Carlotta's Daily Report
Chapter 256 256: Divine Soul makes its second appearance
A vast and majestic city lies submerged deep within the ocean, entirely covered by seawater, covered in green rust, and fallen into what could be called an eternal slumber.
Even though it now appears exceptionally silent, one could still tell just how glorious this city had been in the distant past. Even the imperial capital of the Wendell Empire, Kestholm, paled in comparison to this magnificent city.
In terms of sheer area, this city was equivalent to eight Kestholm.
Many buildings within the city had already collapsed and shattered, yet numerous structures still stood, faintly revealing their former splendor.
Carlotta, bearing numerous The Weird, stepped into this city and immediately headed towards the most severely devastating ruins. This area, undoubtedly, had witnessed the fiercest battles in the distant past.
This was the central region of the City of the Supreme God.
According to the map provided by the intelligence, this location once housed a cluster of temples, symbolizing the highest faith within the City of the Supreme God. Extremely powerful beings had lived here.
This area alone was equivalent to the size of three Kestholm.
No one knew what had happened here in the past. Previous explorers had been unable to reach this region. Carlotta was the first person in history to arrive here.
"The time that has passed is so long, can anything truly useful still remain after so much erosion?"
Amelia murmured softly, worried they might have come for nothing.
"There will be discoveries."
Carlotta said.
Since the intelligence had given an answer, it meant useful information remained truly here. This makes Carlotta highly anticipate what lies ahead.
She quickly swam to the ruined area, magic surging around her body. One detection spell after another was cast, probing the depths of this region and uncovering the information she sought.
Suddenly, Carlotta made a discovery.
"Amelia, wait for me outside."
Carlotta said.
Amelia could no longer approach her closely, and the space where Carlotta had made her discovery was too narrow. Amelia would have to wait outside.
Although The Weird wouldn't actively target Amelia, if she approached them willingly, she might still suffer some effects, something troublesome, and potentially even dangerous.
"Be careful."
Amelia had no choice but to float in the seawater outside.
The spot Carlotta found was a narrow crevice, blocked on all sides by rubble. Within the broken fragments remain traces of destructive power. Forcefully clearing them might trigger an unwanted reaction.
To prevent any mishaps, Carlotta cast a spell called Shrink Magic. As the name suggests, it allows her to shrink her own body.
In the blink of an eye, she reduced herself to just the size of a fist, finally squeezing through the crevice on the ocean floor.
After passing through the narrow gap, Carlotta quickly reached the interior of a temple buried beneath the ruins.
Inside the temple lay one shattered statue after another, appearing pitiful and disheveled, completely devoid of their former solemnity.
In the central area of the temple, a large pile of sand had accumulated. Carlotta sensed something strange about this sand and immediately cast a spell, conjuring a gust of wind to scatter the pile.
Then, a statue appeared before her eyes.
A flicker of surprise passed through Carlotta's eyes, for the statue buried beneath the sand was completely intact. All the surrounding statues had crumbled, why had this one remained whole?
Carlotta examined it carefully. The statue looked extremely dignified, depicting a young man wearing dark golden robes. His eyes carried an air of supreme superiority, as if all things in the world should be beneath his feet.
Carlotta didn't recognize this figure, but she found it surprising that this statue could still be preserved.
She reached out unconsciously and flicked her finger against the statue's head.
At that moment, the statue seemed to come to life, roaring, "How dare you! You dare offend the Supreme God!"
Even someone as fearless as Carlotta was startled by the sudden roar. She hadn't sensed even the slightest sign of life from the statue before, how could something considered lifeless suddenly move and speak? It was terrifying.
Carlotta instinctively backed away. As she withdrew, she slapped her palm outward.
"Boom!"
The massive statue shattered into pieces under Carlotta's single slap, collapsing with a loud crash.
The entire temple fell silent.
Carlotta stared oddly at the statue she had just shattered. Inside it, she noticed something strange and moved closer to inspect.
Soon, she began to understand the situation.
"This statue is an alchemical creation. It triggers that warning message when touched? And it hasn't broken yet? Protected by divine power? But where would divine power come from?"
Carlotta muttered.
Inside the statue were alchemical mechanisms. After a brief examination, she understood much of it.
In the end, she discovered a stone tablet.
Picking it up and looking at it, Carlotta found a line of inscribed text, but she couldn't understand a single word.
"Could this be the Central Continent script?"
Only now did Carlotta realize she didn't know the language of the Central Continent.
As for the words the statue had spoken earlier, she now recalled they had been transmitted via a mental wave, directly conveying meaning without relying on language.
But now, staring at the stone tablet, without language, it would be difficult to decipher.
Regarding the language of the Central Continent, there were indeed collections in the Northern Continent. But since the Central Continent no longer exists, learning the language served little practical use. Over time, few people mastered it, and even with reference books, it was hard to learn.
Carlotta didn't even have access to such books now. Looking at the text before her, she felt a headache coming on.
"I'll just have to take it with me for now."
Carlotta changed at her intelligence panel. For now, she'd have to wait until the intelligence system provides a method to master the Central Continent's language.
After putting away the tablet, Carlotta continued fiddling with the remains of the statue. A statue placed within this temple surely wasn't ordinary, surely there was more to find?
She nearly dismantled the entire statue. Her actions showed absolutely no respect for this so-called Supreme God, but the statue of the Supreme God could no longer say anything more to her.
In the end, Carlotta still found nothing, and could only regretfully toss aside the fragments of the statue as she continued her exploration.
The temple was extremely large, this current location was merely the front hall, with many more sections beyond.
