Chapter 54

“I’ll arrange it immediately.” Siger said.

Even for the Sea God’s bishop, taking someone to wander freely through Atlantis’s royal palace was an incredibly troublesome matter.

But Siger didn’t shirk it. He agreed immediately.

With a powerful enemy at the gates, a bit of political hassle was no trouble at all.

Xia Xifeng swept his gaze around the Sea God’s Holy Sanctuary.

There were things inside the Holy Sanctuary too. But those things required multiple layers of processing before they’d reveal themselves, unlike the items in the royal palace, which could be seen just by arriving at the location. Unable to explain his intelligence sources, he’d have to leave clearing the Sanctuary’s “seeds” for last.

If the seeds in the palace weren’t detonated, even if the Outer God got desperate and directly triggered the seeds inside the Holy Sanctuary, it wouldn’t inflict too severe an injury on the Sea God.

Xia Xifeng thought maliciously: if the Sea God truly ended up hurt by sheer bad luck, it’d serve as a good lesson.

Siger wanted to ask about their further plans.

Xia Xifeng imitated his teacher Suer, raising a single index finger before his lips.

Siger sighed and turned toward the giant water ball on the divine throne. “My Lord, behave yourself. Wait for me to return.”

The Sea God Water Ball trembled with fury.

What do you mean ‘behave yourself’? In what way am I not behaving?!

No, wait—how dare you speak to your god like that? This time I’m definitely expelling you from your position as Sea God Bishop!

Siger couldn’t be bothered to deal with the Sea God’s anger and led Xia Xifeng and Qin Lang out of the Holy Sanctuary.

Noticing Siger’s changed appearance, Xia Xifeng asked curiously, “Bishop, why has your appearance changed? If it’s a secret, there’s no need to answer.”

“It is a secret, but I can tell you.” Since Xia Xifeng was an “ally,” Siger entrusted him with the truth. “I reclaimed power inherited from my soul.”

Xia Xifeng thought about Fantasy Realms’ lore and his eyes went round. “Bishop, your past life was a fallen demigod?!”

Fantasy Realms had a soul setting, so naturally there was also reincarnation.

However, even a warrior who reached Legendary rank, upon death, when their soul passed through the Gate of the Dead, would be stripped of all past ties and become an entirely new life.

The “Heroic Spirits” under a god’s protection could retain their original form, but they could only live in the Divine Kingdom. If they wished to become mortals again, they too had to follow this rule.

A demigod was a powerful being who had already ignited their Divine Flame but not yet grasped divine Authority.

Only beings whose power approached that of gods would carry marks from their past life after reincarnation.

But they were just “marks.” Reincarnated beings generally didn’t regard themselves as the person from their previous life.

This differed from divine projections. When a god projected their power into the mortal world, not only did the projection carry the god’s memories, but its self-identity was also that of the god, knowing it would return to the main body upon “death.”

Siger said, “More or less. I don’t like using this power normally. The memories of my past life are extremely annoying—like a stranger muttering incessantly in my ear.”

Xia Xifeng nodded to show he understood. Using past-life power probably felt a bit like a split personality?

There were NPCs in the game who could also use past-life power and had complained more or less about the annoying past-life memories. Though they only said it was annoying right after awakening those “memories”; once the memories were fully sorted out, it was fine.

Bishop Siger seemed to have awakened his past-life memories not long ago.

When Siger saw Xia Xifeng mistakenly thought his past life was a demigod, he didn’t bother to clarify.

What status his past life held didn’t matter. It was enough for his ally to know his level of power.

Siger’s past life wasn’t some demigod. It was an “Evil God” who had fought the Sea God and tried to usurp Him.

However, he had ultimately submitted to the Sea God, swearing that if he had a next life, he would serve the Sea God for that entire life, becoming His sturdiest shield and sharpest sword.

When Siger awakened his past-life memories, he cursed his past self for being sick in the head for screwing over his present self.

He had absolutely zero desire to serve a petty, dim-witted, foul-tempered fool of a god for his entire life.

Even though at the time of awakening, he was already the Sea God Bishop who had dealt with the Sea God many times and had refused to become His Chosen precisely because of “personality clashes with the Sea God.”

Before a living being awakened the past-life marks within their soul, even the gods couldn’t detect the anomaly.

When Siger awakened the past-life marks in his soul and remembered his past-life vow, the Sea God had specifically sent down an oracle consisting solely of uproarious laughter. It nearly gave Siger a rage-induced aneurysm.

These “past life memories” were truly Siger’s dark history. So unless absolutely necessary, he wanted no mention of them.

After activating his soul marks, Siger’s power would temporarily surge to the demigod level.

But this state, under normal circumstances, couldn’t be sustained in prolonged combat. It was a brief “burst potential.”

However, the Sea God could use His divine power through “blessing” to supply Siger with energy. Although using the Sea God’s divine power placed a heavy burden on the body, as long as Siger’s body didn’t collapse, he could keep using demigod-level power.

If he merely maintained this state without actively using its power, Siger wouldn’t expend energy or burden his body.

He usually disliked maintaining this state simply because he didn’t want to “remember” his dark history.

After learning that Siger could wield the power of a demigod, Xia Xifeng felt completely at ease, as if he were back in Green Sand City being shielded by Mr. Amuruo.

Even if an Outer God personally descended, a demigod could fight it.

After they left the Holy Sanctuary, their ship was anchored on the sea surface near the Sea God Temple.

The Sea God Temple had a teleportation formation that directly led to the capital of Atlantis.

