198: Chapter 53 Death Descending Valley_1 198: Chapter 53 Death Descending Valley_1 (263…084…458…Book friend skirt, just join the group if you want to.
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“Don’t be afraid, don’t be afraid.” Pannis gently patted the little banshee’s back, comforting softly, “It’s okay, don’t be afraid, we’re here, we’ll protect you, sweetie, don’t be afraid.”
Annie trembled in Pannis’s arms for a while, before she cautiously lifted her head, looked at the people who had beco very familiar to her, finally put down her guard, wiped the tears from her face, and said in a low voice, “There are so many corpses inside, everywhere.”
Dora hid behind Catherine, stuck her head out from her shoulder, and asked with a faint and wavering voice, “Can you be more specific?
How many corpses, how many survivors?
How are they laid out?
Were there people guarding?”
“How many corpses?
Uh, ten, fifteen, twenty, oh my, I really can’t count them.” Annie gesticulated for a while, but could only make a move of hugging everything in her arms, “All are corpses, not a single person alive.”
Dora didn’t display any surprise, but just sighed deeply, collapsing onto a dead tree stump nearby, covering half of her face and moaning, “As expected, we’re too late.”
Catherine turned back to reassure Dora by squeezing her shoulder and asked the little banshee, “Annie, are you sure there’s not a single person alive in there?”
“I’m sure of it.” Annie nodded vigorously, “I’m very sensitive to the breath of living people.
If there were any, I would definitely notice.
I guarantee that there is absolutely no one alive in there.”
“Indeed, they were silenced.” Catherine shook her head helplessly, her fist clenched so tightly that it creaked, “It seems they knew sothing, so the Legendary Rank we encountered a few days ago really was summoned to cover their tracks.
Well, isn’t it best for informants who are no longer useful to die?
Those bastards behind the thieves, they’re really ruthless.
Alas, we’ve lost another lead.”
“Never mind, don’t think about it.” Pannis holding Annie walked over to Catherine, “Let’s go in and have a look, maybe we can find so leftover clues.”
“I hope so.” Catherine forcefully shook her hair, trying hard to rouse her spirits, she abruptly stood up and strode forward, shouting as she walked, “Let’s go in and have a look at the tactics of our opponents.”
“How do you feel?” Pannis patted the little banshee’s head, pointed to Catherine, and asked, “Do you want to go back to the room?”
“No.” The little banshee firmly declined, “I’m not afraid as long as brother and sisters are here.
Brother, let down, I can walk by myself, it’s okay.”
“Annie is really amazing.” Pannis gently smiled as he put Annie back on the ground, holding the little banshee’s cold hand, he followed behind Catherine towards the thieves’ secret hideout in the valley.
Near the towering cliffs, as the Night Owl described, an inconspicuous crevice was hidden among the vines at the base of the cliff.
The crevice is not narrow and can easily permit a person to pass through, but its hidden location makes it hard to find.
Pannis, holding Annie’s hand, suddenly quickened his pace, stepping in front of Catherine and entering the crevice first.
Catherine stood there a bit stunned, the corner of her mouth upturned slightly, and the anger in her heart sohow dissipated quite a bit.
Entering the crevice, all Pannis saw was darkness.
It was now nightti and leaving the dense forest, they lost the luminescent Flashing Vine, and since the crevice didn’t run all the way through the cliff, there was no sky in sight, so it was pitch dark.
Only the faint and eerie white light emitted by the little banshee beside him made it just enough to see the walls on either side.
Pannis quickly lit the prepared torch and examined his surroundings with its light.
The crevice in the cliff was not damp, there were no snakes or insects, and even the ground was so dry that there were no moss.
Standing at the entrance of the crevice, he felt a warm breeze coming from the crevice, and there was no foul sll in the wind.
“Let’s go.” Seeing everyone enter the crevice, and two more torches being lit, Pannis stepped forward, traveling through the winding crevice to its depths.
It’s not easy to walk in the crevice, the biggest obstacle being the ceiling, with rocks constantly protruding overhead forcing one to stoop to avoid them.
Luckily, the distance in the crevice was short.
Less than two minutes later, Pannis had walked into the valley and saw the stars in the night sky again.
“Huh?” As soon as he entered the valley, Pannis exclaid, “This place is…
These thieves really plan to settle here.”
The valley was not as empty as they had initially thought, nearly thirty rough wooden huts were erected inside an almost forty thousand square ter space.
The huts were crudely made and not sturdy, but because this valley is surrounded by mountains on all sides, there was almost no wind, and not much rainfall, so even these crude and rudintary huts could accommodate people.
