Chapter Eighteen: The Heart of the Stone Statue Demon

  "Mr. Lord! We found it!"

  At the sound of this, Rodd immediately turned around to see Mais standing at the church entrance with a look of surprise on his face, holding up a delicate small statue in his hand, carved on it was a curled-up stone gargoyle, its two eyes made of ruby fragments were faintly emitting a dark red glow. That was the Central Control!

  Mace's shout also caught the attention of the Golems, as alchemy creatures, they knew what was in his hand, and soon, two Golems immediately changed direction and rushed towards Mace.

  "Wow!"

  Seeing two terrifying monsters rushing towards him, Mais was so scared that he let out a strange cry. He subconsciously wanted to turn around and run away, but at this moment, Rod's voice had already been heard.

  "Throw it over here!"

  Although staring at these two ferocious monsters, Mais had a kind of illusion that he would be completely torn apart by them in the next instant, but he still gritted his teeth and threw out the black, exquisitely crafted statue in his hand.

  Can't help but say, the fat merchant's throwing skills are not great. The thing he threw out drew an arc in the air, but it was crooked and deviated from its original trajectory, not even reaching Rod's side. Instead, it flew past those two stone statue demons. If someone who didn't know what was going on saw this scene, they might think the fat merchant and the two stone statue demons were in cahoots. The stone statue demon, faced with this unexpected gift, was taken aback for a moment, but still instinctively stretched out its claws to try and grasp the small statue.

  But just as it was about to succeed, a gentle breeze flew from under its body, and the soul bird that had almost lost its shape brought a series of semi-transparent ripples in the air, and forcibly snatched the statue.

  This was Rod's final strength, and with his energy exhausted, he had to put away the long sword in his hand, while raising his right hand and snapping his fingers.

  With this sound, the Soul Bird flew elegantly through the air and then flew towards Rode. The two stone statue demons also stopped halfway and changed direction.

  Whoosh!!

  The stone statue of the ground sprinted a somersault, its sturdy and long tail suddenly swung over, heavily hitting the Soul Bird's body. Although it didn't cause much harm, the cyan wind element wrapping around the Soul Bird was slightly disordered, causing the bird's body to tilt as well.

  The blue bird did not give up its advance, it still flapped its wings hard and flew quickly over the ground, striving to fly towards its master.

  But it did not reach its destination as wished.

  A stone giant claw descended from the sky, piercing through the body of the Azure Bird. The disordered wind elements could no longer maintain the condensed form's power, and in an instant it dissipated into its most primitive existence. The black statue that was originally held in the bird's beak also flew out, but soon two dark silhouettes chased after it from behind, stretching out sharp claws and opening their large mouths towards the statue - until it quietly and steadily fell into Rode's hands.

  [Obtained Golem Control Core, identification complete]

  [Instruction———]

  “Aig！”

  Rode's voice was not loud, and it was even a bit low. However, the black shadows that were originally attacking at this moment underwent a change - their bodies, which were still slightly shining, turned dark and dim in the blink of an eye, and their limbs, which were stretched out in mid-air, seemed to be frozen in place. The eerie red glow on the stone statue's face also disappeared instantly.

  Then two dark shadows just brushed past Roderick and heavily slammed onto the ground behind him.

  BOOM!!!

  Along with the crashing sound, the stone statue that had lost its power returned to its original sculpture. It maintained the action of flying forward just now and was quietly lying on the ground not far behind Rod. However, after losing the support of magic, they were no longer as hard as before. With this crash, the two stone statues were involuntarily scattered, from the original artistic sculptures turned into worthless garbage.

  "Ah..."

  It wasn't until then that Rod let out a sigh of relief. At this moment, he only felt exhausted, the excessive consumption of his spiritual power made his legs weak, and even the fingers of his right hand holding the statue couldn't exert any strength. However, on the surface, Rod still had a calm expression, standing silently in place, and it wasn't until after a while that he put the statue into his pocket.

  "Mr. Luo De!"

  Just then, Lige and Mais also ran in front of him, looking at him with worried and anxious expressions.

  "Are you okay?!"

  I'm fine.

  Roder took a deep breath, he really wanted to sit down and rest for a while now. Although in the game, excessive consumption of soul power would have various manifestations, but actually experiencing it on himself still made him feel somewhat overwhelmed. However, he couldn't fall down now.

  Fortunately, the dense fog around had already obscured the figures of those ghosts, and it seemed that they had finally made a choice to give up after being unable to get close, and left this forbidden land.

  Although this does not mean they have given up, it is still a good thing for now. However, Rode did not show much expression, which was also his habit as the team leader, who must always remain calm and cannot be flustered by small things. If one gets excited or shouts loudly because of encountering some difficulties or defeating strong enemies, it will absolutely have no positive impact on their subordinates. Although Rode is no longer the guild leader in the guild that dominated tens of thousands of players, this habit still affects him.

