After a round of chaotic laughter and commotion, Sigrid finally managed to calm down—mainly because they were still in enemy territory, and a few sisters from the priesthood who seemed quite familiar with her had also descended.

Perhaps this little girl didn’t want too many people to know about her dirty thoughts, or rather, she didn’t want anyone to know at all. Sigrid had only discerned it with her “sharp” gaze.

In any case, after using life magic to dry off and remove the slime, the small squad infiltrating the enemy continued their mission.

The environment here, to be honest, was a bit beyond Violet’s expectations—not excessively eerie or bizarre, but rather too normal, to the point of being unreasonable.

Can you imagine, in an environment seemingly inside some giant abnormal entity, filled with gray death fog, there were stone walls and floors just like common human structures, even with lighting?

But the material of these stones was very ancient, clearly having endured the ravages of time, covered in moss and many parts already broken.

Dead gray vines similar to those outside snaked in and out of the walls, spreading like roots in every corner of this space, and those lights… no, they were not magical or artificial lights, but rather some kind of particles, emitting a faint glow of strange particles.

They floated in the upper half of the space, aimlessly drifting, somewhat like fireflies, but Violet, who was particularly sensitive to life and light, could be sure they were not living creatures but rather inorganic entities akin to elements.

This was also something Violet had never seen before, and she suspected that they had existed alongside this place for quite a long time.

“Is there only one way…?”

The structure here was a not-so-spacious one-way path, with densely packed walls on both sides. The special fleshy tube they had descended through should, without any surprises, connect to the caves outside the island.

While the inside of the corridor was empty, except for the moss-covered floor and the occasional gray vines that seemed motionless as they crisscrossed, there was nothing else.

Since that was the case, there was no need for hesitation.

To avoid disturbing any potential unknown enemies, Violet refrained from using widespread detection spells, so the information she currently possessed was quite limited.

The group cautiously moved forward along the semi-stone corridor, with almost no change in the surrounding environment. The abyssal creatures that had occasionally been seen flying out of the island caves before also seemed to be absent here, for reasons unknown.

After walking for about ten minutes, although it wasn’t very noticeable, Violet could sense that their direction of travel seemed to be a spiral staircase leading downward, and their current location should be deep within the central area of the magic island.

Still, no enemies appeared. The eerie silence instead made everyone feel a bit uneasy. Except for Xiao Guang, who didn’t seem to care much, even Violet began to feel a bit nervous.

“Um… has anyone noticed that the air is starting to get gradually more humid?”

Unable to tolerate this strange silence, the thoughtful Leila was the first to raise the issue she had noticed.

Violet didn’t answer her, instead, after a brief moment of surprise, Sigrid and the others nodded in agreement. As legendary White Feathered Folk, although they might lag behind the sisters slightly due to bloodline issues, their perception abilities were almost equal.

“It seems there’s something like that, but the environment hasn’t undergone any obvious changes. In other words, is there something like a pool at the end of the path we’re traveling?”

“No, it’s not a pool. This scent… how could it be?”

After making this declaration, the black-haired girl suddenly quickened her pace and dashed rapidly into the distance!

“Master?!”

“Lady Violet!”

“Hey, Violet?!”

Amidst the astonished or anxious calls from behind, the priestess had no time to pay attention. Her mind was filled with indescribable shock and incredulity.

It couldn’t be. How could those things appear on the magic island from the abyss?

A strange scent, bringing both unfamiliar and familiar sensations, awakened memories that had almost been buried deep in the girl’s heart.

It was the most familiar thing to her once.

Step, step, step, step, step, step, step…

Finally, the girl now known as Violet slowly came to a halt somewhere along the path. The surroundings were no longer the same as the passage they had come through.

“Ah…”

The sudden intense pungent smell caused the girl to emit an almost uncontrollable low groan from the corner of her mouth. This scent had been an indelible shadow in her heart for a long time.

Disinfectant.

There was no mistaking it. This was the kind of smell that typically only appeared in hospitals or laboratories on Earth.

And the scenery around her…

Semi-transparent culture dishes, not just one or two, but thousands, tens of thousands, or even more, densely packed together, impossible to see the boundaries at a glance, occupying the walls of the entire hall, like ancient coffins sleeping in a tomb.

Inside were various abyssal creatures, both those Violet had seen before and those she hadn’t. Even at the highest point of the hall, sealed within the dome, were several terrifying figures. If they weren’t abyssal worms, what else could they be?

The lower third of the culture dishes here had already shattered, with their contents vanished without a trace. Patches of pale green culture fluid splattered on the ground, which explained the dampness in the air mentioned by Leila and the source of the scent similar to disinfectant that Violet had smelled.

What on earth is this?

The scene before her was no different from an ancient medieval duel, where two knights fought to the death. Suddenly, one of them pulled out a Desert Eagle from his belt and said to the other, “My lord, times have changed,” in a parody.

The heart of the abyssal creatures, the magic island rising from the abyss, turned out to be such a high-tech place internally?

Violet could even see the simple panels displaying the status of each organism in front of every culture dish, most of which were still functioning. In other words, all the abyssal creatures and worms that had not yet left their culture dishes were still alive.

What kind of place is the abyss… really?

At this moment, Violet suddenly remembered the so-called high-tech “Sanctuary” left by the gods in the forgotten lands, which she had seen in the memories of the Vampire Prince of Blood Clan Aphra Constantius, as well as the scourge known as the “Blasphemy.”

Was it a coincidence… or was the power of the Blasphemy also related to the abyss, or even…

No, that’s too absurd.

But the image of the 【Seed of Blasphemy】 sealed in the culture dishes in her memory was too similar to what she saw before her, making it hard for Violet not to draw connections.

“Master!”

“Violet! Why did you suddenly run so fast… by the grace of the God of Freedom… What on earth are these things?!”