The Villain Saint is my secondary account

But there was nothing we could do about it. Without enough information, exploring in any particular direction was pretty random. Fortunately, we met Atolina and obtained crucial information.

Surprisingly, the timeframe was somewhat tight.

Although, according to rumors circulating in the surrounding area, the number of patients with fish scales in the city was indeed increasing during the previous discussions.

In addition to the assassination of Ella, the destruction of Horn Village, and the disappearance of Count Malz, the increasingly aggressive methods employed by the other side also indicate that their concerns are diminishing.

Ye Xiao guessed that these were signs that the conspiracy was about to be revealed, but he did not expect the situation to be more tense than he had imagined.

After counting the faces of the porters one by one in the warehouse and finding nothing unusual, the steward ordered his guards to drive the group out of the castle.

After all, we still don't know what the suspicious person who infiltrated the castle is doing, and too many random people could easily cause unnecessary commotion.

Ye Xiao sat in the packhorse carriage and walked out of the towering gate in a grand manner.

……

As evening fell and the sun set, the sky over Storm Harbor sank into darkness.

A fishermen's association outpost in the harbor area.

The members of the Seven Stars Society gathered in the conference room to discuss the intelligence they had gathered from various sources that day.

"The decisive battle is in two days? That's too tight a schedule," Li Cheng said, rubbing his forehead with worry.

"There's nothing we can do; after all, it was decided by the enemy." Ye Xiao shrugged. "In fact, we're quite lucky that we found out about this after all this trouble."

“That’s true,” Li Cheng nodded. “However, I don’t quite understand what that ‘blasphemous ritual of the sea god’ is. I wonder if there will be any hidden dangers if we attack rashly before we figure it out.”

"I don't understand this either, but don't worry, there are people here who do." Ye Xiao smiled and casually patted the kitten on his shoulder.

Greta bared her teeth at Ye Xiao, then jumped onto the table. With a light, cat-like gait, she raised her head and puffed out her chest towards the group of people sitting around her, saying, "Ahem, I'll be speaking next."

Chapter Seventy-Six: The Ritual of Blasphemy

Blasphemy means the defilement and trampling of sacredness.

This word appeared in church texts at the very beginning of the faith in God.

Those who worship deities receive blessings through prayer, achieving miracles that mortals can only look up to.

But just as there are two sides to every coin, there are beings who hold gods in high esteem, and there are also "heretics" who hate gods.

There are many reasons for their existence: hatred of divine injustice, a transference of hatred towards the sanctuary, or faith in other gods...

Ordinary nonbelievers are usually considered "lost sheep" by the church, while only those who are clearly on the opposite side are considered "heretics".

Whether such an existence is good or bad cannot be definitively argued, but they must all have the same problem—how to fight against the gods?

Ordinary living beings can achieve extraordinary things simply by understanding their existence and glimpsing a corner of their laws. Even so, fighting against them is like an ant trying to shake a tree.

To solve this problem, countless "heretics" searched diligently, and finally, at some unknown point in the river of time, the "blasphemy ritual" appeared.

Its origin is said to be derived from the interpretation of the scriptures of the sanctuary. They discovered that in the earlier divine era, when the God of Light conquered the evil old gods, he usually started by attacking the source of their faith, changing the beliefs of those who were then called "fools" who believed in the old gods and converting them to the sanctuary, before finally carrying out his conquest of the old gods and causing their downfall.

From this point on, the heretics began to vaguely realize that since the God of Light defeated other gods by starting with faith, could the heretics also start with faith if they wanted to deal with the seemingly supreme God of Light?

Although there is no concrete evidence for this origin, it is interesting and has been widely circulated—the texts used to proclaim the greatness of the gods became the origin of blasphemous rituals, which is quite ironic.

As the conflict between heretics and the sanctuary gradually developed, the methods of blasphemy also gradually evolved and improved. However, due to the different heretical sects and the different gods they targeted, the content of the rituals varied greatly.

Without exception, they all revolve around how to distort the faith in deities. This could be to incur even greater hatred from the deities, for example, by giving believers who worship the deities curses instead of blessings; or to defile pure faith, for example, by widely disseminating altered scriptures instead of the original ones.

