Magic High School.

The group exchanged glances, likely realizing a crucial point: this was the church's differential treatment of "pure children" and impure children. So, how did the church determine purity and impurity? Was it by the heart, the body, bloodline, or faith?

It's most likely a matter of faith or bloodline.

"I'll also tell you the nuns' changing of the guard schedule, and the busiest time before the banquet. This is our freest time. And, are you really not coming with me?"

Zero seemed to really want Li Ge and the others to take this opportunity to hide in one of the cabins on the ship that brought them to this fantasy world, just like he did, so that they could sneak out and head to the vast world outside.

"You go first, but be careful and don't hide in dangerous places. Also, stay hidden in the cabin so you don't get caught," Li Ge reminded him. Although he was just an NPC, Li Ge really hoped he could escape and eventually become a great sage.

He saw a thirst for knowledge in the child's eyes, not the kind of innocence or foolishness, but the genuine longing of a child.

I wonder if I had this look in my eyes when I told myself I wanted to be an astronaut when I was a child.

However, after leaving elementary school, I forgot that I wanted to be an astronaut when I was a child.

Ling ran a few steps, then looked back once more. He didn't wave, just glanced at her, and then disappeared into the darkness.

Soon, it grew dark. The group had been secretly tinkering with the radio all along, and eventually managed to install a simple input and transmission device.

However, there was no response. Xiaoye continued fiddling with it, saying, "It should be fine, I see the signal is being transmitted. Maybe there's no corresponding cell tower nearby..."

After fiddling with it for a long time, the radio still only repeated the same message, so they finally had to give up.

Aside from that, they still couldn't seem to contact the Holy Knights organization that the radio kept mentioning. Li Ge and the others also tried to enter the cathedral, but it was unusually crowded today; almost all the nuns were there, making it difficult for them to sneak in.

At the same time, many others became chosen children and joined the ranks.

As for the old priest's cottage, he had been inside all day. So they decided to wait until the evening banquet, when the priest was to attend the children's feast, and then quietly go to the cottage to gather intelligence, hoping to make contact with the Holy Knights organization.

After it got completely dark, Zero finally seemed unable to sit still any longer: "I really have to go, otherwise I'll have to wait a long time for the next ship."

"Okay, then I wish you a successful escape." Li Ge gave him a small blessing.

"Okay, you guys must escape too. I'll go out and scout ahead first, and then I can help you." The child was quite honest; at least his thoughts weren't bad.

Li Ge suddenly felt a pang of emotion. Despite the seemingly deep problems here, the education here, whether it be doctrine, prayer, or worship, is all about encouraging people to do good, ensuring that the children here are at least essentially kind and innocent.

Perhaps so; children raised in this way are the "pure children" they speak of.

Zero left, despite his final invitation. But Li Ge and the others had their own mission; the nuns referred to the children who entered the Divine Child's Banquet as "ascending to Heaven," and their exam also required them to ascend to Heaven.

There must be some connection between these things, so they absolutely have to go.

Perhaps it wouldn't be too late to escape after attending the Divine Child's banquet.

“Come on, let’s split into groups. One team will go to the priest’s hut, and the other team will sneak in through the chimney and then hide inside the cathedral’s ventilation ducts,” Li Ge said.

Normally, such covert and evasive missions are usually assigned to Li Ge and Xiao Ye, since the two of them are already very skilled at petty theft and have become specialized infiltration personnel.

However, this time Valerie volunteered to take on the task herself.

While the others looked hesitant, Xiaoye said, "I'll go with Valerie, since she's thinking of coming this way."

"Alright, be careful. If you feel it's dangerous, just use your Noble Phantasm. It's better to suffer a backlash than to be caught on the spot," Li Ge reminded him.

Xiaoye nodded. So they split up like this: Lige and Yilian went to the priest's hut, while Xiaoye and Valerie hid behind the cathedral to see what the priest's banquet and the ceremony of ascending to heaven were all about.

