Chapter 1229: The Shadowy Forest

In Collow, ancient sites with sad stories like the Mound of the Unnamed Soldier were aplenty. In the years that the tide of Chaos ravaged the world, all characters—the heroic warriors, great emperors, wise scholars, and invincible generals—who once shone brightly with great achievements, were all swallowed by the endless darkness. However epic and brilliant those great men were, the wheel of war in Collow had crushed them into pieces. Time consumed them like cheap consumables.

The great elven king of six thousand years ago had almost unified the whole continent and fought bravely with the Chaos. But in the end, history had forgotten his name. His empire was gone, not even a brick remained. The wisest and the most knowledgeable scholars had only found some sporadic descriptions of him in the book. And his stories were being told in the most unreliable way.

In Collow, it was commonplace.

But Hao Ren, a bystander, could not be indifferent. In the perspective of an inspector, he could hardly accept a civilization disappeared in the darkness just like that. For a whole 10,000 years, the mortal races of Collow were always in war. They spent all their strength in a meaningless tug-of-war with the Chaos. There was a problem in this world, and he obliged to figure out the truth behind all this.

After leaving the Mound of the Unnamed Soldier, the group picked up the pace as Veronica hoped that they could reach the edge of the Shadowy Forest before nightfall. She had confirmed her location; if all goes well, the knights would be able to an outpost of the kingdom in a few hours.

Hao Ren had noticed that the knight princess was a little impatient. It was especially evident after leaving the Mound of the Unnamed Soldier. It seemed that she was powerless and worried about something. Judging from her conversation with the knights, he could vaguely guess what had happened: Veronica’s army fell back into the wilderness after a defeat. The forces of Chaos in the shadowy forest broke through the defense of the humans and launched a surprise attack on the Kingdom of Order. The princess was worried about the fate of her country and the people, the future of which would not be optimistic without a miracle.

Morian walked beside Hao Ren. The white-haired old knight remained as solemn as ever. His angular face did not show many emotional swings, but deep inside, he was feeling what Veronica was feeling. But the veteran knew how to conceal his emotion. He looked at Hao Ren, who was silent, and suddenly asked, “How did the Theocracy look like a thousand years ago?”

Hao Ren was busy testing his mental connection, Morian’s voice jolted him. He looked at Morian, who for the first time in the past several days, spoke to him. It was not that the old knight had an opinion on him that startled him, but the old man was a quiet man. Hao Ren blinked and had no idea what was the intention of the question. But he realized that he was an ancient high-ranking temple guard, so the old knight’s question must be related to the Theocracy. He replied ambiguously. “More or less the same like today. There are little changes in the church, and the priests destine everything.”

Morian nodded but did not say anything. After a few moments, he said again, “Half our failure stemmed from the sudden withdrawal of the Theocracy. I have no intention of finger pointing or complaining. I want to know under what circumstances will the Theocracy do this?”

While saying, the old knight set his sight on Hao Ren; his face looked so serious that it was as if he must get the answer right now right here. But Hao Ren was stupefied: who the hell would know? No doubt that he ran out from an ancient temple and was given the Ancient Guardian title, but he was a fake and had nothing to do with Theocracy.

Veronica, who was walking in front, had heard their conversation. Her Royal Highness was concerned and frowned. “For thousands of years, Theocracy has been the culmination of various kingdoms. They sheltered the World of Order, and their authority rested on this responsibility. But there is no way to cover up the fact that they retreated from the Shadowy Forest. This news would sooner or later spread. The church’s prestige will suffer a huge deficit. Guardian, what do you think was the reason for Theocracy to withdraw their troops despite knowing that their good name will suffer?”

Hao Ren was stupefied again for a long while. After fumbling in his mind, he finally got some inspiration from the employee handbook and some classic cases in the tutorial documents. “I have a bad feeling; something must have happened in the church. Maybe Theocracy has a problem in its territory.”

“The sacred realm has problems?” Morian’s eyebrows arched. “How is it possible? The miracle of the goddess of creation is on the continent, and there have never been any forces of the Chaos getting close to the sacred realm.”

“Maybe it is something other than the forces of Chaos?” Hao Ren replied casually.

