The Dea Plateau was not very peaceful last night.
According to the border guard troops, several groups of blasphemers who had secretly entered the country encountered some kind of brutal massacre at the same time.
The culprit could not yet be confirmed. This incident caused an uproar on both the Dea Plateau and in Wangsheng City.
After the guard troops had disposed of all the blasphemers’ bodies and, based on the equipment on them, figured out the purpose of their secret entry, three Demon Hunter Squadrons were urgently transferred from the front line to garrison the Southlands.
But this garrison was not to guard against blasphemers sneaking in from this side again.
Instead, it was because an unprecedented demon disaster had erupted in the Southern Marshes to the south!
Around sunrise, Water Marsh City suddenly sent out a distress call to the Church, saying that the number of demons over there had skyrocketed and they needed Demon Hunter support.
They had already announced an emergency city lockdown.
However, after quickly assessing the situation in the Southern Marshes, Kavier and the others agreed that this was simply not something their Demon-Hunting Army, whose average strength was below Third Rank, could handle.
So they had no choice but to temporarily isolate the Southern Marshes and wait for Wangdu to dispatch an intermediate-rank Demon Hunter Legion.
After sunrise, Deya City.
Truth slipped back to the Church of the Goddess of Life just in time.
By now, disciples were already beginning to arrive at the cathedral to pray and admire the back view of the Ninth Saintess during her prayers.
She had already arranged with Little Mist that after the prayer was over, she would come to the second-floor bedroom to swap shifts.
Before going back to Mist to test the new weapon, she should first keep her promise and hand things over to Little Mist.
Soon, with footsteps growing closer, Little Mist, her face showing some fatigue, pushed open the bedroom door and saw Truth lying sprawled out on the bed.
“Yo, the Ninth Saintess has arrived? How was your first day on the job? Did you get found out?”
“N-no!” Little Mist turned her face away to deny it. She wasn’t going to tell Truth that she had already reached some kind of secret agreement with Tia.
Afraid that she would mess everything up on the first day and then be severely punished by Truth, Little Mist had spent the whole night convincing Tia to keep this secret well.
Then, because of that, Tia had weaseled a lot of information out of her.
For example, Tia now knew that the relationship between the two sisters, Truth, was not harmonious.
They would fight over “family property,” often clash over differing approaches to the same matter, and even come to blows over it.
Moreover, the Hermit paid no attention to this, leaving the sisters’ problems to be resolved between themselves… After a whole night, Tia had really gotten a good scoop.
“Even though our level, skills, and everything are exactly the same, my sister somehow ends up stronger than me for no reason…”
“Even though we’re both priests, my sister isn’t kind to people at all. That gentle appearance she puts on in public is just an act. Behind the scenes, she’s way too evil! And she sets all kinds of disgusting traps to mess with adventurers!”
“Why is it just because my sister woke up a little earlier than me that she gets to hold more say in… uh, at home…”
Under Tia’s empathetic companionship, Little Mist poured out all her grievances. Tia patted her on the shoulder and asked curiously:
“Truth bullies you this much? Hasn’t the Hermit said anything about it?”
The Hermit? Hearing that word, Little Mist paused. In Tia’s mouth, that word probably didn’t refer to Truth but rather to the Mist’s Authority, right?
She remembered Truth saying that if they were ever forced to do bad things, they should make excuses like “the Hermit possessed me” or “the Hermit forced me” — basically, shift all the blame onto the false identity of “the Hermit” to protect their own image.
And Truth had also said that the “Hermit” identity must be controlled by her.
Only if she did the intimidating could they scare off certain powerful enemies and make them give up any bad ideas about Mist.
Even though Little Mist still resented Truth, she agreed with this point.
As a Will of Calamity that hadn’t fully grown yet, she understood the principle “a man is not guilty, but his jade is.”
If certain people found out that she, a Second-rank Priest, possessed Divine Authority, she would consider herself lucky if she only got skinned and studied!
