Chapter 1 The Imprisonment Pillars

Those black stone pillars appearing at the horizon were clearly not natural scenery—they were magnificent, towering, and exuded a desolate and ancient atmosphere. Each pillar seemed to be thousands of meters high, and their shapes were extremely regular, all being rectangular parallelepipeds with rigid lines, and each one looked exactly the same size. Hao Ren's excellent eyesight allowed him to see the details of the pillars from such a distance: he saw that the dark surface of the pillars was not smooth and bare, but etched with many mysterious patterns. The style of these patterns was something he had never seen in any world. If he had to say, they were somewhat similar to the writing used in the temples of the Goddess of Creation.

The magnificent pillars were so tall that clouds swirled around their midsections, and their immense size probably disturbed the weather in a certain area. A large amount of swirling mist could be seen in the upper part of the pillars, as if many cyclones were forming there, while below the pillars' waists, bright electric lights could be seen jumping between the pillars from time to time—each arc spanning several kilometers or even tens of kilometers. As the airship gradually approached the pillars, Hao Ren heard rumbling thunder coming from the direction of the "Stonehenge."

And the aura of the Goddess of Creation became more and more obvious: he had experienced several illusions of the Goddess of Creation, and had personally touched related artifacts and relics, so he had some judgment on this aura.

"What... are those things?"

Hao Ren stared blankly at the Stonehenge in the distance, not bothering to hide his lack of common sense, and simply asked.

"You don't know the Imprisonment Pillars?" Sir Morian looked at Hao Ren in astonishment. "As a Guardian of the Holy Temple, you don't know them?"

"Imprisonment Pillars?" Hao Ren frowned. "I... I really don't know. It's hard for me to explain the reason to you, but I'm ignorant of many things in this world. You can think of it as some kind of ancient power hindering my cognitive function. In short, I need you to help me introduce them."

He had temporarily come up with a clumsy but barely usable reason. He believed that similar curses or mind magic must exist in this world—even if they didn't, he could use the secret powers of the ancient era to fool them. But he didn't expect that the old knight didn't care about the real reason at all: Morian had already reached a consensus with Veronica that as long as Hao Ren was indeed on their team, they could ignore all the abnormalities of this "ancient guardian." Therefore, Morian only pondered for a moment before saying, "According to legend, the Imprisonment Pillars were personally driven into the earth by the Goddess of Creation."

"Personally by the Goddess of Creation?" Hao Ren's eyes widened. "What for?"

"To suppress the first rebel—the evil giant Lockmarton," the old knight said. "The Imprisonment Pillars can be seen in many places in Coro. They stand tall in the earth and mountains, and are deeply nailed into every energy node in this world. Lockmarton was once firmly locked in the depths of the earth by these pillars, until he shattered the earth and escaped, and these pillars lost their light. But even so, the Imprisonment Pillars are still powerful miracles in this world. They have unparalleled power of order, and even when the Chaos Tide comes, these pillars have never collapsed."

The old knight said, adding a small story: "It is said that in those years, the Holy King of the Beaconfire Kingdom, the King of Fire, led the legendary legion 'Crimson Fist' to rise in the western part of the continent. During the conquest, they suddenly encountered the Chaos Tide. They survived in the chaos by climbing to the top of the Imprisonment Pillar in the center of the western desert. The King of Fire stood on the top of the pillar and looked around, and from it, he gained enlightenment and found the secret to tame the desert, and later built a great cause."

Hao Ren nodded as he listened, but in fact, he didn't hear much. All his attention was attracted by those pillars.

They were sealing devices built by the Goddess of Creation herself?!

He was a little excited at first, but after a brief moment of excitement, he quickly calmed down. He realized that those pillars were still somewhat different from the temples he had seen in Corpus. Although their scale was large, they lacked a kind of... pure aura. It was probably not built by the Goddess of Creation herself, but the divine power they possessed was undeniable... so these things could at least be confirmed to be related to the Goddess of Creation.

The existence of things like "Imprisonment Pillars" in the world of Coro was something that had never been seen on planets like Holletta or Tanagus. These magnificent creations could only have been built before the Goddess of Creation fell, and at that time, the First Born and the Guardian races had not yet fallen...

Then the things suppressed by these sealing devices must not be the crazy First Born or Guardians.

