The nuns around her grew more excited as they spoke, their eyes filled with adoration for the Central Nun.
They even believed that even the Goddess bestowing a blessing was part of Zhou Qingqing’s calculations.
The girl from the East, with her jet-black and saintly long hair, naturally inspired endless wonder.
Furthermore, she had achieved the status of Central Nun with only the strength of the Ninth Order.
That was a mid-level power within the Holy See.
Some ordinary nuns even possessed Eighth Order strength, yet she held that position firmly despite her lower-order power.
This suggested she either possessed overwhelming hidden strength or incredibly ruthless methods.
There were even prophecies claiming she was a candidate to become a Bishop.
Although these were only rumors, no high-ranking figures in the Holy See had denied them.
She had even been dispatched to station the most dangerous location—the border of the Land of Desire in the south.
“That lady saw the unique nature of this Miss Witch from the beginning~”
“That’s why she proposed the idea of controlling the Witch!”
“That way, the Witch might no longer be our primary enemy!”
The little nun grew more excited as she spoke, even stirring up the emotions of several other nuns.
Faced with these fanatics, Bai Shuang instinctively took a few steps back.
Just as she was wondering what to do, she made a startling discovery.
As the light of the Goddess shone upon her, she felt an restless, surging power stirring within her body.
Bai Shuang looked at her hands in surprise, but the sensation lasted only an instant before vanishing.
It was so brief that she thought she had simply imagined it.
‘There was something just now…’
Bai Shuang tried to sense her body again with uncertainty, but after a brief check, she lowered her hand.
She failed to notice that a Circular Halo Mark was quietly emerging on the back of her hand.
Faced with the fanatical nuns around her, she could only cooperate and join them in praising the Goddess.
Fortunately, this phenomenon did not last long.
When the enthusiasm finally subsided, the crowd slowly dispersed.
Bai Shuang finally had a chance to breathe a sigh of relief, realizing for the first time that those nuns had such a fanatical side.
Leaning against a nearby wall, Bai Shuang slowly made her way to the room prepared for her.
Her eyes were full of fatigue as she looked at the simple and concise decorations.
She relaxed slightly.
Compared to the nuns who had previously treated her with cold indifference, she felt that their current fanatical state was even more terrifying.
She suspected that when they thought she had received the Goddess’s blessing, those nuns looked at her as if they wanted to see through her entirely.
Bai Shuang slowly wiped the corner of her mouth.
During the prayer just now, Bai Shuang felt like a lab rat.
She had been dragged by the nuns to drink Holy Water and then subjected to several rounds of healing Divine Arts.
It seemed they all wanted to witness another miracle.
Fortunately, whether she drank the Holy Water or underwent the healing Divine Arts, her reactions were no different from an ordinary person’s.
Seeing no further miracles, the crowd eventually left, giving her a chance to rest.
‘Although everyone’s excitement is a bit scary, at least I’m not hated anymore…’
Though she found the recent enthusiasm hard to handle, as she sat on the bed, she couldn’t help but recall the feeling of that jet-black hair brushing against her cheek.
Just thinking about it caused a faint blush to appear on her cheeks.
She felt a lingering attachment to that soft-spoken manner from earlier.
That nun was not only exactly her type, but she was also so gentle.
‘I’m starting to feel a bit obsessed with her…’
Bai Shuang showed a bashful expression, the kind only possessed by a young girl in the first throes of love.
Though she felt shy, she slowly raised her hand to look at the back of it.
Although she hadn’t detected anything earlier, she had noticed an abnormality on the back of her hand while she was being mobbed by the nuns.
A circular mark was now reflected there.
Bai Shuang didn’t know when this mark had appeared, but it likely had something to do with the “Goddess’s blessing” those nuns had mentioned.
‘The Goddess’s blessing…’
When she heard the nuns talking about Divine Arts earlier, she had felt a sense of restlessness, but she hadn’t been sure.
After all, there were too many people.
If word got out that a Witch had learned a Divine Art, it would likely cause a lot of trouble.
Bai Shuang was uncertain, but she still slowly raised her hand and looked at her palm.
‘The Divine Art those sisters mentioned should be this one…’
[Divine Art: Holy Light]
Accompanied by a burst of intense light in the room, Bai Shuang—who had only intended to give it a try—was momentarily stunned when the brilliance appeared in her palm.
She hadn’t expected to actually pull it off.
Even more unexpectedly, a ball of light formed in her palm, and in the next instant, the entire room was dyed white.
“Ah, my eyes! My eyes!!”
Faced with this sudden, intense light, Bai Shuang was clearly blinded by the Holy Light, and it was quite severe.
Such brilliance was no different from having a flashbang go off right in front of her.
Bai Shuang endured the discomfort in her eyes and buried herself under the covers, as if terrified that the residual glow would attract someone’s attention.
She thought her secret actions would go unnoticed, but she didn’t realize that this one small Divine Art had caused a deviation in her established destiny.
‘No one saw that… right?’
Bai Shuang tried to comfort herself, but the Holy Light cast by a Witch had unintentionally awakened another unknown existence.
***
In a space unknown to anyone, where time seemed to have no meaning, only the rhythmic sound of monotonous Bells echoed.
One Red Thread after another was strung through various Bells.
Whenever a Bell rang once, another Red Thread would extend a bit further.
Once the thread reached a certain length, it would pass through another Bell.
A single Bell might have four or five Red Threads passing through it, while a single Red Thread might cause five or six Bells to ring.
In the center of this tangled web of Red Threads, a girl surrounded by the crimson lines lay there.
She slowly opened her eyes.
She sat up within that prism-like world, a few broken Red Threads still hanging from her hair.
After gently tucking a long strand of hair behind her ear, she picked up a fallen Bell with a look of confusion.
‘Is the thread broken?’
A ripple of emotion flashed in her golden eyes as she looked at the broken Red Thread.
She took the fallen Bell in her hand.
She tilted her head in confusion, unable to understand why the Red Thread would break.
Such a thing had never happened before.
‘Destiny has deviated? Why would an error occur?’
The girl looked at the Red Threads before her, wanting to know the cause.
However, before she could touch them, another thread snapped.
Following that, a butterfly effect was triggered.
It started with a single broken thread, but then all the Bells belonging to that same line shifted their weight onto another Red Thread.
With the increasing number of Bells, the other Red Thread also snapped.
A chain reaction occurred, spreading from one thread to dozens.
Seeing this, the girl’s lazy expression vanished, and she stood up in a panic.
“Wait! Wait a moment, don’t break anymore!”
She frantically tried to stop the remaining threads from falling until all the Red Threads around her had snapped clean.
Each Red Thread represented a destiny from beginning to end.
For so many threads to snap simultaneously was proof that something had occurred which could completely disrupt everyone’s fate.
‘Everyone’s fate is in chaos, what… what should I do…!’