So, after thinking it over, Little Mist replied somewhat aggrievedly:
“The Hermit… He’s biased…”
That’s right, the Authority was biased! She and Truth were both priests, so why could Truth completely dominate her in terms of both strength and authority over the power?
Authority must have hidden something and not given it to her!
Thus, amidst Little Mist’s various complaints, a rough relationship diagram gradually formed in Tia’s mind:
So the Hermit’s envoys were twin sisters. The elder sister was more favored because her personality fit the Hermit better.
The younger sister was weaker and had woken up later, so she was often bullied by her elder sister in Mist.
No one backed her up. And now she was being forced to come and replace her sister as the Saintess.
How pitiful…
“As long as you didn’t expose me, it’s fine. If you had ratted me out on the first day, I really would have had to take control of you. Alright, switch shifts. Take off the Saint’s Bracelet, give it to me, then quickly turn back into your true form and hide under the bed. I’ll block the Goddess of Life’s inspection for you.”
Inside the second-floor bedroom, Truth waved her hand and said.
Since every time the Saint’s Bracelet was removed, it would attract the Goddess of Life’s attention, they needed to be careful this time.
But then Little Mist suddenly became hesitant, as if she was reluctant.
“What, did you get addicted to being the Saintess?” Truth smacked her lips and asked.
Didn’t want to take off the bracelet? That was fine too. It would give her even more free time.
“No, it’s… there’s a problem with the bracelet…” Then, in front of Truth, Little Mist carefully lifted the corner of her robe, revealing her small feet, identical to Truth’s, pale with a hint of pink.
Little Mist had never worn shoes, but the dust on the ground couldn’t stick to her feet either. That wasn’t the main point. The main point was the pale silver anklet on Little Mist’s right ankle:
“Back in Mist, I did everything you asked. The Goddess of Life asked me why I kept taking the bracelet off and putting it back on, just like you predicted. I followed your script. But then, I don’t know what the Goddess of Life did, but she just put the bracelet on my foot…”
“Uh…”
After sorting things out a bit, Truth was slightly stunned.
It seemed the Goddess of Life had indeed gotten annoyed with Little Mist and had directly turned the pale gold Saint’s Bracelet into a pale silver Saintess Anklet and put it on Little Mist’s ankle.
Taking a closer look at the anklet, Truth confirmed:
“This thing… unless you cut it off with a special tool, or just cut off your foot, there’s no way to take it off.”
Who knew the Goddess of Life could be so sneaky, coming up with this trick to deal with her!
“Huh?! You mean I can never take it off?” Little Mist started to panic.
“You might have to be the Saintess for a while.” Truth crouched down and tugged at the Saintess Anklet, then spread her hands to show she couldn’t do anything.
“How can that be! R-right! I can turn back into my true form first, then I can take it off and give it to you!”
“And then how do we explain to the Goddess of Life how we took off the anklet and put it back on?” Truth tilted her head and asked.
“Well, uh…”
Little Mist bit her thumb lightly, her clever brain working at full speed to find a solution.
But unfortunately, she couldn’t think of one.
Finally, she went limp, dropped to her knees, and looked at Truth with teary eyes:
“Do I have to be the Ninth Saintess forever… No, I won’t accept it. I am the Will of Calamity, not a subordinate of some other god. You have to take responsibility for me!”
“Alright, alright, I’ll find a way to help you. But it’ll take some time. So for the next few days, keep filling in for me, okay?”
Not kicking her while she was down, Truth casually patted Little Mist’s head to comfort her.
“You promise?”
“I promise. Even though I bully you sometimes, have I ever lied to you?”
“That’s true… Wait, how do I know if you’ve ever lied to me?”
“Don’t sweat the small stuff, Saintess.” …
Actually, Truth did have a way to swap their identities without making the Goddess of Life suspicious.
But why would she want to swap now? Letting Little Mist stay in the cathedral while she went out to have fun— wasn’t that perfect?
Praise be to the Goddess of Life!
Premium Chapter
Login to buy access to this Chapter.