Millennium Witch

As the religion with the largest number of followers in the Rusty Bone Free State, the Church of Soulfire was still crowded at night, with people coming and going, presumably all there for Mass.

Stepping out of the taxi, Yvette surveyed the black-spired church, finding it rather eerie. The arches resembled rows of ribs, the wall reliefs were pieced together from individual skulls, and the clergy were all uniformly clad in black robes and hoods. However, since this was a place of worship for Death, this was somewhat in line with the overall atmosphere.

After looking around at the entrance for a while, she was about to go inside when a thought suddenly struck her, and she glanced at a certain spot above the black church.

There, she saw a somewhat familiar, translucent face flash by and disappear into the twilight.

She withdrew her gaze expressionlessly and continued walking inside, thinking that the evil spirit she had encountered in the human trafficking park was indeed related to the Holy Spirit Cult.

Chapter 109 Soul-Soothing Ritual

Climbing the steps like an ordinary tourist, Yvette passed through the archway and entered the interior of the black church.

The interior of the church is a spacious area, unlit by any artificial light; all illumination comes from the thousands of candles lit on the walls. Under the stained glass windows of the dome, an orange glow spreads across everyone, creating a solemn atmosphere. Even tourists from out of town find themselves drawn into this serene environment, hesitant to make a loud noise.

At that moment, directly in front of the rows of pews inside the church, on a white bone altar carved with skull patterns, a bishop was preaching doctrine, while the believers below listened attentively in complete silence.

Yvette glanced at him and roughly confirmed the bishop's identity; he was probably a "requiem priest."

Using information gathered online and the booklets distributed to tourists here, Yvette already knew about the hierarchy of clergy within the Holy Spirit Cult.

The lowest rank was "deacon," which consisted of ordinary clergy members who wore black hoods.

Then there are the "priests" and the "high priests." The former are responsible for the daily ritual activities of the church, such as Mass, preaching, and guiding believers to understand doctrines, while the latter are the heads of individual churches and only come out to preside over ceremonies on special days.

Above that is the "Soul-Soothing Ritual," which belongs to the middle and upper levels of the Holy Spirit sect, the highest leaders of the city-level diocese.

Then there is the "High Priest of Reincarnation". If the Requiem Priest can be compared to a mayor, then the High Priest of Reincarnation is the governor. Due to the small size of Rusty Bones' territory, there are only five High Priests of Reincarnation in total, and these five people are responsible for handling the vast majority of the sect's affairs.

Finally, there are the three "Holy Priests" and "His Holiness the Pope," the four most mysterious and terrifying leaders of the Holy Spirit Sect. Each of them is an unfathomable necromancer, known as the incarnation of death on earth.

Rumor has it that these four have even mastered the core secrets of necromancy, becoming immortal beings. That's why New Eden, as one of the world's two superpowers, has been reluctant to wage a war on terror with the Rustbone Free State, fearing that they might not be able to kill the four super mages and instead anger them, bringing continuous disasters to the country.

Of course, this claim is not guaranteed to be true.

……

Since she was there to gather intelligence, Yvette didn't do anything special. Like other tourists, she stood in a designated area, watching the worshippers celebrate Mass and glancing a few more times at the requiem priest on the altar.

The other person had a very kind face, like an honest and simple middle-aged man, which made people feel friendly. However, thinking of the evil spirit that had flashed by outside the church, Yvette had to be more vigilant and guessed that this requiem priest was most likely an evil necromancer, and that the evil spirit just now might have been summoned by him.

Gradually, she began to have some ideas.

It was impossible for her to obtain necromancy through legitimate means. Six months was not enough time for a new clergyman to be promoted to Requiem Priest, and she didn't think the Church of Soulfire would approve her application.

The only options left are to steal or rob, but this raises another problem—whether it's stealing or violent robbery, it will inevitably attract the attention of the Holy Spirit Sect. What if it attracts a certain priest?

That is the embodiment of death, a true walking nuclear weapon, even more terrifying than nuclear weapons themselves!

After some thought, Yvette decided that she would only need to gather some intelligence in the early stages to deepen her understanding of the Church of Soulfire, and then carry out infiltration and theft, or even violent robbery, in the last half month.

