Why Am I a Priestess When I Reach the Maximum Level? - [Vol. 6] Chapter 38

[Vol. 6] Chapter 38: Hurry, Hurry, Hurry! Let Me Watch the Show!

“……”

Surveying the familiar surroundings, Violet wasted no time. She raised the silver blade in her hand and slashed downward at the seemingly empty air before her.

*Zzzzt!*

With the sound of fabric being torn, a meter-long glowing silver fissure appeared in the air before her.

What surprised Violet, however, was that the fissure didn’t form into a doorway as it usually did. Instead, it branched out like the tips of a tree, splitting into countless threads, intersections, and nodes.

“Hm? This is…”

After a moment of initial confusion, the priestess suddenly realized something.

She had encountered something similar before.

It had been a long time ago, but in the Courage City, the capital of the Human United Kingdom, she had seen a comparable phenomenon in the third level of the “Human United Kingdom’s Prison.” That place was overseen by the [Sin Wardens] and the kingdom’s ancestor, Edith Melchior.

There, space at the same location had been replicated and divided into countless parallel layers, existing simultaneously yet independently, like parallel worlds that were identical but did not interact. While the situation here wasn’t identical, the conceptual design bore striking similarities.

Hmm… If that’s the case…

Violet had once suspected that the spatial technology used in the Human United Kingdom’s Prison had been brought over from the [Illusory World] and later adapted for the Courage City. After all, the Human United Kingdom’s research on spatial magic wasn’t advanced enough to produce such precise and parallel spaces.

But now that something similar had appeared here in the [Ancient Spirit Realm], could it be that the one who built the Human United Kingdom’s Prison…

No, from another perspective, if Hen were indeed in the [Ancient Spirit Realm], could this handiwork be connected to her?

She had to find a way to uncover the truth.

Violet refrained from focusing on the myriad separated nodes. Each of those nodes was likely a “cage” modeled after real space, created by the designer of this place. Most of them, she suspected, were just like her current location: lifeless and utterly empty.

This was likely why the priestess couldn’t find anyone else. But what exactly was this strange aura lingering within these parallel spaces? Could it be some manifestation of demonic energy?

Never mind, it’s better to leave here first and figure things out later.

She lightly touched the lowest point of the countless branching nodes with her fingertip.

This was the foundation of the layered spaces, hidden beneath countless replicas, a gateway to the true, real-world realm.

If the [Holy Beast Qilin] were anywhere, it would undoubtedly be here.

The moment her fingers brushed against the spatial coordinate, the silver light responded to the black-haired girl’s intent, forming a vortex that pulled her in. Violet’s figure vanished without a trace.

…………………………

*Plop.*

Almost instantaneously, in a near-identical scene, the priestess reappeared, landing lightly on the damp stone floor.

She glanced around.

The surroundings were virtually the same as before the spatial transfer. Yet, the piles of rubble that her barrier of [Light Protection] had forced aside were once again intact. The traces she’d left when she violently smashed through the stone walls earlier had also disappeared.

Everything eerily seemed as if it had never happened.

This, however, confirmed Violet’ suspicions.

She looked down at the [Blade of Hollow Mark] in her hand. Its previously unstable, flickering silver glow had now calmed. Though the blade still shimmered, indicating the presence of spatial passages that could be cut open, the pattern of its glow had become much more regular.

This indicated that Violet had returned to a more stable reality, no longer trapped in the temporary subspaces that had been replicated using special methods.

The numerous changes in the environment that seeped into her perception further corroborated this assumption. Unlike the prison-like replicated spaces, the ground and walls here were damp. Moreover… the oppressive sinister aura was extremely dense, far more so than any area Violet and her team had previously traversed in the [Tidal Deep Valley]. It was so intense that it could almost be described as overwhelming.

The level of malevolent energy here was comparable to the Zengjia Village at the end of the millennium, when the alignment of the Seven Stars summoned the Holy Moon of the Ancient Spirit Realm. That place had been turned into a zone of extreme yin energy, an environment so unsettling that even ordinary people would feel terrified and physically unwell.

What was even stranger, however, was that under such conditions, no evil spirits had emerged in this area.

Perhaps the place was so secluded that no living beings could reach it, making it impossible for the conditions necessary for evil spirits to form.

However, if Violet were to give her opinion, it seemed more likely that something was suppressing the malevolent energy here. Whatever it was, it prevented the sinister aura from coalescing and forming into complete entities.

“Hmm… I must be getting close,” Violet murmured as she dismissed the mimicked [Blade of Hollow Mark] and swapped it for her main weapon, the [Eternal Scepter of the World’s Heart]. Her gaze shifted toward the depths of the passageway she had already traversed once in the replicated space. Without hesitation, she stepped forward.

Not long after, another sound, different from her own footsteps, faintly reached her ears.

*Splash… splash…*

It resembled waves crashing against the shore, churning and rolling. As she advanced, the dampness and oppressive aura in the air grew even more intense. Had Violet been wearing ordinary clothing instead of the [Feather Robe Graria], she likely would have been uncomfortably damp by now.

Suddenly—

*Boom!!!*

A thunderous explosion erupted from the end of the passageway, shaking the surrounding stone walls violently, as if they were on the verge of a secondary collapse.

Violet furrowed her brows slightly, then quickly raised them, her figure vanishing abruptly from where she stood.

The next moment, sharp stone spikes, several meters long, shot up from the ground, piercing through the space where Violet had just stood.

With a few quick steps forward to dodge the strange attack, Violet remained calm. She smoothly raised her slender, pristine white holy staff and swung its gem-studded tip, meant for casting spells, toward an unusually large, pitch-black boulder at the end of her path.

*Bang!!!!*

A loud, jarring explosion reverberated through the passage. The seemingly fragile staff remained unscathed, but the massive rock, which appeared firmly anchored to the ground, shattered instantly. Its fragments were sent flying, scattering across the passage and crashing into the opposite wall with a cacophony of sharp impacts.

Gripping the staff’s handle tightly, Violet savored the satisfying feeling of the strike, one she hadn’t experienced in a long time. She glanced at the mess of shattered rubble on the ground.

This thing was alive.

It was a [Yokai]—a rather formidable one at that.

They always talked about “stones can become spirits,” and today she actually encountered it with her own eyes.

A [Rock Spirit].

Though it now lay in pieces, seemingly lifeless, Violet knew better. Since it could merge its body with the ground and launch such an attack, merely breaking it into fragments wasn’t going to kill it.

Indeed, the shards were already visibly reassembling, slowly but steadily. Before long, the creature would likely restore itself and rejoin the fight.

But Violet had no intention of wasting time on it.

This was most likely a guardian Yokai controlled by the [Yokai Controlling Sect], stationed here to block the path. Judging by the explosion she had just heard, the sect’s main force had likely already entered the deeper areas and was locked in a fight with someone.

She needed to hurry over and catch the action!