Chapter 505: The City That Should Be Dead

"Is that good or bad?" Kain asked without taking his eyes off the mirror panel that was still slowly turning.

Lian did not answer immediately.

His eyes first moved to the thin line of light that had come down from the tower and stretched along the old stairs beside the mountain wall.

Only a few seconds ago, that path had been almost completely hidden in the shadows, and even the Celestial Book of Treasure had only shown an incomplete line in that direction.

But now, the white stairs had appeared one after another through the shadows.

He opened the Book again.

The local map created by the Book was clearer than it had been a few minutes ago.

The World Memory also reacted as soon as the new path appeared and placed new information on the same part of the map.

[Historical structure detected.]

[Pilgrim’s Path.]

[Recorded destination: White District.]

Then he looked at Kain.

"If it only showed us the path, that’s good, but if it also told the rest of the city that the owner of the Tear has arrived... then probably not." They had no way to know whether what happened was some kind of special mechanism or not.

What if it was some kind of special mechanism that reacted to something specific? In that case, it was possible that all the forces of the Third Region that had come here would notice their presence.

Kain stayed silent for a few seconds, then let out a short sigh and looked at the city below them again.

The mirror panel was no longer moving, and the thin line of light was still fixed on the same stairs.

For now, no bell had sounded from the native camps, and no group was moving toward them either.

But Lian had no interest in checking how long this situation would continue.

"We’re moving."

Kain nodded.

One also moved its antennae from a few steps behind them.

Even when the giant ant kept its body low, it was still not something that could be hidden behind a pillar or a small wall.

"I don’t think with that size, even if it hides behind a wall, anyone would believe it’s a rock, shouldn’t you cancel its summoning?" Kain reminded him of this before they moved.

"It’s not time yet." Lian did not plan to send it back to the Colony House for now. They were still in the outer part of the city, and they did not know what kind of monsters lived there.

One was not only useful for moving quickly, but its tough body and raw strength were also very valuable against ordinary monsters.

When they got closer to the main forces of the Third Region, he could send One back at that time.

For now, having a several-meter-tall monster beside them was more of an advantage than a problem.

They left the old pilgrim rest area and entered the glowing stairs.

From above, the City of the Silent Light had a huge and even impressive view.

But the farther down they went, the more the beauty of the view was replaced by something more unpleasant.

The stairs were extremely wide, and hundreds of people could probably pass through them at the same time in the past.

On both sides of the stairs, small stone pillars had been built at regular distances.

As the young Vorhelm passed the first pillar, he noticed writing on it.

A name.

Another name was carved on the next pillar.

And then hundreds of other pillars and hundreds of other names had been carved on them, to the point that it seemed like some kind of tradition or ritual.

"Are those the names of the pilgrims?" Kain asked while examining one of the writings.

Lian activated the World Memory on the same part of the map.

[Pilgrim Memorial Pillar.]

"Looks like it." There was no explanation, but the name itself could partly confirm their guess.

Some names had almost disappeared, while some could still be seen on the stone with faint golden lines.

But several pillars were different, their surfaces had turned black, and it did not look like smoke or stains, the stone itself seemed to have burned from the inside, and the letters on it had completely melted.

Lian gave one of them a short look and continued without stopping.

A few hundred stairs later, they saw the first statue.

A woman in a kneeling position.

Both of her hands were placed in front of her chest, and her face was slightly raised toward the sky.

Kain did not even slow down at first, the city was full of statues, and he saw no reason to stop just because of one statue.

But Lian stopped, something about the statue was not natural and it gave him a strange feeling, he needed to check it.

The surface of the woman’s body was not stone, under a black and semi-transparent layer, the dried skin of her face could still be seen.

Her eyes were closed and her lips were slightly open, even strands of her hair had been preserved inside the same layer.

"This isn’t a statue." Lian said quietly, causing Kain to frown heavily and giving him a bad feeling.

One also came closer and moved its antennae.

A few meters lower, there was another statue, a man with one hand held in front of his face.

Then a third, a child beside another woman, and all of them were in different positions, but they had one thing in common, they had been stopped at the exact moment.

It was as if the same black layer that had trapped the ships had held the bodies of these people at the exact last moment.

