Dimensional Codex System: I'm really not a cultist!

Chapter 68: Chapter 67: Pursuit

The cultists had left their base for some time, but this wasn’t much of a problem for Fang Zheng. With the keen perception of the Zerg, he quickly picked up the faint smell of sulfur lingering in the air. Following the scent, he and Fina didn’t have to work too hard to find the lingering traces left by the cultists.

In fact, this wasn’t difficult at all. According to Knight Conan, aside from the cavalry patrolling outside, there were a total of thirty Sanctuary Warriors inside the base. That was no small number. Moreover, the cultists didn’t kill them all but took them captive instead and left. Moving so many people at once without leaving traces would have been an impossible story.

Therefore, it didn’t take much time for Fang Zheng and Fina to determine the direction the cultists had left in, and they tracked them down without delay.

Fang Zheng was mainly responsible for tracking, and Fina wasn’t idle either. Although this rookie Cleric was somewhat dogmatic, the benefit of dogmatism was that at least she knew everything she was taught in the books. So, along the way, Fina was in charge of detecting any potential Magic Seals left behind by the cultists. According to Fina, to avoid detection, cultists often released warning seals in places they passed through. This was a very simple spell that would immediately alert the caster if someone crossed the seal.

Because this spell was very convenient and only lasted for half an hour—neither too long nor too short—it had become a signature spell for many spellcasters to use as an alert. As a Cleric, Fina had naturally learned to use and detect this kind of spell. Right now, she was responsible for analyzing and searching for these seals to avoid Fang Zheng accidentally activating an alarm, which would certainly complicate matters.

So, Fang Zheng was left to track the residual traces of the cultists while Fina followed by his side, guarding their surroundings and searching for Magic Seals. The two cooperated quite well. What Fang Zheng found interesting was that this Apprentice Priest, though seemingly fragile, actually had excellent physical quality. They had been traveling since leaving the base; half a day had passed, and they had climbed over a mountain, yet Fina by his side was still not showing any signs of strain or breathlessness.

Fang Zheng himself had the physical quality of the Zerg, so he had no concerns about physical strength, but he was surprised that this Apprentice Cleric had such fortitude. Then again, he thought, people in this world seemed to temper their bodies through the cultivation of the Power of the Star Spirits, which explained her endurance.

Of course, this also had its disadvantages, like Shi Dong and Mart, who usually seemed invincible, but were immediately incapacitated by a DEBUFF thrown by the Child of Chaos…

Perhaps the cultists were overconfident after breaking the base or they had more important matters to attend to. Thus, throughout their journey, they didn’t seem to hide their traces, and with Fina responsible for guarding against the Magic Seals, Fang Zheng was able to speed up his search. At last, as the day approached dusk, Fina finally made a new discovery.

“There’s a fluctuation from a Magic Seal ahead, Mr. Fang Zheng!”

“Magic Seal?”

On hearing Fina’s warning, Fang Zheng quickly halted his steps, feeling a surge of excitement in his heart. According to Fina, a Magic Seal only lasted for half an hour. They hadn’t seen any Magic Seals all this way, which might indicate that the cultists weren’t on guard or that the effect of the Magic Seals had expired. If the latter were true, it meant they were still quite far from their quarry. The appearance of a Magic Seal now suggested they had closed the distance, and they might be no more than half an hour away from the cultists.

“Is there a way?”

Responding to Fang Zheng’s inquiry, Fina nodded confidently.

“Certainly, I can temporarily block the power of the Magic Seal. I can only maintain it for about ten seconds, but I believe that will be enough.”

The manifestation of a Magic Seal was linear rather than circular, meaning it was more like an invisible wall formed by magic. Anyone crossing this wall would be detected. This was why Magic Seals were difficult to bypass, and thus, were commonly used in tracking and guarding.

However, for spellcasters, naturally, there are means to deal with it.

Mr. Fang Zheng looked at the cleric maiden beside him, only to see Lady Fina take a couple of steps forward, staring at the empty air in front of her, then she took a deep breath and raised the scepter in her hand.

This was the object Fina had been holding all along, around the length of a person’s forearm, entirely in silver-white, with strange patterns and characters carved upon it, and a round, white crystal embedded at the tip of the scepter. Mr. Fang Zheng was not sure whether this was standard equipment for a cleric, but judging by Fina’s demeanor, it seemed likely that it was.

“Holy Light of Order, please grant me the power to shield the truth!”

Chanting softly, Lady Fina raised her scepter and gently touched the empty air in front of her. Quickly, Mr. Fang Zheng saw a white light beam shoot out from the tip of the scepter, striking the air. Then, the air in front of him began to ripple like water, and suddenly, a peculiar wall appeared before Mr. Fang Zheng.

It was entirely transparent blue, with mysterious runes glittering on it. These runes combined to form a wall about ten centimeters thick that stretched out, resembling a tall city wall blocking the way in front of the two of them. Except this wall, although it appeared towering, was not at all substantial, looking instead like a theatrical backdrop.

Under the scepter’s light beam, the initially shining wall gradually dimmed, and soon, Mr. Fang Zheng watched as the floating rune glows were extinguished one by one. Afterward, the formerly blue barrier turned into a shade of gray.

