Lanqi's Lucky Star, Hyperion

Lichtenstein Castle, second floor, Bedroom 203. Lanqi seemed to feel that the environment in Bedroom 202—which had effectively become a torture chamber—was rather unpleasant, so he had Hyperion carry the priestess along with her chair into the pristine Bedroom 203 next door. The lights in the room were bright and steady, casting a golden glow across every corner. A dark carpet was laid over the wooden floor, making it a peaceful sanctuary perched high upon the cliff in the small hours of late autumn. Hyperion had already removed the gag from the priestess's mouth and loosened some of her iron chains so she could sit comfortably, while also handing her a blanket. Having gone from hell to heaven in mere minutes, the priestess wore a dazed expression, though the look of dependence in her eyes whenever she looked at Lanqi deepened even further. Opposite her, Lanqi and Hyperion still sat facing her. "Give a brief introduction of yourself first," Lanqi said, his eyes on the notebook in his hand as he began writing. "I turned off the [Shadow World Recording Program] long ago. The Resurrection Church won't learn that I obtained any information from you. As for your imprisonment by the Creti Empire after the Shadow World ends, I'll also ask Imperial Princess Alexia to protect you as much as possible, sparing you from interrogation in prison and making your stay more comfortable." When a Shadow World ended, all challengers would return to the site of the Void Gate through which they had entered. This time, the challengers had entered the Shadow World through a major, heavily guarded Void Gate controlled by the Southern Continent Shadow World Management Association, rather than a temporary, "unstable Void Gate" appearing out in the wild. Therefore, having already been exposed as a Resurrection Church cultist, the priestess would be arrested on the spot by the Creti Empire's heavy guard the moment she exited the Shadow World. At his words, the priestess nodded vigorously. Ever since she no longer had to view Lanqi as an enemy, she felt her heart overflowing with a sense of security. Without openly betraying the Resurrection Church, she would not have to live in such sheer terror in the Creti Empire's prison. After all, even behind bars, the church's tenet was to seek vengeance against traitors by any means necessary and execute them with the utmost cruelty. Now, even knowing she would be imprisoned, she had something to look forward to. Once this terrifying man, Lanqi, infiltrated the Resurrection Church... By the time he arrived in the Creti Empire, he might already hold an unimaginably high position within the church. She firmly believed that Lanqi would possess the power to break her out while shielding her from the Resurrection Church's wrath! "My name is Sticela, a native of northern Creti Empire. I grew up in an orphanage in a town outside Glen Waverley City, the capital of the northern border," the priestess said swiftly. "After the town was massacred by the Bishop of Destruction, Ivanos, my life was spared because I showed potential. Following five years of training within the Bishop of Destruction's branch of the Resurrection Church, I clawed my way out from among piles of corpses to become the partner assisting the Saintess of Destruction in infiltrating the high ranks of the Creti Empire." Lanqi listened to the priestess's story without interrupting to ask questions. Rumor had it that even among all the Cardinals, the Bishop of Destruction was notorious as the most brutal slaughterer of the innocent. To him, butchering countless commoners was no different from stomping on an anthill. Ivanos even took frequent pleasure in defying all logic—without any reason at all, he would brutally burn to ashes ordinary folk with whom he had just been chatting amiably. His fearsome reputation was even greater than that of the Bishop of Extinction, Askesan, on the Northern Continent. "Would it be difficult for us to infiltrate the Bishop of Destruction's ranks?" Lanqi asked the priestess Sticela, pointing to himself and Hyperion. The ten branches of the Resurrection Church answered respectively to the ten Cardinals. For instance, the wanted cultist Lilette whom they had encountered at the end of Purgatory Corridor Academy was a follower of the Decay Cardinal, whereas this time, both the Saintess of Destruction Adelice and the priestess Sticela were followers who believed in the Bishop of Destruction. Although they were all Resurrection Church cultists, they served different Cardinals, and their styles of conduct differed markedly. At times, among bishops on less than friendly terms, their followers might even break out into civil strife. Once this Shadow World concluded, Lanqi's goal for the winter break after returning to the real world was to travel to the Northern Continent to consult the bearer of the [Original Slate - Seal], the Bishop of Extinction, Askesan, and complete his project report, *Visiting Slate Bearers*. If he could first infiltrate the Bishop of Destruction's branch and then transfer directly to the Bishop of Extinction's branch upon reaching the Northern Continent, it would save an enormous amount of effort and trouble! "It would be very difficult. The Resurrection Church is exceptionally wary of young people who have already made a name for themselves like you two, so I advise capturing a cultist and replacing their identity instead," Sticela answered. Hyperion was already a marked target on the Resurrection Church's kill list. And after this battle, Lanqi's feat of entrapping and destroying the Saintess of Destruction was more than enough to earn him a bounty comparable to Hyperion's. "Yet you should know that Resurrection cultists are very hard to find in the Hutton Kingdom... unless you can provide me with some crucial intelligence," Lanqi said, looking at her with a calm demeanor after hearing Sticela's response. To begin with, the Hutton Kingdom was one of the primary strongholds of the Church of the Goddess of Fate and had launched numerous purges against cultists. The Hutton Kingdom was also one of the nations across the Southern Continent that cracked down hardest on evil cults. Currently, any Resurrection cultists within the Hutton Kingdom's borders were bound to be elite sleeper agents with flawless cover identities—much like the Saintess of Destruction, Adelice, or the priestess, Sticela—making them extraordinarily difficult to capture. "There is a chance. In the next day or two, an extremely dangerous individual from the Aloran Kingdom will arrive in Ikerite. If he fails to encounter or eliminate Lady Hyperion in this Shadow World, he will stop at nothing to orchestrate an accident on campus to kill her." Sticela glanced at Hyperion, her expression turning solemn. "..." Though Hyperion's expression remained unchanged upon hearing this, her heart began to race uncontrollably. She had not anticipated that the Resurrection Church's determination to hunt her down would be so relentless! It seemed someone was hell-bent on seeing her dead. The fear and sorrow that had gradually dissipated thanks to Lanqi once again welled up in Hyperion's heart. She was also coming to terms with the reality that until she grew strong enough, peace might forever elude her. Every time before, had Lanqi not been by her side, it would have been a hopeless dead end beyond all salvation. Although Lanqi had always seemed to resolve things with breezy nonchalance, if the stakes and intensity kept escalating like this, no matter how powerful Lanqi was, she might end up getting him killed! Her eyes dimmed, and she slowly bowed her head. Every time, it was she who drew calamity upon them, dragging Lanqi in to shoulder the burden for her sake. The more Lanqi never blamed her and unconditionally protected her as his dearest friend, the more overwhelmingly guilty she felt. She was nothing more than a complete burden.