Chapter 178: The Blood Lake and the Orb
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Regardless of the means, they got the pass and a mercenary tier upgrade, which if done the proper way, would have taken at least one or two months to get. The little-known mercenary group may have had difficulty too in chalking up 20 jobs as the competition was high.
That reminded him about Taobao on Earth: the "professional reviewers" who brushed up Taobao’s ratings would have gotten the job done in a much faster and more efficient manner. Look, the mercenaries in the foreign world only had five tiers; most websites on Earth had a minimum of nine-stars and 18 diamond rating before they would even dare claim they were in the rankings.
The main reason his trick worked was due to the careless attitude of the association. It was the rule of man that dominated even in this foreign world. In fact, the difference between Tier Five and Tier Four mercenaries was not significant. Any Tom, Dick and Harry could have chalked up 20 jobs easily by doing lost pet recovery jobs. There were many mercenaries who did not really know how to fight. Their roles were more like that of the community police. So, the 20-job requirement was just a ritual to differentiate a rookie from the rest. The association would not have cared even if people cheated their way through. What’s more, it was lunch time and the lady at the registration counter was hungry. She did not want to waste time with Hao Ren so, she let him through.
They each carried their badge—a small and rectangular metal plate, like a staff pass, with an embedded crystal chip for storing data—and walked on the streets. Armed with complete information about Beinz Blood Lake incidents, and what Becky had mentioned, Hao Ren’s knowledge of the mysterious Blood Lake was pretty comprehensive.
Beinz Blood Lake was situated in the middle of a barren land in the west of the Kingdom of Holletta. On a map, the territory of the Kingdom of Holletta looked like a horizontal, irregular trapezoid. Beinz Blood Lake formed part of the shorter western border. Beyond the border were scattered tribes of mountain people and werewolves. The Kingdom of Holletta had a long history. It was well passed its expansion and impetuous stages. The ruler of the kingdom was focusing on domestic developments and cosying up with his neighbours. The kingdom was having good relations particularly with a few tribes in the west; so, the border around the Blood Lake remained peaceful, which was a good thing to the countries on both sides of the lake. But, the vast expanse of the lake’s surrounding area was a dangerous place, which was full of hot-tempered, mutated monsters. If a war were to break out, both warring sides would have tried to drive these monsters to the enemy's side by way of mysticism. It would have been a total disaster.
The wasteland around the Beinz Blood Lake was a natural barrier as well as a ticking time bomb. No one wanted to disturb it.
The lake was about 120km long and 40km wide. There were some scattering swamps on both North and South of the lake. These swamps were like broken pieces dropped off from a ruby, extending dozens of kilometres outwards. That made the overall size of the Blood Lake extremely wide. The most recognisable feature of the lake was the blood-like colour of its water. The water, including those of the smaller satellite lakes, remained red all year round. Interestingly, the Little Chaldan River in the south which was just a stone's throw away from the main Beinz Blood Lake was crystal clear. The contrast was astounding and that earned the lake its name.
Just like what Becky had told Hao Ren about the legend of the Goddess’ banishment of the world, the blood lake was in some
way a sacred place thought to be related to the Goddess. Mainstream story was that the blood lake was created by the Goddess when she smashed a wine glass down onto this world (that’s a pit according to Hao Ren’s understanding) while the red wine flowed out the the broken glass had polluted the water, signifying the wrath of the Goddess towards the people. In that sense, the bloody water of the lake signified the sins of the people; as long as there were sins in the world, the lake would remain blood-red.
There were other legends too. For example the first drop of blood of the Goddess, or it was the first tear of blood the Goddess shed when she saw sin on the land. But these two theories weren’t popular because they failed to explain the cause of the destruction of the ancient civilisation. The largest sect called The Disciples of Glory believed the Goddess of creation was the highest god, they subscribed to the first legend to explain the blood lake phenomenon and reminded the people that it was arrogance of the ancestors that had caused the destruction.
No matter what legend it was, the barren land around the blood lake must have something to do with the blood-red colour of the water. No natural vegetations could survive around the blood lake, only the magic-like plants of various strange shapes grew. These plants had some magical uses; some of them were large, their leaves were dark in colour, normally having high medicinal properties or precious magic ingredients. The church deemed these properties were the blessings from the Goddess. But when there’s wealth, there’s risk. The environment where the strange looking vegetations grew was also a cradle of a large number of weird creatures unseen to the outside world. Most of these creatures were strong, ferocious, highly territorial and magically talented— the herbivorous rabbit was one of them. People took the risk looking for ingredients around the blood lake, but not many were brave enough to trespass into the area alone because for fear of rabbit...err, monster.
But to Hao Ren, he was careless. He didn’t give a hoot about whether the world-banishing Goddess had anything to do with him. The one Goddess he knew was a care-free big lass who had never blinked an eye even if human wanted to be god. What he cared most was the missing Orb of the Holy Synod incident.
The Disciples of Glory rooted in the Kingdom of Holletta and began almost at the same time with it. Before this sect spread all over the world, it was the state religion of the Kingdom of Holletta. The Orb of the Holy Synod was obtained together by the first pope and the first king of the Kingdom of Holletta from a sacred place. The orb was said to signifying the last faith of the Goddess in the world and thus it was the common piece of treasure between the kingdom and the church. According to the church, the Goddess was using the orb to keep tabs on the world’s post-destruction affairs, and to detect any hint of coming back of sin. For that matter, the church and the royalty would hold an annual ritual of Tour of the Goddess; the orb was guarded under heavy security and brought parading from the Royal City of Steinne, passing through four sacred sanctuaries and four historical remains, and finally to the Beinz Blood Lake where the world-destructing fire was first thought to burn. People on this world believed that this ritual was how they showed their repentance.
The orb would stop at Beinz Blood Lake for four days before departing back to the royal city. As the journey was completed, the pope would announce that the Goddess had learned what had happened for the past one year and she had recognised the repentance of human. A celebration would then ensue.
The celebration was the biggest event in the Kingdom of Holletta. The yearly event, which was even grander than the king’s birthday celebration and national day, was the time when all other countries—including not so friendly ones, sending in their greetings and tributes simply because The Disciples of Glory was the world-recognised religion; thought the tour of the orb was held within the Kingdom of Holletta, it was a global event.
But this time, the orb was missing.
According to rules, the orb was placed in an old church on an island in the middle of Beinz Blood Lake during its four-day stay. Knights from the church as well as the kingdom would guard the place forming an almost watertight security blanket. Bloch was responsible for the last leg of escorting the orb; he was brave, a devout holy warrior canonised by the church, and an indisputably capable and morally upright person. But the orb went missing on the first night.
According to the guarding knights, they heard a muffled roaring sound coming from under the blood lake. The roar lasted for more than ten minutes and it caused a tremble in the camp site. Immediately following the roar there was a strange glow in the water surrounding the small island. The glow flickered like a fire and earthquake was reported on the island but not on the mainland. During the investigation, Bloch told that there was a large amount of bubbles rose from under the lake and he smelled burned sulphur. The phenomena subsided after a flash of strong light swept across the entire sky. With the permission of the accompanying pope, the nervous knights pushed open the entrance of the church and found inside everything was gone.
The benches, the tables, a layer of wall covering, part of the church ceiling, four monks who were fasting in inside the church during the entire four-day stop, and the orb were all missing.
Hao Ren felt that the incident looked like the opening of a large warp space—that gleam of light was a telltale.