Chapter 459: Chapter 457: Sheep Palace

William was still a bit dazed. Although he had seen the sheep flock rushing toward him at the Boundary Prairie, his memories after that moment were gone.

In such a critical moment, William had even prepared to switch personalities and tried to call out to the moon.

“Lene… where is this?”

“The former Source Epidemic Area, the Forest of Fertility~ Although it’s not as flourishing as before, under the protection given by Mother, everyone is living a relatively stable life.”

“Former Source Epidemic Area? If the forest still exists, if you all still exist, why was the Source Epidemic Area abolished?”

“Because our ‘functions’ were completely locked, or rather, all the rules related to fertility in the Old World were completely sealed off, even utterly destroyed, making it impossible to rapidly produce new life through the Fertility Liquid.

The once-thriving Forest of Fertility became neglected, the customers who used to sow extensively here all left, and the fertility lines that connected to every corner of the Old World, including the cultivation centers, were all abandoned.

The sheep flock was once deemed ‘abandoned,’ but as the World Infection took hold, Mother and the others could start to rebuild a community by borrowing the fertility rules from that world.

My birth is a very good sign, so Mother values me quite a lot.

Moreover, the New Born Church that you, Big Brother, destroyed was a human organization that worshiped Mother, trying to establish a new fertility network.”

“Multiple rules of the Old World, including fertility, have been sealed off, I see.

Anyway, thank you for your rescue. Also, there’s no need to call me ‘Big Brother’; you’ve grown up too, just calling me William is fine.”

“Yeah! William, you’re really amazing! When you were caught by the Earl-Level Blood Citizen, you actually managed to release a deeper layer of death to break free and almost cut off his arm.”

“Earl-Level? There’s a ranking like that…”

“Yes, Blood Citizens above Open Source are internally referred to as ‘Nobles,’ ranked as Baron, Viscount, Earl, Marquis, and Duke.

Earl Level belongs to high-level Blood Citizens who have completed the Path.”

“Hmm, I got it. By the way, Lene, are my things still around?”

“Yes! Including clothes, an axe that looks like an arm, a metal-structured weapon, and various medicines in the suitcase, as well as the skin of a Skin Bag Apostle.

And a Candle Puppet lady. She’s different from the regular Candle Puppets; she keeps calling you ‘teacher’ and has strong autonomy.

All your things are outside, do you want me to bring them in?”

“Yes.”

Taking advantage of the moment when Lene left the cave, William beckoned with one hand, and the clothes hanging outside the cave automatically floated in to dress him.

Soon, Lene came in with all the tools, including the axe which was sealed in a bag resembling an amniotic sac to isolate its death.

Seeing the teacher unharmed, the wax around Thirteen’s eye sockets kept dripping.

William also stepped forward proactively, gently patting the candle structure surfacing from Thirteen’s excitement, “Thirteen, you did well in the previous battle! Rest well for now, follow me, and don’t run around.”

“Yes, teacher.”

Thirteen quickly suppressed his emotions and followed like a servant.

Lene, tilting her head, had never seen such a self-aware Candle Puppet before.

“Big… I mean, William, before you go outside to meet your sisters, there’s one thing I need to confirm.”

William was busy stuffing everything into the suitcase while making sure the death from the axe wouldn’t leak out, “What’s the issue?”

Lene’s two fingers circled in front of her chest, she seemed a bit embarrassed.

“Well~ it’s about~ um~ what’s your relationship with the Original Tomb? Don’t mind me asking, William, I’m just curious, if it’s a deep relationship I’m willing to accompany you.”

“There’s no special relationship. I simply went to the Original Tomb and used the resources there to craft this Hand Axe. Although they invited me to join the Death Plague Knights, I refused,

and although the First Dead Man bestowed upon me the identity of a Blood Citizen, I’m not really one of the dead.

As for our relationship, I suppose I’m a visitor who was granted living rights in the Original Tomb.”

