Chapter 1 The Corrupted Monsters

The corrupted monsters entrenched in the center of the ruined town startled not only Hao Ren but even Veronica, who should have been quite familiar with the Land of Chaos. This surprised Hao Ren.

"It's not usually like this?" Hao Ren asked the knight princess beside him. "Didn't the old knight say that after the furnace fire in the town was lit, the corrupted monsters wandering in the wilderness would be attracted?"

"But we also said that the number of corrupted monsters is far less than that of the Chaos servants," Veronica whispered, her face filled with undisguised tension. She turned her head, and Hao Ren saw her pale purple eyes shimmering in the darkness. "Corrupted monsters are the state of creatures from the world of Order after being corrupted by Chaos, but not all creatures of Order can become corrupted monsters—in most cases, those corrupted are directly swallowed and assimilated by the power of Chaos, and only one in ten can complete the transformation. In the realm of Chaos, only the Chaos servants are the true protagonists here."

Here, the princess carefully peeked toward the center of the town and then retracted her head to explain, "Moreover, this is the heart of the Chaos realm, and the number of corrupted monsters is even less likely to be so high."

Veronica's latter half of the explanation wasn't very detailed, but Hao Ren already understood what she meant.

According to the nature of the corrupted monsters, they should appear in large numbers at the junction of the world of Order and the world of Chaos, because only there are enough "materials" to be corrupted and transformed. The deeper one goes into Chaos, the rarer the corrupted should be. Even if a few happened to appear here, they should be extremely rare—but these monsters seemed to far exceed the common sense of this world.

"Perhaps they wandered over from other places, such as the border of the world of Order," Hao Ren casually guessed as he craned his neck, looking around.

"Wandered?" Veronica turned to look at Hao Ren. Although it was normal for this "ancient guardian" to have some memory confusion after waking up from his slumber, the accumulation of errors in many common-sense areas still filled her with doubts. In fact, the princess was now suspicious of Hao Ren's origins, but she knew that this powerful "hermit" was the last hope for her and her soldiers, so she just silently suppressed what was on her mind and gently shook her head. "Corrupted monsters rarely wander. Most of them linger where they fell in life. The only corrupted monsters that move their positions are those who were extremely powerful in life—they retain a certain ability to think after transforming into monsters, so they take some unexpected autonomous actions. But these in front of us... are not the kind of monsters that are powerful enough to migrate at will."

"Sounds like some kind of undead," Hao Ren muttered. "Alright, let's not consider how these guys appeared here. The key is what they're doing gathering in this place. Look, aren't they surrounding something?"

Hao Ren pointed to the center of the monster group. He saw that the countless twisted monsters gathered to form several layers of encirclement around something. In the center of all the monsters was an open space, and a dark, strange object stood on that open space: it was a square stone tower more than ten meters high. The stone tower was divided into three layers from top to bottom, thinner at the top and thicker at the bottom. Complex and mysterious reliefs were depicted on the stone walls of the upper two layers, while the bottom layer of the stone tower was an openwork structure, as if there was a large space inside the tower base.

"That's the furnace fire," Veronica said.

"Furnace fire?" Hao Ren subconsciously asked a question, then quickly reacted and glossed over it. "Oh, we didn't use this back then."

Veronica seemed to be used to Hao Ren's "condition." She just nodded knowingly, "The furnace fire used today was improved by Archbishop Polman of the Theocracy 655 years ago. Compared to the old-style furnace fire, it has an extra level of rune barrier and looks more like the Hearthstone Towers used in big cities. It's normal that you don't know about it."

Hao Ren silently wrote down the newly acquired knowledge—the furnace fire seemed to be a protective device used by smaller settlements, such as villages and towns, while the big cities of this world used a powerful device called "Hearthstone Towers" to resist the power of Chaos. According to this pattern of reasoning, there should also be national-level protection systems, and the technology of these protection systems was mostly controlled by a national force called "Theocracy." He just didn't know what kind of organization the Theocracy was and how much connection their "church" had with the goddess of creation.

