Chapter 418
Xia Er reached out and took the pen, signing her name directly on the sacred contract. Then she asked, “So what’s next? Do I need to take this contract to find you?”
“You just need to copy the contents of the contract exactly and come to the Holy See... Can you bring things back with you?” Madeleine paused, clearly caught off guard by this question.
“Why not?” Xia Er looked at the two of them, who seemed to have something to say.
Now she understood the initial plan of the Goddess of Salvation Church.
They intended to use the sealing item to conduct a lie detector test on Xia Er, who would be carrying the copied contents of the sacred contract. This way, they could still obtain accurate information and respond accordingly.
But once Xia Er mentioned her ability to bring things back, everything became much simpler.
“Please wait a moment,” Eleanor said.
Soon, a shadow slowly materialized beside her, pulling out a beautifully crafted rectangular wooden box from within its form and placing it on the table.
“We also considered that you might be able to bring something back. That would make things much easier,” Eleanor said, extending her hands to slowly open the box in front of Xia Er, revealing its contents.
Inside was a magnificent scepter, taller than Xia Er herself, which she recognized as the one held by the elderly pope.
“If you can take this scepter back to the past and present it to the Holy See,” Eleanor said, looking at Xia Er, “we will act in accordance with the contents of the contract and cooperate with your actions.”
It seemed the Goddess of Salvation Church had thought this through very thoroughly.
But...
“Is this a sealing item?” Xia Er asked, eyeing the exquisite scepter.
“While it contains extraordinary materials, it is not considered a sealing item,” Eleanor explained. “These extraordinary crafts are merely to ensure it cannot be replicated.”
As long as it’s not a sealing item...
If it were a high-level sealing item, and Xia Er returned to the past only to find she couldn’t exchange it, that would be quite the predicament.
Xia Er reached out and picked up the scepter, examining it closely.
In reality, she certainly couldn’t reveal her “time-traveling” ability to the Goddess of Salvation Church.
Who knows if there are spies from other organizations within the church? She couldn’t risk her life on the upper echelons of the Goddess of Salvation Church.
The best approach... was the “Divine Oracle.”
Moreover, this task couldn’t be left to Ai Mi.
She had considered having Ai Mi take the sacred contract and the scepter to temporarily take control of the Goddess of Salvation Church.
With the protection of the divine servant, Ai Mi could easily become the new saintess. Her joining the church would raise no suspicions; she would only need to issue commands in Xia Er’s stead.
But Xia Er had decided against putting those around her in danger.
The death of Adele in this simulation had sounded an alarm for her.
Adele had merely been delivering something for her and was easily killed, without any means of resistance... If the enemy targeted Ai Mi, there were plenty of ways to eliminate her.
So...
Xia Er planned to send Tara instead.
With her identity in the Holy Ascension Sect, Tara could better execute the church’s integration. Moreover, the Holy Ascension Sect was seen as half-bound to the Goddess of Salvation Church by other organizations, making her the perfect choice for this task.
Xia Er certainly couldn’t do these things herself; she needed to remain in the shadows, always holding the initiative. She couldn’t afford to expose herself and relinquish that advantage.
However, the church’s integration had to be conducted secretly... In the eyes of Qiang Yin, the integration was almost synonymous with the name “Keybearer.” If Tara were to announce the integration directly, it would only provoke a defensive reaction from Qiang Yin.
What was needed was a naturally unfolding event that wouldn’t reveal the orchestrator...
A small “miracle.”
As for Ai Mi, there was no need for her to continue pretending to be the “saintess” to get close to Eleanor in reality. With the scepter and the sacred contract, Xia Er had already solved the problem of communicating with the Goddess of Salvation Church without exposing herself.
“Alright.” Xia Er placed the scepter in front of her, looked up at the two before her, and said, “Let’s have a pleasant cooperation.”
Upon hearing Xia Er agree to cooperate, both Eleanor and Madeleine secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
Based on the information extracted from Qiang Yin’s brain, they truly had no idea how to break the deadlock without Xia Er’s help...
Killing Qiang Yin would only cause time to rewind, perhaps even back to a point before they had obtained any information from her brain, leaving them in the dark once again.
If a saintess existed, they could retain some information through the interdimensional nodes...
The sudden death of the saintess seemed not just due to her brain but rather someone’s deliberate act... to prevent the Goddess of Salvation Church from obtaining accurate information.
An enemy with a “foolproof” plan was quite terrifying.
Fortunately, they also had a “foolproof” ally on their side.
After handing over the items, Eleanor and Madeleine did not leave but stayed in front of Xia Er—this was mandatory.
They had a task: to witness Xia Er’s time rewind firsthand.
If nothing changed after the time exceeded, they would directly reclaim the scepter and the sacred contract and find another way.
Neither of them had much experience dealing with time-related extraordinary abilities, so this was the safest method they could think of.
Xia Er had no objections; she simply held the sacred contract and the scepter, leaned back in her chair, and slowly drifted off to sleep, waiting for the final simulation time to end.
Time passed, and she didn’t know how long it had been when a burst of silvery light awakened the sleeping Xia Er.
Opening her eyes, she found herself in a silvery-white space.
“Reality”
“Year 741, July 18, 7:26 AM”
“Evaluation: Celebrate! This is the host’s first great attempt at pathway merging!”
“Though not very successful, at least you tried! ^^”
“Wondering why you see the settlement in this save space?”
“Beep beep beep... The system is running low on power, stay tuned for the next episode—”
“Here, take this; it’s what you deserve based on your performance.”
“Reward: Destiny Points *54, Unlock [Segmented Save]”
“Destiny Points: 550”
Segmented save?
Xia Er looked at the new “skill” that appeared before her, slightly puzzled.
What was this?
Soon, the system’s prompt appeared before Xia Er.
“Segmented Save: When the host successfully survives to the end of the simulation, they can choose to save any one of their past selves from a specific time segment. Each successful simulation allows for two segmented saves.”
So... it allows saving oneself at different times during the simulation?
In other words...
If she drank Potion A during the simulation, then switched to Potion B, after successfully surviving, she could save both versions of herself?
“Correct.”
The system’s reply confirmed Xia Er’s thoughts.
If that’s the case...
Xia Er quickly realized the reason and purpose behind the system unlocking this feature.
The reason for unlocking it was, of course, because Xia Er had, for the first time, simultaneously consumed two potions that could interchange pathways, resulting in a pathway conversion.
And the purpose...
To accelerate potion collection, which currently had only one goal.
That was to unlock the Old Simulation.
As long as she planned to drink two potions simultaneously in each simulation, it would greatly shorten the time needed for Xia Er to unlock the Old Simulation.
Of course, Xia Er wouldn’t have many opportunities to use this ability.
There was a condition: it had to be that she hadn’t saved any of the pathways that could be converted between the two pathways, allowing her to save both at once.
Currently, Xia Er had unsaved pathways, including “Bitter Scholar,” “Listener,” “Poisoner,” “Healer,” “Performer,” “Blood Painter,”... and one unknown pathway that seemed to correspond with “Butcher.”
Among these, the pathways of “Poisoner” and “Healer,” as well as “Performer” and “Blood Painter,” could interchange.
It seemed that when she chose new pathways in future simulations, she would need to strategize how to utilize pathway conversion to accelerate potion collection.
“Save to No.9.”
“No.9: ‘Queen Bee’ Xia Er”
After saving the file directly, a flash of white light flickered before Xia Er’s eyes, and her consciousness rapidly dissolved and sank.
When her skin could feel the outside world again, she caught a familiar faint fragrance at the tip of her nose, and a warm sensation enveloped her.
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