Even if she attracts the arrival of a holy priest, she only needs to make a slight move, hide in Fusjiang for a few days, and once the time is up and she leaves the dream, no matter if you are the incarnation of the Grim Reaper or the incarnation of the Witch of the End, you will never be able to find her again.

She noted down the layout of the church as part of the basic intelligence. After more than ten minutes, Yvette stopped lingering and turned to leave.

But as they approached the door, a priestess wearing a black hood suddenly came up to them and politely asked, "Excuse me, are you Miss Wuming?"

“...It’s me.” Yvette stopped and narrowed her eyes slightly.

"Mr. Koss would like to invite you to stay a moment. I have something I'd like to discuss with you... if it's convenient for you."

Who is Koss?

“It’s that esteemed person on the altar.” The acolyte raised his head, revealing a young face peeking out from under the hood, and looked behind Yvette.

Following his gaze, Yvette looked at the requiem priest she had carefully observed before, and saw him give her a smile from afar.

Yvette was a little confused, wondering if this meant to show goodwill and let bygones be bygones, to wipe the slate clean of the evil spirit attack?

But she decided to see what the other party was up to, so she nodded and said, "Lead the way."

……

Following the black-robed assistant priest, Yvette arrived at a side reception room.

After waiting on the sofa for about ten minutes, Yvette saw the requiem priest push open the door and walk in, smiling lightly, "Miss Nameless is indeed as rumored. Even without a photo, one only needs to look at her to recognize her."

"My name is Hoyle Koss, a requiem priest from the Church of Soulfire in Fusjiang. It's a pleasure to meet you, Miss Nameless. I've heard so much about you!"

Yvette found the overly enthusiastic tone somewhat odd.

After a moment of silence, she asked, "Are you here to reconcile?"

"Reconcile...reconcile?!" Hoyle's smile froze on his face. After a few seconds of stunned silence, he said in confusion, "Miss Wuming, we should be meeting for the first time...is there some misunderstanding?"

"You weren't controlling that evil spirit?" Yvette asked.

“Evil spirits? What evil spirits?” Hoyle’s expression became even more confused. “While I do possess some knowledge of necromancy, I only know a few simple spells, not anything related to evil spirits…”

Because Hoyle's expression was genuine enough, not like acting, Yvette frowned and changed the subject, asking ambiguously, "What do you want from me?"

“Uh… it’s like this, Miss Anonymous, you… you raided the base of those two human trafficking gangs in the suburbs of Fusjiang a couple of days ago, right?” Hoyle became serious.

"Ah."

“That’s wonderful,” Hoyle said sincerely. “I have long wanted to eliminate those two evil bases, but I have been unable to do anything about them because my forces are not strong enough and my own strength is insufficient. Miss Wuming, you have acted on behalf of heaven, and I would like to express my gratitude to you first.”

"..."

“Miss Anonymous, this gratitude is from the bottom of my heart and there is absolutely no falsehood! But I have taken the liberty of inviting you today because I have an even more important request... that is, I would like to make a request to you on behalf of the local Church of Soulfire.”

"You said."

“I hope you can investigate the true identity of the mysterious leader ‘General’ behind the criminal organization ‘Ghost Hand Society’, and ideally, kill him directly,” Hoyle said. “If the investigation is successful, I am willing to pay a reward of 100 million digital currency; if the decapitation is successful, the reward will increase to 500 million… Miss Anonymous, what do you think of this?”

After a moment of silence, Yvette didn't directly answer whether she agreed or not, but instead asked, "What do you know about evil spirits?"

She suspected that Hoyle deliberately assigned her the task to create a blind spot, so that she would no longer suspect his connection with the Ghost Hand Society. But then she felt that if that were the case, Hoyle wouldn't have gone to such lengths; it would only make him seem like he was trying to cover something up.

In short, ask first and see the other person's reaction.

“There are two kinds of evil spirits: those that are naturally born or those that are created by necromancy… Miss Nameless, have you encountered an evil spirit?” Hoyle asked seriously.

