Yarra’s Adventure Notes
Chapter 424 - 50 Behind the President’s Order_1

Chapter 424: Chapter 50 Behind the President’s Order_1

"The leg will have to wait." Having bandaged Indulgence’s numerous wounds, Lina shifted her gaze to the cross-section of her thigh and decided to move her aside while heading towards Marcia, who had a hole in her stomach. Indulgence understood it wasn’t that Lina purposely extended her pain, but that injuries had various degrees of urgency. Treatments had to be prioritized, even Lina herself, despite using a divine spell to mitigate the damage of muscle soreness, had not treated her flattened leg.

"How did you guys end up here?" It was only now that Catherine was able to relax. As she languished beside Indulgence, waiting for her turn to be treated, she curiously asked Passion and Indulgence, "Did you also come to fulfill a commission? It couldn’t be that coincidental."

"It’s just that coincidental." Passion kept her usual indifferent expression, yet her gaze and tone were soft, "But it could hardly be called a commission, it was an order from our Thorn President. We were told to stop the ritual these heretics were performing. And you guys? Seems like you came here on a commission?"

"Yes, it was a commission but it wasn’t for this temple." Catherine patiently recounted to Passion everything that had happened, "So when we discovered this temple we were very surprised. Since your president gave the order, you should know more about this temple than we do, can you share the details as long as it’s not confidential?"

"There is no confidentiality issue really." Indulgence leaned restfully against Passion’s thighs, squinting her eyes and responded, "But where do I start... in short, one day the President summoned us, telling us there was going to be a sacrifice here that concerned an extremely serious issue. He asked us to stop it at all costs, even assigning Elegance to assist us."

"Elegance?" Catherine asked in surprise, "You mean the captain who had the deepest connection with these heretics? I didn’t see him. Did he not come?"

"No, you saw him." Passion smirked, "The one they referred to as Number Three was him. His characteristic trait is his mystery—no one knows who he will disguise himself as next or in what capacity he will appear. This time, he harbored ill intentions and wanted to use this opportunity to kill us, but after Pannis and I severely injured Number Four, he killed Four because he wasn’t sure about Pannis’ capabilities. I guess you might consider that as a form of surrender."

"You guys." Catherine frowned, as a knight she disliked the Shadow Hand’s way of dealing with things, but as friends, she knew these were the habits the thieves were accustomed to. She didn’t know what else to say and sighed, "Then what happened?"

"Then we just arrived." Indulgence said, "But we were discovered outside the temple and fought all the way to here. What happened next you already saw, we were seriously injured, they were all wiped out."

"You’re doing this on purpose." Catherine massaged her distressing brows, "Your way of narrating essentially amounts to not saying anything."

"That’s why I said I didn’t know where to start." Indulgence laughed, being deliberately troublesome, and suddenly looked around, "Where’s Pannis? How did he disappear all of a sudden?"

"Hmm?" Catherine also just realized Pannis was gone. She scanned the surrounding area but couldn’t find him. After thinking for a moment, she said, "He probably went to the worship area. We left a few members there, he probably went to look for them."

"He sure trusts you guys." Indulgence stuck out her tongue, "Isn’t he afraid more enemies will pop out?"

"You two Legendary Rank thieves and assassins aren’t here for show." From the hallway outside came Pannis’s distant voice, "Moreover, Catherine and the others haven’t lost their combat capability completely, what’s there not to be confident about? Besides, even if there are more enemies, as a mere Silver Rank, there isn’t much I can do."

"Pft." Passion and Indulgence couldn’t help but snicker at the same time.Indulgence rolled her eyes and said, "You just keep pretending, I can’t be bothered to say anything...uh, I have to say, Catherine, you guys have some unique tastes."

Upon saying this, it was because Indulgence had seen Pannis. Pannis walked back under the dim light of the bricks at the temple’s top, holding hands with a refined, moving skeleton on his left and carrying a flickering death banshee on his right. Behind him followed five giant silver wolves almost half a human’s height. In general, Catherine’s so-called members left behind were all anything but ordinary humans, prompting Indulgence to utter such an exclamation.

"Lina wants to heal everyone. It can’t be done in less than six or seven hours, and we have no idea up to when Vivian will wake up. We absolutely can’t interrupt now." Pannis explained, "So I predict that we will have to spend the night here. I was afraid these two little ones would worry, so I brought them in. By the way, as I guessed, after the ritual of the undead mage was disrupted, Little Deer was no longer afraid of entering here."

The little skeleton curiously looked around. She, who was born and died on the grassland, had never seen such a stone building in her life. Everything felt fresh until she saw Passion and Indulgence. She immediately hugged Pannis’s legs for protection. She poked her head out from behind him, holding her skull in her hand and peeking cautiously at the two strangers.

