Chapter 297
Chapter 297. Instructions
A few hundred li east of White Dragon Harbor, there was a small island floating upon the sea. At the center of the island stood a temple.
If the people of White Dragon Harbor passed by this place, they would be able to see the statue above the temple. It was the statue of the Goddess of the Currents.
The statue occupied half the entire temple. Anyone who set foot on the island, or even saw the island from outside, would be able to spot the statue at a glance.
Directly beneath the statue, there was a quiet little room. The room was covered with soft fur carpets, and on the two opposite ends of the walls, two lamps faced each other and emitted blue light.
On the wall facing the door, there was a small statue of the Goddess of the Currents. It was different from the enormous statue outside.
Inside the mouth of this small divine statue was a deep-blue gemstone, which clearly reflected the entire room.
After Heather completed her routine prayer in this room, the gemstone in the statue’s mouth released a faint glow, reflecting Heather’s figure upon its surface.
After a long while, Heather performed a deep bow, then walked out of the room and closed the door.
“Why did you take so long today?”
Valerie, who had been waiting for Heather outside the door, asked.
According to the usual timing, although Heather came here every day to pray, she would only pray for one or two minutes each time, going through the motions before coming straight out.
Today, however, Heather had stayed inside for almost ten minutes.
“The Goddess’s consciousness finally descended upon this statue today, so I specially asked the Goddess about the Emissary of the god we encountered last time.”
“Oh?! Then what did the Lord of the Currents say?” Valerie looked at Heather with a smile.
Heather said unhappily,
“She told me not to pay too much attention, because the god behind that Emissary has not yet gained a firm foothold in the Spirit Realm. Perhaps in the next moment, that god will vanish from the Spirit Realm, and all memories related to that god will disappear from our minds.”
Valerie smiled and said,
“Is that not a good thing? In that case, you may not even need to look for that Emissary. Perhaps before long, they will no longer be an Emissary at all.”
“What is good about that?! I still have to find that person and take revenge. If I lose my memories, then how am I supposed to...”
Seeing that Heather was somewhat agitated, Valerie quickly said,
“All right, Your Highness. If you need it, I can help mobilize some of the Church’s internal resources to help you search for them.”
“Hmph!” Heather snorted, then said,
“There is no need. I already requested help from the Goddess. The information I received was that the Church probably will not be able to find that Emissary anymore.”
“Why is that?” Valerie asked in confusion.
Although the Church of the Goddess of the Currents was not one of the continent’s top powers, its believers were spread almost across the entire continent, which made the Church extremely strong when it came to recruitment and manpower.
In that respect, there were almost no powers that could surpass them.
“According to the Goddess, that Emissary just so happens to be the Emissary of the god who attacked the Emerald Market. After doing something this significant, their first priority would be to hide.”
“That god paid an enormous price to open up a new Domain in the Spirit Realm and sealed the entire Domain completely. Even gods cannot do anything about it for the time being.”
“That Emissary is probably hiding inside that Domain. No matter what method the Church uses, we cannot find that Domain.”
“So that is how it is!” Valerie scratched her head and gave up on that idea.
“Oh, right...” Heather seemed to remember something. She took out a sheet of golden paper and said,
“The reason the Goddess’s consciousness descended into this statue this time seemed to be because She wanted to give me an instruction.”
Hearing this, Valerie looked as though she had been startled, then said speechlessly,
“Your Highness, for something this important, you should have told me immediately...”
Heather smiled awkwardly but did not answer that question. Instead, she continued speaking on her own.
“It is only that the Goddess wants me to participate in a trial. It is even a trial in the Spirit Realm. Of course I did not need to tell you immediately about that kind of trial. After all, even if I fail, there will not be any consequence...”
Heather raised her eyes and looked at Valerie’s expression. When she found that Valerie’s face was still tense and her brows remained tightly furrowed, she finally apologized.
“I am sorry. In the future, whenever I receive an instruction from the Goddess, I will definitely tell you immediately.”
Only after hearing that did Valerie’s expression ease slightly. She said slowly,
“It is enough that Your Highness remembers this in the future... Now, let us talk about the matter the Goddess arranged.”
Valerie moved closer to Heather and saw the trial details written on the paper.
“It really is a Spirit Realm trial. Your Highness, you do not need to take too great a risk. However, Your Highness has also overlooked the Goddess’s meaning.”
“The Goddess is not asking you to try and see whether you can pass this trial. She wants you to obstruct everyone in this trial from passing it.”
“Ah?! Me?” Heather cried out in surprise.
Only then did Heather see the specific task the Goddess wanted her to carry out.
“That is correct, Your Highness. After entering, you need to eliminate everyone and prevent even a single person from passing this trial.”
