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Chapter 15: Hen, I’m Coming

“Holy… Radiance.”

For a moment, the black-haired girl pondered the potential consequences of this action, but soon she chose to follow her heart.

This was her true response to Zeng Zhuang’s gift of the “Spirit Hidden Seeking Immortality Record,” an attempt, and also a reply from Vilyric for bringing her here, Hen.

Light shot up into the sky and then fell again.

“Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!”

A vast and boundless pillar of crimson-gold light fell like stars, enveloping Zeng Family Village and the surrounding land and mountains for dozens of kilometers.

The pure and holy light instantly dispelled all evil and coldness within the range, the dazzling radiance even overshadowing the once-in-a-thousand-years moon and the brilliance of the seven stars, as if protecting this place like a divine being, preventing all evil from invading and making all demons retreat.

Included in that was the Misty Veil trapped within.

Almost at the moment the Holy Radiance descended, its seemingly magically constructed avatar vanished without a trace, purified to nothing, not even able to utter a harsh word.

Sharing the same fate was the [Evil Flame Demon King] entangled in combat with Bai’er in the center of the square.

Originally meant to be the focus of a live human sacrifice and greatly empowered by the moon’s power, it was instantly suppressed to only one-third of its original size by that overwhelming radiance. Under such circumstances, its fate was self-evident.

Withdrew her sensory perception that had been probing the surroundings, the girl pretended not to see the surprised gazes directed at her, released the now useless [Radiant Protection] in the glory of the light, and looked elsewhere.

[Holy Radiance] was a vast area ninth-tier purification magic; regardless of how effective the purification was, it was indeed very bright.

So, it made perfect sense for the priestess to have a sudden whim to use it for the current situation.

Originally, Vilyric was worried that close contact with such high-level magic would turn people like Zeng Zhuang into “devout light-worshipping cultists.” However, after observing for a moment, she found that these people were still perfectly normal, showing no signs of their minds being polluted by any influx of information.

While she was pleasantly surprised, what was going on?

Even more surprising to the priestess was that despite being in such an intense light elemental environment, the sinister aura changing within the villagers hadn’t stopped; instead, it intensified, causing the white talisman paper to flicker with light like it might extinguish at any moment.

Then, Vilyric realized.

The seed of evil had already been stirred. Although purification could cleanse the evil aura in their environment, the demons that burst forth from within couldn’t be directly eradicated.

Because these villagers had become the bearers of evil, not like the Misty Veil or Zeng Zhuang, who were merely attached to external entities. If it weren’t for that white talisman isolating the aura, the radiance would likely directly identify them as targets needing purification.

In other words, eliminating only external threats wasn’t enough.

If it were the Vilyric just transported from a game, she might have been stumped by this situation and would have had to use higher-tier skills to resolve it, causing a myriad of subsequent troubles.

But the current priestess was not the same anymore.

She slightly closed her eyes, and Spiritual Points transformed into an intangible net, sweeping the surroundings.

With a perspective beyond mere eyesight, she saw more distinctly different scenes.

A more pure world of elements and spirits.

Even hidden beneath the glory of the light, there were still light points swirling from the horizon, descending alongside the tranquil moonlight, drifting in every corner of the world, like the atoms that constitute everything. Yet, the deeper they fell, the darker their “color” became until they were dispersed by the holy radiance.

Suddenly, Vilyric understood something.

This round moon and the power brought by the conjunction of seven stars were essentially formless pure energy that didn’t need to be purified. That energy was transformed into sinister aura and demons due to certain external forces’ attraction and influence.

In other words, the true issue lay with this land.

A flash of inspiration surged, and Vilyric directed her spiritual consciousness, gathered over each villager of Zeng Family Village — dark entities exuding even denser evil than the light points.

Then, the spiritual consciousness coalesced around the black-haired girl into a vortex, with absolutely overwhelming power, forcibly drawing out all the formed evil aura within the villagers around her.

“Puff! Puff! Puff! Puff! Puff! Puff! Puff! Puff!”

Almost instantly, those white talismans, used indiscriminately just to seal the villagers’ internal evil aura, transformed into fireballs, burning completely away.

This was the only outcome they could achieve under such overwhelming divine power.