At least several thousand corrupted monsters surrounded the extinguished furnace fire device, but strangely, they didn't take any extra actions. These twisted and blind monsters just stood quietly in the darkness and stared straight at the dark square stone tower. This eerie scene was even scalp-tingling.

Hao Ren frowned. "You lit this furnace fire before? So they were attracted by the furnace fire?"

"Theoretically, yes, but I've never seen monsters attracted by the furnace fire... exhibit this kind of state," Veronica shook her head. "You see that the furnace fire has already been extinguished, so the monsters attracted should gradually disperse, but they are staying here motionless... I feel that the furnace fire tower is emitting a strange aura."

Hao Ren thought for a moment and shook his head. "There's no need to waste time with the monsters. The most important thing right now is to hurry on our way. Anyway, these guys don't seem like they're going to move, so we can simply bypass this town and save a lot of trouble."

However, Veronica was silent after hearing this. The knight princess thought about it, then looked at Hao Ren with a hesitant expression.

"What's wrong?" Hao Ren asked curiously.

"I know this is a bit of an excessive request—" Veronica said, "But I hope to investigate the cause of this abnormal phenomenon. Any changes that occur in the Land of Chaos are crucial information for those who live in the world of Order. Usually, we have to pay a huge price to hear news from the depths of Chaos..."

Hao Ren knew what she meant before she finished speaking: This princess actually wanted to check the condition of the furnace fire device.

Surrounded by thousands of monsters.

If it were a native of Kolo, he would probably refuse Veronica's request without hesitation—after all, courage is not equal to recklessness.

However, Hao Ren was different. He nodded after a little thought: Because he himself was full of interest in the furnace fire device. In fact, if he wasn't leading a group of wounded soldiers, he would definitely find a way to turn the entire ruin over and study it himself.

This was the professional spirit of an investigator: observation.

"You agreed?" Veronica looked at Hao Ren in surprise, and directly added an honorific to her tone. "But as you said, we don't really need to be here..."

Hao Ren waved his hand to interrupt her. "Because I can do it, so I agree. But these monsters are indeed a bit troublesome. There are too many of them. There may be thousands gathered in the square, and I suspect there are more guys in the nearby shadows. Dealing with so many monsters alone can only use powerful attacks, but that would have too much of a range."

Veronica swallowed. The image of the "ancient man" became even more profound and unpredictable in her mind, but she quickly entered the state: "You're right. Fighting here may damage the furnace fire device, so it's best to lure the monsters away. And just temporarily lure them away—if I can get close to the base of the furnace fire, I can make it burn again. Although it's just a temporary burn, the power of the furnace fire is still stronger than ordinary holy objects. At that time, with the help of the furnace fire, the monsters will not be a threat."

Hao Ren raised an eyebrow. "So the plan is for me to lure the monsters away, and then you find a way to light the fire in the center of the square?"

Veronica nodded, but a look of shame appeared on her face.

Because this arrangement was obviously a bit excessive, especially when facing a benefactor who had just met and saved her life not long ago. Asking the other party to do something that seemed like a suicide mission could be said to be abandoning the way of the knight.

Although, given the strength displayed by this "ancient guardian," the job of "bait" wasn't that dangerous.

Hao Ren didn't think so much. He just recalled the various battles he had experienced and nodded. "Okay, then I'll find a way to lure the monsters away. I'm better at pulling aggro."

Veronica tilted her head. "Pulling aggro?"

"It's luring the enemy," Hao Ren touched his chin. "Also, it's not safe for you to light the fire alone. It's best to bring your knights as well, because my aggro isn't very stable..."

Veronica's head still wasn't straight. "Unstable aggro?"

"It means I may not be able to lure all the monsters away—many monsters don't respond to taunts."

Veronica thought for a while and felt that the language of the ancient people was truly profound.