Meanwhile, Phield arrived at the very center of the skeleton mound.

The bones here were piled as high as hills, and at the center surrounded by those towering heaps was a strangely clean patch of flat ground.

A massive pattern made of a six-pointed star and arcane runes had been drawn on the floor with blood. Candles stood at every point of the star, while the corpses of various animals had been impaled around it.

"This is obviously some kind of ritual array."

Rosalia emerged from the Greatsword of Gluttony and tapped her forehead lightly with a pale finger.

"Baron Busby was playing with fire. Was he trying to summon a demon?"

"Demons really exist? I always thought they were just legends or stories used to scare children."

Thankfully, Rosalia was here with him. If he had been alone in this place, even he would have felt genuine fear.

Rosalia licked her lips. Seeing the grim look on Phield’s face, she silently thought to herself that she could not allow him to remain depressed for too long because of what had happened to the soldiers.

"If demons really exist, I’m curious what they taste like."

Rosalia decisively chose to change the subject.

Phield shrugged.

"Then I’d definitely catch a few succubi and make lots of little succubi."

"What? Being my foot slave still isn’t enough for you?"

Rosalia nearly lost her composure on the spot before immediately shifting the topic again.

"Forget your nonsense. These eggs are filled with the aura of powerful magical beasts. They might be useful. Maybe we can even eat them or something."

As she spoke, she scattered away the circling eagle beasts.

Rosalia grabbed three enormous eggs from a nearby nest, each one nearly the size of an ostrich egg. She casually tossed them around like some circus jester. At this point, all she lacked was a unicycle.

"You can talk without performing acrobatics, you know."

Phield looked utterly speechless.

Only corrupted creatures could still have fun in an environment this horrifying and oppressive.

"Fine."

Rosalia looked disappointed.

"There’s already enough suffering in this world. I just want you to feel a little happier whenever you see me."

Phield reached out and rubbed her long legs twice. The smooth sensation finally made him let out a long breath.

"You’re right. I do feel a lot better now."

"Damn it, you actually succeeded with a sneak attack!"

Rosalia’s pupils trembled violently.

"Why didn’t you pat my head this time? You used to only touch my head."

"You’re the one who won’t let me touch your head anymore."

Phield spread his hands helplessly.

"Enough fooling around. Back to business."

After Rosalia’s ridiculous distractions, the oppressive gloom brought by Wind Tour Territory had finally eased somewhat. Reinvigorated, Phield picked up one of the eggs and carefully examined it.

"These probably aren’t eagle beast eggs. They belong to another kind of magical creature."

Among the piles of bones, Phield found genuine eagle beast eggs. They were noticeably smaller and carried a pure azure color.

The magical beast eggs in his hands, however, were purple and covered in lava-like crimson patterns that gave off an overwhelmingly domineering presence.

"You’re right. They should belong to some powerful avian magical beast."

Rosalia nodded thoughtfully.

"They’re still in egg form, yet they already emit such intense energy fluctuations. Even the eagle beasts don’t dare approach them. Whatever hatches from these eggs will definitely suit a noble’s status perfectly."

"Collect them first."

Phield continued scanning the ritual site.

"And keep searching for anything else valuable. I have a feeling these eggs and the ritual array aren’t directly connected."

The two of them carefully searched around the formation.

"There’s a scroll on the ground. It seems useful to you."

Rosalia handed over an old parchment scroll.

"I’m guessing this is what Baron Busby had been studying. It probably came from the Shadow World Sect."

Phield unfolded the parchment.

Dense clusters of incomprehensible symbols filled the scroll.

The only understandable section was a note written in Imperial script:

"Use blood and slaughter as your guide. When the proper moment arrives, leave behind your name and use your own blood to call upon the true god within the ritual array. He shall grant you a supreme response."

"Sounds pretty dramatic."

Phield frowned and repeatedly examined the scroll, confirming there were no hidden mechanisms or secret codes before finally murmuring,

"Use your own blood... Rosalia, look around carefully. See if there’s a knife nearby."

"Of course, my dear lord."

Rosalia showed obvious interest in these bizarre objects and immediately began searching.

Soon enough, she discovered a knife hidden in one corner of the ritual array.

"My lord, what’s the significance of this? It’s nothing more than an ordinary iron blade."

"Exactly."

Phield dragged over Baron Busby’s corpse and pried open the dead man’s stiff hand, revealing several scar marks across his palm.

"At least now the mystery is solved."

"The situation is simple. Baron Busby wanted to strike a deal with this so-called true god, so he carried out endless slaughter in hopes of summoning the Shadow World Sect’s deity and obtaining something."

"And that something was most likely the power of a Divine Chosen."

"But apparently, he failed."

Rosalia immediately understood.

"Even until death, he never succeeded."

"Exactly. I think the spoils he looted during the suppression campaign were these items."

Phield suddenly asked curiously,

"How about we summon the Shadow World Sect’s ’true god’ ourselves and see what it actually is? We could use the townsfolk of Wind Tour Territory as sacrifices. I just want to see what this so-called true god really looks like."

"No!"

Rosalia completely dropped her noble mannerisms and snatched away the scroll.

"Phield, you’re playing with fire!"

Her chest rose and fell violently with anger.

"I absolutely refuse to let you do something this stupid. Even if you crawled beneath my skirt, I still wouldn’t allow it."

"Ahem... that last part was unnecessary."

Phield hurriedly stepped forward and coaxed her while holding her wrist. Only after quite a bit of effort did Rosalia finally calm down.

"Sigh. Then we’re probably missing out on the greatest possible reward here."

Phield sounded somewhat regretful.

Still, witnessing an unknown "true god" carried risks far too great to ignore.

"If we miss it, then we miss it."

Rosalia comforted him softly.

The two gathered up all the magical beast eggs and prepared to leave.

"Chchch..."

Without warning, a strange sound suddenly echoed beside Phield’s ear.

"What was that?"

Phield’s heart violently skipped a beat.

"Careful, Rosalia. There might be a monster here."

He abruptly turned around and saw an enormous eye floating above the ritual array as though it had torn open space itself.

Everything around it seemed to twist and writhe unnaturally.

"Holy shit... a giant eyeball."

Phield stood there dumbfounded.

"A divine aura..."

Rosalia immediately raised her greatsword defensively.

"Phield, get away from here now."

"Oh?"

The massive eyeball suddenly spoke with a voice as deep as the abyss itself.

"How interesting. So this time, it isn’t poor little Busby praying for my blessings?"