  But it has to be said that seeing his calm demeanor made Lijie and Maisie, who were somewhat tense, breathe a sigh of relief. After all, they had been worried about the situation outside while searching, fearing that something would go wrong. Lijie was very hardworking, but Maisie was clearly better at identifying objects, and finally found this small statue in a corner, it has to be said that their luck was quite good, if they were late for a moment, the situation might have been completely different.

  Rod's original plan was to rush through the fog ruins as quickly as possible, but the appearance of the two stone golems forced him to change his mind. After all, these two stone golems had almost completely consumed his strength, and if he didn't take a good rest to recover, the next battle would be even more perilous. So Rod decided to spend the night in the church and continue on his way the next day. He wasn't worried that anything unexpected would happen here; in the game's instance, this church was also a place where many players rested and organized their spoils of war, so there shouldn't be any major problems.

  Although Mais looked at the gloomy church and those eerie decorations, his legs were trembling with fear, but as usual... he had no say in opposing Lord's decision.

  The sky gradually darkened.

  A thick fog was wandering outside the church, and through the windows, nothing could be seen except a vast expanse of whiteness. The three people sat in the center of the church, where the abandoned, rotten pews and tables had become firewood, releasing their last bit of heat in the burning bonfire. A chilly wind blew in from the broken window openings and wall cracks, carrying a hint of coldness.

  Lijie carefully reached out her hand and untied the bandage on Luo De's left chest, then her pretty eyebrows furrowed slightly.

  "It split open again, Mr. Rhodes."

  "I know."

  Rod nodded, not saying much. In fact, this wasn't the first time either. After all, along the way, Rod had been fighting in front, and although he tried to avoid using his left hand due to the injury on his chest, when some particularly troublesome situations arose, he couldn't help but use it, causing his wound to reopen from time to time. According to Lige's words, an injury that would have healed with just two or three days of rest was now likely to take over ten days to recover from.

  However, the girl had no way to complain about anything, after all this was for them. So Lijie could only help Rod change his bandages every day to prevent infection of the wound. Fortunately, as a spirit master, she didn't forget to bring these things before leaving the airship.

  After the bandage was torn off, the wound illuminated by the firelight made everyone involuntarily take a cold breath. Mais even touched his own chest with lingering fear and looked at Rode's chest in horror. There, three black claw marks as thick as a small arm floated on Rode's chest, everywhere were dark scars formed from congealed blood, and due to the intense battle with the stone statue earlier, many of the scars had been torn open, fresh red blood seeping out and mixing with those already darkened blood clots. Just looking at it made people feel a chill in their hearts.

  Lijie took out a handkerchief, poured some clear water from the jug, and pressed it against Rode's chest. This made the latter's body involuntarily twitch, even Meis couldn't help but look away, turning his head to avoid seeing anymore.

  "Right, sorry, does it hurt?"

  "It's nothing."

  Facing Lijie's flustered inquiry, Rode shook his head. Although it was indeed a bit painful, it hadn't reached the point where he couldn't bear it.

  Relieved by Rude's response, Liche continued to wipe the wounds on Rude's body, and at the same time, the girl also began to secretly size up the young man in front of her who was slightly older than herself.

  To be honest, when they first met, Rod left a general impression on Lizzie because he was very handsome and had fair skin, so Lizzie subconsciously thought of him as one of those noble sons. However, because Rod's attitude was not as arrogant as the noble sons Lizzie had seen before, she could still accept it, but at that time, she didn't take him seriously, after all, a man who looked like a woman gave people the first impression of being weak.

  But afterwards, Lijie's views gradually changed.

  Unlike those aristocratic young masters who were powerless, this young man had considerable strength, not inferior to his captain, and his character was very calm. Following him made people feel very at ease, even in the face of danger, he would not panic. Moreover, unlike his appearance, he was a very strong man.

  Lijie knew how painful this injury was, as a spiritual master she had treated many people, and many of the tough men who didn't bat an eyelid on the battlefield would cry out in pain when their wounds were being treated. But Luo De never made a sound from start to finish, let alone that he was still standing at the front fighting with such a heavy injury...

  Lijie's hand stopped for a moment.

  What am I thinking? It's all mixed up.

  The girl shook her head and threw those strange thoughts to the back of her mind, then she continued with her work.

  Roder didn't notice the girl's abnormality beside him, his attention was focused on his right hand at this moment, in the center of his palm, two gems emitting dark red light were lying there.

  That was one of the spoils of war that Rude obtained from this battle, the Heart of Golem.