Everyone instantly fell into silence. They all had the same strange expression on their faces.

“Oh, I mean, just saying.” Hao Ren realized he just had a Freudian slip. Before he could say anything more, the shadow of the Shadowy Forest suddenly appeared in his peripheral vision.

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The Shadowy Forest was right in front.

It was once a vibrant and dense forest. Before the tide of Chaos, this vast forest between the plains and the kingdoms was a vital source of timber and alchemy material of Taros, and also the home to several wild elves and goblins. The forest stretched along the western and southern borders of the Kingdom of Taros, forming a half-moon-shaped vast area with several elven settlements. During peacetime, the elves relied on collecting herbs and magic ore in the forest to trade with humans and exchanged for necessities, while the goblins lived with the elves and were responsible for maintaining the flow of magic in the woods.

However, the tide of Chaos changed the face of the forest. The lush green had turned into dark, distorted, demonized trees. The vines were highly poisonous. The shrubs started to swallow any living things that pass by them, and the soil had lost its function of supporting life. No herbs or food could be grown in the jungle, and when poison also polluted the water in the jungle, the elves and goblins evacuated their homes. According to Veronica, the elves and goblins who vacated the forest were now living in several towns in the west and south of Taros as temporary citizens and assisting humans in protecting the borders of the land of Order.

Hao Ren was a little surprised by this information, but he soon knew that this was a relatively normal phenomenon in the world of Collow.

The Chaos was always invading the kingdoms. The tide of the Sea of Carnos would change the pattern on the continent every 100 years. The powerful kingdoms could maintain a relatively stable territory during this turmoil, some more massive empires could even last for ten centuries, but the small city-states and scattered settlements had found it hard to survive. They were not weak at first, and probably were the descendants of the kingdoms defeated in the last wave of the tide of Chaos. With the start of the new tide cycle, they could not protect their already battered homes and could only seek refuge in the surrounding kingdoms.

Usually, those kingdoms would not refuse this refuge request.

Everyone knew that they would somehow someday meet the same fate.

The elves in the Shadowy Forest had a kingdom two centuries ago. This kingdom ruled the entire forest, not just a few settlements. But their empire fell eventually, and they became vassals of the Kingdom of Taros. Perhaps, some years later, the Kingdom of Taros might end up with the same fate. The once proud mountain people would become the tribes wandering on the edge of the forest. When the Chaos and the Order clashed once again, they would have no choice but seek refuge in some new places.

Veronica felt like the dark forest was falling on her. She bit her lip.

The kingdom might end, but not today.

Hao Ren and Veronica staggered along in the forest; it was a nightmare to walk in the Shadowy Forest, which had not the so-called ‘road.’ The Chaos-contaminated plants were active, and even the soil was not stable. Hao Ren had seen with his eyes two old trees moved in the distance as if they had grown a pair of legs, and soil solidified into stones and then softened into a mud. In such an environment, even if humans had once built a road in the forest, the jungle would have swallowed it up now.

If the wilderness was a dead place shrouded in the fog, then the Shadowy Forest was a crawling nightmare. Everything that happened here was creepy.

But even in such a creepy black forest of magic, there was a sanctuary of the Order.

The Kingdom of Taros had spent an enormous amount of resources to build furnace outposts in the forest. These outposts were critical eyes and ears of the Kingdom of Order to monitor the border of the Chaos. Each outpost consumed an immense amount of resources to maintain stability in the black forest, but the investment was worthwhile. Without the existence of these outposts, it would be impossible for such a small Kingdom of Taros to survive the tide of Chaos until the seventh year of this century.

Soon the group was approaching the first Furnace outpost. Hao Ren saw a glimmer in the darkness ahead, and the surroundings appeared to have normalized: the moving carnivorous shrubs and walking magic trees had restored to become natural vegetation, which was a sign of the Order.

Seeing the silhouette of the buildings ahead hidden behind the trees, Veronica breathed a sigh of relief. She had earlier expected the worst, but now she could not help but feel comforted. Probably the goddess of creation had not given up this troubled kingdom.

But Hao Ren’s brows knit together. No doubt, the glimmer in front possessed the energy of the Order, but there was also a faint stench of blood.