And so, just as the appointed time arrived and Gensokyo began to bustle with activity, they set out. Valerie and Sayo went to the chimney they had scouted that morning and slowly climbed inside.

Eleven-year-old Valerie was slightly larger than Li Ge, perhaps because girls develop faster at that age. So, although Li Ge was half a head taller than them at sixteen, eleven-year-old Li Ge was probably shorter than them.

This made it very difficult for Valerie to climb inside the chimney; she almost got stuck.

"Actually, I should have stopped you from being so stubborn. It's obvious that it would have been best to leave this to Yilian," Xiaoye complained.

“Don’t say that, we’re already here. Besides, I’m really curious what these divine children are up to.” Valerie squeezed deeper into the chimney. Then suddenly, she heard a noise inside the house and immediately silenced Yoru.

This chimney doesn't lead directly to the ventilation duct; it leads to a warehouse. There's a vent on the other side of that warehouse; you have to go through that to reach the ventilation duct.

Therefore, it is quite normal for there to be someone in the warehouse.

"Hurry, where did Zero go? We can't find her!" a giant nun said.

"We've sent people to search everywhere, but we still haven't found him. What can we do? We're still one person short of the number of Pure Children the Divine Child requires..."

"There's still time, don't rush. Just grab any child to replace Zero. That aloof and arrogant girl, I really don't like her, so let's use her as the Child of Purity."

"it is good!"

After the two nuns took out some tools from the storeroom, they seemed to rush off to arrest the person.

And the haughty girl they were talking about seemed to be that fairy?

"Pfft..." Valerie almost burst out laughing. "Let her act all high and mighty like a princess. Even Li Ge isn't as good at pretending as her. Okay, now she's the target of everyone's hatred, isn't she?"

She's still keeping a record of how she tried to recruit her, never expecting that a teammate she had her eye on would turn out to be this kind of person.

"Stop gloating. Let's take this opportunity to hide in the ventilation duct. No one should come in for a while," Xiaoye reminded her.

As for gloating, it's best to do less of that, lest the boomerang comes back to haunt you.

So they easily crawled out of the chimney, not caring about the dust and dirt on their bodies, quickly covering up their tracks, and crawled into the ventilation duct on the other side.

……

Meanwhile, after the old priest left, Li Ge quietly arrived at his hut.

“Yilian?” Li Ge asked.

"understand!"

The two were longtime roommates and had a great understanding. Yi Lian instantly turned into a puddle of water and slipped into the crack. For Yi Lian, turning into water was completely effortless.

Because his true form is water, and his human form is merely a disguise, turning into water is more of an instinct.

Soon, Yilian discovered the trigger switches that the old priest had set up. If Li Ge had barged in rashly, he probably would have triggered those mechanisms, thus alerting the priest and the nuns.

"That was close, thank goodness we were cautious." He muttered to himself, then transformed into a knife in his watery state. He slowly deactivated the two mechanisms at the door and in front of the bookshelf before opening the door and letting Li Ge in.

The old priest's house wasn't big; it only had a bed, a bookshelf, and a desk.

However, when Yilian pressed a switch, the light bulb in the room turned on.

"It seems there's discrimination here too. We can only use oil lamps, while the priest can use magical lamps," Yilian complained.

"Let's start gathering intelligence; that's the most important thing," Li Ge said immediately, starting by searching the old priest's desk. The documents and books there were things he had only recently come across, so they were quite important.

On the desk lay an opened letter, the envelope bearing the seal of the Vatican.

Li Ge pulled out a letter, on which was written: We've found the hacker who attacked us; it was a hacker sent by the old Pope.

Chapter 164 I Can't Save You

Li Ge was stunned. The Pope hired hackers to attack Gensokyo?

He already knew from the list that Gensokyo's forces were systematically eliminating the paladins, but he didn't expect that the old Pope's side was also sending people to mess with Gensokyo.

