Inside a quiet private room in a cafe on the edge of the Church District in North Tivian, Dorothy sat, listening to Naifnis's explanation while sketching in her notebook. Before long, a sketch of a terrifying two-headed devil wolf with two heads appeared in the notebook.
"There's another theory… that a strange illness is currently spreading in Tivian. After being infected with this illness, one turns into a terrifying beast. The authorities haven't announced the existence of this illness. Previously, Saint Chant Church was a place for secretly housing and researching patients with this illness. The terrifying roar that day was due to containment failure…"
"Currently, this rumor is the latest to appear. Compared to the previous ones, fewer people probably know about it. Among the current rumors, the most widespread is still the first one I mentioned, the theory about the seal. After all, most people believe in the Shining Light Church, and stories about saints sealing evil are quite classic. However, the last rumor is also spreading quite quickly, especially among some rebellious young people. Many people at my school are already discussing this rumor, and my roommate has even started theorizing about what secret experiments the Church is conducting."
Sitting in her seat, Naifnis shared her observations and information about the rumors she had gathered from various places in Tivian over the past few days. After listening to these various rumors, Dorothy glanced at the sketch she had just drawn and couldn't help but sigh slightly.
"There truly are all sorts of theories. I didn't expect so many theories to suddenly pop up in just a few days. The public's imagination is indeed limitless…"
Dorothy said this, while Neff on the other side, after drinking a cup of coffee, placed the cup on the table and spoke softly.
"Yes… these rumors are getting more exaggerated than the last. Ancient monsters, secret bacteria, everything is coming out. In reality, it's not that exaggerated. It was just a Scarlet wolf attack. It caused a little ripple and then disappeared. Such a fuss."
Neff spoke in such an unconcerned manner. Hearing her words, Dorothy couldn't help but twitch the corner of her mouth, thinking that the entire Preet Kingdom's official force probably only had about four or five of these Scarlet things combined. That Werewolf almost killed one earlier, and to you, it's just a small ripple.
"Senior Nefelnis… seem to think that Extraordinary of the Crimson Tier are nothing much?" With a slight smile, Dorothy said to Naifnis. After hearing Dorothy's words, Neff quickly shook her head.
"No, no, that's not it. It's not like we haven't encountered Scarlet before. They are very powerful, and I know they are not on the same level as Chalk. But I think… since we are striving on the Extraordinary path, we can't view Scarlet as being high above and unreachable. Otherwise, we'll lose the motivation to work hard, and we won't even be enthusiastic about studying."
"Hmm… it's like when I was preparing for the Crown University exam in middle school. Teachers always told us not to think that getting into Crown University was too easy, but also not to think it was too difficult, otherwise, we'd just add pressure to ourselves." Naifnis said this after thinking for a moment. Hearing her words, Dorothy couldn't help but be slightly stunned, and then she spoke again.
"So… you think advancing to Scarlet is equivalent to taking a university entrance exam?"
"That's not entirely accurate. Advancing to Scarlet is definitely harder than taking a university entrance exam. Although the difference between the two is significant, they are both goals that require effort for me, so I'm just sharing my thoughts."
"Miss Dorothy, a genius girl like you, being able to get into Crown University at such a young age and become Scarlet at such a young age, these are all my role models. Although I'm not as talented as Miss Dorothy, I believe that as long as I'm willing to spend more time, I can also achieve what Miss Dorothy has currently achieved."
Waving her hand, Naifnis spoke quite calmly and naturally. Hearing her words, Dorothy was momentarily speechless and didn't know what to say. After a pause, she only managed one sentence.
"Having a good mindset… is also a good thing."
"Of course, only with a good mindset can other things be done well… Hmm, it seems I've finished drinking. Miss Dorothy, please wait a moment, I'll go order something else."
Naifnis said this, then she stood up from her seat, opened the door, and left the private room. After watching Neff leave for the moment, Dorothy's gaze also focused on the street outside the window, looking towards the end of the street, at the still heavily guarded Church District gate, and began to ponder.
'It's been a while since Duval's death. Vanya is still in the position of acting Archbishop. Apart from the investigation team from the Court of Tribunal causing her a bit of trouble, nothing else has happened. The Holy Mountain should have already acknowledged Vanya's performance. This matter is temporarily settled.
'Good, it seems Mr. Vaughn's testimony served its purpose.'
Dorothy thought this in her heart. Since the Wolf Blood Society's surprise attack incident, she had been dealing with a series of aftermath matters during this period. The most important task was to try her best to erase the traces of her involvement in this incident.
One of the two most important points of these aftermath tasks was to use a play to have the An Yin Bureau's Scarlet bureau chief testify, covering up Vanya's use of the Sun Gun. The second was to carefully arrange a prisoner of war for the Church to interrogate.
