Morning sunlight streamed into the room. Lewan straightened up, relying on the memory of falling asleep the night before to search for her silver-white blindfold.
Fangsheng placed the blindfold beside Lewan and gently reminded her.
With Fangsheng's help, Lewan quickly found the blindfold and put it on.
After packing their things, the two walked out of the room, running straight into the Administrator who was just coming upstairs.
Upon seeing them, the Administrator rushed right over. But before he could speak, Fangsheng seized the initiative, his tone laced with sarcasm: "Administrator, what a clever scheme you've got—sending people to tail your own partners."
The Administrator's expression froze for a moment before he quickly recovered, smiling as he said: "Lord Nameless, this whole thing was just an accident. But may I ask where my men are now?"
Fangsheng sneered: "You're too late. Those two of yours have already had their hearts and lungs dug out. They're all cleaned up by now, aren't they?"
The Administrator's gaze darkened. He looked at Fangsheng and asked again: "Lord Nameless, have you been bewitched by the Witch? Why slaughter the innocent?"
Hearing this, Fangsheng couldn't help but burst out laughing, looking at the Administrator with eyes full of mockery.
"Administrator, whether those two can be considered innocent, I think you know better than anyone else. Trying to make a living in a place like this—can they really be called innocent?
Besides, you've already been banished to the West by the Harvest Church. Haven't you realized your own situation yet? You wouldn't actually believe that if you make a Nameless person worship the Harvest Church, their Bishop will allow you to return to your homeland, would you?"
As Fangsheng's voice fell, the Administrator's eyes widened. He gasped hysterically, staring at Fangsheng with bloodshot eyes, completely stripped of his previous elegance.
Lewan pressed her right hand onto her cloth pouch of holding, watching the Administrator intently. The moment he made a suspicious move, she would pull out the Mithril Scripture and cast an Imprisonment spell.
Yet, the scene she imagined did not happen. The Administrator quickly calmed down, his eyes still lingering with a trace of redness as he stared at Fangsheng and said in a deep voice: "Lord Nameless, so you are unwilling to worship the Harvest Church?"
"I never had any intention of worshiping the Harvest Church." After giving his reply, Fangsheng didn't provoke him further, steering the topic toward the Cultist: "Instead of worrying about this, Administrator, you'd better figure out how to deal with that Tier 2 Cultist!
Of course, you could join forces with that Cultist to deal with us. But I imagine that to a Cultist, the soul of a pious believer who was abandoned by the Church yet always wanted to return would undoubtedly be much more delicious and far more suitable as a sacrifice, wouldn't it?"
The Administrator snorted coldly and turned on his heel.
Seeing the Administrator leave, Lewan relaxed and asked Fangsheng: "How on earth did you deduce that the Administrator was abandoned by the Church?"
Fangsheng pointed at the ground beneath their feet and explained: "This land we're standing on is a place abandoned by the gods—a place where even the radiance of the World Tree cannot reach. And for a man of the Harvest Church to stay here for so many years, and even build up his own sphere of influence... no matter how you look at it, something's wrong, isn't it?"
"So you just guessed that something was wrong with him?" Lewan asked, confused. She had considered this possibility herself, but she hadn't dared to confirm it.
"I was just bluffing him. Who knew he'd be so fragile beneath that calm exterior? But I am curious what kind of crime he committed to get banished to this ghost of a place."
Lewan rummaged through her memories and softly said: "It's not necessarily that he's fragile. To him, faith is the only pillar keeping him alive in this place, and you were his only hope of returning. But you shattered his sweet fantasy. The fact that he didn't fly into a rage and attack us on the spot already shows he understands the bigger picture."
"Understanding the bigger picture and being fragile are two different things. Never mind him; let's go downstairs and ask the innkeeper to prepare some food for us. We have a tough battle ahead of us today."
"Mm."
……
"Merciful Goddess of Radiance, please have mercy on your humble follower, scatter your Holy Radiance, and grant the nameless heroic soul the power to slay demons."
As her voice trailed off, tiny points of light suddenly emerged from both Lewan—who stood with eyes closed in prayer—and Fangsheng, who knelt on one knee before her. Although the light consisted of only a few scattered specks, the Administrator, standing nearby as a Transcendent, could clearly sense the scorching Radiant Power contained within those tiny specks.
He watched Lewan, who had received the Goddess's favor, his eyes nearly popping out of his head. The Goddess of Radiance was this easygoing? She just bestowed Holy Radiance like that?
As for the person directly involved, Fangsheng felt the power surging within his body and looked at Lewan in confusion, as if asking: Under this kind of power, can that fellow's demon possibly hold out?
Yet Lewan was just as bewildered. She never expected that when she prayed to the Goddess of Radiance to scatter Holy Radiance, the Goddess would actually scatter it. Originally, she had figured she would just pray to the Goddess—if it worked, great, everyone's happy; if it didn't, she would use her own power of faith to protect Fangsheng. And yet, the prayer had actually succeeded?
Generally speaking, prayers within the church are divided into two types: one is to use one's own power of faith to protect others, and the other is to use the power of faith to communicate with the Church's deity and pray for Their help. The former is the most common, while the latter depends entirely on luck and whether the person praying is truly pious.
Recalling the absurd stunt she had pulled yesterday, Lewan certainly didn't consider herself a very pious person.
Seeing that Lewan was equally clueless, Fangsheng's expression turned grave. He said seriously: "When we disrupt the summoning ritual later, you must be very careful."
The Administrator let out a cold snort, tinged with jealousy: "You've both received the favor of the Goddess of Radiance. Do you really think the Demon Warlock's demon can take a single sword strike from you?"
Fangsheng glanced at the Administrator and patiently explained: "I imagine that if it were just an ordinary demon, the Goddess of Radiance probably wouldn't have answered my Witch's prayer." At these words, the Administrator's complexion turned rather ugly.
Lewan hurriedly pulled out her crystal ball, projecting her consciousness into it as she began searching for the Cultist's location.
Before long, Lewan found the Cultist's position: "On the east side of the town, very far away from us, and he's still moving."
The three of them mounted their horses. Fangsheng held the reins with one hand while shielding Lewan with the other, allowing her to concentrate fully on tracking the Cultist.
People all around watched curiously as the Administrator and Fangsheng galloped past on horseback, wondering what the Administrator was up to.
Taking in the crowds ahead of him, the Administrator gathered his inner breath, channeled his magic power, and roared at the top of his lungs: "A Transcendent has entered the town! Everyone, head to the west side of the town to take shelter!" He wasn't acting out of kindness; these criminals who had fled to the West deserved no pity, but he couldn't let them stumble blindly into the battle against the Demon Warlock.
He had heard that some Demon Warlocks could forcibly sacrifice the souls of a whole crowd of people to nourish their demons!
Galloping all the way, Fangsheng kept Lewan securely protected and shouted to the Administrator: "Administrator, what about your men? Why didn't you call for them?"
The Administrator shouted back in kind: "Lord Nameless, do you take me for a fool? Send them to their deaths?"