The storm of spiritual consciousness forcibly snatched and gathered the massive strength that was meant to become a sacrificial offering to a nearby ghostly fire, and the dense holy aura in the air instantly purified the evil intent, returning to its original flawless form.

The invisible storm swept through the radiance of the light and quickly resettled.

Until the girl opened her eyes again, the villagers who knew nothing of such high-dimensional power still wore expressions of confusion, shock at the celestial light phenomenon, and anxiety after the destruction of the talisman paper, yet they didn’t realize they had already escaped danger.

“Whew…”

Vilyric raised her staff and dispelled the light of [Holy Radiance].

With that, everything was settled.

Without explaining or elaborating, she waved her hand at these unfamiliar but sincere villagers and turned to leave without looking back.

It was past the hour of the rat. When Vilyric once again spread her wings and ascended into the sky, the silver moon had vanished, leaving only seven stars following their unchanging trajectory, flourishing and then fading.

Though she had only been on this continent for a little over a day, based on the local calendar, it was now roughly the 1000th year of the Four Holy Era, and failing to achieve a live sacrifice at the point of extreme yin, the Misty Veil’s plan was all but impossible to realize.

Though the one taken down was probably just its avatar, a grand world couldn’t simply exist at this level, but Vilyric didn’t particularly care. If they crossed paths again in the future, she would just assess the situation.

Floating in the sky for a moment, the priestess turned her gaze toward the smoldering ghostly green flame in the center of the village, pondered for a bit, then flew off into the distance.

After a few minutes, Vilyric landed again on the cliff where she had previously passed the time snacking on melon seeds, and there, a gray-haired girl in plain clothes was already waiting.

She gazed at the black-haired girl folding her white wings, casting her silver-blue eyes, bowed modestly with both hands in greeting, and displayed a gentle smile.

“Thank you, senior, for coming to our aid, saving the lives of the villagers of my spirit nation.”

Looking over this solemn yet unable to hide her noble aura mysterious girl, Vilyric couldn’t help but sound a bit curious.

“Where’s your companion? Why didn’t they come with you?”

The girl smiled gracefully.

“Bai’er still needs to address and manage some follow-up matters, preventing the resurgence of evil, so she will be delayed in meeting up. I hope you can forgive this delay, senior.”

“I see, you’re quite brave then. I had initially thought you were of a more cautious type…”

After all, this girl’s relationship with Bai’er was clearly that of a master and protector. From their earlier battle with that ghostly fire, the former likely wasn’t skilled in close combat but was more like a mage.

So from a conventional standpoint, her coming to meet an unidentified priestess alone, especially this close, was quite dangerous.

Of course, significant figures likely had means of self-defense, but that didn’t justify such a reckless decision.

She probably realized the priestess’s abilities and wanted to extend goodwill to form a connection; this wasn’t the first time Vilyric encountered such a situation.

She nodded, not putting on any airs of a “senior,” nor questioning the girl’s appearance. Instead, she got straight to the point.

“My name is Vilyric, and there’s nothing to hide; as you can see, I’m not from this continent.”

“I see.”

The noble girl chuckled again, looking up at the seven stars slowly separating in the sky.

“My Ancient Spirit Realm is well-connected and rich in spirit veins; in the past, many visitors from beyond the skies came here. While most were kind, some came with intentions of plunder or malice, resulting in many disasters.”

“But since the Four Saints descended a thousand years ago and quelled the evils, the number of visitors from beyond the skies has greatly diminished. I didn’t expect to meet a genuinely benevolent guest from the outside today; it truly is an honor.”

She bowed again but didn’t lower her head.

“My name is Ling Feng, pleased to meet you, Vilyric.”

“Why do the people from your Ancient Spirit Realm speak so formally…”

The priestess shook her head, directly skipping over the unnutritious pleasantries.

“Since our intentions align, I’ll be direct.”

“It seems your position in this country shouldn’t be low; I don’t care what your identity is, but I seek some information… and if needed, I may ask for some help.”

“Ah, of course, I will provide corresponding rewards.”

“You can consider this a mutually beneficial cooperation, Miss Ling Feng, what do you think?”

Upon hearing this, the gray-haired girl’s smile visibly brightened, and she nodded, stepping forward to grasp Vilyric’s extended hand.

“Such is my wish; I dare not refuse!”