Chapter 371 Falling to the Ground

"Squelch."

Blood spurted.

Reflecting the brilliant pink hue overhead, the dark gray blade bit into the flesh. It felt like sawing through a slab of incredibly thick cowhide. The sword moved sluggishly, laboring to tear through the faintly pink skin that had been stripped of its crystalline granules.

In contrast, the muscle and bone underneath offered little resistance. The blade sheared through smoothly, only bogging down again when it met the skin on the opposite side.

This was the last crystallized human on the battlefield. Xia Nan could have just stopped his blade here. He could have copied Margaret, who left the outermost layer of skin intact so the severed head simply lolled against the creature's chest and shoulder.

It would have saved him a little energy.

But perhaps due to a habit cultivated through countless battles and endless slaughter—or, rather, a quirk.

Xia Nan didn't mind expending a bit more stamina. He could recover it just by standing still and taking a couple of deep breaths.

Power surged through his forearm. His wrist snapped the blade forward, and amid a wet spray of blood, he sheared through the last layer of skin clinging to the crystallized human's neck.

Carried by the force of the strike, the head spun off its shoulders in a shower of crimson.

Decapitation.

He relished the sensation of the strike, feeling slightly disappointed.

The crystallized human's physical defense was simply too high; hacking through them was nowhere near as smooth as carving up a goblin.

"How is everyone? Anyone hurt?"

Margaret asked breathlessly from behind him.

The [Swordsman] class prioritized Strength and explosive power, trading defense for higher lethality. It didn't excel in stamina.

Enemies with extremely high physical defense, like these crystallized humans, were exactly the type she hated most.

She had repeatedly unleashed [Double Wheel Slash] to break through their crystalline armor, draining a massive amount of her stamina. Sweat soaked her dark-gold hair, plastering the strands to her cheeks.

Right now, she gripped a small vial of restorative potion, gulping it down.

They had only suffered minor injuries.

Empowered by [Fang Hunt], Xia Nan's Agility and mobility were at the absolute peak of his tier. As long as he stayed slightly cautious and avoided taking unnecessary risks, these corpse-like crystallized humans were too slow to even graze his clothes.

Throughout the entire battle, he only took a few hits when supporting the dwarf, Thordin. To draw the enemy's attention, he had forcefully charged into the mob of crystallized humans, allowing the pink-granule-covered freaks to land a few blows.

But the strikes only left a few superficial scratches on [Purgatory Pulse], his upper-body armor forged primarily from Purgatory Steel.

He hadn't taken any actual damage.

Though Margaret and Thordin couldn't match Xia Nan's raw combat strength, they were still veteran adventurers who had crawled their way up from the bottom, step by step.

Level 4. Every rank they had gained was built on countless bloody battles, giving them immensely rich combat experience.

Facing crystallized humans whose individual strength was far inferior to theirs—creatures that relied purely on numbers and possessed glaring weaknesses—they had only struggled at the start of the battle due to a lack of intel. Once they familiarized themselves with their foes, they quickly took control of the battle's rhythm. The minor scratches they suffered didn't hinder their movements in the slightest; they didn't even need bandages.

"I'm fine!"

Thordin replied loudly.

The dwarf, who had used a [Taunt]-type combat technique to draw the aggression of dozens of crystallized humans right at the start of the battle, appeared incredibly relaxed. Now that the fight was over, he tossed the intense pressure he had just endured entirely to the back of his mind.

The three of them swept the battlefield.

In truth, there wasn't much to sweep.

These weren't wild monsters or rogue adventurers trying to ambush them.

Before their transformation, the crystallized humans were just ordinary residents of Sheep Horn Town. They weren't going to magically drop enchanted equipment.

The only useful material on their bodies was likely the Pastel Gemstone embedded in their fleshy chests.

But... naturally, having witnessed the tragedy in Sheep Horn Town with their own eyes, the female [Swordsman] and the dwarf had absolutely no intention of touching those cursed things again.

As for Xia Nan, he had already tested them and knew he couldn't absorb their energy. He wasn't going to cause unnecessary trouble either—if he dug out the gemstones, carried them off, and infected residents elsewhere, the sin would be on his hands.

In the plaza, as Margaret caught her breath and recovered her stamina, she looked at the longsword in her hands with a pained expression.

As a veteran adventurer who had reached Level 4 in her Class Level, her main weapon was naturally an enchanted piece of equipment, granting her a solid damage bonus to cutting and slashing.

She cherished it dearly. Every time she returned to the city after a mission, she would take it straight to the blacksmith for a comprehensive maintenance check.

But now, after hacking against the crystallized humans' gemstone-encrusted skin, numerous glaring scratches marred the blade, especially along its cutting edge.

It made her heart ache.

In stark contrast, the surface of Xia Nan's [Ember Fall] straight sword was as smooth as new. The fierce friction and collisions with the crystalline granules during the intense battle hadn't left a single mark on the blade.

As for the reason... there were many factors at play. The impact momentum of [Fang Hunt], the swinging technique of [Spinning Slash], or Barn's masterful craftsmanship, for example.

But when it came down to it, it all summarized into a single word—

"Expensive!"

