Succubus cannot be a saint

The Antlered Goddess doesn't seem to blame herself for being so "arrogant" to him. Instead, she says, "From her perspective, I can't blame myself." What exactly is the Antlered Goddess's perspective? What does the God of Love want to do?

If we speculate based on the fact that the God of Love has fallen, then a fallen but not completely vanished god would naturally seek resurrection. If this speculation is true, then his own blessing of joy and assimilation with the succubus are naturally preparations for the God of Love's resurrection.

And the "joyful blessings" that gradually recovered in his mind seemed to prove this point.

But judging from the information of Poison Peony and Archbishop Raymond, the god of love was an ancient righteous god who was in charge of beauty, love and art. Even if such a god was resurrected, he should not harm others like the evil gods.

However, the Antlered Goddess had just mentioned that the current "succubus" had a darker aura than the apostles of the God of Love she had seen before. Had the God of Love undergone some transformation after his fall, or had he been tainted by the Demon Lord?

Whenever she thought of this, Sharlene's heart couldn't help but sink a little.

But no matter what the reason, the die was cast, the arrow was on the string, she had brought the succubus clan into this world, and there was no turning back. As she thought of this, a trace of ruthlessness emerged in her heart, and she sneered to herself.

"No matter who's behind this, since they've dared to hand that blessing of joy over to me, it's already mine... Whether you're the God of Love or the Lord of Demons, it won't be easy to manipulate me."

"Woo..."

Just as she was frowning in thought, Granny whimpered and slowly woke up. She stood up and looked at Shalelei and Du Mudan blankly, as if she hadn't fully woken up from the dream. "Lord... Saint? Miss Cultist? What... what's wrong with me?"

"My name is Poison Peony." Poison Peony finally found the opportunity to give her name, gritting her teeth.

"Don't interrupt." Shalelei rolled her eyes at Du Mudan, making her furious. "Just now, the Deer Horned Goddess briefly used your body to manifest herself, and I had a... well, a chat with her."

"We talked?" Granny interrupted her in surprise, her eyes almost popping out. "—we talked?"

Seeing her so surprised, Shalelei was puzzled for a moment. Poison Peony also interjected, "Yes, your Saint Lady and that... god had a very good chat."

"Is it, is it true, Saint?!" Granny, no longer caring about etiquette, quickly grasped Sharlene's sleeve. Shock, ecstasy, and horror flashed across her pretty, light brown face. "Did the Antlered Goddess...did she say anything? No, that's not right. Do you understand what she said? Did she...did she...did she blame me and the mountain people for turning into succubi?"

It was the first time that Sharlelei saw the usually dignified and steady Granny chattering so many questions like a little girl. She was stunned for a moment before she subconsciously said, "No... He doesn't blame you."

"That...that's good. The Deer Horned Goddess is kind and generous, and doesn't mind us becoming your followers, Saint Lady..." Granny drew the Deer Horned Goddess's holy emblem on her chest and murmured to herself, tears gradually filling her emerald eyes. "And...you, you can even talk to Her, and you can understand what She says...Could it be, could it be that you are also chosen by the Deer Horned Goddess?"

As soon as she thought of this, Granny jumped up from the ground, grabbing Sharlene's hand and circling around her like a child. "That's great, that's great, Saint Lady. I knew you were favored by the gods. The path you showed us is exactly what the Deer Horned Goddess wanted..."

When she said this, tears couldn't help but flow down her face. She was crying and laughing at the same time and couldn't even speak clearly.

"Um...Lady Saint." Du Mudan, who had been silent since a while ago, couldn't help but speak. The word "Lady Saint" was also filled with a hint of solemnity and respect. "You... no, what did you say to that goddess...?"

"Weren't you right next to me? How come you didn't hear me?" Shalelei was a little surprised, and Poison Peony's reaction was even more unexpected. The cultist opened his mouth wide, and his eyes flashed with shock, confusion, and anger. He seemed to want to curse, but in the end, no words came out. He just opened his mouth and said woodenly:

"Are you truly ignorant, or are you pretending not to know? Mortals cannot hear the words of the gods, and can only deduce them from vague divine will. Otherwise, how could the priests of the various gods... how could they painstakingly study the sacred texts, pondering for months, only to barely guess a few things?"

After she finished speaking, she looked at Granny with a complicated expression.

Granny's expression was gloomy, and she nodded silently. "I often heard the previous priestess say that the will of the gods is unpredictable. This is why. The will of the gods... is truly beyond the comprehension of mortals like us. But I have never heard the Deer Horned Goddess speak clearly. Even in the dream just now, I only heard Her mumbling in a vague voice..."

Only then did Sharlelei suddenly understand—it turned out that mortals could not hear the clear voices of gods! But in their previous conversation, the Deer Horned Goddess' words were clearly intelligible to her, and she could even hear the subtle elven accent in her voice!