On the day of the attack incident, inside the Church District's underground forbidden library, Dorothy used the Anecdote Body Nightmare at the last moment to lure the devil wolf Duval outside to encounter Harold. His two subordinates, Brand and Vaughn, also took this opportunity to start escaping the underground forbidden library. To avoid being affected by the Scarlet battle, they both fled the Church District almost without thinking.
Brand and Vaughn's movements naturally couldn't escape Vanya, who had activated Saint Chant Church's full insight ability. Through the information channel, Dorothy could also observe the Church District and the surrounding vast area from all angles through Vanya's sight, with no blind spots. She didn't even need to deploy Corpse Puppets to see the exact whereabouts of Brand and Vaughn.
Among the two Werewolves, Vaughn had already been fully profiled by Dorothy. She only needed a small command, such as a glance at a crow Corpse Puppet, to activate the instruction Dorothy had pre-set in Vaughn's personality: abandon all resistance and become Dorothy's Living Puppet. This would make him instantly turncoat and launch a surprise attack on his unsuspecting companion, Brand, killing him. After the bloody battle before the archives building, Brand's Spirituality was already exhausted. With Dorothy's assistance, it was easy for Vaughn to ambush and kill him.
Afterward, Dorothy manipulated Brand's beast-form corpse and, along with the controlled Vaughn, continued to flee while waiting for the situation within the Church District to be resolved. At this time, Vanya, as the highest person in charge of the Prit Diocese, began assigning pursuit missions to the Church armed forces that had retreated to the vicinity of the Church District in her capacity as acting Archbishop. Using the Cathedral's inspection capabilities as a reason, she guided them to specific locations for pursuit and requested that they try to capture the almost exhausted spirits alive.
Then, the Church armed forces that had originally been driven out of the Church District immediately took action, rushing to the mission locations and finding Brand and Vaughn, who were still "fleeing." Since both of them were under Dorothy's control, it was possible to decide which of the two cornered Werewolves would resist and die, and which would be captured due to exhaustion.
After Vaughn's arrest, Miss Dorothy only needed Vanya to find an opportunity to see Vaughn. Then she could use Spirit Thread Transference with Vanya as the base to activate her ability, modify Vaughn's personality once more, tamper with his memory, and shape a loyal personality for him, waiting for the interrogation from Holy Mountain. The investigation team from Holy Mountain would obtain the "truth" that Miss Dorothy wanted them to know from Vaughn, and this "truth" would come from Vaughn's actual memory, absolutely from his heart.
Because Vanya was the acting Archbishop who held the highest authority in St. Yong Cathedral and the highest power in the Prit Diocese, Miss Dorothy found the subsequent cleanup and aftermath affairs very easy and convenient. She could ensure that any traces she wanted to deal with were handled safely without being noticed, as the overall commander on the Church side was one of her own. The entire Church District and its surroundings were under her surveillance. What could go wrong?
Miss Dorothy had not anticipated some unexpected factors that occurred during the Saint Chant Church attack, but fortunately, Miss Dorothy herself was also a Scarlet, possessing sufficiently powerful abilities to handle various emergencies. Although she managed to deal with all the situations in the end, Miss Dorothy also expended quite a bit of Spirituality.
In this operation, Miss Dorothy's most significant Spirituality expenditure was creating the Nightmare's Anecdotal Body. The Nightmare Anecdotal Body, created from the anecdotes of the entire Tivian, possessed the speed and agility of a Scarlet, and its cost was not low. However, fortunately, the Anecdotal Body summoning could be ritualized, reducing the consumption by setting up a ritual.
Although Miss Dorothy could not find a high-grade "Shadow" shrine in the entire Tivian, fortunately, she had not returned the phantom scale incense cage to Little Fox and the others. Miss Dorothy spent time drawing a simple ritual site on the ground that was not even at the level of a Shrine, and with the core of a Divine Artifact level, it also reduced the consumption of the Anecdotal Body significantly. Miss Dorothy spent a total of 5 "Shadow" and 2 "Cup" to summon the Nightmare Anecdotal Body. Without ritual assistance, the consumption would have been much higher.
Besides the consumption of summoning the Nightmare Anecdotal Body, Miss Dorothy's other significant expenditures included turning a pile of werewolves into Living Puppets. With the support of Spirituality Mastery, Miss Dorothy did not consume much Spirituality manipulating the Living Puppets; the main loss was in condensing the manifested Spirit Threads, using a total of 2 "Cup". The several times she tampered with Vaughn's personality consumed 1 "Shadow", which was not too much.
Overall, Miss Dorothy consumed a total of 6 "Shadow" and 4 "Cup" in this operation. In total, Miss Dorothy's current Spirituality situation is as follows.
4 Cup, 4 Stone, 8 Shadow, 8 Light, 11 Silence, 8 Enlightenment.
Although Miss Dorothy's Spirituality expenditure was not high throughout the entire operation, due to her originally low Spirituality, her current Spirituality situation is still not good, with a pile of single-digit values.