“Now, Mr. Fang Zheng!”

“Okay,” he replied.

Hearing Lady Fina’s words, he nodded and then looked up at the barrier before him and stepped into it.

Passing through the entire barrier was just a blink of an eye for Mr. Fang Zheng, and what surprised him was that despite having entered the barrier, he felt absolutely nothing. Even the keen senses granted to him by the Zerg did not detect any movement. This deepened Mr. Fang Zheng’s curiosity and solemnity regarding the magic of this world.

It seems he must find a way to investigate how exactly the magic of this world works.

“Strange…”

While Mr. Fang Zheng was pondering his future plans, Lady Fina also passed through the barrier, but at this moment, there was not a trace of excitement on her face. Instead, she turned her head, looking back at the barrier with full-faced confusion.

“What’s wrong, Lady Fina?”

Seeing Lady Fina’s puzzled expression, Mr. Fang Zheng timely asked, since she, although not a mage, was also a spellcaster, it would be good to gather a bit of information from her. Lady Fina didn’t think much before she quickly spoke out.

“Just now, Sir Knight Conan mentioned that they have a Destruction Mage, right?”

“That’s right, he did say that.”

“But it’s strange… I don’t feel the presence of Hell on this magic seal…”

“Does that mean there’s another spellcaster?”

Hearing Fina’s reply, Fang Zheng paused for a moment, then quickly thought of something.

“Could it be a Necromancer or a Lich? They’ve always been close to the cultists…”

“It’s different, Mr. Fang Zheng. You’re not a spellcaster, so perhaps you don’t understand this aspect. Although many professions are able to cast spells, there’s always a remnant aura on their spells. Just like Destruction Mages, their released spells will definitely carry the presence of Hell, while the spells cast by Necromancers and Liches will mix with the aura of death. Even the Divine Arts we clerics and bishops release contain a similar sacred aura. But the aura on the magic seal just now isn’t evil, nor does it have that sense of death and destruction. It feels very intricate, more like…”

“More like what?”

This time Fina hesitated for quite a while before she finally gave a low reply.

“It’s more like a spell released by a Mage from the Order School… and moreover, it seems that the caster is of no low rank…”

“About what rank?”

“Judging by the power of the magic seal, at the very least, it’s of Elite Level.”

“I see.”

Upon hearing Fina’s answer, Fang Zheng nodded. He had some idea of his own strength, too. Before he had traveled to ‘Edge of Tomorrow,’ according to Shi Dong, his normal strength should be about average among the elites. In the battle at Shadow Canyon, Fang Zheng could confirm that if he fought with all his strength, an ordinary Templar was no match for him at all. Even if faced with Shi Dong and Mart, he still had the power to fight, and if he activated the Soulstone, the two of them would surely die. As for the Master of Lich, Fang Zheng felt that only by activating the Soulstone would he be able to fight it, though the outcome of the battle was uncertain.

Now, with the Time Ability and significantly enhanced physical quality, it meant that he already possessed the strength of the Elite Pinnacle level in his daily life. If he activated the skill of the Soulstone, he would definitely reach Grandmaster, and if he activated the Soulstone, he would assuredly attain Legendary status. This was also why Fang Zheng volunteered to come here to track down those cultists. As long as there were no forces at the level of the Master of Lich among the opponents, in theory, dealing with these guys should be as easy as dealing with grandchildren for him.

Moreover, Fang Zheng wanted to try out the performance of the Time Ability in actual combat.

“Let’s keep moving.”

Although Fang Zheng was a bit curious about a Mage from the Order School popping out among cultists, he didn’t dwell on it too much. Instead, Fina looked solemn and seemed to be pondering something.

Next, the two of them connected several more times, passing through the magic seal barriers, and finally, they stopped at the edge of a forest.

The reason was simple… even Fina could no longer find a way through this time.

“No good, this forest is protected by a very strong Illusion Barrier and Alarm Barrier.”

After some attempts, Fina had no choice but to convey this unfortunate news to Fang Zheng.

“I’ve tried to bypass it, but these barriers are interlocked. If there’s an issue with one barrier, the other barriers will immediately be activated, causing a chain reaction… I think this must be the cultists’ camp.”

“It seems they indeed have something to hide…”

Upon hearing Fina’s report, Fang Zheng frowned. If there wasn’t a problem, would these cultists bother to set up such elaborate stuff?

No matter what, there must be something fishy inside!

However… Fang Zheng simply couldn’t enter the forest right now. Although he could use the Time Ability to accelerate, according to Fina, those barriers would react immediately upon detecting traces. Fang Zheng’s ability didn’t involve space, and so if he were to enter the barrier, he could at most only delay the reaction time of the barrier.

“Damn it…”

Through the life detection of the Zerg, Fang Zheng could clearly feel that there were indeed several life forms deep inside the forest. It seemed that the cultists and their captives must be there. But the dense forest blocked his view, so even if Fang Zheng had excellent vision, he couldn’t possibly see what the other party was doing.

If only there was an unmanned aircraft for aerial reconnaissance… Hmm?

At this thought, Fang Zheng suddenly brightened.

Hadn’t he just summoned a Soulstone? If he remembered correctly, it was an Angel, right?

If it was an Angel… at least… it should be able to fly, right?

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