For a moment, it was like a series of thunders exploding in her mind, and she suddenly understood why the Deer Horned Goddess stared at her with such a strange look during their initial conversation!

Perhaps it was because he was the first mortal who could clearly hear her voice and talk to her... or maybe it was a succubus.

But this idea was quickly rejected by Sharlele. After all, Granny was also a succubus, but she couldn't understand the horned goddess's words.

Could it be that because she was blessed with joy by the god of love, she was able to understand the words of the gods? Thinking of this, Sharlene couldn't help but feel both amused and confused.

Then she shook her head and sorted out the information that the Deer Horned Goddess had told her.

First and foremost, the source of his joyful blessings finally became clear—the power of the fallen goddess of love, Ishna. However, this power was tainted with a hint of darkness, and most likely came from the evil god worshipped by the Black Ark Cult, the demon lord Samuth.

Secondly, one of the characteristics of living gods is that "whatever they say must be known," but in secret, perhaps it is possible to hide it from the gods' ears. In dreams, conversations with the Deer Horned Goddess should be safe.

But the question remained: how could he remove the violent wolf spirits entwined with the Antlered Goddess? Where did those wolf spirits come from? Why did the Antlered Goddess speak with an elven accent? What was her connection to the elves?

After solving one mystery, more mysteries appeared...

Salares couldn't help but smile bitterly, and made up her mind that if she had the chance, she would find a cultist of the Black Ark to torture him and ask him who the demon lord Samuth was.

But just at this moment, Granny burst into exclamation again, her voice full of joy.

Volume 3: The Faith Revolution of the Succubus Saint: Chapter 218: Granny's Promotion

"Lady Saint! Lady Saint, look!"

Granny cried out in delight, running to Sharlalei like a child presenting a treasure, cupping her palms. Between her light brown hands was a handful of soil from the cave. Suddenly, a green light shone from the soil, and a new sprout broke through the soil, rapidly growing...

"Divine magic!" Sharlelei was also surprised and happy. She looked into Granny's green eyes filled with tears and asked, "Is this a gift from the Deer Horned Goddess?"

Granny nodded repeatedly, overjoyed, and choked with sobs, unable to utter a word.

The mountain people have believed in the Deer Horned Goddess for hundreds of years, but as time passed, the intervals between her appearances became longer and longer, until she disappeared without a trace. By Granny's generation, there had not been a priest of the Deer Horned Goddess for a long time.

And she was probably the first priestess of the Antlered Goddess in recent decades. How could she not be delighted? For a moment, this gentle and steady mountain priestess burst into laughter and tears like a child. Tears streamed down her face, and she hurriedly wiped them away with her hands, forgetting that she was holding the dirt, making her face look utterly ridiculous.

Sallelei was naturally delighted. In this era of underdeveloped agricultural technology, the significance of the fertility magic for farming was self-evident. However, Moon Spring Town was located in a remote area and was within the sphere of influence of the Church of Light. The Church of Fertility was too lazy to even spread its teachings here, let alone send priests to establish a church.

Therefore, the land in Yuequan Town did not receive any favor from the rich priest, and the farmers could only work hard to dig for food with their faces to the loess and their backs to the sky.

But now Granny has become a priest of the Antlered Goddess. Although the Antlered Goddess is not as good as the real goddess of abundance, she is a deity of nature after all. Her magic is also very beneficial for farming. It is great news for the agricultural development of Yuequan Town and even Graystone Town.

But Granny's joy didn't stop there. For her, becoming a priest and being granted divine power also meant another fact: the Deer Horned Goddess had awakened again, the mountain people had regained the protection of the gods, and there was even the possibility of priests appearing again!

As Sharlelei wiped the dirt off Granny's face, she suddenly had another thought. Since Granny had become a priest of the Antlered Goddess, did she, as the ruler of the succubi, also gain "top account" privileges, allowing her to download study materials from the Antlered Goddess's network drive?

She tried to pray silently to the Deer Horned Goddess in her heart, but at the same time she couldn't help feeling a little nervous - unlike when she was using Isadore's account, the Goddess of Light had tens of thousands of believers, and the Goddess probably wouldn't mind if she used Isadore's account.

But the Deer Horned Goddess is different. Her believers are only a few hundred mountain people, and they have seen me with their own eyes... Will she recognize me?

Soon, just like praying to the goddess of light, a subtle and mysterious spiritual touch descended upon my heart. It was like some kind of vague approval, gently spreading in my heart.

However, unlike the approval and encouragement from the Goddess of Light, the response of the Deer Horned Goddess to the prayer was like a breeze in the woods, the crisp chirping of birds, the cry of deer, and the mist in the early morning forest, brushing wetly across the cheek, without a trace.

