Chapter 207

Chapter 207

"This is indeed a demon's hair. I never expected you to bring back such valuable intelligence on your first mission," the Chief Divine Messenger of the Holy Mountain remarked. A cluster of golden flames suddenly ignited at her fingertips, burning the slender white hair she held until it turned into a wisp of black-purple smoke—a common manifestation of demonic energy when stimulated by its natural enemy. "As for Licheng, someone will handle it. You've worked hard on this trip."

Although the Holy Mountain did not involve itself in worldly affairs, there were religious organizations in the human world autonomously formed by its devout believers. Once evidence of humans colluding with hell or demons was obtained, the divine messengers on the Holy Mountain would use special methods to contact nearby religious organizations and arrange for them to purge the fallen individuals who colluded with evil forces.

However, before returning, Eve had already informed Lorca about this matter, to which he replied, "It's not a big deal." As long as one is human, they would have emotions, desires, and all sorts of cravings, whether acceptable or unacceptable. It seemed the erosion from hell was deeper than the Holy Mountain's divine messengers had anticipated.

Noticing Eve still staring at her fingers, the Chief Divine Messenger, who had just finished conveying instructions to the religious organization, asked suspiciously, "Is there anything else you need to report?"

"Oh, it's nothing major," Eve reluctantly withdrew her gaze and said apologetically, "I was just amazed seeing your fingers produce fire out of nowhere."

"...That's just a basic minor divine technique. Demons inherently repel bright and benevolent energies. By channeling a bit of the divine energy commonly found on the Holy Mountain, one can accurately detect entities tainted by demons. If you want to learn it, you can ask Yuni to teach you."

Yuni was the Official Divine Messenger responsible for mentoring Eve.

Normally, acolytes were not qualified to learn divine techniques, but this was merely a small trick that could serve as an identification spell. The Chief Divine Messenger was tolerant and, considering she had just completed a task, didn’t mind fulfilling a junior’s small wish.

Eve was naturally extremely flattered: "Thank you very much for your generosity, Senior."

The Chief Divine Messenger waved her hand, indicating that she could leave for now.

The Holy Mountain had recruited two new acolytes simultaneously. After Eve set off for Licheng, the other acolyte also officially arrived at the Holy Mountain and was immediately sent by the Chief Divine Messenger to the town at the foot of the mountain to inspect various matters related to the Divine Birth Day. This included, but was not limited to, checking incoming items for forbidden objects containing evil power and reviewing the identities of envoys coming to participate in the Divine Birth Day.

Throughout the preparation period for the Divine Birth Day, believers from all over the world would continuously flock to participate. These believers included both nameless ascetics who devoted themselves entirely to the god and worldly guests with immense power and status. Regardless of their backgrounds, ensuring their safety was also the responsibility of the Holy Mountain and its divine messengers.

The Holy Mountain was extremely high in altitude. Only the legendary god resided at the summit, while the other divine messengers were assigned residences from the top down according to their status. The two acolytes lived together in a temple on the southern side of the mountainside. Since there was still plenty of time and with the Chief Divine Messenger’s permission, Eve went directly to find her mentor, Yuni, to learn the simple divine technique for detecting demonic energy. However, when she arrived at the temple where Yuni resided, Eve found no one there.

"Yuni went down the mountain today with the other acolyte to prepare for the Divine Birth Day," another divine messenger who lived with Yuni explained coldly. "If you want to learn divine techniques, wait until she returns. However, this isn’t something acolytes should learn. With both preparing for the Divine Birth Day and mentoring two newcomers, Yuni is already very busy. Considerate juniors know they should consciously avoid causing trouble for adults during such times."

The temple door was only opened a crack the entire time. Eve didn’t even get a clear look inside before the pure white marble door closed heavily in front of her again.

Could it be that the Holy Mountain also had workplace discrimination between seniors and juniors...?

"Such flagrant disdain for acolytes," Eve withdrew her hand from the door and muttered to herself. "Even if interns aren’t liked anywhere, isn’t it inappropriate for a divine messenger to be so cold?"

As fellow employees within the Holy Mountain, there wasn’t even a shred of camaraderie or mutual support. If this kind of disorganized group were in the outside world, it would have already been exposed on the Star Network as a place to avoid for internships.

What kind of deity must reside at the summit to have raised such a group of divine messengers who cared about nothing except upholding the god’s authority?

Eve looked up, estimating how long it would take her to sneak up there.