Of course, all the above conjectures must have a major premise: the ancient legends mentioned by Morian must be accurate, and these pillars must indeed be some kind of prison facility.

While Hao Ren was thinking, the three airships gradually approached the spectacular Imprisonment Pillars.

The black pillars stood on the ground like towering towers. When the distance was close enough, their scale became even more shocking. The width of these pillars had already exceeded the concept of "stone pillars." When the distance was close enough, each of their faces was like a wide vertical cliff blocking in front of them, and the airships were like sparrows flying from the edge of the cliff, inconspicuous and pitiful.

Huge electric arcs jumped above the airships, and a strange buzzing sound had been coming from all directions since just now. On the side of the airship, huge ancient runes were engraved on the quickly passing stone wall of the Imprisonment Pillar. Hao Ren saw that there was still blue light flowing in those runes.

These things were still running.

Amidst the thunder and buzzing, Hao Ren had to raise his voice and shout to Sir Morian: "We're just flying directly under the Imprisonment Pillars? Is that okay?"

"The area below the pillars is safe, they are the safest places in this world!" The old knight also raised his voice. "Don't be frightened by the thunder above, they are just the sounds of conversation between the pillars. The power of the Goddess of Creation will not harm her children!"

While the airships carrying Veronica and her party were traversing the magnificent spectacle of the Imprisonment Pillars, another team was traveling through the dense jungle in the southern part of the kingdom.

With a loud bang, an ancient jungle monitor lizard that may have lived for hundreds of years crashed heavily from the sky, its internal organs rupturing upon impact. This monster may have originally been the jungle overlord of a considerable area around it, but now it had turned into a pool of lifeless flesh and blood, and soon it would become food in a large pot.

Those qualified to enjoy it first were the honored pack leader.

Lily, wearing a wolf skin cloak, stepped forward, kicked the corpse of the jungle monitor lizard, and after confirming that the thing was dead, she waved her hand behind her: "Wolf cubs, tear the meat apart. Gnolls, clear the open space, make a fire and cook. Everyone else, do what you're supposed to do. We'll spend the night here tonight."

The wolves in the jungle let out eerie howls. A dozen black wolves appeared beside Lily as if out of thin air. These dire wolves first bowed to Lily to pay their respects, and then swarmed up to bite the tough, iron-like hide of the giant beast. In the distance, the gnolls wearing ragged clothes and stone rings inlaid on their fangs made a chaotic scream, pushing and shoving, even fighting each other, to carry out the orders of the pack leader, clearing the surrounding bushes and weeds, and preparing a huge bonfire.

The other magical beasts also had their own things to do: the magic apes had to climb the giant trees, stand guard, and pick fruits; the imps had to scatter around, collecting smaller prey and clearing smaller dangers; the stupid bear monsters were unable to undertake complex tasks, so they were responsible for guarding the camp and preventing the weaker members of the beast herd from being harmed by the forest's "aborigines."

The natives here included the primitive beasts and magical beasts living on the continent, as well as the increasingly numerous Chaos servants that had appeared recently.

And in this mighty army of magical beasts, a small group of embarrassed humans was particularly conspicuous.

These humans were once members of the Holy Hammer, the glorious Holy Domain Investigation Group. Until now, they were still wearing the white holy emblem armor or various styles of monastic robes unique to the Theocracy, but at this time, they could hardly maintain their usual demeanor and temperament: these people were cold and tired, their armor was damaged, their clothes were dirty, and everyone looked like a defeated soldier who had just retreated from the battlefield, difficult to form a system. Even the leader of the team, Calaxius, could only stand in the dirt with a stubble beard, and his favorite monastic robe had three huge cuts on it.

According to the "pack leader" girl, the team experienced a "slightly bumpy airship crash landing." Everyone performed well and remained emotionally stable during the crash landing, and most importantly—they finally landed on their own two feet.

Well, this statement didn't seem to alleviate the depression of the investigation team members.

But Calaxius felt that the current situation was a blessing in disguise: at least everyone was still alive. The terrifying storm that had occurred before descended on everyone like the end of the world. The scene of the storm was not recorded in any ancient books. Obviously, it was an abnormal riot of chaotic power. He felt that everyone had to thank the Goddess of Creation for her protection for being able to escape alive in that situation.

Of course, they also had to thank the help of the "pack leader" girl—although she charged a fee...