Yvette described the evil spirits in the human trafficking camp and the one she had just seen in the church, then asked, "How can you prove that the evil spirit has nothing to do with you?"

Hoyle was silent for a long time, and then said somewhat dejectedly, "I'm sorry, I have no way to prove it, Miss Nameless."

He paused, a look of hesitation on his face, and lowered his voice: "In fact, I myself feel that there must be someone within the church who is colluding with Ghost Hand... There may even be such a person in the Church of Soulfire, but I don't know who it is... So you must be careful of everyone here."

Yvette asked, "Including you?"

Hoyle paused for a moment, then nodded and said, "Yes, that includes me."

Chapter 110 Liana Renee

By the time Yvette left the Church of Soulfire, it was already past ten o'clock at night. The main church doors were already closed, so she had to come out through a side door. With the nods and salutations of several black-hooded deacons, she calmly made her way to the small square outside the church, feeling the night breeze.

She ultimately accepted the commission from the requiem priest Hoyle Kos, partly because he appeared very sincere, making it seem unlikely that he was the corrupt insider who colluded with human traffickers, and partly because... he offered quite a lot.

Originally, the Ghost Hand Society's "General" was a mysterious figure who had long remained behind the scenes and was little known. There was no bounty on him in the Federation. Even if Yvette were to find and kill him on a whim, she could only make some money from the spoils of war, and would not generate any additional income.

But if she can actually catch the general now, she'll have 500 million, which is no small amount; it's enough for her to buy a 16-spec magic terminal.

Incidentally, 16W represents the technological limit of the Origin Civilization. However, this doesn't mean that the symbol point cache has reached its limit, but rather that the element chip has reached its limit. Furthermore, without breakthroughs in manufacturing technology, 16W will remain the limit for personal terminals for many years to come.

Of course, some people may wonder, since 16w is the limit of cutting-edge chips, how do the Origin Civilization use even higher-specification super-large-scale spells, or even million-level spells?

This!

This will require the use of ultra-large casting units constructed from sophisticated magical machinery.

And this is a completely different concept, which is somewhat similar to Yvette's idea in the Elemental Codex - it is a method of layering and combining one thing after another. It does not require high-precision chips, but a large number of durable and reliable mid-to-low-end chips, so as to achieve an effect comparable to a million-level spell.

It just goes to show that there's nothing new under the sun.

……

Although she had accepted the commission to investigate the Ghost Hand Society and the General, Yvette wasn't in a hurry at all. Hoyle had given her a two-year timeframe, which was far too lenient, considering she could only stay in her dreams for six months.

Back home, Yvette emailed several detective agencies online, requesting them to investigate near two human trafficking industrial parks to see if there were any unfamiliar faces or unusual phenomena, with a reward between 1 and 3.

Of course, this isn't about outsourcing layer by layer; she'll do the investigations herself, but having more people always means having more power.

The next morning, after getting up, Yvette bought a motorcycle as a means of transportation and drove to a town called "Dodan," a rural-urban fringe area where the two industrial parks were located.

After inquiring around in Dodan Town for a while, Yvette didn't get any information about the Ghost Hand Society. It was clear that the locals were very tight-lipped and wouldn't reveal anything about human trafficking, not even money.

But one piece of news caught her attention—two little girls from out of town had stayed in Dodan Town a couple of days ago, but left quickly, heading east towards Shalin Town.

During their two-day stay, a mysterious disappearance occurred in the town; the perpetrators were two young people who were usually quite idle.

Although the two events seemed unrelated, they happened to have both occurred in the last two days and had nothing to do with the Ghost Hand Society. So, the old woman at the village entrance, speaking with a heavy local accent, told Yvette about them.

It seems that Zero and One are most likely in the neighboring town of Salin now, very close... Yvette's mood was suddenly touched, and she thought of a question she hadn't considered before.

—In what capacity should she contact Zero One?

Of course, to figure out this issue, the first thing to determine is what her purpose was in contacting the two men.

The answer is clear: figure out the original owner's secrets, understand the original owner's personality, and their life experiences.

Based on this, a very important condition arises: her appearance must not disrupt the original owner's life in the dream.

