I, the wizard, the foolish Buddha.

Roland frowned as he looked at the cobblestones under his feet. He suddenly remembered the material of the gate.

He crouched down, touched the pebbles under his feet, and then suddenly realized what was going on.

The gate was made of cobblestones—the Grey Falconers broke these strange cobblestones and used them to create the stone gate and walls of the sacred pool.

Suddenly, Roland remembered where he had seen the 'stones of the gate (pebbles)' before.

On the banks of the River Styx!
The riverbanks and bottom of the River Styx are covered with these pebbles!
When Roland first met Lady Heraka, she was sitting on a pebble riverbank, gnawing on the 'Dryblood Baron'.

Therefore, all the building materials for the entire Sacred Pool came from the River Styx!

Roland suddenly understood why the warm yet biting steam here could heal the wounds of the soul.

The entire sacred pool is enveloped by the 'Stone of the Styx'—the Dracula family built a 'mini Styx' here!
Or rather, a small 'Herakka Kingdom'!
This small divine kingdom is completely independent of the River Styx. It is like a well built beside a great river, connected to the river water at its bottom.

The well water and the river water are separated by a U-shaped pipe with gravel at the bottom.

Being in a well is like being in a river. But things that fall into a well won't be washed into the river.

In this way, people taking a bath will enjoy the buffs of the 'Herakka Kingdom', but their souls will not be washed away into the River Styx.

Theoretically speaking, this sacred pool possesses the power to 'bring the dead back to life'! Because members of the Dracula family can pull souls from the River Styx within the sacred pool!

Roland suddenly understood why Heracles was trying to catch him in the 'dream,' yet he had suddenly disappeared from the River Styx.

Helena pulled me back!

I must have truly gone to the underworld, and my soul must have already returned to the human world.

But because of the trauma to his soul, he kept sleeping—he did have nightmares, and he repeatedly dreamed of his experience in the River Styx!

By this time, Roland had stripped down to only a bathrobe. Just as he was about to undress completely, Roland suddenly faintly heard cheerful humming.

He looked in the direction of the sound and saw a blurry figure washing himself on the opposite bank of the pool.

Judging from her posture, she should be a woman.

The woman appeared to have been swimming naked in the water, and had just surfaced.

Roland felt slightly embarrassed. He thought to himself, 'Helena has indeed come in. Why does it seem like this girl is completely naked?'

The woman didn't seem to have noticed Roland yet. She hummed a song for a while, then dived back into the water.

Roland thought to himself, 'This idiot! All he does is play. There's hot water constantly pouring into the pool, and you're diving right in there. You wouldn't even hear someone coming in!'

Considering Helena's situation later, Roland left the bathrobe on and did not undress completely.

He planned to cough twice, with his back to Helena, after she emerged from the water, so she would know he was there.

After folding his clothes, Roland suddenly realized that his clothes had changed from Edward's style to the style of a holy robe!
Upon closer inspection, the holy symbols on the holy robe had also disappeared slightly.

Roland's face became very interesting.

The hot spring inside the gate seems to have an extremely powerful purifying effect. If you bring sacred objects or rare items inside, all your equipment will be reduced to 'white-grade' equipment.

Roland thought to himself, 'No wonder Helena said it was inconvenient for me to change clothes if I walked this way. So that's how it is.'

After carefully examining his belongings, Roland discovered that the dimensional bag had also lost a little bit of magic, but the snake ring was completely intact!

Not only was the snake ring intact, but the magic on it was also slowly increasing, as if it were recovering its body.

Roland's expression turned quite strange.

After stuffing the dimensional bag and other items into the snake ring, Roland thought to himself, "This snake ring that my senior gave me is very strange. Not only does it have some self-awareness, but things like monster meat often disappear after being put inside."
I initially thought the magic carpet had stolen the food, but then I realized the numbers didn't quite add up. I've been too busy lately to deal with it. Once I have some free time, I definitely need to check my snake ring properly.

While pondering, Roland decided to go into the water. However, he first squatted down, scooped up some bathwater with his hand, and took a small sip.

After smacking his lips, Roland nodded.

