The Evil God Summoned by the Saintess-Chapter 59 - 57: Faith Spiritual Object

Hilia led the way, with Blake and the others following behind, entering a cave hidden within a tree hollow.

Alina was right behind Blake, watching Hilia’s back with a hint of confusion.

As her mentor, Alina had interacted with Hilia many times, and she felt that Hilia was a bit different at this moment.

She couldn’t say exactly what it was—maybe less innocence, and more confidence mixed with a kind of disdain for everything... arrogance?

But since Alina had been busy with her coursework and sect-related tasks, she wasn’t all that familiar with Hilia anyway. She just thought Hilia had matured.

As for the others, they’d only just met Hilia today, so they had even less clue about her changes.

Not that she’d changed much, she’d just swapped out for a different Evil God stand-in.

"The final trigger for the Self-Destruct Rune is combat inside the stronghold. There should be a lot of deathsworn waiting for us in there. We cannot engage them in battle."

Hilia—or rather, Rose—said this as he walked.

He didn’t slow down a bit, as if he really didn’t care about the Self-Destruct Rune at all.

To him, he truly didn’t care.

Seeing his attitude, the others felt less worried too.

Except for Blake.

From the moment he came in, he sensed a faint aura of danger. Unlike the others, who were relaxed, he was extremely alert, carefully sensing everything around him.

At the slightest sign of trouble, he’d instantly use his hidden Protective Scroll and summon a Magic Puppet to resist the power of the Self-Destruct Rune, buying time for an escape.

"You’re Eric, right? Do you know the layout of this stronghold?"

Blake turned back to look at Eric, who was watched on both sides by two knights, and asked.

Eric wasn’t just being watched—his entire magic power was sealed.

This was to ensure Eric couldn’t suddenly betray them, using magic to activate the Self-Destruct Rune after they went deeper into the stronghold.

"I don’t know—I’ve only been here once before. I just remember a few more turns and we should reach the main gate. You’d better watch out... huh?"

As he spoke, Eric suddenly froze, looking around with confusion. "This doesn’t look familiar. Last time it wasn’t like this. Is there a second passage?"

Blake’s face changed and he immediately summoned a Magic Puppet.

"Everyone, stay alert!"

Rose glanced at them, "This is the array maintenance passage. He doesn’t know about it—that’s normal. Say less. I’m modifying the array to keep the ’Shark’ from noticing we’re here."

"Oh, I see."

A flash of embarrassment crossed Blake’s face, but he didn’t put away the Magic Puppet.

"Is the Shark inside this stronghold?" a knight asked curiously.

"Are you asking me?" Rose turned back.

The other nodded.

"No idea."

"..."

Before long, Rose reached the same sort of array core as in the last stronghold.

Inside a stone room, runes flooded the space, and a wall glowed with a pulsating red light.

Rose carefully studied the platter at the center of the stone table. On it quietly lay something like a fish scale.

The scale looked plain, so much so that the others were drawn to the glowing runes and missed noticing it.

Only Blake gave it a thoughtful glance, but he said nothing and turned back to look at the flickering runes.

"That’s the Self-Destruct Rune. Wait a moment." Rose picked up the fish scale and placed it in Hilia’s small bag, speaking to the group.

He then took out a carving knife, intending to use Spiritual Power to float Hilia’s body up, but remembering Hilia’s strength, he turned to Alina and said, "Ms. Alina, could you use magic to lift me up? I need to reach the top left corner."

"Okay." Alina agreed and used wind magic.

Just then, the runes on the stone wall, which had been slowly pulsing red, suddenly flashed violently.

"Not good, the Self-Destruct Rune’s been triggered!" Alina’s face changed.

The others froze as well.

Seriously? They’d tiptoed all the way here, and right at the last moment a bit of magic and the Self-Destruct Rune was triggered?

It felt like spending hours making Buddha Jumps Over the Wall, only to spill the whole pot at the last second just before serving—complete whiplash.

The group hurried to summon their Magic Puppets, ready to deal with the array’s explosion.

Only Rose was unfazed—after feeling Alina’s wind magic lift him, he made a few quick cuts on the array, instantly destroying the pulsing red runes. The red glow faded away.

After finishing up, he landed back down. "All that panic for nothing—done. It’s solved. You can move on without worry."

With that, he handed back control of the body to Hilia.

"Keep that fish scale I just picked up—don’t lose it."

"Oh, okay." Hilia, newly in control again, paused briefly. Feeling the chill through her bag from the fish scale, she couldn’t help but ask curiously, "What is this fish scale?"

"A Spiritual Object for collecting faith. Someone in the Deep Sea Mutual Aid Association is collecting faith."

"Collecting faith...? What’s the point of that?"

"For becoming a god. Not much use, really. For me, it just lets me track whoever’s absorbing it."

"’Not much use’, but it’s for becoming a god?"

Hilia unconsciously touched her small bag.

For a moment, she was tempted by that fish scale.

The cultivation system of this world is called the Ascension God Stairs, and there are ten steps in total.

To determine if you’re a mage, you see whether, after meditating, there’s a staircase stretching impossibly long in your soul.

Standing on the first step means you’re a Tier One Mage. After that, you just keep accumulating power until you can leap to the next step, climbing higher and higher.

With each step climbed, your tier increases—you can use more powerful magic, stronger Magic Puppets, and enhance your Heart of the Magic Puppet.

There’s no mage who doesn’t want to become a god, but for ordinary humans, the limit is usually Tier Six—still four steps away from godhood. And then that’s it.

Such limits were too far off for Hilia, but when any mage first steps onto the Ascension God Stairs, they’re always attracted by that godly position above Tier Ten.

Hilia was no different, so hearing Rose say the fish scale was for becoming a god, she was indeed tempted.

Rose sensed her inner excitement and nervousness, and snorted, "Don’t even think about it—becoming a god’s not that simple. Otherwise, after the Era of Calamity, why hasn’t anyone seen a new god born?"

"Don’t aim so high. Maybe this thing is an experiment by the Deep Sea Mutual Aid Association to break human limits, but unfortunately, they won’t succeed. Getting involved with faith too early only makes you a puppet of faith."

Unless the one collecting faith is an Old God, Rose silently added in his mind.

He still couldn’t tell if this fish scale was a Spiritual Object used by the Sea God to gather faith.

There were traces of the Sea God here, but maybe the stronghold on the other side had alerted him, so he’d withdrawn his Divine Power from this end as well.

Rose had no idea what he was afraid of.

But it didn’t matter—now that he had a Spiritual Object, he had a way to track them.

After getting thrashed right after teleporting in, he was definitely going to pay them all back, one by one!