“Yay! That’s great! I knew you hadn’t established any relationship with the dead, William. In that case, I can show you around the forest for a few days and introduce you to the sisters and Mother.”

“Hmm, let’s go.”

William picked up the last tool, which was the skin that the Skin Factory Gatekeeper, Pim, had given him at the last moment. His movements paused briefly as he recalled Pim awakening from the disruption of the Blood Plague and immediately choosing to assist him in escaping and even giving him something, as well as the verbally entrusted matters, which filled his mind with a myriad of thoughts.

He temporarily put away the meaningful skin bag, planning to examine it slowly once he became familiar with the forest where the sheep-like creatures resided.

Following Lene out of the hot spring cave they were in, a walk of about ten minutes through the mountain tunnel brought them to an expansive ‘Stone Cave Hall,’

whose overall structure was similar to a goat’s cranial cavity, with space roughly equivalent to a formal soccer field.

Through the cave’s nose, eyes, or ear cavities one could see the sky outside.

The interior of the cave was terraced, divided into five levels,

each inhabited by a large number of women with different sheep horn structures frolicking, bathing, touching each other, using their bodies as toys, and even engaging in physical level discussions.

Similar to Lene’s body structure,

their abdomens, where the ‘womb’ should be, were transformed into black voids, out of which flowed a symbol of surplus black liquid, continuously.

This liquid gathered at the bottom through the terraced structure, flowing out of the cave’s ‘mouth’ towards the exterior.

At the very top of the terraced structure sat a chair made of innumerable wombs. Even though the wombs that composed the chair had long since lost their luster and some were even rotting, the chair still radiated a strong vitality.

There was no one on the chair at the moment.

When Lene led William to this place, thousands of feminine gazes all cast upon the rare male, examining him from top to bottom, most filled with desire.

Just as they paused their activities, ready to approach the male, they quickly smelled a Death Aura emanating from William’s body, which rapidly suppressed their desires.

Compared to releasing their desires, they were more concerned about their own lives.

They stopped their approach, only smiling and waving or foot-waving at William.

“William, these are all my sisters! They have been here way before I arrived and always take good care of me.”

William first bowed to all the sheep-like patients to express his gratitude for their rescue, and also quietly asked Lene beside him.

“Are all the sheep here?”

“Yes, because they can’t reproduce, the number of sheep has been decreasing year by year, and there used to be more people here! The population of the Forest of Fertility used to be more or less the total of the other Source Epidemic Areas.

However, once World Assimilation occurs, my sisters will go to that other world for effective fertility. I believe a large number of lambs will soon be born.”

“Hmm… But we are not in a forest now, are we?”

“Follow me!”

Lene grabbed William’s hand and leapt with force! The immense power given by the goat hooves carried the two of them several tens of meters into the air, landing securely at the cave’s corresponding ‘eye socket,’ overlooking the area below.

A forest covered in Fertility Liquid came into view,

while William’s position was roughly five hundred meters in the air, inside a super large goat skull suspended in mid-air,

where the continuously secreted Fertility Liquid from inside the Sheep Palace flowed out between the skull bones, watering the forest, sustaining the life of the former Source Epidemic Area, and hoping for a return to the prosperity of the past one day.

Lene explained on the side, “The place we are in now is the ‘Sheep Palace.’ Only goats that have achieved Open Source are invited to reside here. Those who haven’t can only live among the forest, responsible for the more cumbersome tasks of nurturing and fostering, and so on.

It seems my mother has gone away for a while on some business. We’ll talk more when she returns.

William, you’re not in a hurry to go, are you?”

“Not in a hurry.”

“Well, that’s good. Come with me… Considering the Death Attribute you carry, my sisters have specially arranged a single room for you. Of course, if you don’t mind, you could also stay with me…”

“A single room would be best, as sometimes I may not be able to control it and cause death to overflow.”

“Alright then, come with me.”