Fortunately, in this operation, Miss Dorothy not only helped Vanya protect her position in the Church but also gained a batch of extra harvests.
Since Vanya, the acting Archbishop, was providing cover, Miss Dorothy naturally had to visit the severely damaged underground restricted library while cleaning up the battlefield and sift through the ruins for treasures.
Because she knew that Vanya's Archbishop position was only temporary and would soon be replaced by a new official Archbishop from another faction of Holy Mountain, Miss Dorothy had been very restrained after Vanya officially took office, not letting Vanya use her position to open the door of the restricted library for her to read books, to avoid leaving any abnormal personnel traces that the subsequent Archbishop might notice.
But the situation is different now. Duval personally and violently opened the door of the restricted library for Miss Dorothy and made a mess inside. Now, if Miss Dorothy searches for treasures inside, any problems that arise later can all be pushed onto the Wolf Blood Society in one go, without having to take any risks at all. It's simply perfect.
While dealing with the traces of the werewolves in front of the archives building, Miss Dorothy also sent Corpse Puppets into the messy restricted library. From the ruins, she unearthed one secret transmission after another. Due to time constraints, Miss Dorothy only unearthed the secret transmissions whose safe exteriors were affected and pulverized by Duval and scattered on the surface of the ruins. After quickly reading them and putting them back, the final number of secret transmissions read was not too many, only about a dozen.
Most of these secret transmissions were of little nutritional value, mostly poems praising various foreign gods, and works created by mortal writers and artists driven mad by Spirit Sight during their delirium. Although they could provide Spirituality, their significance for Miss Dorothy's research into secrets was not great. Only four secret transmissions were deemed by Miss Dorothy to have slightly valuable content after reading them.
The first secret transmission is titled "Thirst for Belief," and its author is suspected to be a Light Church Sister from ancient times named Yunina. She was a very devout... even fanatical follower of the Holy Mother. In this secret transmission, she recorded all her thoughts and practices regarding the Holy Mother's doctrines, with records spanning various stages of her life. Miss Dorothy could see her unwavering loyalty in her worship of the Holy Mother, treating the Holy Mother as everything in her inner faith.
Yunina implemented all of the Holy Mother's doctrines in her life, adhering to strict living habits, being charitable and friendly, helping the poor, and being free from desires... She was somewhat similar to Vanya, but even more strict and radical. She was a Vanya who was completely loyal to the Holy Mother but more fanatical and radical.
Miss Dorothy could see in the secret transmission that this Sister Yunina seemed to have become an Extraordinary on the Path of Healing due to her exceptional talent and had risen through the ranks. Although it was not explicitly stated, Miss Dorothy inferred from Yunina's writing style and her address to others in the secret transmission that her position in the Church was getting higher and higher. During her promotion, her heart was not corrupted by the desire for power within the Church; instead, she often fought against the dark side within the Church in the name of the Lord, opposing injustice and unbelievers. Even when attacked and framed, she was not discouraged, and her character seemed very noble.
If only looking at the first part, this secret transmission seems to be just an autobiography of a loyal and noble believer, but in the latter part, the content of the secret transmission becomes problematic. In the latter part of the secret transmission, Yunina's faith and fanaticism towards the Holy Mother grew increasingly intense. Her heart gradually became dissatisfied with practicing the Holy Mother's teachings in the present world. She began to yearn to hear the Holy Mother's voice in person, to communicate directly with the Holy Mother, and to listen to the will of heaven. However, this idea was a great sin in the Church, a sin that would be punished with the most cruel criminal law once any trace was exposed.
Under the rules of the Church, Yunina dared not express her thoughts, but the desire to personally listen to the Holy Mother's will had taken root in her heart and grew stronger. Tormented by this idea, her mindset gradually changed.
"Lord... Merciful Lord... I have served Captain for many years, dedicating my whole heart and soul to Captain's will, achieving countless merits. Are these not worthy of Captain saying a word to me?
"The Holy See has been in its position for hundreds of years since the founding of the saint church, exclusively enjoying the grace of the Three Saints, without any variation... The Holy See's glory is eternal, naturally deserving of this honor, but what about the billions of other believers? There are many in the world who are utterly sincere and faithful to the Lord. Have we, who have dedicated our lives to cultivation, not even reached one ten-thousandth of the Holy See's glory? Why have Captain never paid attention to us...
"Lord... All-good Lord... I long to hear Captain's holy voice in person, even if it is a crime of great treason. From now on, I will spare no effort to approach Captain, to behold Captain, even if I become a sinner doomed to eternal damnation.
"Listening to the will of heaven will be my only remaining goal in life. Now, I will start by striving to sit outside the Holy See, in the position closest to Captain in this world, and obtain the name of Saint Amanda..."