Chapter 164 Hidden

While Hao Ren's group entered the main peak of the Sacred Mountain, the other two teams also entered the mountain from different passes.

The final large-scale search for the cultists unfolded with great momentum. Thousands of Kingdom knights and church soldiers quickly dispersed throughout the towering mountains, forming hundreds of mutually responsive search teams, each led by several wolf riders. After these search forces entered the mountain, more ordinary soldiers set up checkpoints on all the major traffic arteries at the foot of the Sacred Mountain to prevent any cultists from escaping.

In the sky above the Sacred Mountain, an indistinct eye-shaped magic sigil hung silently, as if embedded in the zenith. Countless lines, almost invisible to the naked eye, spread out from the sigil, enveloping the entire Sacred Mountain area. This was a large-scale divine spell cast by the Radiant Pope. With this spell, the Pope could detect every movement in every corner of the Sacred Mountain, even the faintest footstep of a rabbit—except for that strange space deep within the Sacred Mountain.

Hordicius floated on the western edge of the crystal mine, facing the Sacred Mountain from afar, confronting the towering mountains like a beast poised to attack. The shield-shaped city wall at the front of the floating fortress was filled with magical light. Some of the crystal bricks retracted into the wall's interior, and the shining mado-cannon muzzles protruded from the revealed openings. These muzzles were integrated with the magic sigils on the surrounding walls, and they were Hordicius's most powerful armed forces.

The mado-cannons pointed remotely at the Sacred Mountain, and the mage in charge of commanding the cannons was sweating nervously. In Hordicius's command post, several people were watching the movements on the city walls and in the direction of the Sacred Mountain through magical water screens. Prince Havermann's shiny bald head gleamed, and he wiped away a little bit of fine sweat, shaking his head slightly at the people around him: "If we really open fire this time, the world will be in great chaos."

"So now the only thing we should pray for is that we won't be forced to the point of having to fire on the Sacred Mountain," a bishop said, pressing his hand on his chest. "May the Goddess have mercy and let our knights successfully eliminate those inhuman heretics and their evil god."

And beneath the command post, there was an even more secret room. This room was plainly decorated, with Radiant Church relics and scriptures displayed everywhere. The Pope stood in the center of the room, silently contemplating. He opened his eyes slightly, and golden light surged in his left eye, reflecting every detail of the entire Sacred Mountain, including the knights who had already begun their search of the mountain. His right eye looked at a painting not far in front of him: the painting depicted strange black and red patterns, which were used in the Radiant Church's teachings to represent the Goddess.

Although those black and red patterns were painted on canvas and had not been enchanted with any magic, they were subtly surging at this moment, constantly forming various wonderful patterns as if they were alive. The red parts in the picture spread out like blood in the Pope's eyes, conveying intentions from the Goddess that were difficult for ordinary people to understand.

"Warning…" the Pope murmured to himself, as if he heard the Goddess's voice. "Having already built such a powerful floating fortress, what do you still want us to be wary of?"

At the same time, inside the Sacred Mountain, Hao Ren and his group had stepped into the snow-covered area.

The knights who had come with them had already split into dozens of combat squads as planned, and they were searching the mountain separately under the leadership of the wolf riders, now communicating with each other through magical messaging. Hao Ren and his group continued to advance toward the deepest part of the mountain under the personal guidance of Wuluk. According to the plan, the knights were responsible for dealing with the cultists of the Returning Sect, while Hao Ren's group was to go to the core area of the mind force field to capture the brain monster. However, for some reason, after entering the mountain, although they saw some traces of human activity, they had not encountered a single heretic, let alone any battles.

Vivian took out the protective crystal and looked at it, seeing that the crystal was emitting a soft light: "There's mental interference here... we should have entered the brain monster's range of influence. But why has this journey been so smooth?"

"Yeah, we haven't even seen a shadow of a cultist," Hao Ren was also wondering about this. "Wuluk, didn't you encounter resistance when you sent the wolf riders to search the mountain before? Why is it so quiet here today?"

