He became the White-Haired Evil God after wearing the Seven Curses Rings.

"A minor adjustment?"

Atoris looked at Ivy's outstretched hand with suspicion.

On Ivy's slender fingers, a golden thread was drawn and wrapped.

If a passerby saw this, they would probably just think it was a simple game similar to cat's cradle.

In addition, with Ivy's childlike appearance, even if Atoris heard Ivy's explanation in person, he wouldn't see anything special about it.

It just felt like a cute little girl playing with a rope; I had no idea that this was the legendary manipulation of fate.

At that moment, Ivy's explanation rang out again.

"Yes, it's about making some minor adjustments to the existing fate lines to make it easier for my lord to gain an advantage in this competition."

"It seems the adjustments are almost complete, but I'm not entirely sure how exactly they took effect."

"After all, the power of fate is usually vast and ambiguous, and it can easily trigger other unforeseen chain reactions."

Upon hearing this explanation, Atoris's lips twitched slightly.

"Then why did you even bother with this thing...?"

Just as she was about to say something more, she suddenly remembered that Xie Bai seemed to have already walked far away, and hurriedly turned her head to look.

"Well…"

They lingered at the second stall, barely walking more than a few steps.

Judging from the other person's hesitant look, it seems they have found a souvenir they want, but the quantity exceeds the limit, and they are making a choice.

"Mmm..."

Xie Bai suddenly showed a regretful expression, then shook his head.

"!!!"

Atoriston was immediately startled.

She absolutely wouldn't allow that kind of expression to appear on the other person's face.

Just as she was about to pull Ivy to their destination, she suddenly saw Xie Bai raise his head again, gently swaying the dragon puppet in his arms, as if he were asking for something.

In no time, she saw the stall owner stand up and move aside, waving his hand at the souvenirs behind him.

Xie Bai then began to select items with great joy, as if the rules set up for the venue had no effect on her.

Upon closer inspection, it seems that the red dragon puppet in Xie Bai's arms is nodding thoughtfully.

"cough…"

Atoris's steps, which were about to dash out, froze in mid-air.

"Never mind, as long as my lord is happy."

Realizing that nothing here restricted Xie Bai, Atoris withdrew his original worries.

Just then, her gaze suddenly caught sight of a group of people behaving suspiciously, seemingly preparing to sneak up on Xie Bai from behind.

"Bang--!!!"

In an instant, Atoris sprinted out from his spot and kicked all of them away.

"Whoa!!!"

The group of people sped past Xie Bai from behind, so fast that before Xie Bai could react, a large cloud of dust was kicked up from the open space next to her.

"Um?"

"What happened?"

Xie Bai looked at Atoris, who had suddenly arrived, with a puzzled expression on his face.

Before she could ask for clarification, Atoris shielded her behind him and looked warily at the group of people sprawled on the ground.

"My lord, these people seem suspicious; they're probably after you."

Upon hearing Atoris's explanation, Xie Bai's already confused face became even more puzzled.

"Coming for me?"

Are you that bold?

As Xie Bai thought this, he looked closely at the group of people who had been kicked away by Atoris.

Without exception, they were all wearing emerald green robes, and a pair of pointed ears peeked out from their golden hair.

"Well…"

They are all spirits of the Church of Life.

Alternatively, they could be referred to as staff members who maintain order during the competition and provide explanations.

"Cough cough..."

One of the leading followers of the Life cult struggled to his feet, clutching his back.

"By the goddess of life, I am still alive!"

As he spoke, he looked up at the three little girls led by Xie Bai.

"Excuse me, these children. We're staff here. We just received a report from a concerned citizen that three children were wandering around here without any guardians. We were worried they might have gotten separated, so we sent us to find you."

"but……"

He glanced at Atoris behind Xie Bai.

"It must be a misunderstanding on the part of that concerned citizen. Your strength is somewhat beyond our expectations, so you shouldn't need any guardians..."

With that, the cultist helped the others up from the ground and limped away from the scene.

It's probably due to Xie Bai and the others' appearance.

Passersby who witnessed this scene were only somewhat surprised and amazed, and did not say anything about Atoris's actions.

"My lord..."

Atoris realized what had just happened and looked at Xie Bai with a guilty expression.

Faced with this scene, Xie Bai sighed helplessly.

"Atoris, remember one thing: you'd be better off protecting Ivy than protecting me. If I encounter danger that I can't handle myself, your presence won't be of much use."

"This…"

Atoris nodded.

"I see……"

Slightly disappointed, she walked aside and approached Ivy, who still looked completely bewildered.

After things came to a close, Xie Bai reflected on what the Life Cultists had just said.

"Don't we have any guardians around?"

This is indeed a point that can easily cause trouble.

Originally, this place wasn't considered a problem because of Finrod's presence.

However, after entering the Holy City, he separated from them alone under the pretext of secretly investigating who was impersonating him.

She never saw him again after that.

"Forget it, we just met briefly. Unless something serious happens, let's not worry about these troubles."

Thinking of this, she hugged the plush toy in her arms tighter and headed towards the next location.

……

Not far away.

Those Life Cultists who had just been crippled by Atoris's kick finally managed to enter an employee passageway, where they collapsed onto the floor, drenched in sweat.

"Huff, huff...!"

"I can't go on. Didn't the head priestess say there were a few children who needed our extra care to prevent them from encountering any danger?"

"Is such terrifying power really something we need to protect?"

"Thankfully, we have the protection of the Goddess of Life. These injuries aren't life-threatening, but my shinbone... ouch! Ouch!"

At this moment, a follower of the Life cult turned around and lay down on the rest mat.

"Wait a minute. There are only a handful of ruthless individuals on the entire continent capable of inflicting broken bones on our Church of Life. There's no way we haven't heard of them, right?"

"Hmm? You mean to say...?"

Suddenly, the door to the employee entrance was pushed open, and an unexpected figure walked in.

"Teach, Your Majesty the Pope?"

The Pope of Life glanced at them, and just as he was about to ignore them, he noticed the various injuries on their bodies.

"Are you injured? How did you get hurt?"

Upon hearing that the Pope of Life had actually humbled himself to comfort them, the group of followers of Life rushed to explain to him everything that had just happened, afraid of missing a single word.

After a moment, the Pope of Life listened to their explanation and thoughtfully stroked his chin.

"You suspect those little girls are spies sent from another continent?"

"Yes, yes!"

The leading follower of the Life cult explained excitedly.

"What ordinary little girl could possess such terrifying power to injure and cripple members of our Church of Life? At least, there are absolutely no such people on the mainland."

The Pope of Life nodded.

"Okay, I understand."

With that, the Pope of Life waved his hand, and after healing the injuries of these people, he continued to walk deeper into the passage.

"The first act of the match is about to begin. If you have nothing better to do, you can go and lend a hand."

"As for those little girls, just ignore them for now and don't cause them any trouble. If anything happens to them, you'll be responsible for it yourselves."

……