Chapter 1331: Chapter 1331: River Valley and Mountain Pass
Compared to Shard, who has been busy all morning, the two ladies in the Opera House seem a little more leisurely since the Opera House doesn’t open early in the morning.
But the Opera House is not without people in the early morning. The actors, who didn’t have a performance last night, have already started to rehearse on stage or recite lines alone in the dressing room.
Because the entire Wilder Opera House now belongs to the Golden Dawn Opera Group, you can encounter actors practicing in unusual places.
In the stairwell, Shard met two actresses wielding wooden swords, swinging at each other in slow motion. The girls greeted Shard with smiles, as Shard was now quite familiar with the members of the Golden Dawn.
"I have already looked at the map provided by Sister Delphine. Although the Night Shrine is in the mountains, if we take the right path, it won’t take an entire day."
The Witch spoke with a unique sense of laziness in the morning, while Miss Lathis bent over to look at the map. Shard, holding a teacup, said:
"If we can reach the ruins within half a day, we don’t need to fly over."
After all, the Randall Valley is currently a tumultuous place; it’s better to stay low-key.
"I recommend riding horses."
Miss Benanis drew the route on the map with a pen:
"If it weren’t winter, taking a steam-powered boat upstream would actually be the most convenient because the ruins are in the mountains near the Elon River. Fortunately, the ice is still frozen, and with the heavy snow finally stopping, going by the river is still the best method for now."
"How long will it take to arrive?"
Shard asked, also leaning over to look at the map:
"Can we reach there before noon?"
"If we set off now, around that time."
The Witch said. In that case, it would be about the same amount of time as Shard needed to travel from the ruined tower in the Sicarl Mountains to the higher Red Water Camp.
"Alright, let’s set off now and try to return before dinner."
"No problem, I’ll accompany you... to prevent you from encountering danger in the mountains."
As if afraid Shard would misunderstand, she added another sentence, making herself blush a little.
Miss Lathis showed a smile but did not expose her thoughts:
"Then today, I’ll stay at the Wilder Opera House for a bit of rest. I’ve been running around a lot these days and am indeed a bit tired. Speaking of which, Shard, we’ve realized some gains."
She looked at Shard again:
"Some evidence suggests that the soul status of the Guardians is definitely abnormal."
"That’s for sure. A normal soul, even if in life they were a Circle Sorcerer, absolutely couldn’t be this powerful."
The souls of the three Guardians Shard encountered were all dreadfully strong. Although they couldn’t compare to him, they were the strongest souls he had ever seen. Moreover, the strength of their souls was almost identical.
Thinking of this, and recalling what Ston Osenfort once said at a countryside wedding, that the mortal souls of the Guardians could resist the corruption of ancient evil powers. In retrospect, he must have meant that the Guardians had faced demons more than once. In such a light, the truth about the Guardians is more complicated than all the current theories combined.
Of course, it was not because they came into contact with the legendary "Heart of the Earth" that they became divine; Shard’s sense of Divinity does not err.
Having learned from the previous experience of searching for the "Saint Perry Cemetery" in Woodland Creek, this time before setting off, Miss Benanis performed enchantments on the hooves of the two horses to prevent them from slipping on the ice.
Afterward, the two of them set off from the city on horseback, following the previous route first to the Green Grass Farm, then to the pier and onto the surface of the Elon River, continuing to ride eastward into the mountains.
The Osenfort Estate is also located along the Elon River. Last time when Shard and Ston Osenfort had a horse riding competition, they even crossed the Elon River via a bridge.
When they saw the estate in the distance, shrouded seemingly by dark clouds, Shard mentioned this to Miss Benanis. The Witch, gazing at the estate, brought up another matter to Shard:
"Margaret has been doing quite well lately. After obtaining the original shares document of Guardian Fleming from you, she successfully made contact with the higher-ups of the Stonemason Guild. Furthermore, by assassinating Old Hack for Prince William, she won over a small part of the association. Although her mission can’t yet be declared complete, at least everything is moving in a positive direction."
This put Shard at ease.
Nothing obstructed their journey along the way, and the further they moved away from the city, the more they could appreciate the scenery of Randall Valley. When they reached their destination, they arrived even earlier than Miss Benanis had expected, just at twelve thirty.
The morning’s travel had left both of them a bit tired, so they camped by the river to rest. Conveniently, Shard’s "Fiona’s Housekeeper" still had two kitchen services left, so they simply lit a fire for warmth and summoned lunch.
