The fifth to arrive was a young woman who appeared quite gentle. She wore a light blue mage robe, and her pale gold hair was tied into a thin braid that draped down her back.
She walked without a sound, sat without a sound, and even her voice was very soft.
"I am Selene, 6th-rank mid-stage, proficient in water and healing."
After speaking, she lowered her head and placed her hands on her knees.
The sixth and seventh arrived almost simultaneously.
One was a massive man, even sturdier than Fenrir. He was bald, his face was full of scars and rough features, and he wore heavy plate armor that made the ground tremble slightly with every step.
He nearly knocked the doorframe askew as he entered. Once he squeezed inside, he grinned, revealing a row of uneven white teeth.
"The name's Good, 6th-rank peak shield warrior! If any of ya need cover, just stand behind me!"
The other was tall and thin, forming a sharp contrast to Good.
He wore black tight-fitting clothes with a row of throwing knives hanging at his waist. His expression was grim, his eyes sharp, and he walked without a sound, like a silently gliding cat.
"Victor."
He only gave his name before vanishing into the darkest corner of the room.
If one didn't look for him intentionally, his presence was almost impossible to sense.
With that, all seven had arrived.
Including Jiang Lin, there were eight in total.
Jiang Lin sat in the corner, committing everyone's face and name to memory.
Lothar was steady and experienced; he would likely be the temporary captain for this mission.
Mavis had a flamboyant personality, but he could feel that the mana within her was thick and stable, not just for show.
Cyrus seemed introverted and was proficient in runes and array formations.
Dorian was a taciturn veteran. His steadiness wasn't an act; he was someone who had truly experienced life and death.
Selene was the gentle healer, the guarantee of the team's endurance.
Good was the massive shield warrior, the tank who would take damage on the front line.
Victor was the assassin type, specialized in assassination and scouting.
Combined with himself as the primary damage dealer, the lineup was fairly balanced.
Lothar stood up, his gaze sweeping over everyone present.
"Since everyone is here, I'll first confirm—you've all read the mission briefing, right?"
Everyone nodded.
"The planet briefing states that the power ceiling here is the 6th-rank. All of us are within this range, so we won't be suppressed."
"But there is one thing to note: we are not the only participants."
"Demon God Apostles," Mavis took over. "Ten to fifteen of them, all 6th-rank. They outnumber us."
"So, try not to act alone as much as possible," Lothar said. "Move in groups of two or three, and maintain a distance where we can support each other at any time."
He turned to Cyrus.
"Have you checked the outpost's defensive array?"
"I have." Cyrus finally looked up and adjusted his glasses. "The basic runes are intact, and the energy supply is stable. It can serve as a long-term base. However, I need to add several early-warning runes to expand the perception range."
"What materials do you need?"
Cyrus listed a series of names, and Lothar noted them down one by one.
Jiang Lin listened to their discussion without interjecting.
The meeting continued for nearly another hour.
Lothar divided the eight people into three groups.
He and Good were in one group, responsible for frontal scouting and potential combat.
Mavis and Selene were in another group, tasked with exploring the indigenous settlements to the south.
The remaining four—Jiang Lin, Cyrus, Dorian, and Victor—were in a group responsible for the hills to the east.
"Cyrus knows arrays, Dorian has experience, and Victor is skilled in concealment," Lothar said, glancing at Jiang Lin. "Your spatial magic will be of great use in an unfamiliar environment."
Jiang Lin nodded.
With the grouping complete, the crowd dispersed, each returning to their assigned rooms to organize their gear.
Jiang Lin's room was at the end of the corridor. It wasn't large, containing a bed, a table, and a chair. In the corner was a washstand with a copper basin and clean towels.
On the table was a magic lamp emitting a soft, pale gold light.
He sat on the edge of the bed and inventoried the supplies in his spatial ring once more.
He had enough dry rations for two months and fresh water for one month.
Medicines were plentiful, and magic materials were sufficient.
He kept the sword token close, and the Eight Extremities Holy Sword could be condensed at a moment's notice.
He stood up and walked to the window.
The window was circular, fitted with thick crystal glass.
Through the glass, he could see the scenery outside.
There were rolling gray-brown hills covered in low, nameless shrubs.
