After the sky flickered like lightning before a storm more than ten times in quick succession, Emily finally appeared near Truth’s location.
“Damn it, my proficiency with Blood Element is still too low. It took me almost two minutes just to catch up!”
Emily wondered why the assassin had stopped moving once reaching this flat area.
Normally, wouldn’t they have completely hidden themselves and slowly moved forward?
Against the backdrop of the Wind Element, Emily slowly descended in front of the corpse of the visibly obvious Eighth Rank Assassin, Fia, then furrowed her brows.
The death was brutal—the assassin’s head seemed to have been crushed outright, and there was a particularly clear puncture wound through the abdomen.
Emily guessed that the assassin was pinned to the ground by some unreasonable force before being executed with a crushed head.
By the way, where had the assassin’s clothes gone?
Emily looked ahead and saw Truth pitifully crouching by a large boulder, still wearing the blood-stained, blue-black long skirt that originally belonged to the assassin.
Because of her petite frame, Truth couldn’t fill out the skirt at all, so she remained crouched, with the shoulder straps constantly slipping off her shoulders, forcing her to keep holding them up with her hands, wearing a frustrated expression.
Honestly, what use is being that tall besides wasting food…
“Truth!”
Seeing Truth’s wronged expression, Emily immediately grew anxious. It wasn’t her style to let such an adorable little girl be scared and anxious alone!
Right now, she wanted nothing more than to rush over and give Truth a warm hug, but the more she wanted to, the more she reminded herself not to act impulsively.
Carefully sensing the surrounding elements, she found everything was calm… and there were no unusual scents.
Not a trap, then?
Emily couldn’t say if this was a sacrificial ritual, but she was sure the scene had been tampered with by someone.
Killing an assassin from the City of Passing would normally mix up the surrounding elements and carry some of the killer’s aura.
It seemed that the assassin didn’t want to expose their identity…
Indeed, before Emily arrived, Truth had already promptly cleaned up the scene, preventing her from suspecting demon involvement.
After checking carefully for a while, Emily finally crouched beside Truth and gently stroked her head.
“It’s alright now. I’m here.”
Emily chose not to immediately ask Truth what had happened, fearing it might cause extra mental trauma.
Instead, she planned to comfort her first and bring her back to Dea City so Aisia and the others could take care of her.
Heh heh, time to make amends and earn some goodwill points from Truth!
So why was Truth wearing the assassin’s clothes? Did she take them off after the assassin died? Then who took Truth’s clothes off beforehand?
Could it be that the assassin tried to take advantage of Truth? Damn it, how could someone target such an adorable little girl? Don’t they know some things are meant to be admired from afar, not peeked at!
Thanks to a certain senior who secretly saved Truth, or else Emily would have been heartbroken seeing her mistreated…
Then Emily craned her neck slightly, trying to see Truth’s barren chest where the skirt didn’t cling, but Truth caught on and turned away immediately.
“What are you looking at?”
“Uh… I was just checking if you’re hurt,” Emily answered guiltily.
Huh, she didn’t expect Truth to be so alert. She had thought Truth would be trembling quietly in a corner, scared stiff by the assassin’s gruesome death, muttering for help.
Not quite what she imagined. But since Truth was mostly fine, it was a blessing in disguise.
“Anyway, I’ll take you back first. I’ll handle the rest.”
Emily carefully lifted Truth into her arms, and Truth didn’t resist much—just as long as she wasn’t touched randomly.
But why wasn’t this shadow guard asking what had just happened? She had even prepared answers for all sorts of questions!
If you’re not going to ask, then I have a whole list of questions!
The two began leaping through the air repeatedly. During the flight, Truth suddenly spoke up.
“Are the people from the City of Passing especially afraid of the Goddess?”
Truth’s current fascination was why assassins from the City of Passing feared the Goddess of Life more than the most heinous demons.
Huh? Why the sudden question? Emily fell silent briefly. Had the assassin just said something strange to her?
Although she knew some secrets about the Goddess, she was her employee now, and before retirement, it was better not to backstab the current boss.
Because the people there were extreme—they would even “divide households” after killing someone! Completely insane.
That was why they feared the Goddess of Life’s retribution.
Besides, she had been really worried about Truth being “divided” just now. “Truth, can I ask how you survived that assassin’s hands?”
Seeing Truth stable, Emily cautiously inquired what had happened, and Truth’s answer was just what she expected.
“A senior who doesn’t want to reveal their name taught me. So, is dividing households a religious custom of the City of Passing?”
“Not at all. They’re just afraid of the Resurrection Spring from the Goddess of Life. It’s said that as long as the body and soul remain mostly intact after death, one can be brought back to life. That’s why they have this habit of dividing households.”
“If you hadn’t been saved by that senior, you probably would’ve been scattered around piece by piece.”
“Scattered? Such a stupid method. Why not just eat the body or burn it?”
“You don’t understand. Matter can transform into other forms. Even if you’re burned to ashes, as long as I collect your ashes and the surrounding elements originally belonging to you almost perfectly, you can still be revived. Being eaten is the same, as long as…”
“Alright, I get what you mean. No need to talk about the disgusting part. Also, I feel like I’ve heard this somewhere before…”
Truth pondered for a few seconds.
“Oh right, Alchemy!”
Truth knew there were several types of Revival Art: Soul Possession, Impure Earth Reincarnation which carries memories, and the strongest being the legendary Revival Scroll, which could restore a person’s corpse perfectly without any conditions.
Emily’s mention of revival requiring a high degree of body and soul integrity sounded like the Revival Art in Alchemy. So Truth boldly guessed:
“So the Goddess of Life knows Alchemy, right?”
“Ah… well…”
Emily gradually stopped leaping, looking somewhat shocked at the girl she was carrying in her arms.
Wait, you know about Alchemy?!
Not only did she know it, she was quite familiar with it, though her profession prevented mastery.
Alchemy was a vast skill tree. The Elemental Adventurer class came with innate Elemental Control, which fit perfectly with Alchemy.
Over time, high-level Alchemy became monopolized by Elemental Adventurers, evolving into their unique skill tree.
However, 500 years later, Alchemy had developed a very bad reputation—turning people into puppets, refining souls into gold, and so forth—almost putting it on the same level as black magic.
Now, Alchemy was extremely rare and only mastered by adventurers of the Order of Elements.
In other words, Truth was actually suspecting that the Goddess of Life’s profession wasn’t that of a priestess, but rather an Elementalist or Elemental Priest!
Emily grew flustered and gave her sincere advice:
“Ninth Saintess, some things are better left unexplored.”
But Truth was in no mood to listen.
How could she not dig deeper? After all, the true priestly authority was in her hands!