The ruins on the ground above the temple, which were used to conceal the temple, were built by the then prosperous Worm Cult at the beginning of this era. At that time, it was the residence of the cult's priests and believers who came to worship. Later, the cult declined and the ruins were abandoned, turning into the ruins of a large manor that appeared in front of Shade now.
Time destroyed most things, and only the vague patterns on a few pillars could show how prosperous this place was in the past. The pillars were engraved with an ancient language from the Third Age, and all the letters looked like curled insects. This was created by the races that lived with insects in the Third Age. In the modern Sixth Age, few people except Shade could understand it.
The entrance to the underground temple is under the floor of one side of the ruins. To open the downward passage, a difficult spell and a key are needed. After being translated by Shade, the meaning of the spell is roughly "Praise the great earth-shaking worm, may your vibration be with us."
As for the key to open the entrance, it was not a dead object, but a worm that lived in the body of the last priestess of the cult, old lady Ilar. The worm was black all over, one-fifth the length of an arm, and its mouthparts were extremely conspicuous.
It came out of old lady Ilar's mouth, with hundreds of legs squirming. Not only Shade, but even Miss Aurora couldn't stand this scene. The cat on Shade's shoulder was even more alert and wanted to rush forward, looking like it wanted to protect Shade from the insect... Mia felt that this kind of insect was smaller than it, so it was not dangerous at all.
As the spell was chanted, the dark worm burrowed into the ground. As the ground trembled, stone steps connected to the underground appeared under the dark entrance.
Stranger, you feel the "miracle" and the "blasphemy".
Most miracles come from righteous gods, while blasphemy comes only from evil gods. This is the first time Shade has encountered a god that has both miracles and blasphemy.
Looking at the stone steps in front of him, Shad handed Mia to the maids, because old lady Ilar only allowed Shad and Miss Aurora to enter the temple.
After waiting for a while to allow air to circulate inside, they climbed down the stairs. The black worm moved down the wall and lit the kerosene lamps on both sides of the stairs for everyone in advance, illuminating the murals on both sides of the stairs that depicted horrific human sacrifices and religious punishments.
Shade once again confirmed that although the Earthshaker Worm had gone away, this old god was a real evil god.
Probably when this place was built, the sect had already declined, so the underground temple was not the large building that Shad had imagined.
The stone steps were not long, and at the end was a temple with holy emblems and statues. The lights were dim, and the underground space seemed a bit narrow and shabby. There was a dark room on each side of the temple, a library for storing religious books, and a dark room for rest.
It seemed that all churches attached more importance to holy emblems rather than idols. Therefore, the idol representing the image of the Earthshaker Worm in the material world was simply placed on a high platform, while the holy emblem that made Shade feel as if there were dozens of worms crawling on its back at a glance was hung in the most conspicuous position in the temple.
The holy emblem is made of stone and is generally round in shape. The holy emblem is a coiled worm, and apart from some runes filling the gaps, this simple holy emblem makes people feel unsteady at a glance.
Old lady Ilar opened her mouth and swallowed the dark worm, then slowly lit the candles here, and Shade and the witch looked around. Before coming here, Shade actually had some expectations, expecting that there would be something divine here, but unfortunately there wasn't.
But there must be other divinities in the material world. Rather than facing the evil god directly, Shade would rather look for traces of divinity in myths and legends. Although his current divinity is enough to reach the fourth ring as long as he doesn't get into bigger trouble, he can't really start looking after reaching the fourth ring.
After lighting the candles, the old man knelt on one knee on the cushion under the holy emblem and prayed for a long time before leading Shad to the platform and in front of the statue.
The ancient statue, which had witnessed the vicissitudes of time and witnessed several eras, was not very big, probably about the same size as an ordinary plaster bust. When Shade approached, he immediately felt the increasingly strong element of blasphemy, and at the same time, the illusion that the ground was shaking became more and more obvious.
The reason why this is considered an illusion is that if there was really an earthquake, the candle flames would not be so stable.
One of the common senses of the ring sorcerers is to never approach the statues of strange gods. Even if it is for the purpose of gaining knowledge, they must confirm the consequences and write a suicide note before approaching.
But this time Miss Aurora was right beside him, so Shade didn't hesitate. Seeing that Old Lady Ilar was kneeling on the cushion under the statue again and praying in a low voice, he followed her.
His eyes quickly scanned the statue, and the bumps on the surface of the worm's body were not decorative runes, but human faces distorted by pain. When Shade saw them, those faces seemed to come alive, wriggling to express their pain, and even passing on the pain they experienced to Shade.
But in the blink of an eye, the illusion disappeared. The shock of this scene, coupled with the influence of the evil god statue itself, made Xia De immediately close his eyes and lower his head.
This statue is different from the statue of the vampire Duke Laoel. This statue is a sacred object of the cult and is still being worshipped. Its influence on mortals is much greater than the former.
He felt someone approaching from behind:
"I didn't expect your mental strength to be so strong. You're so close and yet you can still look up at the statue."
It was Miss Aurora, and she came over too.
"What do those hideous faces on the statue represent?"
Xia De wanted to slow down and restore his best mental state before looking directly at the statue and feeling the blasphemy.
Miss Aurora didn't care about Mrs. Ilar's feelings at all. She smiled and explained:
"In ancient times, in order to appease the so-called anger of the earth, believers of the old god Earthshaker would hold living sacrifices, offering blood and souls to the god to gain peace. It is said that the souls of those who were sacrificed would be devoured by the old god and forever imprisoned in the god's shell, being squeezed, worn and tortured day and night."
