School Transmigration: I, Chosen as the Saint by Dragons at the Start-Chapter 98 --The Awakening of the Goddess

"This statue obviously had a lot of thought put into it. Could it also be one of General Hope’s collected treasures?"

Owen contemplated this, his expression cold.

He needed to extract some information from Quincy.

However, Quincy remained silent, gazing intently at the statue, his eyes glazed over as if under a spell.

Owen paid no more attention to Quincy, instead wandering around the basement.

The space was quite open, housing only the statue of the goddess.

Owen stroked his chin, muttering to himself, "Something’s off. Such a large space seems unnecessary just to display a statue."

He felt as though he was missing something crucial.

Soon, Boyd and Stanbeck arrived.

Stanbeck, waving a piece of paper excitedly, exclaimed, "I’ve figured it out, the reason why this city is called Loka!"

Owen looked toward Stanbeck, who, upon seeing the goddess statue, became frenzied.

"That’s it, she is Loka, the Goddess of Loka!"

"What do you know? You’re talking like someone who’s lost their mind," Owen frowned, stepping slightly away from Stanbeck.

Instead of retaliating, Stanbeck moved closer to the statue of Loka, his eyes shining.

Boyd, even bolder, attempted to touch one of the goddess’s breasts.

But just as he was about to make contact, Quincy smacked his hand away with a loud slap.

Stanbeck swallowed hard and said, "This paper details the method for practicing the God Descending Spell. General Hope practiced it in hopes of awakening the Goddess of Loka."

A jolt of electricity seemed to pass through Owen’s mind.

He attempted to snatch the paper from Stanbeck, but Stanbeck was cautious and didn’t let him succeed.

Stanbeck, engrossed in his own thoughts, continued, "General Hope somehow learned of the Goddess of Loka’s name and fell in love with her. Perhaps it was destiny’s cruel joke that he loved but could not have her, or maybe it was the insurmountable divide between mortals and gods. Under the guidance of the Goddess of Loka, General Hope built this statue and developed the God Descending Spell, intending to bring the Goddess of Loka down to inhabit the statue, to bring her to life."

"But all of this came with a tremendous side effect. The abyssal creatures appeared as a result of using the God Descending Spell, and Loka was left teetering on the brink of destruction. To protect the statue of the Goddess of Loka from being destroyed, General Hope and his troops stood guard over Loka."

"Hope was not the righteous general that history records him to be. He was merely a man driven by his own desires, guarding Loka for thirty years until his death."

"He might not have been a great general, but he was certainly a man deeply in love, willing to die in Loka for the one he cherished."

Owen listened with a furrowed brow, finding the story amusing.

Hope was a founder of a nation, a man of grand ambition. How could such a man forsake his own life for a woman?

It was a simple truth: with enough power to dominate the world, even a high and mighty goddess in the heavens would have to kneel before one’s might.

Owen scoffed, "Hope could have easily taken the statue with him, ensuring a future. Why would he choose to die defending Loka? Such an explanation doesn’t hold water."

"And the most crucial question is, who exactly is this Goddess of Loka? There’s no mention of her in the ’Divine Revelation Chronicles’ of the Laine Kingdom."

The ’Divine Revelation Chronicles’ is a comprehensive record of various deities, detailing their life stories, interpersonal relationships, origins, responsibilities, and how they met their ends.

While the authenticity of the stories may be debatable, the diversity of content is undoubtedly rich.

Yet, such a book makes no mention of a Goddess of Loka. Her sudden appearance here is indeed peculiar.

Stanbeck fell into deep thought.

Suddenly, he stepped forward, embraced the statue of the Goddess of Loka, and strained to lift it.

Owen clearly saw the veins in Stanbeck’s neck bulging like serpents, his face turning beet red, yet the statue didn’t budge an inch, as if its feet were rooted to the ground.

"The statue can’t be moved?"

Stanbeck took a deep breath as arcanergy surged within him.

A torrent of tidal waves erupted from his body, crashing against the Goddess of Loka’s statue.

The goddess remained unshaken, still smiling serenely at the space before her, like a loving mother watching over her mischievous child.

Stanbeck panted heavily, the flush on his face not subsiding: "Now you see why General Hope didn’t take the statue with him. It’s immovable."

