Chapter 397: Chapter 397

Five carriages raced through the city, but inside one of them, Jenkins remained bewildered.

The swirling patterns and colors of the auras were unfamiliar, so he guessed this must be the first wave of reinforcements from the Church.

"They didn't come all this way just to be my guards, did they?"

Bevanna and Jenkins shared a carriage, along with Chocolate, who had snuck aboard at some unknown moment.

A peculiar sensation kept Jenkins on edge, his heart hammering as if something terrible was about to happen. It was a warning from his spirit, one he couldn't afford to ignore.

Since he would be living in the church for an extended period, Jenkins was carrying all his worldly possessions on his person, which gave him a small sense of security. Fortunately, his heavy winter clothes concealed the sheer volume of miscellaneous items stuffed within.

The carriages jolted along the rough roads outside the city. The uneven terrain of the outskirts made it impossible for the five vehicles to maintain their formation, forcing them to arrange themselves with Jenkins's carriage at the very center.

Along the way, Bevanna explained the history and purpose of the baptism. Its origins were contemporary with the founding of the Church of Knowledge and Books. The principle behind it was quite simple: to use special materials and divine power to strengthen a mortal's fragile body.

The baptism was based on a lost ancient ritual. Many epochs ago, when the Church faced countless enemies, it was a necessary means of survival. In the modern era, however, its religious significance far outweighed its practical purpose.

Things, as expected, did not go smoothly. Just as the lush, green valley came into distant view, a tremendous explosion erupted from the left of the carriage.

"It has nothing to do with us."

Bevanna placed a hand on Jenkins's shoulder. "We're very close to our destination. The guards will handle any trouble."

But Jenkins's assessment was the exact opposite of hers. To the left of the carriage should have been farmland, but in early winter, it was nothing more than a flat, open field. This terrain gave his Eye of Reality an unparalleled view. He could see right through the carriage walls, clearly observing several clusters of tangled auras rapidly approaching their position.

The number of auras was enormous, a clear sign that more than one person was fighting. He even recognized some of them—they belonged to Enchanters from the Orthodox Churches.

His lips twitched for a moment before he quickly composed himself. The combatants were clearly two opposing factions, but the one speeding in their direction was a familiar friend—Magic Miss.

So she had gotten involved after all. The urn of ashes she was carrying was likely the root of her troubles.

In his peripheral vision, he noticed the last carriage in the convoy had stopped. The Enchanters inside were moving swiftly toward the battle, leaving only three carriages as his escort.

"Miss Bevanna, I suddenly have a very bad feeling about this."

"We can't turn back now. Let's get into the forest first. The guards there are strong..."

Before she could finish, something happened. She suddenly leaped up, smashed through the roof of the carriage, and jumped out. A flicker of black spiritual light flashed by the side of the carriage, and an old man in black sacrificial robes stepped out of the void.

He was a level 8 Enchanter, his eyes weary and the skin on his face so slack it seemed ready to slide off. In his right hand, he held a bone staff topped with a skull whose eye sockets stared at the sky; in his left, he carried a complex sand table map that pulsed with an unstable black aura.

His attire clearly marked him as a follower of the Lord of the Undying. The old man hadn't expected to encounter an opponent of the same level the moment he appeared. In truth, he hadn't come for the convoy at all; it was pure coincidence.

Bevanna flicked her fingers, and golden divine chains shot out from the void. The old man slammed his bone staff into the ground, and a faint black mist spread out from his feet.

Regardless, Jenkins had lost another guard, and two demigod-level Enchanters were now officially engaged in combat for some inexplicable reason.

"Chocolate, if anything happens, you run, you hear?"

His heart began to pound faster and faster, though he wasn't exerting himself in the slightest. It was a premonition born of his heightened senses, a warning that something far worse was about to occur.

They were drawing ever closer to the valley entrance, but the sounds of fighting and explosions seemed to come from all directions. Jenkins even caught a glimpse of Captain Bincy. If he remembered correctly, the last time they met, the captain had cryptically mentioned that the core of the ritual was about to be found...

"It couldn't be right here, could it?" Thᴇ link to the origɪn of this information rᴇsts ɪn novel⚑fire.net

Thinking it over, it wasn't impossible. The network of mining tunnels beneath this area was incredibly complex. If they could dig one secret passage, they could certainly dig a second.

"So I'm just unlucky enough to stumble into the final showdown?"

In the distance, a massive number of auras converged, and the aftershocks of the battle rattled the moving carriage. The escort was forced to dispatch another carriage to provide reinforcements. By the time they finally reached the valley entrance, only three remained.

The place was vastly different from when Jenkins had last seen it. At the entrance to the primeval forest, a series of well-organized treehouses and stone huts had been constructed.

The foremost structures resembled ancient blockhouses and arrow towers, with visible runes swimming across their surfaces.

The temperature inside the forest felt more like spring, and the air was filled with the scent of damp earth. The moment his feet touched the ground, an inexplicable sense of joy washed over him, even diluting the unease in his heart.

Suddenly, the ground began to tremble. A howling wind rushed through the narrow terrain and into the valley. Everyone looked up toward the distance, where a golden radiance had formed a strange shape, so bright it washed out the clouds in the gloomy sky.

Someone patted Jenkins on the back. He turned to see Professor Burns. He wasn't in his usual attire but wore grey sacrificial robes. Standing with him was the Keeper of Secrets, Mr. Smith, along with several other familiar faces whose names he couldn't recall.

They were all Enchanters, though of a low level, seemingly apprentices to the Keeper of Secrets.

"You are here only for the baptism. Nothing else concerns you."

The Keeper of Secrets nodded at Jenkins. The crowd parted to form a path, and the old man bowed slightly, gesturing for him to proceed.

A small path stretched from where they stood into the depths of the forest, where giant trees swayed their branches gently in the wind.