“It’s a pleasure for them.”
The old woman who was praying with her head bowed suddenly spoke. Although she didn't look up, Xia De thought she should still have a very kind expression.
Miss Aurora smiled again and did not refute. Instead, she asked:
"Shad, have you never been curious? Why do we have to use human sense of good and evil to distinguish between miracles and blasphemy?"
"I've thought about that, but I can't figure it out. Perhaps the distinction between evil gods and good gods just happens to coincide with good and evil, but the distinction between miracles and blasphemy is actually due to other reasons."
"Yes, that's why there are gods who possess both miracles and blasphemy. This has been discussed within the parliament. We believe that miracles are what should exist. Blasphemy may seem to be the opposite, but it is actually a derivative of miracles."
Miss Aurora said, she reached out from behind Shade and grabbed Shade's right hand:
"I can't explain this to you any better. You can only discover it yourself. Feel it carefully, Shade. I will help you feel the power of this old god carefully. If the power you gain is related to the earth instead of vibration, I think I will have to think of other ways."
Her five fingers passed through Shad's fingers and pushed Shad's hand forward. Shad knew that this posture was wrong, but the statue was right in front of him and he had no time to refuse.
A strange glow spread from Miss Aurora's body, and that glow was transmitted to Shade through her arms. Behind the two, the life rings of the two-ring warlock and the twelve-ring warlock appeared in the steam mist. The brass rings with a dodecagonal cross-section seemed to help the flat ring rotate:
"Shad, even if you're a witch, you can't do this often. Please feel this power carefully."
So the two of them pressed their hands together against the surface of the statue.
When his palm touched the statue, Shade didn't care about the cold feeling and the slight stinging sensation as if bitten by an insect. He stared at the statue, and what he really cared about was that the stone worm in front of him seemed to come alive at this moment, and the worm's body squirmed, making his hand close to the statue feel the roughness of the stone surface.
Shad's eyes began to bleed, but he also truly felt the trembling power and the terrifying power left by the great one.
His body wanted to tremble, but the witch behind him held Shade's hand. In the strange light of the witch, the stone worm's terrible mouthparts bit Shade's hand directly. At the same time as the unreal pain appeared, Shade seemed to feel something explode in his head.
In an instant, he seemed to see the bloody sacrifices of primitive tribes in ancient times, as if he saw the horrific worm populations roaming deep in the earth, as if he had traveled through several eras, and in the most ancient era, he saw the worms swallowing something in the trembling and weeping earth.
In this chaotic hallucination, a voice finally appeared in my ears:
You came into contact with the idol of the Old God Earthshaker.
Wandering in the depths of the endless earth, shaking the land, drawing power from disaster and destruction. In the twilight of the old days, in madness, He voluntarily left and returned that great power to the earth.
You have listened to the story of the old god "Earthshaker Worm" and you have learned of the blasphemy of the old god "Earthshaker Worm".
Behind Shade and Miss Aurora, the life ring of the 12th ring sorcerer disappeared, and the life ring of the 2nd ring sorcerer was spinning rapidly. The old man and the witch turned their heads to look, and the dazzling four-color spiritual light that had lit up seemed as if Shade was using magic, but this was just the normal state of Shade's spiritual rune.
The ground was shaking, and this time a small-scale earthquake really occurred. Along with the tremor, silver aura gathered on the surface of the life ring. The bell rang, the whistle blew, and the dazzling silver aura directly illuminated the entire underground temple space.
This was the first time that anyone had witnessed Shade engraving spirit runes up close and personal, and although the old man who was only a low-level warlock thought the scene was magical, the witch frowned in surprise.
Even if a high-level warlock engraved a spirit rune, there shouldn't be such a commotion. After all, the acquisition of a spirit rune is only a matter for the individual warlock, and there is no reason why it would have such a strong impact on the environment.
Outsider, you have engraved the Silver Profane Rune - Vibration.
The rapidly spinning life ring gradually slowed down, and all the spiritual light gathered on the surface of the life ring, eventually forming a new rune. The flickering spiritual light gradually stabilized until it reached almost the same level as the Greedy Kiss of the Tree.
"Ms. Aurora, it's ready."
Shade took a deep breath and removed his hand from the statue. The statue remained in its original state. The scene of the insect devouring Shade's arm was really just an illusion.
But there was still a tingling sensation on his arm. Because he had received a huge amount of information and felt the power of God up close, Shade staggered back a step and felt something soft hit on his back. His face flushed, and he didn't dare to look back at his life ring immediately, but he had already felt the power.
The witch retracted her surprised expression, chuckled, and withdrew her slender fingers from Shade's fingers. Shade slowly exhaled, and completely shifted his sight away from the statue in front of him that gave him great pressure. Only then did he realize that without realizing it, his entire back was actually soaked.
“Was there an earthquake just now?”
He asked in a weak voice, half pretending and half because his mental state was indeed not very good.
"It was a very minor earthquake."
The witch with long brown wavy hair said, and then looked at Shade's profile suspiciously:
"Shade, don't tell me that the spirit rune you obtained is an earthquake."
"No, it was a vibration. This trip achieved its goal."
Xia De said, and sighed softly:
"Ms. Aurora, you have been a great help this time."
"Don't be so polite, I just paid for your travel expenses."
The witch said lightly, looking at Shade, and then at the statue that still stood there quietly. The god had long gone, but the statue was still terrifying:
"Well, let's go back."
She didn't want to comment too much on this place, and didn't want to face the evil god statue too much. Even if she was a witch, she was still a mortal.
Therefore, this short journey ended smoothly.