There were some kind of black stains on them that seemed to be the same liquid that had trapped the ships inside it.

Kain and Lian both looked at them in silence, for some time they did not know how they should react.

"Did they die just like this, in that moment? But how?" The first one asked after thinking for a while.

The second one could not be sure, his eyes moved between the different statues.

"Yeah, if they had turned into statues after death, it would be unlikely for all of them to be exactly in the positions they were in while doing something, their deaths and being frozen happened at the same time."

"Then whatever destroyed this city... happened very quickly." Kain kept his eyes on the woman’s face.

Lian said nothing, but it was probably like that, whatever had happened had happened in the blink of an eye, and it probably had something to do with that black liquid.

They started moving again, and the farther down they went, the more of these statues they saw.

The map of the Book was also becoming more complete at the same time, as the distance became shorter, the faint lines of the districts gained more details.

Alleys that had previously been only a single line now had several branches.

Small buildings, courtyards, temples, and even part of the city’s water supply system slowly appeared on the page.

The golden treasure mark shown by the Book was still deep inside the city, almost in the same direction as the huge shrine.

But now other marks had also appeared, a white mark on the left side of the path, a blue mark under one of the lower streets, and several much weaker points inside scattered buildings.

Lian looked at the map, the white mark was almost eight hundred meters away from their path.

But one of the native camps was between them and the destination.

It was not worth making the natives aware of their presence for a treasure that was probably even below Rank C.

He preferred to explore more of the city before getting into a fight.

A few minutes later, the Book reacted again, this time the small mark was almost beside their path.

Lian moved only a few meters away from the main stairs and entered the courtyard of a half-ruined temple, a small white plant was growing in the middle of the shadow of one of the pillars.

Its leaves had almost no color, and their edges looked very soft, like ash.

The Book showed a short amount of information.

[Light Ash Flower.]

[Rank: C.]

[Usage: A medicinal material used to reduce damage caused by curses.]

Lian pulled the plant out with some of the soil around its roots and placed it inside his storage space.

Kain had also seen these things, but since a few hours ago, he had understood that his friend was good at finding treasures, or that it might have something to do with the map he was carrying.

Whatever it was, he had gotten used to it and did not seem to care about it anymore.

Instead, he tried to search through the half-ruined temple for information about the Divine of Light or anything related to himself.

But after they found nothing, they returned to their path.

It did not take long before the stairs finally ended.

The System immediately showed a new notification.

[Sub-area discovered.]

[White District.]

The district looked very different from what they had seen from above, white buildings had been built on both sides of arched streets.

Stone pools were placed between small squares, but no water had flowed through them for a very long time.

In some places, narrow channels reached the pools from the walls of the buildings.

There were also statues in different places that held large circular panels above their heads.

But something other than the architecture caught Lian’s attention.

The shadows... or more exactly, the lack of them.

The sun was behind a layer of clouds, yet no corner of the street was completely dark.

Very weak light came through the stones of some buildings, not strong enough to make the area look bright, but only enough to prevent complete darkness from forming.

"It’s bright even in the shadows, how is something like this possible? Is it some kind of city mechanism?" Kain also noticed it.

The young Vorhelm placed his hand beside one of the walls, faint light was coming from inside the stone itself.

"Yeah, since it was a religious city that belonged to the religion of Light, maybe they liked light too much and didn’t allow darkness to exist."

"But how? Then what did they do at night... or don’t tell me they didn’t even have nights? Then how did they sleep?"

"You shouldn’t ask me these questions, actually, I should be asking you these questions, after all, you’re the Child Of Light, right?" Lian gave him a mocking look.

Kain ignored him and they continued along their path.

One entered the street from a few steps behind them, its huge body taking up almost half the width of the street.

But only a few minutes had passed when its antennae suddenly rose, it had sensed danger!

Lian also sensed danger at the same moment, more exactly, six unknown presences were approaching them.

Six of them, and they were inside the surrounding buildings.

Kain also stopped at the same time as them and looked around, his sense of danger was no weaker than theirs either.

He created a small light between his fingers, and when they felt his light, the first creature came out from behind a pillar.

At first glance, it was a human, or at least, it had once been human....