As they ate, Shard held a note with a smiling face doodle and complained to Miss Benanis:
"It’s clearly supposed to represent the Spirit Talisman of [Sloth], but in reality, this Arcane Technique doesn’t let me be lazy at all. To use the Arcane Technique, it costs a lot of gemstones. So, to be lazy, I have to work hard to earn money. Why exactly is this Arcane Technique related to [Sloth]?"
The Witch merely laughed as she listened to his complaints, thinking that camping in the snow was quite enjoyable.
Shard realized that all of his Arcane Techniques associated with the Great Sin Spirit Runes were in conflict with the Spirit Runes themselves. The insatiable Gluttony desire was associated with a feeling of satiety; the Greed Great Sin, which sought all, required a love for only one item; the lazy desires that wouldn’t lift a finger required hard work to afford a housekeeper; and the most absurd was the Wrath Original Sin of hating others and having a heart forever burning with flames, where the Arcane Technique was oddly named "Calm" stance.
Shard was rather curious about which Arcane Technique he would choose to learn next if he could acquire another Great Sin Spirit Rune.
After lunch, Miss Benanis adjusted the direction using a Compass, and together they left the river to head into the dense forest.
By now, they had reached the mountains. Riding a horse was out of the question; even the horses themselves had difficulty walking. Thus, the two horses were left in the woods, tied to a tree, and enchanted with a talisman to ward off wild animals, preventing them from being eaten by hungry mountain wolves.
It was not an unnecessary worry, as the two soon encountered a brown bear that, for some reason, had not gone into hibernation in the woods.
The brown bear was at least two heads taller than Shard, and upon spotting them from afar, charged at them with a hunting stance.
"Moonlight Wheel!"
Shard raised his hand, and a silver light wheel formed in his palm and was immediately thrown. Inheriting the high Attack Power of [Moonlight Slash] and the tracking ability of [Binding Aura], the spinning light wheel sliced across the bear’s neck. While the bear’s body lunged forward, its head had already fallen onto the snow.
"Oh!"
From the bear’s neck, blood spouted like a fountain, staining a whole patch of snow red.
"It’s a bit brutal."
Shard remarked, although he didn’t actually find it inappropriate. The bear wanted to eat him, and he counterattacked; it was part of the natural cycle.
"In the autumn, I encountered a bear in Sicarl Mountain and later brought the bear’s corpse back to Tobesk... That was my first time tasting bear meat."
Shard said, but this time he did not take the bear’s corpse because there was simply too much blood.
The two Circle Sorcerers traveled quickly. Although they had never been here before, Sister Delphine’s map was roughly accurate, and soon they found the cave marked on the map.
The Randall Valley Region is filled with caves and underground tunnels, so a giant cave appearing in the mountains was not surprising. However, this cave did not lead underground but traversed upward through the mountain.
The cave was vast, even larger than Saint Delan Square. The uneven interior was surrounded by bizarre rock formations, stalactite pillars, and giant rocks with cracks, all evidence that this mountain cave was indeed formed naturally.
The terrain inside the cave generally inclined upward. As Shard and Miss Benanis walked in side by side and illuminated their fingertips at the cave’s entrance, they couldn’t see where the cave’s top was.
The snow extended to the cave entrance and then disappeared, leaving behind a damp, decaying smell. The extremely remote "Night Shrine" Ruins they were about to reach were almost forgotten by people, so many wild animals had made their homes in the large cave. Shard’s moonlight disturbed a colony of bats and then some snakes crawled past their feet:
"Do none of these animals hibernate?"
Shard murmured again, intending to move forward with Miss Benanis, but suddenly grabbed the Witch’s wrist:
"Hold on a second? Something’s wrong here."
He pulled the Witch behind him, and the blonde lady looked around:
"What’s wrong... Crazy Earth?"
As she spoke, the animals inhabiting the massive dark cave appeared at the edges of their light. Rabbits had decaying rat heads, bats bore sticky wings of birds and moths, tigers had scorpion stingers on their rear, and two-headed snakes were rainbow-colored.
"Yes, Crazy Earth. It’s indeed hard to find a problem in such uninhabited places. The range is this cave. As for the Trait here, it seems to be a combination of biological species... or breaking down some biological reproductive barriers."
"Reproductive barriers" was a term Miss Benanis could also understand. She raised an eyebrow:
"Allowing two originally infertile sides to reproduce, is that it?"