The villainous young master just wants to live a Buddhist-like life.

　In short, judging from the reaction of that fragment of temple consciousness, "divine abominations" are indeed intolerable in this world. Therefore, it is absolutely forbidden to summon the "Demon God? Abyss Walker" in front of those gods!

　Dark learned his lesson and concealed the "Demon God? Abyss Walker" even more deeply. He also harbored murderous intent towards those fragments of temple consciousness.

　If this in-depth exploration leads to the hiding place of those fragments of temple consciousness...

　The procession moved very slowly. Four squads were arranged in a lightning bolt pattern.

　Magical sprites were scouting ahead, leaving no stone unturned, ensuring that no suspicious detail was overlooked.

　The temple section, located within the "Divine Kingdom," does not normally experience snowfall.

　But for some reason, there is always a very thick layer of snow on the ground and on the buildings.

　The snow wasn't completely non-melting, but it kept piling up. This made progress and clearing obstacles extremely difficult.

　Occasionally, dangerous creatures hide beneath the snow. They appear lifeless, emitting no aura, and sometimes even magical spirits pass over them without reacting. But once a human approaches, they instantly transform from "dead" to "alive," launching a sneak attack.

　The sneak attacks were extremely dangerous and impossible to defend against; many members of the previous investigation team were injured as a result.

　Later, the investigation team simply used ghost-type magical spirits to conduct a "full-penetration search" of all materials, including underground and snow. Even though the magical spirits were unable to distinguish between real and fake inanimate objects due to their insufficient intelligence level, and had to spend more time and effort to investigate, they still did not change their methods.

　In short, the pace of exploration can be slowed down, but personnel casualties must be minimized.

　The paths that Dak walked were discovered step by step by the investigation team.

　The interior of the "Snow Mountain Goddess Temple" is shrouded in many inexplicable creatures, and conventional investigation methods are often ineffective. Even the most meticulous, step-by-step investigations can sometimes overlook things, and danger is always a constant companion.

　In comparison, those brightly lit "ice statues" standing there pose a lower threat.

　Claire is practically an "encyclopedia of biology," yet she knows absolutely nothing about those creatures, and they generally suspect that those creatures never actually existed in this world.

　After confirming that the "Snow Mountain Goddess" is the "Goddess of Time and Life," Claire deduced that these beings might be special life forms created by the "Snow Mountain Goddess," or they might be life forms captured by the "Snow Mountain Goddess" from other timelines. Of course, it's also possible that they were simply life forms captured from other worlds.

　The only thing these creatures had in common was that they would suddenly disappear after ceasing their activity.

　Therefore, the expedition team has so far been unable to obtain a specimen of any of the creatures.

　However, half an hour after setting off, Dark spotted one of the creatures.

　It was a creature that lay quietly deep in the snow, like rotten wood.

　Before it started moving, there was absolutely no sign of life in it. If the others in the team hadn't been so experienced, Dark might have really fallen for it on his own.

　The way that piece of rotten wood attacked was also extremely strange.

　The survey team suffered heavy losses when they first encountered the decaying wood creatures.

　The rotten wood remained still, and its form did not disappear. Suddenly, an identical piece of rotten wood appeared inside the investigation team's premises.

　Even though the investigation team had set up a barrier to prevent the entry of that piece of rotten wood, it was still impossible.

　Immediately afterwards, the bark of the rotten wood suddenly split open, revealing a dark interior, instantly enveloping the team member in front of it. The bark would instantly assimilate with the skin, turning the team member almost into a "tree person".

　If her teammates hadn't reacted quickly and peeled off that layer of bark, she might have truly been assimilated into a piece of wood.

　Even so, the extensive wounds that removed it rendered it completely incapable of fighting.

　But after the piece of rotten wood was burned by the subsequent flames, new rotten wood immediately appeared behind one of the team members.

　—As long as the original rotten wood is not destroyed, new rotten wood will appear continuously.

　It took the investigation team a long time to find the original piece of the rotten wood deep in the snow.

　But after that, the rotten wood instantly transformed into a vast expanse of bark, threatening to devour everyone present in one gulp.

　The tree bark was extremely tough and could absorb energy, making it completely impervious to magical attacks.

