The Mysterious World Under Steampunk

"Which way to go?" Sylvia looked at the roads leading in different directions, and then at the bustling crowd in the square, turning her head and asking.

"The traces are broken." Leo looked down at the ground. The traces of the carriage tracks that were not very clear before had been completely covered by the traces of other carriages and people's trampling. to where.

"If I had to choose, I would choose that side." After hearing this, Sylvia thought for a while, pointed to Daru Temple, and said.

Hearing this, Leo nodded and said, "I think so too."

In fact, when he discovered that the carriage that took away Joan and Penny came from the black market chamber of commerce, and that the black market chamber of commerce was related to the joint association in the black city area, and the supporter behind the joint association was Daru Church, his search target had already Set on the temple of the Daru Church.

The reason why he can make a judgment so quickly is because when his spiritual network scans the whole city, there are only a few places that are difficult to penetrate, such as the main churches and temples of various churches, and the Daru Temple is one of them. one.

In addition, Penny's own abilities may not be strong enough, but her use of basic psychic skills is no longer inferior to any psychic user. With her own hunter ability, it is difficult for even ordinary church knights to deal with it. What's more, there is a quasi-sacred knight Joan beside her. It is probably not possible for ordinary people to control these two people in a short period of time. Obviously, there should be no such people in the Black City, and only the churches Only bishop-level figures have the ability to do this.

The more important point is that Leo scanned the black city through the spiritual network just now, trying to find the Daru missionary who sent the pendant to the president of the black market chamber of commerce, but found that he was not in his missionary church, but inside the church The servant of God mentioned in the conversation that this missionary went to the dock area early in the morning, and he seemed to be in a hurry, and he received a letter before leaving.

Leo didn't know what caused Joan and Penny to get involved in this matter, or whether the matter was aimed at Joan or Penny, but what he needed to do now was to find Joan and Penny before talking about other things. of.

The two who made the decision walked towards the Daru Temple. Although the daily missionary ceremony was over, there were still many people coming and going on the street leading to the Daru Temple. Not all of them They are followers of Daru, and many of them go for the scenery of Daru Temple.

The choice of the Daru Church to build a temple on this protruding cliff was not the result of a whim, but a final decision after careful inspection. scenic spot.

The current calm and cloudless weather is not the most suitable time to see the scenery in the Daru Temple. The most suitable time is in the storm, because at that time, there is a chance to see Daru appear in the storm, and because of this The reason is that every year, a large number of Daru believers go to the viewing platform of the Daru Temple in a big storm, hoping to see Daru's figure. Blown off the cliff, lost in the stormy waves below.

However, even if it is so dangerous, every time there is a storm at sea, there are still a large number of believers going to the Daru Temple. In order to protect these believers, the Daru Temple has erected chains and other protections on the road leading to the cliff and the viewing platform. measures, but the effect is not significant.

The Daru Temple does not object to non-believers visiting the viewing platform, and is even willing to accept it, so there are no checkpoints on the road. Leo and Sylvia also came to the Daru Temple with other tourists smoothly. small square.

The main body of the Daru Temple is located on the top of the cliff, surrounded by a high wall along the edge of the cliff, wrapping the entire temple in the high wall, the small square and viewing platform are on the cliff below the temple, where ordinary tourists and believers The end point that can be reached, and the one that goes up is the forbidden area.

After Leo and Sylvia came to the small square, they both turned towards the stables not far away. There were already a dozen carriages parked there. Most of the carriages were very gorgeous. They should be rich people and The carriages used by nobles, only one carriage looks very old and rough. At first glance, it is a carriage used to pull goods in Heicheng District, but there is nothing on this carriage. The original carriage is gone. From the latches and locks on the board, it can be seen that the carriage part is detachable, and it should be removed after the docking.

"It should be that car." Sylvia said in a deep voice.

Leo glanced at the wheel, and easily discerned that the wheel matched the previous traces. He nodded and turned to look at the Daru Temple above.

In the eyes of ordinary people, the Daru Temple is a majestic and solemn building. Anyone who comes to it, even believers of other gods, will involuntarily respect it.

The entire temple does not use the white wall stones commonly used in the Port of St. Paulia, but black stones transported from the cold places in the north as building materials. The overall architectural style is completely different from those gorgeous churches and temples in the Baicheng District of the Port of St. Paulia. , but simplicity, roughness, and coldness. Even in the hot summer, when entering the temple, you will feel a cold atmosphere. The deep environment created by the surrounding rocks cannot penetrate even the sunlight outside the window. It's like being in the dark and deep seabed.

In this case, even outside the temple, people can feel the chill. This kind of chill makes non-believers who come here dare not even look up at the temple building on the top of the cliff, as if a glance at the soul will be destroyed. As if the temple was sucked away, one by one lowered their heads and went to the viewing platform. After seeing the rumored scenery, they hurriedly lowered their heads and left.

Among the many people with lowered heads, Leo who looked up at the temple should have been particularly eye-catching, but the witchcraft runes on his body affected the people around him, not only made ordinary tourists ignore him and Sylvia beside him , Even the knights of the Daru Church stationed at the entrance turned a blind eye to the two of them.

"What did you see?" Sylvia asked curiously seeing Leo staring at the temple for a long time.

Leo didn't answer, but just reached out and grabbed Sylvia's palm, and then passed what he saw to Sylvia through the spiritual link of spiritual skills.

In an instant, the Daru Temple in front of Sylvia disappeared, replaced by a huge black figure crawling on the top of the cliff. This black figure has no fixed form, and it can only be vaguely seen that he is in the form of a beast, but this form of the beast But it has a fish-like tail.

Although she only saw the image passed by Leo, instead of looking at him head-on, she couldn't intuitively feel the invisible coercion from this huge black shadow, but Sylvia could still feel an inexplicable pressure fall on the body.