The sunlight was brilliant, but the higher one went, the lonelier it felt. Only a layer of glistening white snow was hidden behind the thin mountain mist. The grandeur of nature was the best prop to emphasize extraordinary status. At the very least, staring at this height—which remained with no end in sight even from the mountainside—Eve admitted she felt a bit dizzy.

How annoying. Must she really climb up? Couldn’t the god just come down from the summit?

...She must find an opportunity to set fire to the Holy Mountain, preferably enough to smoke out everyone, divine or human, forcing them to flee downhill, Eve thought with a flickering expression. After all, this world had no laws about "setting fire to the mountain and being imprisoned for life."

"Eve, why are you up here?"

The path down the mountain was long and winding. At the end, two women wearing divine messenger masks approached. One was elegant and dignified, while the other was shorter and much quieter. Yuni was tilting her head to instruct the young girl beside her on the various guidelines of being a divine messenger. When she saw Eve coming down from the mountain, she greeted her first.

"Hello, Senior," Eve nodded to her and then looked at the other petite divine messenger. "And this is...?"

"This is the other acolyte recruited by the Holy Mountain this time, also your colleague who lives in the same temple," Yuni pushed the girl forward. "If you’re heading back to the temple, you can go together. I have other matters to attend to, so I won’t accompany you on this part of the journey."

Yuni’s temple was located on the eastern side of the Holy Mountain, which was indeed not on the way, so Eve did not refuse the suggestion.

Perhaps because she thought divine messengers were all servants of the god and there was no need for them to know each other, Yuni did not introduce the new acolyte’s name. Even so, the two were well aware of each other’s identities.

Eve lifted the corner of her robe and said with a smile, "To be grouped with the famously knowledgeable Chairperson Zhou in a place like this—it seems this mission is secured."

"Chief Eve," Zhou Huixue politely returned the compliment, "On the way here, I heard the mentoring divine messenger praise the other acolyte as very capable. I didn’t expect it to be you. Chief Eve truly excels no matter which world she’s in."

The two smiled at each other, then simultaneously looked away, both thinking, "This is troublesome."

The traumatic impact Anthony cast on Zhou Huixue was too large. Having just confronted him on shore, Zhou Huixue still felt uneasy seeing anyone from First Empire Academy.

As for Eve, she purely thought Zhou Huixue was too clever and assertive—not as easy to manipulate as someone like Murphy, nor as observant as Yang Haibo. When two equally strong individuals met, cooperation wasn’t impossible, but when two people accustomed to being the team’s brain came together, conflicts would only increase, not decrease.

Being in the same faction, cooperation was inevitable. After a moment’s thought, Eve decided to sit down and talk with Zhou Huixue first. As the earliest person to enter the ghost ship, Zhou Huixue had experienced the most inner worlds. Barring any surprises, she likely held some exclusive information.

If it could ensure a smooth passage, Eve didn’t mind cooperating with anyone. Occasionally playing the role of a brainless enforcer could be quite convenient.

She lifted her chin, pointing toward the right—the direction of their temple. "Talk? Maybe we can exchange some info."

Zhou Huixue nodded with the same calculating background music in her mind.

"How many inner worlds have you been through?"

"Excluding repeats, this is the sixth. What about you?"

"You've been through that many? This is only my third. Is this what it means to be the earliest to enter the ghost ship?" Eve marvelled. "I heard you returned to the island before this round. Is that why you have repeated levels? Since you even have an item that can forcibly eliminate others, you must also have an item that allows you to return to the ghost ship after being eliminated, right?"

Zhou Huixue scrutinized her for a moment.

The ghost ship didn’t allow contestants to leave mid-challenge. Moreover, she had purposely timed her return to the island. Even if the wristwatch restored communication during breaks, given the time Eve entered the inner world and the deliberate time flow difference between the ghost ship and the shore, students still in Iceland wouldn’t have had time to tip her off.

So there was only one way she could know about her movements.

"At first, First Empire Academy didn’t deploy everyone but left backup personnel on shore," Zhou Huixue stated calmly. "Someone from your school also entered the ghost ship just before this round and happened to be assigned to the same world as you. You must have met and exchanged information not long ago."

The number of people each inner world could accommodate was limited. These "rooms" were actually countless simultaneously unfolding parallel world fields. For the sake of fairness, the ghost ship prioritized grouping people of similar strength together.

Zhou Huixue asked, "After entering this round’s world, you encountered other people from First Empire Academy and exchanged intelligence. To be assigned to this worldline... was it Lorca or Lu Qing?"

Astonishing deductive ability, but it ended there.