The sky was a pale purple. A sun hung in the sky, but its color wasn't golden; it was a blinding light that was almost white.
The wind blew outside, making the shrubs rustle.
This was Caeous.
He withdrew his gaze and turned to leave the room.
In the corridor, Cyrus was squatting by the wall, drawing something on the floor with a piece of charcoal.
Hearing footsteps, he looked up and pushed his glasses.
"I'm adding early-warning runes. This outpost's defense system is too old; many nodes have already failed."
"Need some help?"
"You understand runes?"
"I know a bit."
Cyrus glanced at him and didn't ask further, simply moving aside to clear some space.
Jiang Lin squatted down and looked at the lines being sketched on the floor.
Cyrus's strokes were very steady; every node was precise to the millimeter, and the flow and nesting of the runes were quite standard.
From a professional perspective, this gray-haired youth's attainment in runes was indeed high.
"This node you're drawing," Jiang Lin pointed to one spot, "if you offset it two fingers' width to the east, it can form a resonance with that old node at the corner of the corridor. The coverage range would expand by thirty percent."
Cyrus's hand paused.
He looked up, his pale brown eyes staring at Jiang Lin through his round glasses. He blinked, then looked down at the node. After a moment of silence, he picked up the charcoal and offset the node two fingers' width to the east.
"Indeed," he said softly. "Your Space Perception?"
"Yes."
Cyrus didn't speak again and continued drawing the runes. But after he finished, he stood up, patted the dust off his knees, and said in a serious tone:
"If you have time, help me look at the other nodes."
"Sure."
The two walked the length of the corridor.
Jiang Lin used Space Perception to check each rune node that had failed or was about to fail, while Cyrus repaired, adjusted, and added to them based on his feedback.
This task took nearly an hour.
By the time they returned to the hall, everyone else was ready to depart.
Lothar stood at the long table, holding a simple map of Caeous.
Seeing Jiang Lin and Cyrus enter, he nodded and spread the map on the table.
"According to the information provided by the God, the nearest settlement of sapient beings to the outpost is here," he pointed to a red dot on the map. "To the southeast, about eighty miles away. It's a village of several hundred people who live by hunting and gathering, with no organized military force."
"Contact them first?" Mavis asked.
"Scout first, then contact."
Lothar glanced at Victor, who gave a slight nod, his figure fading even further into the shadows of the corner.
"Jiang Lin, your group will head to the eastern hills. There might be traces of Demon God Apostles there." Lothar put away the map. "Everyone, listen up. The core of the mission is to establish faith anchors, not to fight the Demon God Apostles head-on. If you encounter danger, prioritize retreat. Do not linger in battle."
"Understood."
Everyone responded.
As he walked out of the outpost, Jiang Lin stepped onto the soil of Caeous for the first time.
The ground was gray-brown and felt somewhat soft underfoot, like stepping on a thick layer of ash.
The air was thick with that pungent smell—a mix of scorched earth, sulfur, and plant humus—more intense than what he had smelled inside the outpost.
The distant hills were uneven, and vegetation was sparse, mostly consisting of low shrubs and the occasional crooked tree.
The pale purple of the sky was even more apparent at noon. The white sun hung overhead, its light blinding but providing little warmth.
"This place... isn't right." Dorian spoke; it was the second sentence he had said all day.
He squatted down and used his finger to brush away the ash on the ground, revealing the dark red soil beneath.
"The soil smells of blood."
"It's not real blood."
Cyrus also squatted down, took a palm-sized crystal slide from his robe pocket, and pressed it against the soil.
A moment later, he picked up the slide and looked at the reading displayed on it.
"It's a high concentration of iron compounds that turned red after oxidation. But this concentration is indeed abnormal."
Jiang Lin's Space Perception quietly expanded.
Within a radius of several hundred meters, there was no aura of life.
No animals, no insects—he couldn't even sense things like earthworms underground.
These hills were as silent as a graveyard.
"Let's go," he withdrew his perception. "To the east."
The four of them moved eastward.
Dorian led the way with steady steps, each footfall landing on relatively firm ground without making unnecessary noise.
Jiang Lin followed behind him, maintaining his Space Perception at its maximum range.
Cyrus walked in the middle, holding the crystal slide and checking the readings from time to time.
