Just became an evil god and was summoned by the saint

Thus, the two successfully entered the secret passage and arrived at the core of the magic array, inside a stone house of the same design.

On the stone table in the middle of the stone house, a puppet heart lay quietly at the center of the magic circle runes, absorbing the power of faith generated by the prayers of all the heretics in the prayer hall.

This puppet heart is similar in color to the puppet heart that Celia is currently using; it is sea blue.

A very strong fluctuation of water element energy emanated from above.

Faced with this Puppet Heart, Celia felt that her own Puppet Heart, which she had fused with once, was like the worst quality artificial Puppet Heart.

"Wow, such a powerful Puppet Heart!" Celia's eyes widened in shock as she stared at the azure Puppet Heart on the table. "Is there really such a huge difference between Puppet Hearts?"

"The gap is bigger than you imagine," Ross said calmly. "This Puppet Heart is only one-tenth of the complete Puppet Heart. If you can find the other parts and fuse them with this Puppet Heart, even if you become a god, you can still use it, and it will be very powerful."

"How much money would I get if I sold this?" Celia couldn't help but imagine.

Ross said irritably, "Sell? If you sell, I'll possess you and take you back in the next second. Then you can stay in the mental space and I'll help you cultivate and take care of your life."

Celia made a face and didn't dare to speak.

Ross looked at the fragment of the Sea God's divine essence before him and said, "The power of this Puppet Heart is too strong, to the point that it cannot be compatible with non-water attribute mages. Using it lightly could very likely result in being influenced by the consciousness within the Puppet Heart, thus usurping its power and causing you to be controlled by it in return."

"That terrifying?" Celia looked at the Puppet Heart as if it were a colossal creature from the abyss.

Ross nodded: "Since you're ice-type, the most suitable weapon for you is the ice-type Puppet Heart. As for this Puppet Heart, you can use a portion of its power to strengthen it to the limit you can handle, and the rest..."

"The rest?"

Ross didn't speak, he just looked up at the sky.

The remainder was returned to the Celestial Tree—after obtaining full divinity.

The entire world's power system relies on the Star Spirit Tree for its existence. The fact that there are very few sixth-tier beings in all of humanity now, and seventh-tier beings are legendary, is inextricably linked to the Star Spirit Tree.

Perhaps it's because the Star Spirit Tree hasn't grown up yet, or perhaps it's because the gods were too harsh in stripping away the previous generation, causing the rules to be changed in this generation.

Whatever the reason, Ross is determined to continue the main quest he never finished.

Defeat the twelve main gods, return their divine status to the Star Spirit Tree, and usher in the final ending.

This can be considered an obsession.

“The heretics are praying right now, so we can’t just take the Puppet Heart directly. First, modify the magic circle of the entire stronghold to block out the sound produced by the self-destruct rune, then activate the self-destruct rune, set a countdown, and then take the Puppet Heart and run away.”

Ross gave Celia the battle plan.

As she carefully began to modify the runes, Ross also began to examine the fragment of divinity in front of him.

"The sea god is so cautious, running away as soon as things go wrong. It's really troublesome. If we keep chasing him, who knows when we'll catch him. I need to think of a way to lure him to come to me."

Ross fell into deep thought.

After a long time, a vague but feasible plan slowly emerged in my mind.

He looked at Celia, who was carefully modifying the runes of the magic circle.

"We still need to use Celia as bait."

Celia felt a chill run down her spine. She turned around and saw Ross looking at her. She smiled and asked, "Lord Ross, what's wrong?"

Ross shook his head. "It's okay, you go about your business."

"Oh."

Celia nodded and continued modifying the magic circle.

After a long time, the modifications to the magic circle came to an end.

The girl fly rubbed her hands together and whispered, "Activate the self-destruct rune!"

One of the runes instantly turned red and began to flicker.

As the countdown began to appear, Celia immediately felt the urgency of time.

She looked at the Heart of the Puppet.

"Lord Ross, shall we just take the Heart of the Puppet?"

Ross nodded. "Yes, grab it and run."

"it is good!"

Without hesitation, Celia grabbed the fragment of divinity from the table.

Just as they were about to run, an unexpected event occurred.

Celia's face suddenly covered in cold sweat, and her whole body trembled.

"Lord Ross, this Puppet Heart...it...it's there..."

Before he could finish speaking, his eyes rolled back and he fainted.

Chapter 182 The Saintess's Initial Role

"It bears the mark of the sea god's soul."

Ross helped Celia finish what she hadn't said.

His illusory image slowly disappeared.

Celia opened her eyes and stood up.

While Celia was unconscious, Ross took control of her body.

Ross picked up the fragment of divine power from the table, examined it carefully, and then left.

Not long after, a group of people burst into the stone house from the outside. When they saw the empty table inside, their expressions changed drastically.

