A Core Ship From The Start
Chapter 948 - Chapter 948 Chapter 658 Locke Town

Chapter 948: Chapter 658 Locke Town Chapter 948: Chapter 658 Locke Town Under the guidance of the Priest, the group arrived at a secluded corner of the graveyard located behind the Temple of Tyler. The area was shaded by green trees and seemed rather peaceful. In one corner of the graveyard, Duanmu Huai noticed a small tombstone and a small grave.

The engraving on it still read.

“Poor Lisa, she didn’t even have the chance to open her eyes to see the world, may she rest in peace”

“Did you give her a name?”

“Of course.”

The Priest nodded.

“A soul of the deceased cannot go to its rightful place without a name… Of course, it’s hard to say whether it has a soul.”

“Alright.”

Duanmu Huai didn’t say much. He then stepped forward, raised his right hand, and under the control of his Gravity Gloves, the soil quickly turned over, revealing a small coffin that Duanmu Huai placed beside him. Afterward, with a slight movement of his fingers, he opened the lid of the coffin.

A nauseating stench emanated from it, and upon closer inspection, one could see the rotting corpse of a baby inside.

“Ugh…”

Seeing the corpse and smelling the foul stench, both Anhe Guleiya and Greiya instinctively stepped back, while Mary frowned but did not move away.

“Aren’t you afraid, Miss Mary?”

Watching Mary still busily taking notes in her notebook, An cautiously asked, hesitating for a moment.

“Actually… in our world, we’ve seen quite a few similar things following Mr. Duanmu…”

The level of disgust from the Outer Gods and the Ancient Dominators far surpassed the degenerating baby corpse in front of her, leaving Mary feeling numb.

“Your world isn’t easy either…”

Hearing Mary’s response, An looked at her sympathetically, unable to say a word.

Duanmu Huai didn’t care about the prattle of the girls beside him; he carefully examined the baby corpse in front of him, gauging it.

Despite some areas starting to rot, one could indeed detect beast-like traces on the infant, such as its fingers, which were not chubby like those of a normal baby; rather, they were thin and dry, resembling not malnutrition but more similar to eagle’s claws. Further scouting revealed sharply pointed teeth in its mouth and a hoof-like split in its toes.

Hmm… by the Tribunal’s standards, definitively an Alien.

Generally speaking, Judges determine whether something is an Alien by its teeth, of course. Your own claims of losing a tooth doesn’t count, but if born with sharp, predatory teeth, one is thoroughly deemed non-human by the Tribunal, eligible for immediate execution by burning.

Because it’s clear–it’s the result of Subspace erosion.

Similar to a Beastman.

Duanmu Huai remembered the Beastmen from the world of Novice’s Village, which, due to the Wind of Magic, resulted in mutated infants that were bipedal creatures with beastly features, innately worshipping Chaos and Evil Gods. In Novice’s Village, Beastmen were definitely part of the Chaos Camp, meant to be eliminated on sight.

So, from this indication, creatures like Giants, Orcs, Goblins in this world were also completely excluded from the human category, merely the mutated massive skulls and teeth revealed they were no longer humans.

Well, physical mutations are understandable, but the problem is the lack of a soul…

Duanmu Huai turned to the Magic Advisor next to him.

“What’s your opinion on this?”

“Ah…”

Facing Duanmu Huai’s inquiry, both Anhe Guleiya seemed visibly troubled, whispering quietly for a moment before seemingly making up their minds.

“Generally speaking, whether infants possess souls is also a very difficult subject to study.”

“What, are you suggesting that infants do not have souls before they are born?”

“Well… it’s not exactly like that, but according to the records from the academy, there is indeed discussion on this matter. Some believe that a newborn soul enters the mother’s body, and hence the pregnancy occurs. Others think that before birth, infants actually have no souls, similar to the fingers or hair on a human body, only truly entering the body with the first cry at birth.”

“Do you think that’s possible?”

“I’m not an expert in soul studies…”

An spread his hands.

“I need to conduct some local studies to figure it out; at least for now, we can’t draw a conclusion.”

“What about Tyler’s view on this?”

Not having received an answer from An, Duanmu Huai turned to the Priest.

“You must have consulted Tyler, right?”

“The God of Justice did not respond to our calls.”

“So even Tyler doesn’t know…”

“Err…”

Hearing Duanmu Huai’s muttered remark, the Priest looked somewhat awkward, but Duanmu Huai didn’t mind.

It’s worth mentioning that Duanmu Huai doesn’t plan to rely on faith to expand the Tribunal’s collection of followers, and the reason is simple–once it starts collecting the Power of Faith, that would mean there has to be a designated entity for worship.

For example, the God of Justice, Tyler, everyone knows he is the God of Justice, Tyler, and even knows he lost his right hand, a very definitive deity image, so when followers pray, the Power of Faith will flow to the God of Justice, Tyler, becoming his strength. Of course, this is how it works for both Benevolent and Evil Deities.