Victor had completely vanished from sight, but Jiang Lin's Space Perception could still track his position.
He moved about fifty meters to the left of the team, keeping a certain distance while remaining connected.
After walking for about an hour, the terrain of the hills began to level out.
The view ahead opened up, revealing a dried-up riverbed.
The riverbed was dozens of meters wide, its bottom covered in pebbles of various sizes, but there wasn't a single drop of water. The vegetation on the banks was slightly denser than elsewhere, but still limited to knee-high shrubs and weeds.
"This river has been dry for a long time." Cyrus walked to the edge of the riverbed, squatted down, and picked up a pebble, turning it over to examine it. "At least several decades. There are no signs of water erosion on the surface; it's all wind erosion."
Jiang Lin stood at the edge of the riverbed, his gaze fixed on the opposite bank.
Over there was a wider flatland, scattered with occasional large black boulders. The surfaces of the boulders were full of holes, as if they had been corroded by something.
Then, his Space Perception caught something.
"Someone's there."
No sooner had he spoken than Victor's figure silently emerged from the shrubs on the left.
"Three of them," he whispered. "Northwest, about six hundred meters. They're moving, but not fast."
"Humans?" Dorian asked.
"Based on their build, they're human, but their aura isn't right." Victor's brow furrowed slightly. "Their aura is more... violent than a normal human's."
Jiang Lin closed his eyes and concentrated his Space Perception to the northwest.
Six hundred meters away, three blurred life auras emerged in his perception.
They were indeed in human form, but the energy fluctuations around them were extremely turbulent, as if something were rampaging inside their bodies.
"They must be polluted," he opened his eyes. "By the permeating substances from the Abyss of Slaughter."
Cyrus pushed his glasses, his expression turning grave.
"The briefing said the pollution erodes the mind, plunging people into an irreversible desire for slaughter. If they've been completely eroded..."
"Let's go take a look first," Victor interrupted him. "They're still moving with direction and purpose, which means they still have their sanity. But their aura is chaotic; they might be in the early stages of pollution."
The four of them fell silent for a moment.
Dorian was the first to speak.
"Do we save them or not?"
"Save them," Jiang Lin said decisively. "They are the indigenous people of this planet and the ones we are here to spread faith to. If we can clear the pollutants before they are completely overtaken, they will be our best advocates."
"How do we save them?" Cyrus asked. "The briefing didn't mention a method to purify the pollution."
"Let's see if the power of Holy Light works." Jiang Lin raised his right hand, and a wisp of golden holy light emerged from his palm. "The power of Holy Light has a natural purifying effect on malevolent substances. Although the permeating substances from the Abyss of Slaughter aren't within the conventional malevolent category, they are essentially manifestations of 'Chaos' and 'Destruction,' which are opposite to the 'Order' and 'Creation' of Holy Light."
Dorian glanced at him but said nothing, silently pressing his hand against the short sword at his waist.
Victor's figure vanished back into the shrubs.
Cyrus took out several fingernail-sized rune stones from his robe pocket and held them in his palm.
The four moved toward the northwest.
Six hundred meters wasn't far; they reached it in a few minutes.
The three people were wandering among the large black boulders.
There were two men and one woman, wearing coarse linen clothes and barefoot, their faces and arms covered in gray-brown mud.
Their eyes were dark red, and within their pupils, one could faintly see tiny, bloodshot-like patterns writhing.
Seeing Jiang Lin and his group, the three people stopped simultaneously.
Their reaction was strange; they didn't run away but stood in place, their dark red eyes staring straight at the four, as if sizing them up.
Jiang Lin stopped ten paces away from them.
He raised his right hand, palm upward, and a wisp of golden holy light lit up at his fingertips.
The expressions of the three people changed instantly.
They stared at that wisp of holy light, and the bloodshot patterns in their dark red eyes began to writhe violently, as if stimulated by something.
"Can you understand me?" Jiang Lin spoke.
There was no response.
But the three people's gaze moved from the holy light to his face, and a flash of bewilderment appeared in their dark red eyes.
After a thought, Jiang Lin condensed the holy light into a fist-sized orb, floating above his palm.
Then, he gently pushed the light orb toward the three people.
The light orb drifted slowly over, stopping above their heads and casting down a soft, pale gold light.
...
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