The huts were distributed in a ring shape, the middle was a large open space filled with all sorts of debris and weapons strewn about chaotically.
“How did it turn out like this?” As soon as they entered, their guide Elrad also exclaid in surprise.
No one answered, and all eyes were drawn to several bodies that lay a few dozen ters away from the crevice, next to a house.
The bodies were in different poses and disarrayed, clearly they had fallen suddenly with no forewarning.
“Damnit, those beasts.” Dora suddenly whipped the ground, her anger palpable.
She had made out the state of the corpses.
Each body shared similar characteristics – no wounds, no signs of external attacks, even their clothes were neat.
Yet their bodies were extraordinarily unusual, muscles atrophied, skin lined with grooves and wrinkles, hair and beards completely grey.
Upon prying open a mouth, she noticed all teeth had fallen out.
Around the bodies were no signs of struggle, eyes tightly shut, but their expressions were incredibly agonized, fingers deeply digging into the loose ground.
“They…
these people…
they truly died of old age.” Shadow Wolf, who was inspecting the bodies, harshly swallowed before speaking, “Their cause of death was due to extre aging leading to exhaustion.
A classic case of death by aging.”
“Seems like all our conjectures were right.” Catherine grimly chuckled, arms folded, “Indeed, it’s these creatures that plunder the lives of others.”
“How did they achieve this?” Dora questioned in disbelief, “I’ve never heard of anyone being able to do such a thing.”
“There are.” Vivian, pacing around the bodies, responded to Dora’s question, “The Aging Spell is one of them.”
“The Aging Spell doesn’t have permanent effects, and it can’t make people die of old age.” Dora argued loudly, “Plus, there’s no point in simply using the Aging Spell to cause soone to die of old age.”
“Perhaps that’s not entirely pointless.” Lina, half-kneeling beside the body reciting prayers, suddenly interjected, “Rember when we first watched those mages’ activities through the Projection Spell?
They had sothing in their possession.”
“You an the black crystal?” Catherine’s eyes lit up with realization, “That’s right, they carefully preserved it.”
“Therefore, I guess that that’s the reason behind their actions.” Lina slowly rose, dusting off her robe scrupulously even maintaining the sa creases as before on her priest’s gown.
“Stealing soone else’s vitality by so thod?” Vivian started pacing impatiently, muttering to herself, “No, not vitality.
They didn’t die from vitality depletion.
What they stole, could it be lifespan?
No, that’s not right, it wasn’t their lifespan…
what could it be?
I must find out.
This discovery is fascinating.”
“Vivian?” Catherine questioned loudly, “You’re calling this atrocity fascinating?”
“Big sister, you don’t understand.” Vivian spoke excitedly, “This is an unprecedented discovery in the world of magic, any groundbreaking discovery is fascinating, even if it’s wicked.”
“Maybe you’re right.” Catherine was unusually serious, “But under no circumstances, will I allow you to delve further into these things, Vivian.
Don’t let your ambition blind you.”
“This isn’t ambition.” Vivian hastily clarified, “It’s a pursuit of knowledge.”
“Desire for knowledge is also a type of ambition.” Catherine raised her voice once more, almost shouting, “Allowing any desire to control us is dangerous!
Desire for knowledge is no exception, Vivian!
I refuse to see you drown in this nefarious knowledge.
Look at the bodies in front of you.
This fascinating discovery you speak of, was gained through the stealing of lives.
Isn’t such knowledge evil?
Wake up!
If you research these things, how are you different from our enemies?”
Vivian was stunned into silence by Catherine’s rebuke.
After standing dumbfounded for a while, the fanaticism in her eyes slowly faded, and she lowered her head ekly, “I’m sorry, big sister.
You’re right.
Thank you.
I almost lost myself.
That was close.”
Catherine also let out a sigh of relief, “Good, my dear sister, I was so afraid you would drown in this.”
“Don’t worry, big sister.
After this, I’ll be wary.
I won’t be so easily lost again.” Vivian approached Catherine, leaned onto her and said in a weak voice, “However, we must find a way to understand their thods and motives.
Only by understanding them can we defeat them.”
“I agree.” Catherine nodded, “As long as you don’t behave fanatically like before, I won’t oppose you studying them.”
The others remained sensible, consciously making space for the two girls to have an individual quarrel.
After investigating the valley, they returned to their original positions.
The valley was silent.
In the center of the makeshift buildings laid hundreds of bodies.
The bodies all shared the sa conditions: old, weak, agonized, then death.
“Co with ,” Pannis, the last one to co back, waved everyone over and pointed at the door to a house, whispering, “Look closely at the keyhole, there is a light inside.”
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