Just became an evil god and was summoned by the saint

Of course, most people can't survive to that extent; once pollution takes over their brains, they die.

The concentration of pollution emanating from them was so high that an ordinary person would die if they got too close.

Even sorcerers cannot stay for long.

Is this the level of contamination a cult stronghold should have?

Is this a plan to sacrifice all the believers?!

"Lord Ross, does summoning the White Whale require sacrificing believers?"

"Of course, when the bodies of everyone here are polluted, their souls are slowly absorbed by the white whale. Even if the white whale doesn't come out, they won't live for more than five years."

Upon hearing this, Celia immediately mobilized all her magic power to fight against the surging corrupted magic.

"Stop. Don't use magic to fight it. You'll be exposed. Don't worry, you won't be contaminated."

Celia hesitated for a moment, then chose to trust Ross and stopped circulating her magic.

She discovered that the contaminants that were about to invade her body would inexplicably disappear once they got close to her skin.

"What's going on?" Celia had never seen pollution mysteriously disappear before.

"I am an evil god," Ross said calmly.

"Oh." Although she didn't understand, Celia got it.

Rose never acted like the legendary evil god, and coupled with his long-held beliefs, he was not evil at all, causing her to forget that he was the only evil god certified by the gods.

Not surprising then.

In the Holy See's scriptures, wasn't the pollution caused by the evil god Ross?

While it's unclear whether this is true, it's certain that evil gods can eliminate pollution.

Celia followed Eric inside without worry.

Soon, the space opened up and became larger. A door appeared in front of the door, and there was a table in the doorway. Two people were sitting behind the table, and there was a plate and an account book on the table, just like the custom of receiving money as gifts at a banquet in the countryside.

Upon seeing Eric approach, one of them said, "Pay first before entering... Hey? Who's behind you? I've never seen him before."

He noticed Celia behind Eric, and the two immediately became wary.

“This is my brother, Duke. He felt the call of the gods and wants to join our family,” Eric said.

The two 'sardines' looked at each other and smiled.

"No problem, but as you know, the Holy Court has been cracking down hard lately, so we're very cautious about hiring new people. In principle, we can't hire anyone until that matter is resolved."

Eric remained silent, but simply took out a small cloth bag and placed it on the table.

One of them took it and opened it, beaming with joy: "But, there aren't many people left who can feel the call of the gods, so we can't let any of our good brothers go."

Another person picked up a quill pen: "Duke, right?"

“Yes.” Eric nodded.

The man quickly wrote "Duke (New)" in the ledger, and received 1 silver coin to join the church.

Celia glanced at it; Eric had given them a full 5 silver coins, and they immediately swallowed 4 of them.

The fee to pay upon entry was only 20 copper coins, which was an extra charge, not included in the 5 silver coins. Perhaps they didn't want to give change—or perhaps they only recorded 10 copper coins as 20 copper coins in their accounts.

Celia couldn't stand seeing people so greedy, even for 10 copper coins.

"Those two have gone too far!"

"They won't live more than two years."

"Two years is too long. I wish I could take them down right now."

Celia rambles on.

She still didn't dare to kill, but she drew inspiration from Ross's previous actions.

Killing is too easy for evildoers; it's better to abolish them. Not only will they not have the psychological barrier to killing, but they can also be punished as a deterrent.

After paying, the door opened, and the two went inside, where an even stronger wave of pollution hit them.

Eric took a deep breath, like a drug addict who had just gotten his fill, and showed an expression of ecstasy.

He looked to his left and greeted him, "Mr. Frog, you sang quite well today. I'm sure the princess will soon be captivated by your voice."

Celia looked over as well, but there were no frogs there, only a rotting toad covered in pus, which was filled with a persistent filth.

She asked in a low voice, "Eric, what do I need to do after joining the cult?"

"Come with me, and I'll tell you about the sect's situation while I'm at it."

Eric continued deeper into the cave.

As they walked, he said, “You don’t need to do anything here. Just pray in the ceremonial hall at the very back. Every day, ‘Sardine’ will provide lunch and dinner, but it’s not free. A meal costs 120 copper coins or 1 silver coin, and includes a loaf of bread, a cup of milk, and a potato. Meat will cost extra.”

"So expensive?"

"Well, you can earn 50 copper coins every day by praying, and you can also get extra income by collecting white whales, just like I told you."

This day's earnings probably aren't even enough to eat.

If I remember correctly, eating out, with bread, milk, and potatoes, only costs 20 copper coins.

The nobles haven't even started selling bread to commoners for 50 copper coins a loaf yet, and you're already doing it.

Celia clenched her fists.

At that moment, Ross's voice echoed in my mind:

"The person in charge of the outpost is not here. After we go to the ceremony hall with him, we will prepare to make our move."

"it is good!"

Chapter 50: Lost in learning

The ceremony hall.

It's very spacious here, like a cathedral, capable of accommodating hundreds of people praying at the same time.

Celia followed Eric here and saw countless people kneeling on the ground, facing forward, chanting incantations. Each person chanted something different, as if they were improvising.