"Yes, it does have a slight taste of Styx water, but it's mixed with various magical and holy potions. People who soak in it won't lose their memories, but they can regain their strength as if they were immersed in the Styx Kingdom."

We need to recover our strength as soon as possible, otherwise we won't even have a chance to fight back against Olivia.

Olivia didn't touch me before, partly because there were many people around, and partly because she didn't want to cause any unnecessary trouble.

But if she ever finds the right opportunity, she'll definitely make a move on me.

Lost in thought, Roland had already entered the pool.

He immediately felt as if he were in a divine kingdom, and his strength was rapidly recovering.

The air outside the water was icy cold, but the water was warm as summer.

Roland suddenly understood why Helena was diving in the water. He couldn't resist diving in as well.

As a result, upon plunging in, I saw a pair of pale, white thighs swimming past my eyes.

The woman seemed to have noticed someone in the water and jumped in fright.

Roland couldn't help but chuckle to himself. He thought, 'So you're naked now! I've seen everything, haven't I? Haha!'

When the woman noticed the man in the water, she was startled and tried to surface, but then seemed to realize that she was naked and it would be inconvenient to do so. So she quickly swam away again.

Roland smiled to himself, then swam to the edge of the nearby hot spring and surfaced.

Looking back, a hazy figure had just emerged from the water seven or eight meters away—the smooth back beneath the mist made Roland dizzy.

He couldn't help but recall what he had just seen.

Roland thought to himself, 'This girl has really grown up!'

The thought process was fleeting; Roland's mind was racing, but his face remained serious. He coughed twice and said in that direction, "I knew you were here—put on a bathrobe first, then we can talk."

The woman paused slightly, seemingly puzzled and confused.

Roland turned away and stopped looking in that direction. He climbed ashore and continued, "I'm really sorry, I didn't know this was a hot spring, and I didn't see you in there. I thought you wouldn't be here for a while."

I was worried that Heracles, that lunatic, would come looking for trouble again, so I thought I'd soak in the bath for a while before you arrived, to avoid being dragged into the underworld by her again tonight. Didn't expect to cough like that, haha.

Roland didn't notice that after he finished speaking, the woman behind him suddenly turned around and looked at him with surprise and uncertainty.

The woman was exceptionally beautiful, the kind of striking beauty with a graceful and poised demeanor, completely different from Helena's sweet and innocent style—this was Miss Olivia. She stared at Roland for a moment, her expression gradually shifting from confusion to realization.

Unbeknownst to her, she had connected Roland with the man who dared to call Heracles a 'mentally ill', and she actually lowered her arm from her chest, no longer caring whether she was naked or not.

A hint of amusement appeared on Olivia's face as she slowly walked towards Roland's retreating figure in the water.

the other side.
The adorable junior, Helena, hummed a song as she arrived at the main entrance outside the 'Sacred Pool'.

She was still covered in snow, and looked as if she had just entered the house not long ago—judging from the time, she should have been in the heavy snow in the courtyard when she contacted Roland earlier.

More than an hour had passed since Roland called her. And this girl only just arrived!
She dawdled and packed a bunch of things, even bringing a comb, and specially brought a bunch of things for Senior Roland—she really was coming to take a shower.

But that's understandable, since Roland told her on the phone to come over for a bath.

In addition, there was an information gap between the two. Helena did not know that Edward and Isabella were not dead, so she really thought that Roland was feeling unwell and wanted to take a bath.

So she not only packed a bunch of bath supplies, but also went to the 'Fifth Courtyard' to collect a bunch of sacred medicines.

This wasn't the first time she'd taken a bath with Senior Roland.

However, the senior students always kept their eyes closed in the past.

Thinking of this, Helena's face flushed slightly.

She specially picked out two suitable bathrobes for herself and Roland, so they wouldn't be naked at the time.

Speaking of which, my senior has a really good physique.

While pondering, Helena arrived at the main entrance and found several priestesses and female knights standing there.

Upon seeing Helena, the group smiled and nodded to her, and Helena smiled and nodded back. Then, as if she were just passing by, Helena headed towards the 'sky bridge corridor'.

When she left the tower and entered the sky bridge corridor, she turned pale with fright.

"Oh no! Those priests are Olivia, who serves the gods, soaking in the hot springs!"