Here, the full name of the sea goddess should be "Undine, the goddess of the sea and rivers." Judging from the fish scale plague that has begun to spread in the city, the corruption of Undine's followers into becoming hideous may be one of the blasphemous rituals.

However, Undine's followers are spread throughout the coastal areas of the continent, and the Ocean Sanctuary in Stormport is only a small part of them. The corruption of the followers of a city is a disaster for the Empire, but for a god of such a size, it is honestly not a big deal, after all, this is not the only city that worships Undine.

Even if the ichthyosis spread further and wider through this port, it would most likely be seen as the evil deed of some evil god, incurring the condemnation and cleansing of the Holy Church, but it would not shake the foundation of the faith.

“I think I understand now,” Ye Xiao said with a sudden realization. “Unless this degeneration is merely the trigger for the blasphemous ritual. I initially thought that spreading pollution and causing ordinary people to degenerate was the goal, but now it seems that this is just a means to an end.”

“Well said, Ye.” The kitten somehow managed to curl a pair of black-rimmed glasses with its tail and put them on its head. “The essence of corruption is that the influence of deities on living beings exceeds the limits that the souls of living beings can contain, thus fundamentally distorting the form of existence of the soul. So, to some extent, excessive blessings can actually lead to corruption. This is also why believers in some unorthodox and evil gods born in desolate mountains and wilderness often become corrupted—this is not to say that these gods are so ‘evil,’ but that their own instability affects the believers.”

"Therefore, in theory, any god can create corrupted beings."

"What if all the patients with the ichthyosis believed that everything they suffered was actually caused by Undine? Would their faith then turn into hatred?"

When Gradia revealed this, Ye Xiao finally understood why the fake saintess had gone to such lengths to bring the evil god, born in some remote corner of a country across the ocean, to this place.

Because His corrupted symptoms can lead those afflicted with the plague to a tendency toward hatred.

If cracks with tentacles appear on one's body, or if animal hair grows on it, it's hard to associate the cause with a deity like "Sea God," who seems completely unrelated.

But if someone has fish scales on their body, that's a different story. When nothing seems to work, it's hard for the patient not to think of it as a "curse of the sea god."

Moreover, there are rumors that the culprit behind the fish scale disease, the phenomenon of "increased fish production," is a blessing from the sea goddess.

However, this strangely resonated with Ella – it turns out that she wasn't the only one who got blamed; the ocean goddess also got blamed.

“Professor Greta, I think I understand, but I’m still not quite sure what the fake saintess will do at the banquet the day after tomorrow?” Li Cheng raised his hand in question.

"Ye, please answer this question." The kitten tapped Ye Xiao on the head with its tail.

“According to this theory, since the goal is to incite hatred among believers, a reasonable scenario must be set up,” Ye Xiao pondered. “The coming-of-age birthday banquet of Elin, the eldest daughter of the Maltz family, invited nobles and high-ranking officials from the Coastal Province. More importantly, it was the current Bishop Vanessa of the Ocean Sanctuary.”

“As Eileen’s best friend, Vanessa will definitely pray for Eileen at her birthday party. If I want to achieve my blasphemous goal… this prayer will transform Eileen into the most despicable corrupted form on the spot.”

"Hmm... but that's not enough. We need to make other people at the banquet start to show signs of change, and at the same time, the ichthyosis will break out in full force throughout the city."

"But simply having an outburst isn't enough; people also need to understand why it happened... That's when Beverly can make her entrance."

"She will 'reveal' the evil of the sea goddess. As the archbishop of the Ocean Sanctuary, she has renounced the sanctuary on her own. Her declarations are absolutely persuasive to the uninformed masses. She also controls the fish scale plague, so she can cure a small number of people of the plague on the spot."

"If they are also the masterminds behind the recently emerged new sect, the Pisces Society, then they even have the faith foundation that the Pisces Society has already established from the grassroots. If Beverly appears as the bishop of the new sect or even as God's chosen one, she can completely incite people's hatred for the sea goddess."

Chapter Seventy-Seven: A Cunning Rabbit Has Three Burrows

"With three months of spread, the outbreak of this disease is now extremely widespread. Once activated, it will also cause corresponding symptoms to appear in many coastal areas."

