Hellish Land, Fallen City Ruins.
In the wide central city park, a massive pitch-black lump of flesh floated in midair, suspended by countless tentacles.
The lump pulsed like a heart, beating constantly, while the dense tentacles around it continuously transmitted energy into it.
This was the true body of the Ninth-Rank Dominion Demon.
It had been lurking here for more than one hundred years, and only Chaos Demon Soros knew its location.
As the “mother” of all Breeding Demons in the world, the Dominion Demon did not create Breeding Demons merely to prevent the extinction of demonkind.
When each Breeding Demon died, its soul did not return to the Spirit World.
Instead, it returned directly to the Dominion Demon’s body and was converted into pure energy.
By sending Breeding Demons out to grow through battle and experience, then reclaiming their matured souls after death, the Dominion Demon attempted to break through the shackles of King Rank.
In fact, the souls of all Breeding Demons were fragments of the Dominion Demon’s own soul.
So whenever a fragment returned to the main body, the Dominion Demon could completely absorb the power contained in that soul, along with some emotionally intense memories.
Most of those memories were scenes from the Breeding Demons during their moments of climax. Over the endless years, this had become its only form of entertainment.
But today, a Breeding Demon named Hera sent back a memory fragment the Dominion Demon had never experienced before.
At the beginning of the memory, Hera was bound alone inside a prison cell. The Dominion Demon could clearly feel Hera’s fear and panic.
Then the scene shifted.
A small silver-haired girl wearing the robes of a Saintess of the Church of Life appeared in front of Hera.
“A Saintess?!”
Nearly three hundred years had passed, yet this was the first time the Dominion Demon had ever seen a Life Saintess inside a Breeding Demon’s memories.
What was going on here?
Could it be that this Life Saintess had tortured its Breeding Demon to death?
No way…
The Dominion Demon froze for a moment. Had the Church of Life become so arrogant nowadays that they did not even bother hiding it anymore?
It was one thing for Priests to resolve their urges among themselves, but now even the highest-ranking Saintess had come personally to release the darkest desires in her heart on a Breeding Demon?!
Now the Dominion Demon was intrigued. It wanted to see exactly what method this silver-haired Saintess used to kill a battle-hardened Breeding Demon.
In the next moment, Hera’s perspective suddenly lowered.
The Dominion Demon saw the red-hot iron rod in Truth’s hand, accompanied by Hera’s desperate pleas.
“Huh? Going this far?!”
The Dominion Demon jerked upright in shock, yet at the same time it became even more excited.
Damn, that iron rod had to be at least five hundred degrees…
Was this silver-haired girl really a Saintess?
The Dominion Demon had seen many strange ways Breeding Demons died, but this was the first time it had seen one killed by a Life Saintess.
“I’ll talk, I’ll talk… I’ll tell you everything…”
When the distance between the iron rod and Hera’s body shrank to barely one centimeter, Hera finally gave in.
However, whatever she said afterward to the silver-haired Saintess was unknown to the Dominion Demon, because the memory jumped directly to another emotionally intense moment.
When Demon Hunter Ovid drove a silver sword into Hera’s chest, overwhelming confusion, anger, and unwillingness flooded Hera’s entire being.
The Dominion Demon was completely baffled.
“Why did the person suddenly change? Where did this Demon Hunter come from? What happened to that Life Saintess? Why are these memories so disconnected? What happened in the middle?!”
The curiosity of the Chaos Demon was fully stirred.
What exactly had the Life Saintess done?
With a thought, it immediately contacted Chaos Demon Soros, the public leader among the Original Demons.
“Soros, do you recognize this Saintess?”
All demons knew Soros was extremely interested in the Saintesses of the Goddess of Life.
He collected any information related to them without exception.
The Dominion Demon directly showed Soros the memory it had just seen.
The moment Soros saw Truth, he instantly became excited.
“The Ninth Saintess? You encountered her? Doesn’t she have Shadow Guards with her? How did you manage that?!”
“One of my soul fragments met her. Do you know her?”
“She’s a very standard Saintess, but extremely important to us. She hasn’t been completely brainwashed by the Goddess of Life yet. If we can make contact with her before she completes the Saintess examination, there’s a high chance she’ll become one of us.”
“Just by contacting her she’ll become your person? Do you think every Saintess is like Mary?”
“No. One of the Ninth Saintess’s… friends is currently in our hands. Their relationship seems quite good. So we plan to first let her friend learn some secrets about the gods, then have that friend influence the Ninth Saintess in return. After that we’ll make contact with Mary. When the time comes, everything will fall into place.”
“You’re dreaming. Let me ask you something. If the Ninth Saintess is really the kind of standard Saintess you described, then how do you explain her using a red-hot iron rod to torture my soul fragment?”
“Hm… probably an impostor, or the memory of that soul fragment was altered. Maybe someone is trying to smear the Ninth Saintess. From what I know, she has offended quite a few factions in her territory recently.”
Soros casually dismissed the matter as internal human conflict.
Based on his long years of studying Saintesses, he was certain they would never torture prisoners.
But the Dominion Demon did not believe that explanation. It insisted on investigating the place where Hera died.
Left with no choice, Soros used a skill to glance toward the Demon Hunter camp in the Rift Valley Region.
At once he spotted Truth wandering around inside the camp.
At that moment, under the escort of several Demon Hunters, Truth returned to her tent to rest.
Damn.
It was not an impersonation, nor altered memories.