The indifferent other divine messengers wouldn’t voluntarily tell Zhou Huixue task details unrelated to her. No matter how clever Zhou Huixue was, she couldn’t guess Eve’s movements out of thin air, let alone deduce what Lorca and the others were currently doing.

Eve’s gaze was inscrutable: "Why not unleash your imagination and guess more boldly?"

"..."

At this point, unlike the fragmented backgrounds and timelines of the previous worlds, this round of the game had even released the Holy Mountain, clearly intended as the final round. There was no point in fighting internally with Eve. Considering herself rational, Zhou Huixue quickly ran through several thoughts in her head and promptly surrendered.

"I don’t have any other extra items left. I only obtained three in total: one for forced elimination, one for regaining qualifications, and another pretty useless detection item."

To prevent Eve from coveting her items, she laid out her situation upfront.

"I’m not interested in your school’s internal roles either; it’s unrelated to the mission. I only want to obtain some useful intel you’ve consolidated that’s useful for clearing the level. Likewise, from the extra worlds I’ve experienced, I’ve gathered a lot of background information about this world. We can exchange."

It sounded sincere and fair, but given this person’s "glorious record" of manipulating Capital People's University into being her pawn in the last league, Eve said, "You proposed it; you go first."

"Besides the Holy Mountain, this world has another place called hell, formed by demons."

"Oh... Hmm, please continue."

It seemed she already knew. Zhou Huixue couldn’t gauge her depth and countered, "Don’t you think it would be fairer if we took turns speaking?"

"Alright then, I can tell you that there's a demon queen in hell named Lilith, who is planning to invade the human world on God's Birthday."

"The Holy Mountain is also planning to trigger a great flood on God's Birthday."

"The key to escaping the great flood lies with the family on Fuqiu."

Zhou Huixue went quiet briefly, as both of them realized that the information they each held mostly overlapped.

"You don’t seem to be of much use to me," Eve said bluntly.

Though the situation appeared balanced on the surface, First Empire Academy had more than one person in this world. If she and Zhou Huixue were to truly fall out, Zhou Huixue would be at a greater disadvantage.

Zhou Huixue was well aware of this herself. She took a deep breath, as if making a difficult decision, and said heavily, "Wait, I have one more tip, obtained from the first world I experienced. This information is highly valuable, but I can’t guarantee it will be useful to you."

"If what you say is true," Eve shrugged, a relaxed smile on her face, "then I might be able to offer you something that may not be particularly valuable but will definitely be of use to you."

"There has been no god on the Holy Mountain for a long time," Zhou Huixue dropped a bombshell. "Maybe dead, maybe vanished, but He is truly gone. If you have the energy, you could always climb to the summit and see for yourself."

Eve raised an eyebrow, her expression clearly shocked for the first time.

"Alright, I admit that compared to yours, what I’m about to say might seem a bit lame, but it should still be useful, right?" She snorted lightly. "In this world, appearance settings can be tampered with—only those in the same faction can see through it. You’re in charge of vetting attendees for God's Birthday, right? I’d advise you not to trust those you’ve *really* seen too much."

"Even if some familiar faces are mixed in, the difficulty of them recognizing you should be much lower than you recognizing them."

-

At the foot of the Holy Mountain.

The atmosphere in the town market had already been pre-hyped. Representatives from every nation had gathered, singing and dancing, with performances praising the divine passing through the major streets one after another. Amid the noise and excitement, a group of merchants wearing wide-brimmed hats and earth-brown robes moved low-key through the crowd.

"So this is the foot of the Holy Mountain? It’s quite lively, much more buzzing with life than the previous two worlds," Cecil frowned as he scanned his surroundings. "Although I expected it, it’s still hard to believe such a vivid scene could actually be simulated by the system."

"I’m certain of it because, when it comes to anything related to network systems, my Spiritual State cannot make mistakes."

"Uh, I didn’t mean to doubt you."

"I know," Qi Ying said. "You just wanted to take digs at the quality of the simulation system."

Shouldn’t such things be understood without being said aloud? Cecil didn’t quite understand why he had to voice it.

"Excuse me, it’s not that I want to interrupt, but I just have a sincere question," Zao Jian Chun Sha, following behind, couldn’t stand the atmosphere where she sensed these two were putting on an act but had no idea what it was about. She mustered her courage and spoke up. "You’ve been discussing the nature of the ghost ship all this way, and my head is spinning. Can someone summarize it for me—what's our actual objective in this round’s mission?"