　Finally, it was cleaved into countless fragments by a single swing of Alvit's sword. The bark that had fallen from the sky then vanished without a trace.

　However, having learned from experience, Aylvit was extremely ruthless, sweeping across the nearby snow and destroying everything beneath it, including the rotten wood creature.

　Before Dark could even get a good look, the rotting wood creature vanished. The group continued onward, encountering those strange creatures more and more frequently afterward.

　One of the creatures, resembling vines but entirely transparent, pierced the foot of "Magic Beast: Goddess of the Mind's Eye" the moment it appeared, before "Shaymi" could even react.

　Fortunately, "Magical Beast: Goddess of the Mind's Eye" was just a magical spirit, and it died and returned to normal after its foot was pierced.

　Unlike real people, they won't have their blood drained by those vine-like creatures in just a few seconds.

　Mercidis reacted swiftly, smashing it to pieces with a single shield strike. After replenishing his magic power, Dark summoned "Magical Beast: Goddess of the Mind's Eye" again.

　—He actually possesses multiple "magical beasts: Goddess of the Mind's Eye," and even if he is killed, he can immediately summon new ones, but it requires switching the main consciousness.

　After this attack, Dark gradually realized the importance of "Magical Beast: Goddess of the Mind's Eye".

　—It seems easy to be targeted for attack.

　In fact, during the encounter with the decaying wood creatures, the first beast to be ambushed was the "Magic Beast: Goddess of the Mind's Eye".

　And before that, the time before that, the time before that, the time before that...

　Almost 80% of the attacks targeted it first. Perhaps it was because it was the weakest member of the group.

　Or perhaps it's because of the faint, yet undeniably present, divinity within it.

　Or perhaps both.

　In short, the "God's Eye" ability of "Magical Beast: Goddess of the Mind's Eye" had no chance of being used. However, its role as "bait" seemed to have room for development. The team quickly made adjustments, with "Magical Beast: Goddess of the Mind's Eye" carrying "Shaymi" and walking alone at the front of the team.

　Unexpectedly, the strange creatures they encountered afterwards all targeted it as their first attack.

　It's as if it exudes a fragrance that is extremely alluring to those creatures.

　The one that truly emits the fragrance is "Shemi".

　Arvit and Claire were quite surprised by this. Darke himself was also very puzzled. But so-called scientific research is simply inductive reasoning based on facts.

　It's a fact that (Fantasy Beast: Goddess of the Mind's Eye) can attract attacks from those strange creatures.

　The team did not let their guard down, but instead focused their attention on "Magical Beast: Goddess of the Mind's Eye".

　This is to ensure that we can act immediately and kill the strange creatures whenever they attack.

　This has indeed greatly reduced the team's exploration pressure.

　About an hour after they set off, they arrived at a palace. The palace had a door, but it was half open.

　The interior was dark, but it suddenly brightened when someone stepped inside. In the center of the palace, a statue of a deity lay reclining.

　The statue shows obvious signs of being "shaved off" from its raised shoulders to half of its head, leaving only a small portion of the head, with the chin and one eye remaining.

　But even from just that small part of her face, one could tell that the "deity" was breathtakingly beautiful.

　It's not the kind of bright, dazzling beauty, but rather one that leans towards innocence and clarity, like the feeling of a young girl.

　There are also statues of gods in the temples of the present world, but the part of that statue above the neck is nowhere to be found, and it is not as clear as the statue in front of us.

　"This is the Goddess of the Snow Mountain"

　Dak entered the palace, stood before the statue, and frowned as he observed it. Alvette and Claire had entered before him.

　Angry stayed at the entrance.

　There are actually quite a few statues in this "Snow Mountain Goddess Temple". Dak learned from Aquinita that there are many statues in the part of the temple in the real world. The statues are in different poses, some are damaged and some are intact, but none of them are in his path.

　As a result, he has only now glimpsed part of the "Snow Mountain Goddess's" appearance and still needs to fill in the gaps with his imagination.

　After observing for a moment, Dak determined that the statue in front of him was a "dead object," without even a trace of divine energy remaining.

　The statues he encountered in the academy's secret chamber all retained traces of divinity.

　A statue without any trace of divinity is useless.