Helena hurriedly tried to contact her senior, but received no response, and her heart sank.

"Senior, you haven't already gone to the hot springs, have you?!"
"Did he come in through the back door? Those cult members wouldn't stop him if they saw him. Senior! Why do you always run into this kind of trouble?!"

After thinking for a moment, Helena's eyes started darting around. Who knows what kind of wicked idea she was plotting?

A moment later, she took out the magic mirror and removed her name.

Then she headed towards the hot springs. This time, the people at the entrance acted as if they didn't see her and let her in directly.

This side.
After Roland got ashore, he heard a woman walking towards him from the water behind him, and assumed that Helena had left her clothes there.

He didn't turn around to look, but instead examined a painting on the wall with great interest.

He was genuinely studying the painting carefully.

On the one hand, Roland intended to give 'Helena' some time. On the other hand, a certain figure in the painting bore a striking resemblance to Miss Olivia.

This is a painting titled "Heroes Slaying Demons," which tells the story of two heroic knights who killed an evil god and were subsequently baptized by an archangel wearing a crown.

The background of the scene is a battlefield, with many flags faintly visible, representing that many people participated in the battle and witnessed this scene.

However, these individuals were all obscured, with the emphasis on 'witnessing' and the downplaying 'participation in the battle.' This suggests that without these two individuals, victory would have been impossible.

That evil god must have been incredibly powerful, because His corpse was metaphorically depicted as a corrupt mountain, a river, and a twisted forest.

This god was no less powerful than Lord Yellow Fern, but the two knights who killed Him were demigods—the two had divine light in their eyes, but there were no corresponding stars in the sky.

Legend has it that the most powerful demigods are those who can threaten even the gods. Roland had also heard tales of demigods leading mortals to slay gods.

Church paintings never depict anything indiscriminately related to God; they are almost always historically relevant. Therefore, this painting indirectly confirms this legend.

In a sense, this painting is also a story of 'a demon killing God'.

Although the two knights led an army to slay demons, judging from the meaning conveyed in the painting, their achievements were terrifying, even shocking the sun, moon, stars (gods) in the sky.

It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that these two are the strongest demigods.

The two knights were no ordinary people, and the archangel's status was also extremely noble. She wore a 'sunflower crown of light'. This meant that this archangel did not hold a divine position, but was on par with the gods.

This angel must have been involved in the battle as well—the longswords she bestowed upon the two knights were stained with blood.

However, she was not wearing armor, and the overall painting emphasizes her 'baptism' of the knight, with only minor details suggesting her participation in the battle. This suggests that her contribution to the battle was not significant, or that she only joined the fight at the very end.

The angel's sword was stained with blood, but her body was spotless, signifying that she remained 'pure' even after slaying the evil god. She had not been corrupted or fallen.

The knight who was being baptized was in the same situation.

His armor and cloak were tattered but clean. However, the longsword he was leaning on was broken, indicating that he had nearly died in a battle with a god and had a very deep contact with an evil god.

But his body was perfectly clean, and his eyes were extremely resolute. This meant that he remained pure and untainted even after killing the evil god.

But the other knight was different.

He touched his injured arm, staring blankly into the distance. His armor and sword were stained with blood. He wore a wreath on his head, which meant he had been baptized.

But even though he had been baptized, his body was still stained with blood, which is a metaphor for the knight's gradual descent into depravity in later history.

These two knights must be brothers, from the same family—their battle robes bear the 'Dracula' family crest.

As for that archangel...
At that moment, Roland suddenly noticed what appeared to be a mirror in the painting, but in the blink of an eye, the mirror disappeared.

Just as Roland was wondering, he heard the sound of splashing water from the pool behind him, as if a young lady was sitting by the pool—it sounded like she was combing her hair with her back to Roland.

'This girl, she even wanted to dry her hair before changing her clothes. Did she think I couldn't see her from this distance?'

Awkwardly, Roland didn't dare turn around to look. He changed the subject and said, "Um, have you seen this painting before?"

Immediately afterwards, Roland heard the woman behind him say in a very gentle and shy tone, "The face is painted very realistically, but don't you think my buttocks are perkier than in the painting?"

Roland: "???" (End of Chapter)