"Therefore, they don't need to spread the disease completely to achieve their goal of corrupting the entire population; they only need to let everyone on the continent witness the disaster caused by the 'Ocean Goddess,'" Ye Xiao concluded, stroking his chin.

After Ye Xiao finished his analysis, even the kitten on the table was stunned.

Greta originally wanted Ye Xiao to give her a starting point before she continued explaining, but she didn't expect that his idea seemed to be even more complete than hers.

“Not bad,” the kitten nodded. “I suddenly realized that you actually have a talent for blasphemy. Have you learned a little from some evil god?”

"Ahem, Teacher Cat, you can't say things like that carelessly." Ye Xiao's gaze was slightly unfocused, then he continued, "I understand about the ritual, but there's still one thing I'm not clear about: why is that little girl, Sia, being held captive in Wind Chaser Fortress?"

"That's really strange, but unfortunately, I'm not sure either." The kitten spread its two paws.

"Hmm..." Ye Xiao couldn't help but fall into deep thought, but the information about the little girl was still very limited, and he couldn't figure it out for the time being.

“So, what we need to do most is actually to find a way to get rid of that ‘Fish Mother’ Beverly Shelley as soon as possible?” Li Cheng then spoke up. “Once that girl is gone, the plans of the fake saintess and the Malz family will naturally fall apart, and we won’t have so many constraints on whether we fight or continue to accumulate strength.”

“‘Fish Mother’ being Beverly Shelley is just the most likely guess,” Ye Xiao sighed. “But the most troublesome thing is that we still don’t know exactly where she is.”

"Although Artorina pointed out the tunnel below Windseeker Castle, the veracity of the information is debatable. In reality, she only stated that Sia was there, but whether the 'Fish Mother' was actually there is still uncertain."

“I did get some information about this when I infiltrated the Pisces Society today,” Li Cheng said, taking out a small notebook from his pocket and placing it on the table. “Those believers were quite enthusiastic; they even gave me a handwritten kraft paper booklet. Although it was rather rough, it was probably something they used for propaganda.”

As he spoke, Li Cheng flipped through a few pages of the booklet, stopping at an abstract graffiti. It depicted something resembling a stage, with worshippers bowing in reverence below. On the stage was a hazy human figure wrapped in black cloth, with outstretched arms, as if sprinkling a few drops of water onto the audience.

"Their bishops are also very mysterious, wearing black robes and covering their faces. It is said that they only appear once a month during secret gatherings of believers."

"Tomorrow happens to be the day of the next gathering. If Brother Ye's guess is correct, then this gathering of believers is probably to lay the groundwork for the banquet the day after tomorrow."

"I reckon it's nothing more than a few things: the prophecy that the sea god will bring disaster, and that I can save you, to make it coherent," Ye Xiao replied. "That's definitely worth investigating. If we can secretly catch the 'Fish Mother' before the banquet, we won't be in such a passive position."

“But because of the large number of believers and the existence of multiple branches, their gatherings are often held simultaneously in many different locations,” Li Cheng continued. “After all, they are an underground religious order suppressed by the authorities, and the bishop may only appear at one of their gatherings.”

"A cunning rabbit has three burrows... how many locations are there?"

“There are quite a few locations, five in total, one of which is at the foot of the mountain in the South District.” Li Cheng picked up a quill pen and marked the Storm Harbor map on the table. “The remaining locations are one in the North District, two in the largest harbor district, and one in Cliff City.”

Ye Xiao glanced around the room at everyone. "Hmm... I'm afraid it will have to be the same as before. Everyone will split up and act separately. When the bishop appears, send a message in the guild group using the system, and wait for Ella and me to arrive."

“It seems that’s the only way.” Li Cheng nodded. “However, we can’t act rashly before the Holy Maiden arrives. This guy’s current strength is beyond our ability to deal with. Whether we can defeat him is another matter. If he gets away and alerts the enemy, we may not have another chance to find him.”

Everyone agreed, and after some discussion, they began to assign people to be responsible for monitoring each location.

Gladys, yawning, jumped from the table onto Ye Xiao's lap, then tucked her paws into her arms and fell asleep against Ye Xiao's stomach.

By the time the long meeting came to an end, the moon had already risen above the treetops.