Owen didn’t respond but instead rapidly processed this new information. "So, the key to breaking the curse of Loka lies in this statue."

His words instantly captured the attention of the three sea folks.

They all turned their gaze towards Owen.

Stanbeck, seemingly understanding Owen’s thoughts, vehemently shook his head and protested, "No... no... you can’t do this."

Owen’s face was a mask of ruthlessness as he stared at the statue of the Goddess of Loka and declared firmly, "Since she is the one Hope was protecting, destroying her might lead us to the Heart of the Ocean."

Upon hearing this, Stanbeck’s eyes reddened instantly, and he lunged at Owen like a wild beast.

His body surged with blue arcanergy, ready to fight Owen to the death. Owen’s golden arcanergy swirled in response, and the two clashed fiercely.

After thirty-odd moves, Owen suddenly grabbed Stanbeck’s throat and pinned him to the ground, his grip unyielding: "Snap out of it, it’s just a stone statue."

Stanbeck, like a captured beast, growled lowly from his throat, struggling under Owen’s hold, completely out of his senses.

Owen glanced up at the statue of the Goddess of Loka.

Did the statue possess such potent enchanting power? Why wasn’t he affected?

He turned to look at Quincy, whose face alternated between ferociousness and calmness, displaying two contradictory expressions simultaneously, as if possessed.

Boyd, meanwhile, had bloodshot eyes and clenched fists, staring intensely at Owen.

His expression was akin to a saint witnessing a heretic, yet deep within his pupils lay an intense fear, not daring to oppose Owen.

His fear of Owen somehow overpowered the statue’s enchantment.

Sneering coldly at the statue, Owen said, "Ha, I don’t care what you are. If you stand in the way of me getting the Heart of the Ocean, you deserve to die."

He then raised his fist and started pounding it into Stanbeck’s face.

In no time, Stanbeck’s face was a bloody, unrecognizable mess.

His head was like an indestructible tomato, relentlessly being pummeled.

Blood, like tomato juice, sprayed everywhere.

Owen’s face was splattered with blue bloodstains, giving him a demonic appearance.

The physical resilience of the Neptune race was indeed extraordinary.

Owen’s punches, each exerting a force of tens of thousands of pounds, could have easily punched a meter-wide hole in the walls of Laine Kingdom’s capital.

Yet, they couldn’t shatter Stanbeck’s bones.

Stanbeck, dazed from the beating, bled profusely, his blue blood flowing along the crevices of the floor tiles.

Unbeknownst to them, the entire basement’s crevices were gradually filling with his blood.

Around the statue of the Goddess of Loka, a blue mist began to form, as if water vapor was rising.

Owen’s punches to Stanbeck’s face gradually slowed.

He then leaped up, clinging to the ceiling like a spider, and looked down at the floor, his pupils constricting to pinpoints.

The unnoticed crevices on the floor outlined a magic array.

Composed of countless complex runes and patterns, it was so intricate that a mere glance could induce nausea.

"A level 5 or higher magic array," Owen’s face twitched involuntarily.

He made this assessment solely because he had seen Berkeley use such magic arrays.

Although Owen didn’t understand level 5 magic arrays, he had never experienced dizziness or disorientation from them before.

The fact that he was feeling this way now indicated that the magic array was beyond level 5.

The statue of the Goddess of Loka stood at the center of the magic array, and Stanbeck’s blue blood seemed to be the key that activated it.

Blue light points separated from the blood, gradually converging to form a huge halo that enveloped the statue of the Goddess of Loka.

The statue was carved in a magnificent long gown, with every fold and ornament intricately detailed.

The hem of the dress was wave-like.

What was originally a pure white gown now seemed to take on color – deep hues reminiscent of the endlessly surging waves of the sea.

Owen’s eyelids twitched uncontrollably.

Unlike the intense gaze of the other three, he felt a great terror looming.

Acting decisively, he kicked off from the ceiling, darting towards the staircase like lightning.

"Bang!"

Owen hit an invisible air wall, rebounding heavily to the ground.

The force of impact was mutual; considering the speed at which he was running, it was akin to punching himself with full force.

He spat out blood with a ’puff’.

A voice echoed through the basement: "You are quite rude."