Sharlelei opened her palms, magic surged, and a puff of green light sprinkled from her hands. In an instant, the wet earth of the cave was swirled, and dozens of clusters of tender green seedlings broke through the soil.

This is exactly one of the magical arts of the realm of abundance, "Growth Magic".

Seeing that she had successfully cast the spell, Sharlele couldn't help but smile in surprise. She concentrated carefully and sensed it carefully, and only after confirming that the Deer Horned Goddess had no special reaction did she completely feel relieved.

It seemed that the Deer Horned Goddess was completely unaware that she was the one "taking the top spot." And now, she had truly mastered the divine arts of the natural system, but she didn't know what the difference was between the divine arts of the Deer Horned Goddess and those of the Goddess of Fertility.

In terms of combat effectiveness alone, light magic excels at defense and breaking demons, while natural magic excels at control and is of infinite use in natural environments.

As for the attacks that neither of them is good at, they can also make up for it with the powerful "light-guided cannon" or use the arcane magic taught by Villie.

Seeing this scene, not only Granny was surprised and happy, but even Du Mudan's face changed drastically, and her facial features were so distorted that the human skin mask was about to fall off.

The cultist stood there blankly, feeling dizzy and all his common sense of the past thirty years was destroyed at that moment.

A succubus from the Black Ark Cult not only possessed the divine arts of light, but could also converse normally with a deity itself, and even corrupted that deity's followers! Even... even though she wasn't a follower of that deity, she was using his divine arts!

What the hell is going on here? Could this succubus actually be able to "steal" divine arts from the gods?!

For a moment, Du Mudan was so shocked that she could hardly think anymore. She just stared blankly at Shalelei's back.

Could "divine magic" be stolen? Although she had cast the divine magic of the fertility field before, that was with the help of the "Shadow of the Spring Goddess". But this succubus didn't use any magical items...

Could this succubus truly have found favor with the Antlered Goddess? What had transpired between them? What did the Black Ark intend to do with this indigenous deity?

Suddenly, a chill, mixed with a sense of strangeness, crept into Du Mudan's heart. She instinctively told herself not to think any further, not to pry any further. Otherwise, according to the Black Ark's past practices, it could very well lead to fatal disaster. But that strange feeling coiled around her like a venomous snake, giving her a vague feeling that this was not so simple.

What this succubus did was very different from the usual style of the Black Ark.

Those madmen who believe in the devil's lord, are full of twisted desires, and will do anything to achieve their goals, treat ordinary people as fish on a chopping board and slaughter them at will wherever they go.

In their hands, any torture is just commonplace. In the sacrificial rituals of major cults, in terms of horror and cruelty alone, the Black Ark Cult is even more terrifying than the Dark Mother Cult.

Poison Peony once had the opportunity to see the mess left after they performed a sacrifice. She vomited uncontrollably at the first sight and was trapped in nightmares for three consecutive days.

In contrast, the succubus before her had done what she did… Although she had corrupted the town, filling it with succubi, and her sensuality was enough to be considered voluptuous, she wasn't perverted or immoral in the slightest. Walking around town, Poison Peony even saw succubi farming, herding, and carpentry work…

All this left her at a loss.

So she just stood there, watching Granny crying with joy expressionlessly, and then she simply knelt down in front of the shrine of the Deer Horned Goddess and murmured a prayer.

Next, Sharlele handed the "Shadow of the Spring Goddess" to Granny, and instructed her to cooperate with Ophelin and the farmers in the town to do land planning, fertilizer experiments, seed selection and seedling cultivation, and then left with the poisonous peony.

After hearing these things, Du Mudan became even more confused.

Land planning, spreading fertilizer, seed selection and seedling cultivation... She had heard these things so many times that her ears were almost covered with calluses when she was in the Church of Plenty, but she never thought that one day she would hear these words from the mouth of a succubus.

After the matter here came to an end, Du Mudan followed Shalelei back to the Lord's Mansion in Yuequan Town - or rather, returned to the sword-like gaze of Durenna.

Volume 3: The Faith Revolution of the Succubus Saint: Chapter 219: Rotten Gut Tavern

On the same day that Sharlelei brought Poison Peony back to Yuequan Town, Field City.

As expected, after Sallelei took the poisonous peony away, Archbishop Raymond's questioning followed.

"Her Highness the Saint took that cultist away?" In the elegant chapel, a middle-aged man in a priest's robe stood with his hands behind his back. He suddenly turned around and stared at Berea coldly. The holy light lingering around him fluctuated slightly because of his anger.

Facing the Archbishop's anger, Bereya humbly knelt on one knee and calmly replied, "Yes. The Saint said that there is a drug in her territory that can remove the pain barrier, so she took the cultists back for interrogation."

"She took the wanted criminal away from my prison without permission? Who gave her the power to do so?" Raymond shouted, his kind face slightly distorted.