If she were to declare herself to be Zero from the future, and Zero were to believe it, then many of her subsequent actions would directly influence Zero's choices. This butterfly effect would disrupt the dream's timeline, and she would never be able to see the real past.

Therefore, she had to find herself an identity that allowed her to act as a camera from the sidelines without affecting the course of their lives.

So it really can only be that one, right?

That's right!

From now on, she is Zero's never-before-seen older sister!

……

In early May, the plum rains in Shalin Town arrived earlier than usual.

At first, it was just sparse raindrops, tentatively tapping on the town's dirt roads and tin roofs, but soon, the rain poured down like a burst dam, soaking the eaves of the small houses and darkening the bamboo walls.

The river rose, swallowing half of the stone steps. Cheap neon signs, submerged in the water, stained the murky surface with an eerie, oil-painted hue. The sounds of rainstorm warnings and expired advertisements buzzed in my ears, then abruptly stopped with a crackling static.

In a narrow alleyway by the roadside, Liana Renee was squatting, silently watching the rain outside. She seemed to enjoy the tranquility of being able to stay in a safe place and quietly appreciate the downpour outside, and she softly hummed a song, her voice sweet, like a summer wind chime.

Several tens of minutes, or perhaps longer, passed before she stood up and returned to the alley. At the end of the alley was a courtyard, with a simple, semi-open-air covered walkway on three sides, and only a small area in the center was completely exposed to the sky and battered by the rain.

She stood under the eaves, staring absently at the muddy puddle in the courtyard. After a while, the soil suddenly surged, and a hideous, enormous worm emerged. Its grotesque mouth opened, revealing a beautiful, otherworldly silver-haired little girl who gracefully and calmly stepped out of its massive jaws.

A blue wind swirled above her head, keeping away the millions of raindrops falling from the sky, not a single drop wetting her clothes.

Then, the silver-haired little girl came over, gently hugged Liana, and affectionately nuzzled her face: "I'm back."

Liana's body stiffened visibly, and she said uneasily, "Yvette... what were you doing out there again?"

"You should be able to guess." The silver-haired girl smiled slightly, her dark red pupils revealing a cruelty that was clearly incongruous with her age. She said with a smile, "I said I won't let anyone who dares to hurt you get away with it, even if it's just words."

“Don’t do this, Yvette…you’ve already killed so many people, you’ll fall into darkness…” Liana shook her head forcefully.

Previously in the town of Dordan, two young men were killed by Yvette for speaking rudely and giving them lewd looks. The murders were then fed to the monsters underground.

Now in Salin, a five- or six-year-old local boy was killed by Yvette for mocking her for not speaking the Rustbone dialect, and became nourishment for the monsters.

If she keeps killing like this, won't she end up feeding all the people in the world to the monsters she's raising?

"There are so many people in this world, what's the big deal if a few die?" The silver-haired girl's lips curled up slightly, carrying a hint of sarcasm.

This mockery wasn't directed at Liana, so who was it directed at? Was it directed at the world?

Immediately noticing the fear in Liana's eyes, her own gaze softened quickly, like a setting sun obscured by clouds. She took Liana's hand and said, "Don't worry, I won't destroy this world. This world will definitely become what you want it to be... I promise."

“You’ve lost yourself in power, Yvette, you can’t do this,” Liana said softly after a long silence.

"I didn't... Sigh, you wouldn't understand even if I told you." The silver-haired girl sighed. "Then, for those you think shouldn't die, I'll spare their lives, okay?"

“It’s not just that… I think our power should be used for something more worthwhile, don’t you think, Yvette?” Liana said.

"Again?" The silver-haired little girl's gaze drifted awkwardly towards the alley entrance, her tone suddenly becoming light and cheerful, completely different from before. "Where's Firefly? Tell it to go buy some food, why is it taking so long..."

"Don't change the subject."

"Oh, we have guests!"

"Still changing the subject!" Liana said irritably.

"No, Liana, there really is a guest~" The silver-haired girl pointed to the narrow alley entrance, but then she noticed the guest's face, which was almost exactly the same as hers, only more mature and more girlish, like a sister who was only a few years younger, both of them were extremely beautiful.