"Someone has stolen the blessings of the gods! Report this to the guild master immediately!"

"That thief can't have gone far, chase after him!"

As they were talking, they prepared to leave the stone house, but the door suddenly slammed shut, locking them inside.

A single stone house was no match for a team of mages led by a fourth-tier mage.

Soon, they successfully destroyed the stone door of the stone house and came outside.

However, before they could react, the entire stronghold suddenly began to tremble.

"Oh no, the magic array has self-destructed!"

"Run!"

……

Ross, who had already left, did not look back, but quickly rode away on his flying broom.

Behind them, the peaceful hillside suddenly collapsed with a loud "boom".

"Goo!"

A bird's cry suddenly rang out, and Ross dodged to the side, avoiding the large bird's attack.

Ross glanced at the bird, which was twice the size of Celia, and suddenly released a terrifying mental pressure.

“I don’t want to eat bird meat today. If you keep chasing after me, don’t blame me for making an exception.”

After saying that, he continued flying back.

The large, fiery red bird that had attacked was forced to fall diagonally into the jungle like a kite with a broken string under Ross's mental pressure. It crashed into a tree, breaking it in half, before falling to the ground.

The large bird's eyes revealed a human-like fear, and it ran away without looking back.

After successfully leaving the Protoss Forbidden Lands, Ross found an open meadow to stop, put Celia down, summoned the puppet, and released her from control.

"That's almost it."

Ross smiled.

His plan was simple.

This fragment of divine essence was used by the sea god as bait.

However, the fact that he has given up one-tenth of his divine essence indicates that he is in a very bad situation.

And, he has no body now.

Only in the state of the soul can the divine personality be divided without causing problems.

When one has a physical body, the divine essence is integrated with the body, and it is very difficult to sever the divine essence without destroying the body.

Even if the separation is successful, it will cause irreparable damage to oneself, and one's body may become unusable.

After all, the divine status of a living god and the divine status of a dead god are not on the same level.

"If the Sea God wants to reshape his body, he must retrieve all the scattered fragments of his divine essence. He sacrificed this fragment to lure the 'person' who was tracking him. The soul imprint within the fragment will tell him that the one who obtained this fragment is not that mysterious god, but a mere second-tier mage. So, what will the Sea God do?"

The answer is already obvious.

The fact that the sea god severed his own divine status indicates that he had no physical body.

It is known that Celia is a saintess with a very high level of divine affinity.

This divine contract might be unknown even to the Holy Court, but Ross knew it.

This refers to her soul being in perfect harmony with the god, just as he controlled Celia with perfect ease. As one of the twelve Olympian gods, the sea god could naturally do the same.

This is an excellent target for possession.

Of course, it should be called divine intervention, fusion, and dedication. Dedicating oneself to the gods is a great honor.

Will the sea god come and possess Celia?

The answer is yes.

When Celia came into contact with the fragment of the Sea God's divine essence, the soul imprint on it had already fed Celia's data back to the Sea God. If he did not give up this fragment of divine essence, he would inevitably fall for Celia.

“During the Age of Calamity, all the temples were unified into the Holy Court, and a Holy Maiden was appointed, requiring the Holy Maiden to have divine contract attributes. Isn’t this just using this position as a backup body?”

Ross seemed to be deep in thought.

"Perhaps some of the past saintesses were possessed by gods."

Don't tell me, it's really possible.

It's gone now, though.

Ross knew the reason too.

A deity descending upon another's body, aside from their divine soul, depends entirely on what the descended being possesses, such as their rank.

Now, for unknown reasons, the upper limit for mages is fixed at the sixth rank. There are some who can reach the seventh rank, but they are definitely very few.

After the deity descends upon the saintess's body, reaching the seventh rank should be easy, but reaching the eighth and ninth ranks is not so certain.

In other words, after the gods descend, they will become mortals to start over. If they cannot regain their divine status, they will face old age and death.

As a long-lived species, sacrificing one's lifespan for a new body is somewhat of a loss.

Unless, he has reached a dead end and has no other choice but to do so.

Or perhaps they are confident that they can become gods again.

Has Poseidon reached a dead end?

Not even close.

We need to give him another helping hand.

Ross wasn't in a hurry.

The bait has been cast; all that's left is to create a feeding area and wait for the fish to bite.

After a long while, Celia, who was in a coma, slowly woke up.

She stared blankly at the clear sky, blinked, and then suddenly sat up.

"I am..."

"You're awake?" Ross, who was controlling the puppet, looked up at her and said, "Can you feel it? This is the consequence of a high-intensity puppet heart for a sorcerer."

"Will they be unable to withstand the power inside and faint?"

"No, it's because your soul couldn't take it that you fell into a coma."

Ross chuckled and said, "If I hadn't enhanced your soul strength when the lighthouse was lost, you wouldn't be unconscious now; you'd be in a vegetative state."