Berea lowered her head and remained silent, but a strange emotion arose in her heart.

Originally, she had always been apprehensive about facing the Archbishop, who held the lifeblood of the Knights. She feared he would use military pay to blackmail her, forcing her into a difficult choice...

But now, the situation was completely different. She knew that the Saint Lady was behind her. Ever since she had insisted on saving those civilians on the battlefield, Berea suddenly understood—rather than just following the Saint Lady's orders, it was more like...

The Saint will support her choice and be her solid backing.

When she thought of this, a surge of courage suddenly surged in her heart, and she was able to face the archbishop calmly, and also face her fellow knights in the Knights Templar calmly.

Berea raised her head and looked directly into the archbishop's eyes without saying a word.

A look of surprise flashed in Raymond's eyes. He suddenly felt that the female knight in his palm seemed a little different, but he couldn't tell what was different.

"...Hmph." In the end, he just snorted coldly and ended the topic in silence.

"There's one more thing, Your Excellency the Archbishop," Bereya said calmly. "The Saint hopes you can find two death row prisoners and 'handle' them. Spread the news that the cult insiders in Field City and Graystone Town have been executed..."

"...I understand. You can leave now." Raymond said, looking at her coldly.

Bereya stood up, saluted, and turned to leave. Archbishop Raymond looked at the statue of the goddess in the chapel, his eyes flickering.

At first he thought that this saint who lifted the siege, brought the magic engine and the crossbow, and captured the poisonous peony in one fell swoop was just a divine soldier sent from heaven.

Even the saint chosen by God is just a little girl who can be used as a tool to build momentum for him, making it easier for him to climb up step by step.

But then he slowly realized that this little girl might not be as innocent as she seemed. Not only had she taken control of the banquet from him, she had also used the magic engine to rip him off heavily—even stopping him from shooting the civilian sacrifices on the city wall, and now she had quietly and privately taken the cultist away.

She totally disregards me. What on earth does she want to do?

Moreover, that Bereya seemed to be very close to her...

"God's Chosen Saint, humph, God's Chosen Saint..."

Under the bright holy light, Archbishop Raymond's face twisted slightly.

........................

After leaving the chapel and dealing with the affairs of the Knights, Berea immediately disguised herself and rushed to the lower city with Isadore. Following the clues of Poison Peony, they went to find Moise, the leader of the Black Wing Society.

But when the two arrived in the lower city, they found that——

There was no Rotten Guts Tavern anymore; all that stood before them was a charred ruin.

Even the surrounding buildings were affected, and the streets were covered with traces of the raging fire. It was obvious that a fire had completely burned the Rotten Guts Tavern, and even if Moise had not been burned to death, he would naturally not be here.

"Sister Bereya, what on earth is this...?" Isadore stared at the charred ruins in front of her. Even though her little brain was not very bright, she was somewhat aware that someone had taken the lead and attacked the Black Wing Society's base in Field City and set it on fire.

"I don't know." Bereya shook her head solemnly. The horror in her heart was no less than Isadore's.

The Black Wing Society is an underground gang spread throughout the Western Territory. Its sphere of influence includes several aristocratic territories including the city of Field. It operates various gray industries including the prostitution industry and usury, and has close business dealings with various small and medium-sized nobles. It is like a small kingdom of crime.

However, due to the Church of Light's strict prohibition on usury, the Black Wings were not very influential in Field City, and their usury business had been repeatedly shut down by Archbishop Raymond. However, this kind of thing was like a weed that could not be eradicated, and would re-emerge after a while, causing great distress to Bereya, the leader of the Knights.

Even though the Black Wings weren't strong in Field City, few dared to provoke them simply because of their reputation. Who dared to attack the Black Wings' stronghold in Field City, and who had the power to completely wipe it out? And most importantly, why would they do this?

Berea was puzzled, so she took Isadore away from the ruins and asked a few nearby residents in the alleys.

Under the power of the charm, the residents readily told everything they knew.

The incident happened late last night. A group of mysterious people attacked the Rotten Gut Tavern and fought with the Black Wing Society members inside. To say "fought" may not be accurate. It should be said that it was an all-out massacre.

The Black Wing Society's thugs had almost no power to fight back and lost their lives with screams. Not even the sound of weapons clashing was heard.

Before the mysterious group left, they set the tavern on fire, startling the surrounding residents who rushed to put out the fire, shouting and yelling. By then, the attackers had already vanished without a trace.

Generally speaking, these words were as good as nothing. For Berea, the only valuable information was the fact that "this mysterious group of people beat the Black Wing thugs without any chance of resistance." This one thing alone was enough to make it clear that this was definitely not an ordinary gang fight.

Berea and Isadore stared at each other, not knowing what to do for a moment. They had no choice but to return to the cathedral and slowly corrupt the Knights and the Sisters, and then make plans after the Saint returned.