Chapter 176: It Must Have Been the Blasphemers

After realizing that Truth hadn’t used any so-called psychological tactics, Roland and the others’ faces turned completely green.

All that time spent seriously analyzing the Ninth Saintess’ intentions before coming here—only to find out she didn’t have any.

They even wondered if denying the existence of mind games might itself be a mind game, but Truth’s next sentence—“Don’t worry, I’ll make an announcement to explain everything clearly to your people”—instantly shattered that chain of suspicion.

Truth didn’t know much about Wangsheng City; at most, she just knew this place disliked the Gods.

After all, it was a city she’d established after crossing over, so her idea was to get along for now and see how things went. If it got unpleasant later, she could just treat it like a quest and wipe it out.

Roland and the others’ first thought was to take back the gifts.

Not counting all the other smaller offerings, just the value of the Rebirth Gift alone was nearly fifty thousand gold coins—almost at the level of a national tribute. It might be worth it if given to a ruthless and highly influential Life Saintess.

But if it went to some underage girl, far from Wangdu, who looked like she’d never been burned by society, didn’t care about being assassinated, exuded clear, foolish innocence, and had only just taken office as a lower-ranked Saintess… then it was a huge loss…

Truth, as a Saintess, was certainly worth winning over, but at this point she definitely wasn’t worth more than fifty thousand gold coins.

After all, she wasn’t the only Saintess in the world; there were several in Wangdu, and in terms of rank, experience, and influence, all of them towered over Truth like the Northern Frontier Mountains.

Wouldn’t it be better to give those fifty thousand coins to the Saintesses of Wangdu?

The only major advantage Truth had over the Saintesses in Wangdu was that she lived closer to Wangsheng City, so all in all, she was only worth a little over ten thousand coins at most right now.

There was also the problem: why should Wangsheng City openly invest in its enemy?

Roland seriously considered taking back the gifts and leaving, but since they’d already been given, it would be shameless to snatch them back.

Luckily, the Ninth Saintess was simple and hadn’t tried to use their plan against them—instead, she came right out and said the psychological tactics were fake.

So Roland quickly changed tack, shifting their purpose from compensation and apology to proposing peaceful coexistence.

At least this way they could save a little face and claim the moral high ground:

“That’s right, Saintess. Although Wangsheng City and the Church of the Goddess of Life have had centuries of grievances, in you, we see a glimmer of hope to end this age-old enmity!”…

“So, Little Truth, can you really solve the conflict between the atheists and the Gods?” Tia asked curiously.

In her eyes, Wangsheng City had just misjudged Truth’s intelligence, but their strategic calculations were sound.

She was sure Wangsheng City had its reasons for making such a grand gesture to please Truth!

“No idea~ How should I know what those people see in me? Maybe their city’s got a Prophet who guessed I’d rule the world someday or something.”

Truth lounged lazily in her chair as she replied.

She figured that as long as she ruled the world, the disputes between Desecrators and the Gods would vanish, because by then, anyone who didn’t worship her would be erased from history!

Some people would surely ask, “Truth, Truth, isn’t what you’re doing the same as the other Gods?”

No, it isn’t. Unlike the current five Human True Gods, after becoming a God, Truth wouldn’t be soft-hearted—she’d never tolerate Desecrators opposed to theocracy or high-level Demons stirring up trouble on her turf.

She’d never studied the art of kingship, but she was plenty good at fighting.

After all, this was a world where Gods objectively existed. Truth truly couldn’t understand what the atheists were thinking.

Maybe they just wanted to give the Gods a new name—like calling the Goddess of Life a “Life Immortal” instead. That way, there’d be no Gods.

But no matter how you delude yourself, the Twelve-Rank still objectively exists.

“Haha, then when you rule the world, remember to make me Grand Saintess. Oh right, what’ve you been sneaking around doing these days? Lots of bigshots have been trying to find you, but you’re always gone.”

Tia whispered, half joking but genuinely curious about what a Hidden One’s chosen did on a normal day, so she could learn in advance.

