Then she thought of something crucial. Right now, by a twisted logic, she had become a believer of what she used to avoid, an Evil God follower. If everything along the way had been arranged by a single god, then she actually had little to do with God of Light at all.
She had been tricked and dragged onto this ship. So an Evil God believer, disguised as a candidate Saintess, walking openly into Holy City right under God of Light's eyes. She stared at the ceiling and muttered, "Then let me think about it. How cooked do you think I will end up?"
It was another fine day, and Fei'er Li held the hand of one teaching assistant while bringing along two students on a peaceful and friendly study trip. The range was wide enough that they could experience both the customs and scenery associated with the Three Great Empires. Along the way, they could also enjoy some interesting activities, such as slaughtering mutated monsters, tearing down Abyss Church outposts, and sending Evil God sacrifices up as sky lanterns.
There was some danger, of course, but it had to be said that Abyss Church was not a place where just any random person could become a priest capable of directly borrowing the Evil God Authority. Most of them were reckless lunatics who played with power until they no longer looked human, and such people usually got themselves killed sooner or later. The ones truly worth dealing with were those who had already touched Dark Power and had some real substance, often connected to the Church of Holy Light.
Even so, they were usually not that strong, and no matter how strong they were, they almost never surpassed an Ice Spirit that had recovered to near the White Tier. A simple and direct crush was enough, and whatever small fry remained after being beaten half dead became experience targets for the two little ones, Luna and Nefit. Though both of them were only at Silver, they had plenty of boosts, so they often charged in and cleared everything out, occasionally even holding their own against Gold.
With an Ice Spirit suppressing things from the side, the whole process was quite safe. "Next should be a relatively large rat nest," Fei'er Li said. "Same as usual, you two wait here and watch. After the assistant finishes handling it, it will almost be your turn."
"But teacher, most of the time it feels like we could just go in directly and handle it ourselves," one of them said. "Isn't this a bit troublesome?" "But haven't you already started eating?" Fei'er Li replied. "Oh right, remember to brush more honey on my three skewers. No spice, thanks."
Nefit was grilling skillfully to the side using their door-sized Greatsword, with the ingredients taken directly from freshly hunted monsters. Luna ate while casually pointing with a small hand to add various seasonings, honey included. At the World Tree, things like honey and pepper counted as derivatives of the ecosystem, so they could easily be reshaped by the World Tree itself.
Fei'er Li had been a little surprised at first, since Elves were considered a rather rare race, and the common impression was that they lived in forests and were mostly vegetarian environmental the Lord supporters. Luna had no such concerns and would even take the initiative to hunt birds to eat, and after asking around, it turned out that not only Luna but quite a few Elves liked meat. Eating only vegetables for thousands of years was simply unrealistic.
So the three of them ate skewers while watching in the distance as bitter cold spread outward. On a clean White Tier snow peak, a Great Dragon forged of frost landed lightly on the summit. That was Icelis, who for some reason after a certain incident had become very enthusiastic about not acting like a Mage anymore, instead shaping herself into an especially huge form and crushing things head-on.
When asked why, she would say something about this being the correct answer for the current version, with a kind of beauty in sheer power. Whether she had actually become stronger was unknown, but at least she looked like she was having fun. No matter what they tried, even with Nefit added, they could not reproduce the power of that three-headed Great Dragon form from back then.
"Boom!" A sound like the world turning over rang out, and even the distant ice mountains collapsed as the ground shook violently, almost knocking over the barbecue. Nefit hurried to protect it, while Fei'er Li suddenly stood up with a grave expression, because Icelis had conveyed through their mark that something abnormal had appeared.
"You stay here," Fei'er Li said. "I'll go check on your assistant." She opened her book and casually set up an extremely complex, layered Barrier that could withstand several hits even from something at the Ascendant Hall level. After thinking for a moment, she still flew over, since there was a chance the two could be targeted while she was gone.
On second thought, as long as Luna was there, things were probably fine. At any time, she could pull out a guaranteed package of Ascendant Hall-level plus Gold luxury bodyguards at the level of Crown Ascension, which was far stronger than Fei'er Li herself. "What exactly happened?" Fei'er Li wondered. "Did they run into something big?"
For something to be called an abnormal event even by the Teddy Bear, what kind of situation would that be? Could it really be a projected Evil God, or a true favored follower of the Evil God? From the mark, she could tell that the two had not entered combat yet, and Icelis was still observing.
In a hurry, she ignored the cost and made several spatial jumps, arriving at the scene beneath the feet of that Ice Dragon. "Icelis, is it…" Fei'er Li began, then stopped.
Standing atop the icy peak, she did not need an explanation to understand the abnormality. The bad news was that something resembling a Evil God projection really had appeared. Floating in the distance was a twisted, grotesque mass like a lump of blended flesh, with countless limbs and organs crudely stuck together and grinding against each other, bone Rend sounds echoing as blood and tissue churned.
Even without looking at it, just from its aura, the nauseating Magic and dark presence already revealed its identity. It truly was something like a Evil God projection, though not a true one dragged over from the original body. It was merely a pitiful thing twisted by borrowed power without real blessing, usually fluctuating between Gold and Hall Tier in strength.
That alone was enough to surprise them a little, but it was not enough to make Icelis stand there afraid to act. The reason was obvious at a glance. The thing had already been beaten half to death and kneaded into a ball floating in the air, and what appeared along with it was a massive crater, like an open-pit mine but even larger.
The pit extended tens of kilometers underground, with billions of tons of mass removed as if the ground were tofu scooped out in one motion. Standing at the edge felt like being on a cliff, and magma rivers could be faintly seen below. Even more shocking was that countless Shard stones, dust, and even entire mountain ranges had been lifted into the sky by some unknown force, circling and casting blockbuster-level shadows.
It was clear that the pit had been forcibly shaped by some supernatural power, and that the Evil God projection had also been forcibly molded into its current form by that same power. "There's another expert?" Fei'er Li exclaimed.
To achieve all this in such a short time and casually suppress a Evil God projection without even showing up directly meant at least Crown Ascension. What she did not know was that Ice Li sensed more than just raw power, but also a familiar yet subtly different aura.
As the two grew tense, the true culprit finally looked over, though not at them at first, but at the disgusting mass. The immense gravity filling the area was easily gathered and commanded, and with a light squeeze, everything ended. The giant pit was quickly refilled by falling floating Shard stones and mountains, dust rising as a brilliant bright blue light emerged.
Only then did Fei'er Li see who it was. A girl floated in the air, her entire body seeming to glow, her hair flowing with light, holding a Crystal Magic Staff. Her gaze was calm, showing no emotion over what she had just done, including crushing the Evil God projection.
A swallowing sound escaped as Fei'er Li nervously looked at the glowing girl, unable to tell who she was. The distance between them had been about thirty kilometers, but in the next instant it shrank to around twenty meters as a pitch-black Spatial Rift appeared. The girl stepped out and arrived directly in front of them.
The nearby Ice Dragon flinched in fright, ice chunks falling away to reveal its true form, before it jumped behind its guardian. The girl's eyes widened slightly when she recognized the species, finding it curious, and more importantly, she had come because she sensed a familiar aura. Coincidentally, Icelis felt the same.