Mystery Paradise: Wishing Power Demon

"What’s wrong?" Ailuodi asked.

Chaoyang repeated his discovery, "It seems Zhaixing City has indeed welcomed a new divinity... The Wish Force Pillar is nearly as strong as mine."

"You can actually see the flow of wishing power?" Kokomoqi gained a new understanding of the newer generation of divinities, "But that’s odd... When Yu was still here, there were no reports of any new faiths being born among the people. And Yu could see and feel the support Paradise had for you... so even if Zhaixing City could give birth to a New Divine, it should not have been able to reach your level of faith so quickly."

"Who knows, maybe the opponent is another talented junior," Chaoyang said noncommittally, "Right now, the most important thing is to find the whereabouts of little Guinness. Can you make contact with him?"

The Magic Goddess called out for a moment then shook her head, "No use, he might have lost consciousness... or already..."

"Could it really be that the invasion of the Longjiu Army caused the death of Lallote Guinness?" Angel said.

"Does this Administrative Assistant Officer often go to the front lines?" Chaoyang asked.

"That’s not the case," Kokomoqi denied, "He’s a civil officer, and he spends most of his working hours in the Ice and Snow Hall."

The part about searching for someone in an entire city came again.

But this time, Chaoyang was prepared.

He took out the throbbing heart from his waist pouch and handed it to Kokomoqi, "Try this."

"Ah..." The Magic Goddess cautiously took it, "Do you really plan to use this to find little Guinness?"

"Since it can guide a tribe in the hunt, it should also work for finding people. We know nothing about the Guinness family, so only you can drive it now. Try thinking... Treat little Guinness as your hunting target."

"This feels so weird..." said the little girl with a look of disgust, but she did as she was told. In less than ten seconds, black smoke rose from the heart and drifted slowly in the direction of the Ice and Snow Hall.

"Is this the guidance?" she exclaimed in surprise.

"Didn’t expect such a reaction, let’s follow the black smoke and have a look," Chaoyang said decisively.

The three of them flew to the edge of the Ice and Snow Hall and found that it had become a fierce battlefield. Soldiers erected several lines of defense in the square at the entrance, fending off wave after wave of the Longjiu Army’s assaults. If it were only against the Steam Knights, it would still be okay; the most troublesome were the aerial sneak attacks—as soon as a mechanical bird flew into the crowd, it could create a whirlwind of carnage. Moreover, the three also noticed that it wasn’t just self-destruct birds in the sky; there were Self-Destruct Spiders on the ground, extremely fast and able to spontaneously use cover to dodge concentrated fire, making the battle particularly grueling. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

"These soldiers are a bit different from ordinary people..." Ailuodi whispered.

Indeed, they were remarkably skilled; holding firearms, they could accurately shoot from a hundred meters away, and when approached, they could draw cold weapons to engage in close combat with the enemy. Especially impressive was how they dealt with a few Self-Destruct Spiders that tried to burrow into the defenses—each was speared from ten meters away and pinned at the entrance of the hall. Such combat skills that combined strength and agility had only been seen by Chaoyang in Shandela and others; if it weren’t for these soldiers being exceptionally capable, the defenses would probably have been breached long ago.

The question was, how had hundreds or thousands of Master Level Warriors gathered here? From what he understood, the total number of warriors on the continent who were qualified to receive this certification was only a few dozen.

"When did Zhaixing City recruit so many experts?"

"No, that’s not what I’m talking about..." Angel shook her head, her tone laced with a hint of confusion, "Their life force is very faint, as though they are on the verge of death."

In Ailuodi’s view, the green glow on everyone’s bodies was reduced to just a faint thread, like the light of a candle that could go out at any moment. Such a condition was usually seen in people with terminal illnesses or life-threatening injuries, yet the soldiers were still full of vigor, nothing like someone about to die.

"And those steel soldiers of the Longjiu Family... I see no life force in them at all, I’m afraid they are not controlled by humans."

Chaoyang had also noticed that a Steam Knight, hit directly by a mountain gun, had fallen to the ground with a thunderous crash, its chest shattered into several pieces, revealing not flesh and blood within, but metal pipes and gears. He had seen such designs on the Gao Feng Butler as well, and together with the mechanical birds and Self-Destruct Spiders, it seemed the Longjiu Family had completely replaced their human troops with mechanical forces.

This might explain why their counterattack was so fierce and swift. An army that does not need to eat or drink, never stops, and is always full of morale, could indeed traverse mountainous terrains in three days to reach the heartland of Winter Country. In fact, even Earth would be hard-pressed to replicate such a "perfect" army; it was unexpected that the Longjiu Family had accomplished this feat one or two centuries ahead of time.

Coming to investigate Zhaixing City in person was indeed a wise decision.

However, a new problem emerged. How exactly did the Longjiu Family mass-produce such a vast automated mechanical army? Even if Gao Feng Company had ample funds, there were limits to steel production and industrial capacity; they couldn’t possibly create something from nothing, could they?

"We are very close to our target." Kokomoqi, holding a heart in one hand, pointed with the other towards an iron-barred window on the side of the great hall, "Let’s go in through there."

Flying to the window, she tapped on it and lightly sang, "Open!"

The latch on the other side of the window sprang open at the command!

Magic really is convenient... Chaoyang marveled once again.

Behind the iron window was a glass one, one opening outwards, the other inwards, showing that defense had been taken into consideration during the construction of the great hall. The moment Chaoyang stepped into the hall, his heart suddenly gave a violent thump, as if his body had sensed something unusual. But after carefully scanning his surroundings, he didn’t notice anything amiss.

The room connected to the window was empty, presumably a side room intended for hosting guests. Kokomoqi cast the Invisibility Technique, and the three of them seemed to vanish into thin air. This magic, akin to optical camouflage, was ideal for deceiving ordinary people lacking detection methods. They walked out of the side room with ease, moving along the corridor to the staircase.

Chaoyang saw that the great hall was filled with wounded soldiers and the medics rushing to tend to them. However, unlike a war hospital, where the atmosphere is heavy with constant groans of pain, these soldiers were all smiling and full of fighting spirit. They neither cried out in pain nor complained, eagerly returning to battle as soon as their wounds were minimally tended to.

"What’s with these people..." Kokomoqi’s voice carried a trace of horror, "It’s as if they are possessed..."

"They are driven by a strong faith to fight," Chaoyang whispered. He could see strands of black filament floating above the heads of the injured, continually drawing out wishing power. If the soldiers’ faith was spontaneously formed, that would be one thing, but the simultaneous existence of weak life force and abnormally strong endurance was not due to natural factors. Their euphoric demeanor reminded him of players whose pain perception had been dulled—they did not see life and death as something difficult to choose between.

The three did not linger on the first floor; guided by the heart, they went straight down to the basement. Following the staircase down to the second sub-level and through several securely locked doors, they discovered themselves in a chilly prison. Iron bars lined the walls, partitioning the space into about twenty cells of varying sizes; some contained moving figures, while others held nothing but bleached bones.