“That is rather difficult.” Heather thought with distress.
Valerie suddenly smiled and said,
“Your Highness actually does not need to worry. This task is very easy to complete, because the Emissaries of other gods will also join this trial...”
Before Valerie could finish, Heather said impatiently,
“Does that not make it even harder? Originally, I would at most have to encounter those Spirit Realm Excursionists. Now I have to fight those Emissaries as well. If I face even two of them, I will definitely lose...”
Valerie interrupted Heather and said,
“Your Highness need not worry about that. Over the Church’s several hundred years of history, tasks requiring Emissaries to participate in First-Tier trials have occurred from time to time.”
“So we have summarized some patterns regarding this kind of task.”
“In truth, those Emissaries have received the same task as Your Highness. They need to stop everyone from passing that trial.”
“And the reason Emissaries are sent is that Emissaries possess power at the First Tier that other Professionals can hardly match.”
“In the past, if a believer was especially powerful at the First Tier, while the Emissary themself was not at the First Tier, that believer would be sent in instead.”
“Even if the people sent out by the various gods pass the trial, it will not have any effect on the gods.”
“Your Highness’s task is actually only to eliminate those who are not Emissaries of gods. After that, you can return directly.”
“And during this process, many other Emissaries of gods will act together with you. That is why I said this task is simple.”
After Heather finished listening, she stroked her chin and said,
“So that is how it is. I thought I had to fight the Emissaries of other gods... If it really came to a fight, I might not necessarily be able to beat them.”
What Heather said was not modesty, but fact.
If Heather were made to face a group of First-Tier Professionals by herself, she might not necessarily win.
Although Heather’s own stat values as a divine Emissary were high enough, no matter how one looked at it, she was still only a First-Tier Professional. At most, she could rival a Second-Tier Professional.
If her opponent were a well-trained squad of First-Tier Professionals with clear division of roles, she would not even have complete confidence that she could defeat them.
But it was different if there were many allied divine Emissaries. With the same number of multiple First-Tier Emissaries on her side, Heather was even confident that they could take down the same number of Second-Tier Professionals without suffering any injuries.
That was because every divine Emissary possessed a unique ability bestowed by their god. When they joined forces, they were even stronger than a group of Second-Tier Professionals working together.
That was why she said this task was simple. If the Emissaries did not join forces, that was one thing. But once they did, no matter who came, they would be powerless.
“Then I do not need to make any preparations or anything like that, do I?” Heather asked.
“Of course not. With the Emissaries of the Gods joining forces, Your Highness naturally does not need to make any preparations.”
Valerie said with a smile. Even she believed this to be the case.
---
Fulan rode her black horse back to the church. She had just dismounted when she saw the church filled with a bustling crowd.
The crowd was packed before the divine statue, but everyone tacitly avoided stepping within three meters of it and instead crowded behind that boundary.
Fulan looked at the scene, shook her head, then leapt straight to the second floor of the house.
After hearing Fulan’s movement, Anna opened the door and called out in surprise,
“Fulan, you are finally back.”
Fulan could see that Anna’s face was full of exhaustion. Although the Physique of a First-Tier Professional would not leave any dark circles under her eyes, Fulan could tell that Anna’s spirit was in very poor condition.
“What happened to you?” Fulan asked curiously. She did not quite understand how Anna had ended up in such a state.
“My heavens, Fulan...” Anna first sighed, then continued.
“The judgments you asked me to handle drained an enormous amount of my energy. How can those people be so foolish? Fortunately, after realizing that what they did was wrong, they rarely committed the same offenses again.”
“But what exhausted me the most was that the common people kept coming here in an endless stream. Not only did I have to arrange their lodging, I also had to settle the guard team...”
Fulan raised an eyebrow. It was within her expectations that common people from other places would come to this village.
The area around the church would become warmer. For people living in the Northern Frontier, that was an enormous blessing, so those commoners would naturally consider moving here.
“Then there should not be any problem, right? I remember these three villages should have three or four hundred people...”
Fulan also knew that things had not been easy for Anna, so she offered a little comfort.
Who would have thought that Anna would look at her in surprise and say,
“Ah?! Three or four hundred people? But I already have more than five hundred registered believers alone.”
Fulan blinked, feeling that the situation had progressed somewhat beyond her imagination.
She was absolutely certain that these three villages had only three or four hundred people. After all, the lord taxed people by headcount, and those additional people definitely could not have come only from those three villages.
“Have the common people from Snow Bear Territory heard the news and come here as well?”
Fulan lowered her head. She had not expected the news from her side to spread so quickly, even reaching the lands of Snow Bear Territory.
“I need to change the rules first. With the population increasing, I cannot let Anna handle this matter alone.”