Carlotta turned the corner ahead and immediately entered the next hall, where she saw numerous fragments of divine statues once again.
Almost everyone from the Central Continent walked the path of faith. With so many such individuals, even if they competed with each other for believers, they would still form certain alliances, ultimately constituting what was known as a pantheon.
An organization following the path of faith could be considered a pantheon. In the Central Continent, the strongest pantheon had once been the Supreme Pantheon.
At this moment, Carlotta was walking through the ruined temple of the Supreme Pantheon. Before her eyes lay one shattered divine statue after another, these were the remains of those who had once followed the path of faith within the Supreme Pantheon.
Inside the second hall, Carlotta once again saw the statue of the Supreme God.
"The other statues around here are different from those in the front hall, even though they're shattered, I can still recognize them. Only this statue appears here again. Is it because of its highest status, so every hall must have one?"
Carlotta quickly formed her own judgment.
At the same time, she stepped forward and poked the statue.
"Dare you offend the Supreme God!"
As expected, the statue "came to life" again, angrily rebuking Carlotta. The words were transmitted directly as mental waves.
This time, Carlotta was prepared and naturally wasn't frightened. She didn't destroy it either, instead decided to see what else this statue could do.
However, after waiting for a while, Carlotta still saw no further action from the statue. Unable to help herself, she said, "I offended you. What do you want to do about it? Just say it."
But the statue gave no response, whether it couldn't understand her Northern Continent language or for some other reason.
Seeing this, Carlotta flicked the statue's head again.
The statue erupted in rage and shouted once more, "Dare you offend the Supreme God!"
"Could it be that all you can say is this one sentence?"
Carlotta was somewhat speechless.
She flicked the statue's head repeatedly, and the statue kept shouting back, but truly, besides shouting, it couldn't do anything else.
Carlotta was dumbfounded. After pondering, she wondered, was the statue's reaction merely meant as an alarm? In the past, after emitting such mental waves, someone from the Supreme Pantheon will come to deal with the situation. But now, there was no one left to maintain order here.
With that thought, Carlotta decisively slapped the statue, shattering it.
Inside this statue, there were some things as well.
Carlotta examined them, and then pulled out a stone carving, only to feel slightly baffled.
"Is there nothing else?"
Carlotta felt helpless and could only put away this incomprehensible carving for now.
Seriously, the people of the Central Continent had already developed ways to communicate through mental waves, why did they still leave behind stone carvings?
Could it be that mental waves couldn't be preserved? Yet even the statues could shout "Dare you offend the Supreme God," so was there a limit to what mental waves could be left behind?
While pondering, Carlotta arrived at the third hall, where, as expected, she saw the Supreme God's statue again.
"Daring to call oneself the Supreme God, was this guy the strongest in the Central Continent back then?"
Carlotta muttered.
Then she stepped forward. This time, there was no preamble, she directly smashed the statue and discovered the third stone carving.
After that, Carlotta's actions became more efficient. She quickly passed through eighteen halls, shattered eighteen statues of the Supreme God, and obtained eighteen stone carvings.
There were only eighteen carvings in total. After finding the next hall, Carlotta no longer discovered any statue of the Supreme God. Unwilling to give up, she searched many more halls, but found nothing.
"Besides these carvings, is there really nothing else left behind?"
Carlotta continued searching.
After some more exploration, she actually made a discovery.
She found a library and discovered some cultivation methods related to the path of faith.
She glanced at them with mild interest before tossing them into her spatial item, she'd study such things properly when she had time.
Later, she also found some broken artifacts, these were alchemical tools, modified with techniques from the path of faith to better suit its practitioners. But now, they were essentially useless.
Still, even as materials or blueprints, Carlotta considered it necessary to store these items in the Stellar Workshop.
She wandered around, occasionally finding things, though nothing particularly significant.
While rummaging through a hall, Carlotta suddenly heard some movement near the entrance and turned her head to look.
"Amelia? Didn't I tell you to wait outside?"
Carlotta called out.
At the entrance, the door swayed in the seawater before finally snapping with a "clap," revealing a figure standing at the doorway.
This wasn't Amelia!
It was a man. His thick black hair drifted with the water, his face extremely pale, dressed in tattered clothes.
His eyes held an almost eternal darkness, like an abyss, just one glance caused the entire body to tremble uncontrollably.
Even someone as bold as Carlotta felt a chilling sensation surged through her upon seeing this figure, nearly screaming out loud. Panic spread deep within her heart.
'Why is this thing here? When did it start following us?'
Carlotta was terrified.
Because this figure was unmistakably the remnant soul of the God of Eternal Darkness she and the High Priestess had seen in World Number Four!
Of course, later Carlotta had learned from intelligence that divine residual souls didn't actually exist.
If it wasn't a divine remnant soul, then what exactly was this entity wearing the appearance of the God of Eternal Darkness?
Without even thinking, Carlotta quickly retreated backward, not daring to make any rash contact with this eerie being.
Fortunately, the figure didn't seem to pursue. Carlotta backed through several halls before quietly exhaling in relief.
'Could this thing have followed us all the way here?'
Carlotta was deeply shaken.
If it had come here, why had it appeared at this location? What had drawn it here? Could it possibly have been following her the entire time?
Just thinking about it makes her feel chilled to the bone.
Strictly speaking, with her abilities, it was unlikely anyone could tail her without detection. Besides, she had spent much of her time with the High Priestess, could even he not have sensed it?
If it wasn't tailing her, then did this thing come here of its own accord?
Carlotta still couldn't calm her nerves. She had to leave this place quickly. She was also deeply concerned about Amelia's condition, before this remnant appeared, had it already gone to Amelia's location?