"Little Deer, don’t be scared." Catherine sat up and waved at the little skeleton, "They are friends, don’t worry."

The little skeleton immediately reattached her skull to her neck, clambered over to Catherine, hid in her arms, stared at Passion and Indulgence, and asked in her previously disguised heavy voice, "Are you also invaders who have violated my territory?"

"Don’t be mischievous, your sisters are discussing important matters, we’ll play with you later," Catherine said, playfully tapping on the little skull’s cranium. Her laughing face turned serious as she continued: "Since you don’t know how to explain, let’s stick to our usual talks. I’ll ask, you’ll answer."

"Very well," Indulgence nodded, "Whatever doubts you have, just ask."

"First, you said it was your President who instructs you," Catherine’s first question drilled to the core, "Such a secret location, a ritual that no one has discovered - how did he find out? Was it through your Shadow Hand’s information network?"

"No, absolutely not, otherwise Passion and I would have known in advance," Indulgence shook his head with certainty, "The President did not specifically tell us, but according to our speculations, he has his own information channels. More importantly, he has been secretly investigating this group for several years. This unlucky group of cultists tried to reach into the City of Innocence and drew the attention of the President. Although they were all killed by you in the end, I guess the President discovered some clues from them, so he quickly targeted here."

"Alright, the next question then. Why didn’t he handle this matter personally, given that it’s of urgent importance?" Catherine asked with curiosity, "It would be more reliable for a demigod to resolve the problem rather than you two, wouldn’t it?"

"A demi-god assassin crossing through several countries would drive many into frenzy," Indulgence chuckled with an air of pride, "Especially the President of the ’Thorn’, famous for his assassinations. Merely passing by would be enough to keep many locals awake with fear. Although that might be fun, the authenticity of this lead isn’t fully confirmed, so we were sent here to disrupt the ritual once its validity was established."

"Uncertain, is it?" Catherine quizzed, nodding that she found it acceptable. "Now, the third question: What is the ritual performed by these cultists, the Divine Servants? And what’s the deal with this sudden emergence of the temple?"

"That’s two questions, isn’t it?" Indulgence mumbled, but answered anyway, "I don’t know everything about this, but I can summarize what we do know."

"Let Passion do the summarizing." Lina, with her severed leg, hobbled over and commanded in a frosty voice, "You aren’t allowed to talk now, it’s his turn."

"Eh?" Indulgence was startled by Lina’s cold demeanor. She was used to Lina’s changeability, but this was the first time she’d seen her display such temperament. "Shouldn’t you tend your wounds first? Catherine is also severely injured."

"If we dawdle any longer, there’ll be no need for me to treat them. If you want to keep that leg of yours, you better shut your mouth." Lina said, her face devoid of any expression but her words cutting deep. "Do you prefer going through rehabilitation after Limb Regeneration? Or would you rather limp around?"

"She..." Indulgence was left speechless, looking helplessly at Catherine who could only shrug as if to show her helplessness. Indulgence came to understand that Lina was just wearing her unique temperament and did not mean harm, so he could only sigh, "Alright, I’ll just keep quiet."

"I’ll summarize," Passion, unaccustomed to prolonged conversation, spoke awkwardly, "We think that the ritual of these cultists occurs in several steps. The first step is the need for this temple. It was probably constructed ages ago and, gradually being covered in dirt over countless years, it was hidden underground. Their task was to bring it up to the surface. I don’t know how they did it, but it seems they have been successful."

"Yes, they have indeed succeeded," Catherine recalled the discussion before they entered the temple and nodded in agreement, "What happens next?"

"Then comes the second step," continued Passion, "They use the Array of the temple to expand the Energy of Death in this region, allowing it to cover a larger area. The wider the range, the more Energy of Death is produced, and then they carry out the third step."

"Is the third step the gathering and compression?" Catherine asked. "From the appearance when the ritual was interrupted, it seems so."

"Quite right. The third step involves gathering more and more Energy of Death and then refining and compressing it," Passion said, "They presumably intended to achieve their goal using this highly purified Energy of Death."

"What goal?" Catherine pursued.

"I’m not clear about the specifics," Passion admitted, "But I once heard the President muttering to himself about something related to reopening a certain grand gateway."

"Clatter," A spoon dropped from the hand of Pannis, who was busy preparing dinner using the Crystal Energy stove. However, Pannis did not notice, slowly turning around, his expression strange as he asked, "What did you say?"(To be continued. If you like this piece, welcome to qidian.com to vote for recommendations and monthly tickets. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users please go to m.qidian.com to read.)