Seriously, what's this? Is it some kind of fierce partisan struggle?

Li Ge complained. Because no matter how you look at it, Gensokyo seems to be one of the Church's forces, and even the priests here are all big shots with a lot of influence outside. I didn't expect that the internal factional struggles have evolved to the point of assassinating each other.

Should we then label them as heretics?

Li Ge thought to himself, and at the same time he immediately remembered and pulled out the photos he had taken before, and saw one of the names that was underlined.

Charles, a name that signifies both a paladin and a hacker, has been assassinated.

Could the hacker mentioned in this letter be this Charles?

Li Ge immediately began searching the desk for other information, especially letters and documents related to the old priest's communications with the outside world, which were the most important.

Yi Lian was also searching on the bookshelf. However, the more he searched, the more troubled he became. The documents here seemed to be more of a...weapon against him?

It was filled with scandal after scandal, documents he kept locked away as a tool to threaten others. Even though he only glanced at the cover and table of contents.

Yi Lian felt that there was no trust or loyalty among these people; their relationship was based on sinful deals: only if I have something on you can you sit down to eat and gain my trust.

And those who haven't been caught red-handed? Then they resort to all sorts of slander and rumors. These "godchildren" even genuinely treat people with the mentality of "Even though I haven't caught you red-handed, you must have done it." So they'll shift all the blame for their own actions onto others, believing that if they did it, the other person must have done it too.

Here, no one can escape unscathed!

This environment, devoid of any sense of integrity or morality, made Yilian extremely uncomfortable.

He misses the Han Dynasty.

Although he had only spent a short time in that world and didn't understand its culture very well, he was deeply fascinated by its integrity. It wasn't just Xiaoye who had considered taking advantage of him; perhaps he had too.

That loyalty, honor, morality, and integrity felt like a devastating blow to him, especially since he had recently seen the memories of the dead members of the Datong Cult.

Now, seeing something similar again, Yi Lian felt the dead memories start to haunt him again, and he missed the Han Dynasty.

As Yilian continued searching, all she found were one scandal after another, along with a series of horrifying and chilling photographs.

And he finally saw something different, even though it was also a scandal.

Pope Saint Jorge's blunder in battle resulted in the deaths of nearly a thousand paladins!

The church under Pope St. Howes was corrupt, leaving hundreds of thousands of people homeless and starving.

Pope St. Howes' mismanagement caused a grain truck carrying disaster relief supplies to derail.

This record is different from the other incriminating evidence. The other incriminating evidence was documented in detail and recorded on camera as evidence.

But when it comes to the Pope, the whole thing is: since it's under your rule, any problems are entirely your fault.

Although Yilian was indeed angry when she saw it, upon reflection, she realized that these events and the accident at least proved that the Pope was actually doing something. He was incompetent, not evil. When refugees appeared, his first priority was to transport grain there, even though the grain carts overturned.

As for the one caused by command errors in combat, it's hard to comment on that; it's also a matter of ability.

From this perspective, this pope may be a bit incompetent, but he seems like a good person no matter how you look at it.

And that's it? Didn't you fight this hard with the Holy Knights faction to the point where all you managed to capture was this little bit? Not even a little bit of gossip about the Pope and the little boy?

Yilian was somewhat disappointed, then continued to browse through the records on the bookshelf.

Then he saw another familiar name, Charles.

That guy who was assassinated by the higher-ups of Gensokyo, the hacker and the paladin?

He immediately looked down and, sure enough, it was full of dirt on Charles.

However, after reading it, Yilian discovered that most of the shady information involved the theft of data, which indirectly led to the deaths of many people.

Although this number is extremely exaggerated, and this hacker named Charles doesn't seem like a good person at all—he stirs up trouble in the virtual world, steals data, incites public opinion, and so on...

However, just like before, this intelligence lacks concrete evidence and differs significantly from other people's evidence.