Godless White Tower

Zhang Meng’s group had already organized people to gather up all the equipment, materials, potions, and other loot that had dropped.

The materials and potions were easy enough to deal with. Regardless of their level, they would be useful eventually. At worst, they could drink healing potions like water while leveling.

The several hundred thousand pieces of equipment around Level 10, however, were a real problem. Their levels were too awkward, making them difficult to handle, so for now they could only select some of the particularly good ones to serve as stock for the reward plan they had discussed earlier.

Even so, there were still several thousand pieces.

The second promotion defense battle would begin in a couple of days, and they simply did not have enough time to sort everything carefully. They could only deal with it in broad strokes for now.

As for how the defense battle would be fought, the situation at Dawn City had already been confirmed to be extremely difficult to defend. The place was nothing but ruins, without even a city wall.

As for Moonlit City, they still had no idea what the situation there was like. After discussing it with Zhang Meng and the others, Liu Xuan decided to take several hundred people there first to investigate. They would also conquer Crescent City along the way.

Once they reached Moonlit City, they would decide how to distribute their defensive forces.

The troops had finished assembling. Liu Xuan would travel north with them at first, then split off at the crossroads to take a look at the Godless White Tower. The others, along with Russo’s NPC army, would continue north.

Given Liu Xuan’s speed, he should be able to catch up with them.

They took the same road as last time, but this time the procession was grand, numbering seven or eight hundred people.

As they departed from Orenburg’s northern gate and passed through the territories of the Carrion Monsters and Parasitic Beasts, all kinds of horrified cries rang out from the ranks. Those two types of monsters had disgusted everyone thoroughly.

It was not until they reached the crossroads that the group finally recovered. Liu Xuan, meanwhile, left the party and took the road leading straight ahead.

The Godless White Tower was not far from the crossroads. According to legend, only the most heinous criminals in Orenburg were ever brought there, where they would be judged and executed.

Naturally, they would not choose a place that was especially far away.

Not long after separating from the others, Liu Xuan saw the tip of a white obelisk in the distance.

From here, it appeared to be at least forty or fifty meters tall.

As he drew closer, the full form of the obelisk came into view.

It was flawlessly white from top to bottom. Though it stood in the wilderness, it did not seem to have gathered even a speck of dirt.

The scene beneath the tower, however, was entirely different. Three gallows stood in a row, their wood and ropes already blackened and rotten.

A pack of red-eyed wild dogs wandered through the grass behind the obelisk.

They were only monsters in their twenties, so there was no need to waste time examining their details.

For some reason, though, the wild dogs seemed to fear the White Tower. They did not dare approach it at all.

Liu Xuan walked around the gallows and arrived in front of the obelisk. Although it was completely white and entirely devoid of carvings or writing, it possessed an indescribable grandeur and solemnity.

Directly beneath the obelisk stood a small, flat stone stele shaped somewhat like a gourd. A crude, somewhat abstract figure had been carved into its surface.

Its eyes were as large as two balls, taking up nearly its entire face, while its lower body had four pairs of arms.

There was also a square depression in the ground before the stele. Beside it was an embedded stone slab densely covered in writing.

Liu Xuan glanced over the contents of the slab, and his expression gradually turned awkward.

According to the inscription, the slab, the small stele, and the obelisk had not been built at the same time. The slab and the small stele had been erected here by people in later generations.

The obelisk had stood there for an extremely long time. No one knew when it had been built. It had already existed before Orenburg was founded.

The stone slab, on the other hand, had appeared no more than two hundred years ago.

By then, that powerful army had already perished, but people still occasionally pursued rumors about them. They hunted powerful creatures, hoping to recreate the army’s achievements and become one of those blessed by the gods.

Some people, like Liu Xuan, had defeated monsters and obtained a “Proof,” then found their way to the obelisk.

According to the original legend, all they needed to do was place the Proof into the depression before the small stele. They would then be able to communicate with the legendary god and receive its blessing.

However, many people had tried, and not one of them had seen the so-called god.

The Proofs they offered produced no reaction whatsoever.

After this happened once, then again and again, many people began to believe that the god was nothing but a completely fabricated legend.

The person who erected the stone slab had hoped that those who came later would read the words he had left behind and stop wasting time on such empty fantasies or risking their lives.

After all, the monsters capable of dropping Proofs were all extraordinarily powerful.

They might painstakingly organize a group of people and finally manage to defeat one, perhaps even suffering casualties in the process, only to discover that the Proof they obtained was utterly useless. It was a complete loss.

If someone happened to acquire a Proof without knowing the truth, then after seeing this stele, they were advised not to offer it up. It would be far more practical to take it to the royal capital, demonstrate their strength to the nobles, and seek a reward from the emperor.

Wouldn’t that be much more worthwhile?

From that point onward, the place gradually came to be known as the Godless White Tower.

Later, the people of Orenburg discovered that the location was suitably solemn and seemed to exert a strange, unseen pressure on criminals. They began using it as a place of judgment.

As time passed, fewer and fewer people remembered the site’s original purpose.

Now, Liu Xuan looked at the three Proofs in his possession and felt extremely awkward.

The so-called god did not exist, while the nobles, royalty, and emperor were all gone. What use were these three Proofs to him?

They were just taking up space in his inventory.

The three items even had different names and could not be stacked. Three Proofs occupied three separate inventory slots.

“Forget it. There’s nowhere else to use them, so I might as well throw them here.”

Liu Xuan took out the Proof of the Monster Salamander and placed it into the depression before the stele.

The Proof spontaneously burst into flames. Before long, it had burned away completely, leaving not even a trace of ash behind.

It looked rather miraculous.

But that was all. Nothing else happened.

Shaking his head, Liu Xuan somewhat disappointedly tossed in the Proof of the Nether Spider.

It burned away just as cleanly, and still nothing happened.

“After all that anticipation, and all the research and quests I went through…”

Liu Xuan helplessly threw in the last one—the Proof of the Boar Demon, which he had obtained only recently.

As the Proof burned to nothing, he was about to head behind the tower and find those wild dogs to build up the damage of his Thunder Aura, so that the trip would not be entirely wasted.

Then, suddenly, an irritated voice came from behind him.

“Who’s been making all that racket over there? How annoying!”

Liu Xuan turned around and saw a blue-green figure projected from the stone stele.

Her skin was blue-green, and she had some distinctly feminine features. She wore a flowing blue-green robe, but a large portion of her green skin was exposed from her neck down to her abdomen.

On her head sat a long, narrow crown that extended far to either side. Triangular veils of green gauze hung from it, obscuring her face and revealing only her mouth.

When Liu Xuan turned around, he happened to meet her gaze.

The latter looked as furious as a victim who had just caught a thief red-handed.

“Oh, so it was you!”