Although each person's voice is very soft, when they come together, they create a buzzing sound like bees, making one dizzy and disoriented.

"You can pray anywhere, for at least four hours. All you need to do is offer everything you have to the gods, and you can think of whatever you want."

After saying that, Eric ignored Celia, found a spot, knelt down, and began to pray.

Celia looked around and roughly estimated that there were about forty people here. Each of them had magical energy fluctuations, but most of them were very weak and the magical energy fluctuations were heavily polluted.

Celia would never do something like praying.

She took in everyone's location and the surrounding situation, carefully noting it down.

Then, she looked at the front of the crowd of people praying.

There was a high platform there, and something seemed to be placed on it.

Around the platform stood several heretics of a higher rank than ordinary heretics; according to the hierarchy, they should be considered 'sardines'.

Instead of praying, they faced the believers, their eyes scanning back and forth.

"There must be something good up there, probably an important item related to the summoning ritual," Celia thought.

There were people watching, and it was clear that standing there like an idiot wasn't going to work; it wouldn't be long before they noticed him.

"Should I make the first move?" the girl wondered.

She wanted to take direct action, but without the puppet, she wasn't sure she could defeat those 'sardines'.

Each of those 'sardines' had its own puppet standing next to it.

Moreover, these believers here, though weak, are still first-tier mages; so many of them spitting at them could drown them...

"Trying to desert your post?"

A voice came from her heart, and Celia's heart slowly calmed down.

Ross is here.

The girl looked up and saw that the puppet controlled by Ross had silently appeared in the ritual hall, completely unnoticed by the 'sardines' around the platform.

"I've been waiting for you, Mr. Ross."

Ross chuckled. "I'll distract these people. You go and get what's on the platform. If I'm not mistaken, it's a Siren's Eye. Once you've got it, we can leave."

"Aren't we just going to wipe out the entire stronghold?" Celia asked, both nervous and excited.

"If you can kill them all, I have no objection."

"I definitely can't, but can't you either?"

"Do you want to experience someone controlling your body, helping you with your spiritual practice, exercising for you, feeding you, and living in your place?"

Celia shuddered. "No, I don't want to. Well, I'm ready, Mr. Ross, please begin!"

"Ah."

A dark blue ice wall appeared in front of the puppet, and an invisible mage's hand grabbed it and slammed it hard into the 'sardine' in front of it.

Celia, who was poised to strike, was dumbfounded.

Can ice walls be used like this?

But what shocked her even more was yet to come.

The ice wall appeared suddenly, catching the sardines off guard, and they hurriedly used the magic puppet to block it.

When the ice wall touched the puppet, it shattered into countless fragments.

Then, these fragments transformed into ice blades, which shot out in all directions!

This is--

Ice Blade Impact!

The highest damage area-of-effect ice spell of the first tier.

The downside is that it can only be used at close range, has a limited range, and can only be used for defense and counter-attack.

But now, Ross has shattered those preconceived notions.

Ross applied the ice blade impact to the ice wall, using it as a protective target. The ice wall shattered, directly triggering the ice blade impact, which flew out in all directions.

The sardines had clearly never seen such a bizarre move before and were completely unable to defend against it; their puppets could only rely on their own defense to resist.

One wave of attacks left all the puppets injured.

Even worse off were the believers in the front rows. They had no idea that someone would make a move in the ritual hall and were completely unprepared. When the ice wall shattered and they looked up, they were met with a devastating attack...

"See that? This is one of the wonderful uses of the Mage's Hand. It can combine one spell into another to form a combination that is stronger than a normal combo. Using it to lock onto an enemy is a great use of its power."

Celia nodded, indicating that she had learned something.

He then quickly ran towards the high platform.

The sudden attack and the screams of the wounded threw the place into chaos.

Most people, like startled rabbits, ran towards the door, completely disregarding whether they would trample on others.

The sardines had no time to pay attention to them; they all saw the glowing puppet (Ross) slowly walking towards them.

The glow was meant to attract their attention, giving Celia a chance to obtain the Eye of the Siren—in fact, even if she didn't steal it, Ross could easily get it by dealing with these people.

But at least let this girl feel a little involved, right?

Just like playing a game, when a player gets help from a powerful player, the game designers will also make the player do things that seem very important, such as the powerful player restraining the enemy boss and making the player run errands to get items, even if the player's role is dispensable.

Throughout the entire ordeal, Ross never used any spells that Celia didn't know; he only used a few basic spell combinations. Even so, when faced with the sardines' siege, he was still able to overpower them all.

Even Celia, who rushed towards the high platform amidst the chaos, kept glancing over, astonished by Ross's combination of spells.

"Stop looking at it, get back to your work," Ross's voice came through. "You can reflect on it more carefully when you get back."

"Okay!"

Celia transformed into a gust of wind and rushed to the high platform.

Just like in a game where a mini-boss always appears to block a player's way of getting something, when Celia arrived at the high platform, she was blocked by a sardine.