinglian, 32 years old, female, is currently the most powerful spy in the Siming Prison, and has the qualifications to prevent the deity ceremony three times.

She took an interstellar spaceship and came to the North River star region on the border of the empire. She landed at the local star port and met with the secret informant.

"The specific location of the target team?"

"Three hours and 3 minutes ago, they arrived at the Mochuan Scientific Research Station and purchased relevant supplies from the locals."

"What are they doing at Mochuan Scientific Research Station?" Shi Qinglian said with a frown.

The informant was about to continue talking when the investigator suddenly raised his hand and stopped him:

"I didn't ask you, I was just sorting out my thoughts."

In her mind palace, countless phantoms began to arrange and combine.

These people visited the ecological protection area of ​​​​Xinuma Star District half a year ago; four months ago, they went to Jinxiu City in Jianyun Star District and visited the local Colonial History Museum; and then came to the Polar Region a month ago The environment here in the North River Star District.

The land here is covered with ice and snow from the equator to the pole. It is so cold that it can freeze people to death. Except for the scientific research stations doing lepton aggregation research, there are almost no human settlements... What are they doing here?

Investigator Shi Qinglian tried to connect these three coordinates with each other.

Ecological reserve, colonial history museum, polar research station...

Ok?

As inspiration continued to dig deeper into her subconscious, she suddenly grasped a certain key:

He Yuanling, a certain imperial folklorist who was active more than 300 years ago, gradually began to come into contact with the edges of the mysterious world due to his long-term obsession with his research field.

Si Mingjian immediately issued an arrest warrant for him, but the other party used his connections in the court and finally reached a compromise with Si Mingjian: the folklorist took a three-year break and stopped conducting any academic research, while Si Mingjian The jailer also did not actually arrest and imprison him.

Then, He Yuanling disappeared mysteriously.

He really did not conduct academic research, because his computer, data disk, and the account number of the thesis information database, etc., everything that could help him conduct folklore research were confiscated by the Siming Supervisor - they also thoughtfully provided The folklorist did a memory cleansing.

However, He Yuanling seemed to have predicted all this in advance, and he didn't know what he used to restore his memory... maybe it was the diary left behind in advance?Or is it a spiritual suggestion?An informant lurking outside?

In short, three months after his memory was purged, he mysteriously disappeared from the house under surveillance.

Si Mingjian traced that he first went to the ecological reserve in the Xinuma Star District - He Yuanling once built a hut there and studied the local indigenous culture for nearly three years - and then returned to his hut and took it away. something, and then went to the museum in the Jianyun Star District and robbed a certain unearthed ancient object from the exhibition hall late at night.

Then there was no news, as if it had completely evaporated from the universe.

Investigator Shi Qinglian remembers this incident very clearly because it was a case that she clearly wrote in the textbook during her school training, telling the new investigators "how dangerous the profession of folklorist can be."

Today, the movement route of Chen Ziang and others is almost completely consistent with the trajectory of He Yuanling.

Apart from this, I really can't think of any other clues that are related to both the Xinum Star Region and the Jianyun Star Region.The latter is a mature colonial star sector, but the former is a barren land with a dangerous environment. The air is full of harmful fungal spores. No one would think of traveling there.

In other words, these people probably got some secret clues in He Yuanling's hut, and then went to the museum to verify... Finally, it was confirmed that He Yuanling went to the Beihe Star District!

I have to stop them as soon as possible!

403.Chapter 397 Hunting Gods

After struggling through the gap in the glacier, Chen Ziang, who was carrying the Mandala Sword on his back, turned around and took Xia Zili's hand to help her pass through the narrow and cold tunnel.

Then there's Suzuna Tsukimiya.This girl was much thinner than Xia Zili, so she didn't put much effort and got through easily with just a twist.

"How much further is there?" she asked with a sad face.

"I don't know." Xia Zili said lightly, "If you can't bear it, you can go back first."

"Haha." Tsukimiya Suzuna rolled her eyes at her.

The three of them set off from the glacier research base and went all the way down. They didn't know how much effort it took.If we turn around from here and go back, wouldn't all our time and energy be wasted?

"It should be soon." Chen Ziang said in a deep voice, "He Yuanling should not be able to go too deep."

"Speaking of which," Suzuna Tsukimiya pondered for a moment, "How many more false gods do we have to hunt?"

"If each one is the same as the last one." Chen Ziang replied, "killing two more should be enough."

The so-called "false gods" are those who are ordinary people or lower-level races, but try to achieve gods without overestimating their abilities.