"Is it Daru?" Sylvia said in a deep voice.

"It should be." Leo nodded, and then said: "However, he is much weaker than I expected."

"It's a bit weak as a god." Sylvia also nodded in agreement with Leo's opinion.

Leaving aside the bonuses caused by environmental and geographical factors, although the projection of the Daru avatar integrated into the temple is powerful, in the eyes of Leo and Sylvia, it looks strong and capable, and it is not even comparable to the white deer. In terms of levels, Daru is almost equivalent to an eighth-level psyker who is about to be promoted, only slightly stronger than Sylvia, provided that Sylvia can fully exert all the power in her body.

As far as a god alone is concerned, Daru is really not worthy of this title. No wonder the temple of Daru is built on the cliff alone. If his temple is built in Baicheng District, among the churches and churches of the old churches, he will not Saying that the projection has been integrated into the temple, it may be very difficult to even respond to the prayers of the congregation. After all, the true gods behind the churches in the city are real gods, not a demigod like Daru who can only wander in a sea area.

"Let's go, go in and take a look!" Leo exited the state of spiritual vision, and walked up the steps leading to the temple, followed by Sylvia.

Under normal circumstances, the Daru Temple will not be open to the public without any ceremony. The church armed forces and knights guarding outside the temple will stop those who try to enter. If anyone continues to break in, they will Kill that person without hesitation.

But now, Leo and Silvia walked through the long steps in front of these people and entered the temple, but none of these people showed any intention to stop them. On the contrary, some people saw Leo and Silvia He greeted the two of them as if he had met acquaintances who often met, and even offered to open the door of the temple for them.

"Your ability is much more useful than my abyss spell, and my method can't achieve this level." After entering the main hall of the temple, Sylvia said enviously.

Leo shook his head and said, "You can do it, it's just that you haven't fully mastered your power. Your power has increased too fast, and it's almost beyond your control." The main hall, asked: "Can you see if there are any traces of the power of the abyss here?"

Hearing Leo's words, Sylvia also became serious, and carefully checked the surrounding situation through the perception and ability of her abyss upper race.

At the same time, Leo was not idle. He looked at the building in front of him carefully, and paid special attention to the murals engraved with various mysterious patterns and religious story patterns. At the same time, he also used the spirit net to check the surrounding situation. .

This main hall is very dark, even though the sun is shining outside, the windows around the main hall are closed, the sunlight cannot come in, and an extremely cold atmosphere fills the whole interior of the building, except for the special oil lamps made of fish oil on the top. There is no other source of light than the dim light.

In the middle of the main hall is a statue of a god, but this statue is a bit weird, showing the shape of a human body and a fish tail, which made Leo think of the aquariums he saw in the world of the sea god, and the face of the statue was not carved out , but a huge brazier, inside the brazier is not burning flames, but piled with a special kind of deep sea ice, this kind of ice can only be collected in certain places deep under the sea, and it will not melt all year round after being dug out of the sea , but under the influence of temperature changes, a fluorescent ice fog will be produced, which will condense in a ball and change shape continuously, and will not disperse for a long time.

Although many believers of the Daru Church who had been shipwrecked had seen the image of Daru appearing in the storm before they were rescued, they still couldn't remember Daru's specific appearance after returning to normal. According to the vague legend of the evidence, a human body and a fishtail were added to him. As for the head, it was impossible to give a unified answer, so it was simply cancelled, and the special ice fog of deep sea ice was used to imitate the ever-changing shape of Daruna in everyone's memory. .

Although outside the temple, both Leo and Sylvia could clearly feel the invisible coercion and powerful divine force field emanating from Daru's avatar possessing the temple, but the strange thing is that after entering the temple, all abnormal forces disappeared At least on the surface it seems to have disappeared, and the ability to exercise psionic skills and witchcraft and other powers has not encountered any obstacles.

However, after careful inspection, Leo was still able to capture the power contained in the surrounding black stones through the spiritual net. These powers are hidden and restrained, like a poisonous snake with a coiled body, ready to attack the Lord at any time. The enemies in the temple make a deadly attack.

After discovering this, Leo did not let the spirit net and other power penetrate into the black stone of the temple, but blew across its surface like a breeze, and then moved to other places, without giving the power contained in it any chance to trigger.

On the other hand, Sylvia obviously gained more than Leo. After she cast the power of the abyss dragon, she became particularly sensitive to the abyss power around her, and soon discovered something, pulled Leo's sleeve pointed to the brazier filled with deep sea ice on top of Daru's statue.

After receiving clear instructions from Sylvia, Leo also placed the scanning object of the spiritual net in the brazier, and also tried to mobilize the power of the abyss serpent, trying to stimulate the power of the abyss in it, but the final result was He still couldn't perceive the existence of any power from the abyss.

However, Leo didn't suspect that Sylvia had a wrong perception. He could only think that his sensitivity to the power of the abyss was far inferior to Sylvia's. common sense to judge.

Seeing the look on Leo's face, Sylvia knew that Leo must have found nothing, so she explained: "He should be an abyss upper species, but a reborn abyss upper species."

"Rebirth? Is there a talk about rebirth in the upper species of the abyss?" Leo was stunned and asked.

The reason why he has such doubts is because he knows from the memory he obtained from the abyss serpent that it is impossible for the upper races of the abyss to have real rebirth. They only have the kind of clone projection to enter other worlds, and the clone projection After dying in other worlds, the projected consciousness will return to the abyss itself, but this situation cannot be said to be rebirth.

Rebirth in the true sense is the complete death of the body, and then resurrection for some reason. This is the ability that the upper races of the abyss do not have, because no matter where the upper races of the abyss are, they will return to the abyss after death and be transformed by the abyss Become a new abyss life form, rather than regain life.