"They have indeed been here," Wuluk had already dismounted from his war wolf. He bent down, sniffing the air. "There's still the scent left by outsiders, but it's from a day ago."

"The Sacred Mountain has been completely sealed off, and the cultists can't escape," the sound of light armor rubbing against each other came. Aufra's voice sounded behind them. "They're probably hiding in their nests."

Izhaks looked at the terrain in the mountains and glanced curiously at Wuluk: "Speaking of which, you've been watching this mountain day in and day out for thousands of years, but you didn't notice any traces of those cultists before? They even built a base in this mountain... that's incredible."

When this topic was mentioned, Wuluk, as the leader of the wolf riders, naturally looked a little bad. He shook his head: "It's a disgrace, but to be honest, I still can't believe this kind of thing could really happen... The wolf riders patrol the mountain every day, and we've walked every mountain path here, but we've never seen the figure of an outsider... It's hard to understand, hard to understand. I don't know how to explain it."

Hao Ren was stunned for a moment after hearing Wuluk's words, as if he vaguely thought of something, but the thought disappeared in an instant, and he didn't catch anything.

Wuluk continued to lead the people into the mountain. The road ahead became more and more rugged. He had to choose the safe mountain paths according to his experience to prevent slipping on the snow-covered slopes. This werewolf leader, who had lived in the mountains for two hundred years, was very familiar with these roads. He felt that he could walk back and forth from here to his home even with his eyes closed, but as he went deeper, he suddenly felt that something was wrong.

Nangong Sanba noticed that Wuluk slowed down and looked serious, and he immediately became a little nervous: "What's wrong?"

Wuluk frowned tightly as he looked at the mountain road in front of him. He took a few more steps forward, and at a fork in the road, he scratched his head and looked around, as if he was a person passing by here for the first time and looking for directions. He walked back and forth like this several times, and finally looked up at the familiar Sunburn Peak above: "The direction is right..."

"This road is different from what I remember!" Wuluk finally turned his head and said to the others, his voice filled with disbelief. "There shouldn't be a fork in the road here... I've walked this road hundreds of times, and I don't remember that there's a slope leading to the valley here."

As he spoke, he frowned and looked at a sudden valley in the mountain: "That's not right... I don't even remember that there's a valley here."

"Are you sure?" Aufra hurriedly asked. "Can werewolves get lost in the Sacred Mountain?"

"I don't know what's going on," Wuluk pointed to the fork in the road. "I'm familiar with the mountain paths on this side of the fork, but I have no impression of the other side at all."

Hao Ren suddenly realized something: "Wait, then what's on the right side of the fork in your memory? Is it a mountain rock? A canyon? Or something else?"

Wuluk frowned and thought. He was shocked to find that the scenery on the right side of this fork in his memory was completely blank!

Not a mountain rock, not a canyon, not anything. After trying hard to recall, he found that he had walked this road countless times, but he had never looked at this side. Regarding the scenery on the right side of the fork, there was only a blank!

"I understand what's going on," Hao Ren knew the answer from Wuluk's expression. "I'm afraid the other werewolves have never discovered this road either—your senses have been interfered with by the brain monster."

Wuluk was dumbfounded.

"The entire core area of the Sacred Mountain is probably in this state of interference," Hao Ren looked at the people around him. "Passing through here will distort your senses and subconsciously ignore the roads around you. This interference is seamless, and you won't even feel anything wrong when you usually review your memories. The brain monster has dug this entire area out of the 'sight' of the world. That's why the cultists can stay here so openly."

A trace of horror appeared on Aufra's face: "... Then how long has this interference been going on?"

"Humans are unaware of when they start to fall asleep," Vivian suddenly said. She looked at Wuluk. "Since the werewolf's recorded history, have you ever discovered that there's this valley in the Sacred Mountain? Is this area on your map?"

Wuluk fell silent, and Becky felt a chill slowly rising in her heart.