　Darke no longer focused his attention on the broken statue. He turned to look at Alvit and Claire, and found them standing in front of a mural, while Claire was groping around in the corner.

　He winked at Mercedis, who was following behind him, and Mercedis, who could no longer contain herself, immediately went to Claire's location to search for the secret chamber with her.

　The palace was very quiet. Behind the statue were two ice statues, but there was no sign of them coming back to life.

　Alvit and Claire's team members were checking for dangers within the palace.

　Janet's "danger prediction" also failed to respond.

　There seemed to be no danger inside the palace.

　Dark walked toward Yarvit, his gaze already fixed on the murals on the wall. The expedition had collected many murals from the temple walls.

　Dak had read most of the materials he was reviewing.

　However, most of those murals are primarily decorative, and even those that do tell a story are "grand narratives," which frankly lack any distinctive features.

　And lack of distinctive features means lack of information.

　The murals only reveal glimpses of the social environment of the time, offering little insight into the temple itself.

　The mural in front of us looks the same way.

　It merely depicts the myriad postures of a dancer performing in the clouds. Why is it described as "myriad postures"?

　Because they are all the same dancers, but in different poses, there are dozens or even hundreds of them at a glance. Some are hidden behind the clouds, while others stand on the clouds. But it is obvious that their facial features and body shapes are exactly the same.

　Dark's gaze swept over the dancers. But he immediately noticed that Alvette hadn't moved for a long time.

　He strode forward and walked to Arvit's side to observe, only to find Arvit staring intently at several of the dance poses, as if deep in thought.

　Once Dak confirmed that she hadn't been "tricked," he felt relieved.

　He looked at the mural again, and after pondering it without success, he suddenly had an idea. He summoned the "Magic Book" to record the dancers one by one in a corner of the page.

　Wait until the "Magic Book" record is completed.

　Dak immediately took it in his hand, then pressed down on one corner of the page, rolled it up, and released it.

　Instantly, the images of dancers came to life as the pages turned, like an animation!

　"The order of some of the patterns is wrong."

　Dak looked up at the mural, compared it with the "animation," and adjusted the order to make the dancer's "dance movements" gradually become smoother.

　Suddenly, the "Magic Book" in his hand was snatched away by Alvite, who then began to flip through it with a "fuyu".

　As Aylvit watched the "animation" of the dancers, her eyes grew brighter and brighter. Dark blinked, suddenly feeling as if he had stumbled into a martial arts world and happened to witness a female knight comprehend a peerless sword technique from a mural.

　However, he quickly realized that Alvitt wasn't thinking in that direction. After flipping through the "animation" a few times, Alvitt took out a magic card and activated it.

　As the magic circle appeared, a cloud of black mist surged from its center, and slowly transformed into the likeness of Alvitt herself.

　She used a magic card to create a replica.

　Then, he actually controlled the replica to jump up in the center of the palace.

　Claire and Mercidis were still fumbling for the mechanism in the corner. Meanwhile, Alvit's clone had already begun dancing.

　As the clone continued its dance, a very strange and wonderful charm emerged.

　Dark's gaze was gradually drawn to it, and he suddenly felt a burst of divinity.

　His eyes widened in surprise, and he abruptly turned to look at "Magical Beast: Goddess of the Mind's Eye".

　The latter did not speak, but his meaning was conveyed through the bond between their hearts.

　That was undoubtedly a divine aura.

　The divine aura arose solely from the dance of that replica.

　Dak immediately realized that the dance was unusual.

　And within this palace, there is a special mechanism that complements the dance.

　A mechanism that can only be triggered by dancing in the palace according to the correct sequence of dance moves.

　"Crack!"

　Claire and Mercedis seem to have finally figured out a mechanism.

　They opened the mechanism, and suddenly a loud "rumbling" sound came from it.

　Just when they thought there might be an underground passage, what opened up to both sides was a white wall in front of them.

　However, that white wall was the outer wall of the palace, and there was nothing behind it.

　But the white wall was still opened.

　Before them appeared a portal of light, rippling like water. It was clearly an "entrance," though its destination was unknown. Meanwhile...

　The clone of Arvit is also about to finish the entire dance.

　The replica's divine aura intensified with each dance move, and it had now become the centerpiece of the entire palace.