“I’ve been working hard to level up, and managing the Mist on the side. I’d planned to quietly reach mid-tier, but then the Wangsheng City folks wanted to invite me over. I have a feeling things will get especially troublesome in the future.”

Truth very readily agreed to visit Wangsheng City and sign a non-aggression pact.

Simply put, Deya City promised not to use the power of the Goddess of Life to intimidate Wangsheng City, and Wangsheng City wouldn’t send Desecrators to stir up trouble in Deya City or the surrounding areas.

She’d also take the chance to check out the Demon King’s Legendary Weapon— she’d planned to leave right away, but Roland said that for some reason, this year’s Disaster, Firefall Island, hadn’t arrived as usual, so the Demon King’s Legendary Weapon hadn’t shown any sign of awakening.

Wangsheng City needed to send people to investigate, and once they had news, they’d notify Truth immediately and invite her over as a guest.

“You’re right about one thing—pretty soon, you won’t have a moment’s rest,” Tia replied.

“What do you mean?”

“You don’t know? The Demon-Hunting Campaign is about to start again. As a Saintess, you’ll need to inspire the Demon-Hunting Army. And that’s not all—did you hear that the Demon King is about to awaken?”

“Nope.”

“Sigh… you don’t know about the Demon King either? It’s an undying, immortal Demon King that resurrects every few decades. To prevent it from bringing Disaster to the world, the Gods choose a Hero and three teammates to set out on a crusade against it.”

“So what’s that got to do with me?”

“A lot, actually. One of the Hero’s teammates must be a Priest, and the only ones worthy are usually Life Saintesses. So…”

Tia poked Truth’s nose. Truth frowned and sat up a little straighter.

“There’s really such a rule? Then I’ll just act unworthy—surely there’ll be some sort of selection for the Hero’s companions, right?”

“There is, and you could totally slack off. But the Goddess of Life might have an opinion about that. Word is, she likes to rig things so her own people go on the Demon King crusade. If she picks you…”

“That’s for the future, and I’ll deal with it when it comes.” Truth was utterly unconcerned.

Just as she’d thought before, at worst, she’d go take out the Demon King ahead of schedule.

As for going against the Goddess of Life—forget it. She still wanted to be a Saintess, after all; you could always score some perks from the boss.

Tia could only sigh at that. As expected, being the Hidden One’s chosen was great—even a Twelve-Rank Goddess like the Goddess of Life wasn’t worth worrying about. She was jealous.

The next half hour, the two of them sorted through the latest invitations and letters—almost all from this or that family wanting to meet with Truth. Truth ignored them all unless it was important, like diplomacy with neighboring countries.

Gifts, though, were always accepted. No refusal.

At that moment, an Enforcer suddenly knocked frantically on the office door, calling out at the entrance:

“Dean! There’s trouble! Zuoao Duke’s and Heis Duke’s manors are ablaze—no matter what we do, we can’t extinguish the flames!”

Shortly after the Wangsheng City delegation left, fires broke out at both manors in Deya City.

At first, everyone thought it was an accident, but the servants at Heis Manor, while trying to fight the fire, discovered that the flames were unaffected by water and even burned more fiercely when touched by water—it was clearly Evil Fire!

Even stranger, the Evil Fire didn’t cause many casualties.

It deliberately avoided most people, and spread swiftly from the outer parts of the manor straight to the third-floor office—where Heis Duke was resting at the time.

By the time people found Heis, his bones were already charred black.

Meanwhile, something similar had happened at the neighboring Zuoao Manor. It was obviously a premeditated assassination.

Ever since the Ninth Saintess arrived, there’d been constant news of upper-class assassinations in the city, sending waves of panic through the people of Deya City.

Such blatant targeting of Deya City, plus rumors not long ago that “Saintess kills without blinking,” could only mean that Wangsheng City wanted to smear the Ninth Saintess.

So it had to be the work of the Desecrators!