There are many ways to become a god, such as devouring the corpse and flesh of a dead god, stealing the power of a sleeping god, or absorbing the power of a sealed god. In short, a real god is basically needed as the source of power.

Guys who try to become gods through this method are generally called "false gods."The fire you can get by killing them with the Mandala Sword is very high, but they are not as unkillable as real gods - after all, absorbing the power of gods requires an extremely long process, which can easily take 10 years and millions of years. Once you start, and as long as you don't reach the last step, you can't truly become a god, you can only be regarded as a "fake god".

Among mystical scholars, there are also many powerful and ruthless characters who specifically target these false gods.

Of course, these guys are not here to kill gods, but to replace them... Of course, that's another story.

In order to save enough "funds to resurrect his wife", after Chen Ziang arrived in the empire, he traveled around with Zili Suzuna and others, looking for various "folklore", in fact, to find clues to these false gods.

In the vast territory of the empire, there are actually a lot of such suspicious and unverified news.It is said that the Mingjian of the Ministry of Rites, who is responsible for handling such matters, is faced with a huge amount of true and false information almost every day, so much so that he has to use artificial intelligence, divination and other means to screen out nearly 99% of the information. , otherwise the investigator team simply does not have enough manpower to confirm.

What Chen Ziang and others did was actually just to pick out 99% of the information.

In the ancient city of Enlank in the dream world, the camp altar provides a redeemable power called [blasphemous witchcraft].

After redeeming this power, you can obtain a lot of unclean knowledge related to the curse.

In the past, Chen Ziang was not interested in this power. What he needed was a power that could directly improve his combat effectiveness. Later, as more and more witches were around him, he switched to focusing on survival.

Now, in order to more effectively distinguish the real and mysterious clues from the many half-true and specious folklore legends, he spent the fire again to redeem this power.

As a large amount of taboo knowledge poured into his mind, Chen Ziang's inspiration also received a certain directional increase.In any so-called folklore - even if it was just a few words, he only needed to roughly scan the text to detect whether there were any mysterious traces in it - especially traces related to curses.

So far, everyone has completed nearly 150 "archaeological activities."Unfortunately, most of the clues were eventually traced and were found to point to some stationary mysterious source of pollution, such as relics of gods, corpses of lower races, or simply relics left by some alien races, etc.

There is no way to use the Mandala Sword to draw fire.

However, there were nearly a dozen archaeological activities that finally pointed to some living mysterious ancient beasts, demon sacrifices, and even false gods.

So far, Chen Ziang has used the Mandala Sword to kill four false gods with his own hands.

The killing process was extremely dangerous. Even with the aid of Xia Zili and Yuegong Suzuna, as well as life-saving skills such as blood-spotted pins and void traps, Chen Ziang almost lost his limbs, damaged his will, and even lost his life many times...

It can only be said that for the sake of my wife, no matter whether it is a mountain of swords or a sea of ​​fire, I have to bravely step through it.

In the narrow glacier gap ahead, Chen Ziang finally found a discarded backpack.

There was a strange stone doll inside, which was a cultural relic stolen by He Yuanling from the Colonial History Museum. It looked like a strange mantis.

"Now there is good news and bad news." Chen Ziang stared at the broken stone doll and suddenly said, "Which one do you want to hear first?"

"Hear the good news first." Tsukimiya Suzuna said first.

"The good news is that this stone doll is called 'Halakutarama'." Chen Zi'ang replied, "It is an ancient object unearthed from the Xinuma Star Region."

"More than 1600 years ago, the first colonial ship discovered and landed in the Xinumo star area and began trying to establish a permanent colony on it."

"There was a serious problem with the colonization process. Archeology believes that the civilization here suffered some unknown devastating blow, causing the descendants of the colonists to gradually degenerate. Until more than 1000 years ago, they had completely degenerated into primitive tribes and worshiped a weird The name of the deity is ‘Halakutarama’.”

"The old-fashioned plot." Tsukimiya Suzuna commented, "The colonists who knew nothing landed on an unknown planet and were quickly corrupted by the mysterious power above. In the end, all the colonists turned into fanatical believers."

"Well, they probably didn't become fanatical believers." Chen Ziang corrected her, "According to He Yuanling's notes, he believed that the 'devastating blow' in the history of Xinumo Star District seemed to be a serious alien plague. "

"A god related to the plague?" Xia Zili asked for confirmation.

"And it's a god we've known for a long time." Chen Ziang sighed and said, "The plague traveler is currently raging in the Aegelaos and Garcia sectors."

"As for this weird-looking stone doll, Halakutarama, who is worshiped by the natives of the Xinumo Sector, is actually the clone of the Plague Walker."