That aura…
There really was a Life Saintess here!
“She actually left the city? And the strongest Demon Hunter around her is only Fifth Rank? This is the perfect chance to contact her!” Soros was shocked.
He had only stopped observing the Ninth Saintess for a few days, and suddenly she had left the city to participate in the Demon-Hunting Campaign.
Soros quickly devised a plan.
Unlike the statue of the Goddess of Life inside Deya City, which could block demon surveillance, this beginner Demon Hunter camp had no anti-detection measures against high-rank demons.
Everything here could be clearly seen by Soros.
Except for the Saintess’s Shadow Guard still hiding in the dark.
“I need to find a way to lure that Shadow Guard away temporarily. Then we act before the other Shadow Guards arrive. The window will be extremely short, probably only enough to say two sentences before we escape. If three Ninth-Rank Shadow Guards gather together, we’re finished.”
“So we’ll have to write a letter to the Ninth Saintess…”
“Why did things suddenly get so complicated? Oh right, remember to ask her in the letter about what happened next with that red-hot iron rod!” the Dominion Demon quickly added.
It simply wanted to know whether the “kind” Ninth Saintess had used that red-hot iron rod properly.
…
Near evening, as dusk approached, the cleanup of the Rift Valley battlefield was nearing completion.
Demons of different races were being sorted and transported in batches to prisons or to the Academy’s Research Room. Everything was progressing smoothly.
However, only this particular frontline assault had gone smoothly.
Earlier that day, messages arrived from the Second Frontline and Third Frontline saying they had entered a stalemate and needed large reinforcements.
Those two demon gathering points contained large numbers of Intermediate Rank demons, unlike the Rift Valley side which only had a few Third Rank demons.
As a result, the initial assault there achieved little success. Later, trapping the demons required a heavy cost, and now neither side dared act rashly.
“Hiss… Looks like we’ll have to wait for reinforcements from Wangdu. If we send the new recruits from the Fourth Frontline there now, they’ll only be able to handle logistics… Fine. Tomorrow morning we’ll send two groups to support them.”
Inside the command post, where only Kavier was present, he muttered while reading the request letters from the other frontlines.
Aside from asking for help, the letters also harshly criticized him. No wonder the casualty numbers on his side looked so good—he had secretly kept a Saintess and refused to share!
A Saintess belonged to everyone. Kavier absolutely could not keep her to himself.
“Sigh… what good would sending you a Saintess who hasn’t even reached Second Rank do?” Kavier refused to send Truth to an Intermediate Rank battlefield. They could wait for the Saintess from Wangdu.
After replying to the letters, Kavier revealed the Mark of the Goddess of Life on his right hand and knelt devoutly on the prayer mat.
“Goddess of Life, your devout follower Kavier awaits your guidance.”
Two minutes later, the mark emitted a faint glow, and Kavier was pulled into the consciousness space by the Goddess of Life.
“What is it?”
“It’s about the test for the Ninth Saintess. Her performance on the battlefield today was extremely surprising. Her ability to adapt surpasses nearly all people her age. Even when facing living demons, she showed no fear at all. She didn’t look like someone on a battlefield for the first time, or someone seeing demons for the first time.”
“So I believe further testing is unnecessary. The Ninth Saintess is truly outstanding.”
…
About fifteen minutes later, at the Saintess’s residence.
Truth was carefully modifying the Dungeon inside her Mist.
Aside from the usual expansions and difficulty increases, she was planning to add a team system.
After reaching Second Rank, the UI Function within the Mist could now temporarily grant limited permissions to others.
This would allow Adventurers to freely form teams.
After forming a team, all members could share experience evenly and check each other’s status in real time. It was extremely useful.
Of course, if someone wanted to use this function, they would have to fight Slimes.
Now the Slimes had a chance to drop a special item called a Party Card.
Truth also planned to build a commercial street in Slime Square. Once the street was completed, rental income would pour in continuously.
At that point, the financial problems of Deya City would be greatly eased.
Speaking of which, when would the Church reply?
Tia was still waiting for those one hundred thousand Gold Coins to handle an emergency…
“Hm? What kind of weird movement is that?”
At that moment, Truth’s subconscious suddenly sensed that some presence was watching her.
She instinctively became alert.
But very soon she relaxed again and lazily continued lying on the bed.
Oh. It was just the Goddess of Life.
She almost attacked.
Why had that woman suddenly come to watch her?
And her spying skills were terrible. She was already Twelfth Rank and still got noticed. Clearly she never trained much in scouting skills.
Meanwhile, the Goddess of Life was openly observing Truth.
Seriously. Why was she so casual in private? Even her sleeping posture was sloppy, with no elegance at all.
But that did match Kavier’s description.
The Goddess of Life thought to herself, and soon an interesting idea began to form.
Truth’s dream was extremely simple—she just wanted big sisters. She was easy to satisfy.
Her Priest talent was strong, and the Opportunity she gained from the underground Maze was powerful as well.
Perhaps it would be possible to let her see a different side of the Church?
Thus, the voice of the Goddess of Life slowly sounded in Truth’s mind. She planned to give her a reward first.
But halfway through speaking, she was suddenly interrupted by something unexpected.
“I heard from Kavier that you performed very well in today’s battle. You could tell me what reward you wa— hm? What kind of weird movement is that?!”
The Goddess of Life had just started asking what reward Truth wanted when she suddenly smelled the scent of a high-rank demon.