Even when he provided the main materials himself, the cost still reached four digits in gold coins, thanks to the Solar Flame Iron Plating Powder that cost nearly 300 gold per gram.

All he could say was that, at least when it came to enchanted equipment, expensive... definitely had its perks.

Margaret clicked her tongue inwardly as her gaze swept over the dozen or so headless crystallized corpses littering the plaza.

Her previous experience fighting the devil in the Goblin Lair had made it abundantly clear that this black-haired adventurer possessed an absurd combat strength that completely contradicted his youthful appearance.

Fighting side-by-side with him once again still left her endlessly shocked.

If she hadn't been able to ask around Rivervale Town and uncover Xia Nan's clear growth history, she would have suspected he was the direct heir of some Transcendent Tier family out on a training journey.

Naturally, Xia Nan had no idea what she was thinking.

Right now, his mind was on something entirely outside this battle.

'Where is Moin?'

During his hurried glance through the Church doors a moment ago, he had clearly seen that aside from the twenty-odd crystallized believers, the elderly cleric—the suspected mastermind—was also praying beneath the Goddess's statue.

'Why didn't he show up just now?'

In his understanding, given the old man's identity and appearance, he should belong to the purest form of the cleric class—one who needed teammates to pin down enemies while he dished out damage from the rear.

In that case, twenty-odd thick-skinned crystallized humans were undoubtedly his best meat shields.

Realizing this, Xia Nan had diverted extra attention throughout the entire fight, staying highly vigilant against any threats coming from outside the immediate melee.

But to his surprise, the old cleric... had never appeared.

Xia Nan's expression remained calm, but his heart sank.

After a brief cleanup, the three of them reformed their formation.

Not a single one of them suggested retreating.

They had already walked ninety-nine percent of the way; only the final step remained. Now that things had reached this point, no matter how cautious their personalities were, as long as they were adventurers, they wouldn't back down.

Of course, formulating a plan before entering was still highly necessary.

They worked with extreme efficiency. In just a few minutes, the three of them had detailed a comprehensive strategy to deal with the potential dangers inside the Church.

However, considering none of them knew the depths of Cleric Moin's true strength, Xia Nan felt their main tactic would still be "adapting to the situation."

It was cold and dead silent.

The thick stench of blood from the corpses on the plaza saturated the air. The deafening roars of the crystallized humans from just moments ago had faded, replaced only by the soft padding of their footsteps.

Thordin still took point at the very front of the team, with Margaret and Xia Nan following side-by-side right behind him.

The Church doors were wide open. They could clearly see the situation inside without even stepping through.

The pink glow persisted. The wooden benches that were originally arranged neatly on both sides of the hall had been smashed to pieces by the crystallized humans charging out, leaving shattered wood blocks and splinters scattered all over the floor.

Forming a sharp contrast to this wreckage was the altar at the front of the Church's interior.

It was as if it existed in another world, completely untouched by the chaos outside.

The floor was immaculately clean, and the stained glass windows were dazzlingly gorgeous.

The statue of the Goddess, cradling wheat grains and rosebuds, stood tall amidst the eerie pink light. The skinny silhouette of the old cleric knelt humbly on the ground, offering the most devout prayers to the deity he worshipped.

Seeing this scene, Xia Nan couldn't help but find it absurd.

The deities of the Aifala Continent were not emotionless wish-granting machines; the vast majority of them possessed their own unique personalities and ways of doing things.

The [Goddess of Agriculture] and [Earth Mother], Chantier, had a gentle and benevolent disposition. This was evident from the divine domains she held and the conduct of her clergy.

To those living in poverty and suffering who sought to forge a bright future through their own hard work, she had never been stingy with her blessings and divine grace—even if their efforts didn't involve "sowing and tilling."

As this was the only Church in the town, one could even say, to some extent, that the entire town's populace were her believers.

And Moin's identity as a cleric of the Goddess meant he was the earthly executor of the deity's authority. His every word and deed influenced how the people around him viewed his sect and the great entity he worshipped.

Under the Goddess's protection, Sheep Horn Town should have enjoyed bountiful harvests and overflowing granaries year after year.

But now... what was this?

An eerie beam of light radiating a treacherous aura shot into the sky, transforming into a pink barrier that isolated the town from the outside world. The commoners who should have been bathing in the Goddess's grace had their consciousness shielded and their cognition rewritten, reduced to walking corpses enthralled by the gemstones. The entire town was now little more than a dead zone.

Under these circumstances, how could the town's only cleric—the very Moin who enjoyed countless glowing reputations and commanded more prestige than the sheriff—still kneel peacefully beneath the Goddess's statue in prayer?

Xia Nan felt that if he were the deity this man worshipped, he would have already sent down a bolt of divine punishment to blast this old bastard straight to hell.

Why?

Why was Chantier completely indifferent to the tragedy unfolding in Sheep Horn Town?

Was there some unspeakable hidden difficulty?

Or... did she simply not care?

Xia Nan didn't understand this deity, nor could he possibly know what she was thinking. Even if he was swept up in the undercurrents of some divine game, he was nothing more than a piece beneath her fingertips.