……

The next day, in the afternoon, was before the start of the Pisces Society's secret meeting.

The Seven Stars Society members split into five groups according to the plan and infiltrated various corners of Storm Harbor to begin their stakeout.

At this moment, Ye Xiao was also wearing his favorite travel cloak, queuing up to enter the old theater in the North District, mixed in with the Pisces Society believers.

The Pisces Church is quite accepting of its believers, and new people often join. Therefore, the believers guarding the door were not very curious about Ye Xiao, a new face. When they saw him enter, they simply put their hands together behind their backs and made a strange prayer gesture.

Ye Xiao then followed the gesture and returned the greeting, before simply entering the simple meeting room.

As an underground cult primarily composed of people from the lower classes, the "Pisces Society" would naturally not choose any high-class or upscale locations for its gatherings.

Because it was located near a cliff, the loud noise of goblin airships taking off and landing could be heard from outside from time to time, but the believers crowded together in the venue all kept quiet.

On an old stage frame, a gray curtain was drawn back, and a young man in a cloak walked onto the stage and said in a friendly voice, "First of all, thank you all for coming. I am very happy to see many new faces at this third gathering, because it shows that our big family is growing stronger and stronger."

At the same time, a message from the guild group popped up on the system panel that Ye Xiao was closely monitoring.

[The Saintess's Dog 2: Is everyone in position? My airship landing pad in the South District is ready.]

To be honest, Ye Xiao couldn't help but lose his composure every time he saw the nickname "Li Cheng".

[Late-night snack: Beicheng District and Gaocheng District Theaters, all ready.]

[The Saintess's Dog 1024: Cliff City in the North District, Ready to Go]

...Wait a minute, who is this guy?

Ye Xiao's lips twitched, and then he almost choked on his breath when the next two lines of messages popped up.

[Saintess's Dog 1314: Xianhe Wharf, Haigang District, Beicheng District, is ready]

【The Saintess's Dog 2015: North District Harbor Area Fishing Ground, Ready to Go】

"No way, guys, how am I supposed to tell which of these weird names is which?" Ye Xiao was completely baffled. He clearly remembered that the names weren't these random things before.

“In addition, I am also happy for your good fortune, because this time, we are also honored to have the leader of our family here,” the pastor on the stage said, turning halfway to the side and extending a hand to the other side of the stage, “our beloved Archbishop, Lord Lowell.”

Huh? You showed up so quickly.

Ye Xiao was taken aback and quickly opened the group message panel in the system.

At the same moment, Ella also rushed over here.

But just as he was about to send the notification message, two new messages suddenly popped up on the panel.

[The Saintess's Dog 2: @Everyone, on my side, at the South District Airship Landing Grounds, their bishop has appeared.]

【Saintess's Dog 2015: Huh? I was just about to say that a bishop appeared on my end??】

Chapter Seventy-Eight: The Assembly of Atonement

It seemed like a coincidence, yet it was also inevitable. With the appearance of two more reports, Ye Xiao could basically confirm that the elusive Pisces Archbishop had appeared at all five gathering locations.

Even their names are all the same: "Lowell".

[Late Night Snack: Li Cheng, had this happened before when you were investigating?]

[Saintess's Dog 2: I heard that in the previous two gatherings, the archbishop only appeared in one venue, while the other venues had priests preaching on his behalf. This has never happened before. Were they taking precautions on the last day?]

Could it be that our actions were anticipated by the other side?

Ye Xiao was somewhat surprised, but the other party might not even know about Ella's resurrection, otherwise the search of the Seven Stars Society should not have been carried out by guards.

[Late Night Snack: Something's not right. Everyone, hold off for now and observe first.]

Meanwhile, Ella mobilized the crows she had placed near the "Pisces Club" meeting place to guard the exits of each venue.

Since learning this trick, Ella has been using a lot of crows for reconnaissance, and Stormharbor is now full of her spies without her ever leaving the house.

However, the interior of the hidden meeting place was too conspicuous for a crow of that size to squeeze in, so the Seven Stars Society members were needed to explore from the inside.

The archbishops of the five venues each held a scripture and began to preach the doctrine.

They all wore black veils, but their voices were clear and slightly mature.