The Pope clearly knew of Siger’s true identity.

Seeing Siger appear in that distinctive form, he couldn’t help but grow tense. “Has something major happened?”

Siger replied, “I am following divine decree. I cannot disclose the mission.”

The Pope exhaled in relief. “If it’s divine decree, that’s good. That the god can still issue decrees is good.”

Being able to contact the god—that wasn’t any catastrophic event.

The Pope immediately opened the treasury, took out a large quantity of magic crystal stones to activate the teleportation formation, and sent Siger and the two unfamiliar little knights behind him to the capital of Atlantis.

As soon as Siger teleported to Atlantis’s capital, the King of Atlantis received the news.

To have come via teleportation formation… had something happened at the Sea God Temple?

Although the Sea God had requested a news blackout, as the largest undersea nation, Atlantis’s king was naturally aware that Sea God clergy were being assassinated.

He had a strong intuition that the Sea God Bishop’s hurried arrival was connected to these cases.

The King of Atlantis canceled his day’s schedule and sent someone to invite the Sea God Temple’s bishop to the royal palace.

When he laid eyes on Siger, his expression flickered with daze. “Bishop Siger, that appearance of yours… Has the situation grown this dire?”

The King of Atlantis had heard that Siger could wield demigod-level power, but no crisis had ever arisen in the ocean that required it. He had never seen Siger’s demigod form and had thought it was just a rumor spread by the Sea God Temple to bolster faith.

The King of Atlantis himself was a Legendary rank. For Siger to exert such immense pressure on him, his strength had clearly reached demigod level.

Siger said gravely, “The perpetrator isn’t solely targeting the Sea God Temple. He is colluding with an Evil God and plotting against you, Your Majesty. That is his true objective.”

The King of Atlantis froze, but didn’t doubt Siger’s words.

No wonder Siger had requested a private audience—it involved court intrigue.

Siger spewed an unending stream of falsehoods, nothing like an upright clergy member.

He claimed the perpetrator’s ultimate goal was the King of Atlantis. Targeting the clergy was merely the “Evil God’s demand.” The “innocents” caught in the crossfire were the ones he truly wanted to kill.

Because it involved court intrigue, the Sea God Temple had decided to suppress the news, with only him stepping in to secretly resolve the matter to avoid “political unrest.”

He had already received word that the perpetrator would lay a trap to assassinate the King of Atlantis within the next few days and had planted Evil God seeds within the royal palace. That was why he had rushed over in his demigod form to protect the king.

How could a demigod lie?

The King of Atlantis was immediately convinced.

He knew Siger. Siger was not only a bishop but also the Lord of Free Port. He held no interest whatsoever in Atlantis’s royal authority, nor could anyone buy him off.

Siger was merely requesting to investigate the royal palace. While such a thing did somewhat bruise the face of the Atlantis royal family, if he demanded Atlantis’s cooperation in the Sea God’s name, despite many delays and procedural hurdles, Atlantis would ultimately cooperate.

If this were only about investigating a case, Siger wouldn’t need to save this bit of time—coming quietly by himself with only two knight escorts, without publicly demanding the King of Atlantis’s cooperation in his capacity as Sea God Bishop.

The King of Atlantis was a wise and capable ruler. He made an immediate decision, granting Siger’s request and expressing gratitude for his protection.

“Currently, aside from myself, no one in the royal palace can perceive Bishop Siger’s power. I will keep the Bishop’s secret.” The King of Atlantis said. “This time, it was I who proactively invited the Bishop to discuss important matters.”

Siger saluted. “My thanks, Your Majesty.”

The King of Atlantis stepped down from his throne. “It is I who should thank Your Eminence. Please wait a moment, Your Eminence, while I change attire.”

It had been a long time since he’d stretched his limbs. A fighting spirit surged in the King of Atlantis’s heart.

Assassination? Hmph.

He ran through the list of people who held grievances against him in his mind, then realized there were too many to finish.

To be a ruler of achievement, how many had he “offended”?

Before changing clothes, the King of Atlantis glanced at the two unfamiliar guards behind Siger.

These two guards possessed quite impressive strength and might have hope of reaching Legendary in the future. The Sea God Temple was full of talented individuals.

The two “guards” appeared to be serving as background props, but in truth, they’d been chatting nonstop.

Xia Xifeng was awed by Siger’s acting skills, but even more awed by the fact that Siger was clearly lying, yet his lies perfectly aligned with the truth.

Qin Lang: 【It’s not that his lies align with the truth. He’s deduced the truth from the information you gave him.】

Xia Xifeng: 【Siger trusts me this much? The pressure’s so huge! ~】

Qin Lang rolled his eyes internally. That tilde at the end of your sentence doesn’t look like pressure to me.

Xia Xifeng: 【The Sea God approves of us, so Siger approves of us. Siger’s faith is actually very devout, isn’t it?】

Qin Lang: 【Don’t say it aloud.】

Xia Xifeng: 【Got it, got it. I wouldn’t joke about it with people I’m not close to.】

Qin Lang: 【The Sea God?】

Xia Xifeng: 【He’s not people.】

Qin Lang’s mouth twitched with disgust.

While the King of Atlantis was changing equipment, Siger kept up the pretense that Xia Xifeng and Qin Lang were merely ordinary guards he’d brought, not speaking to the two of them.

When the King of Atlantis returned, Siger enveloped the group with his power, isolating them from outside observation—just like when Amuruo had first spoken with Xia Xifeng and Qin Lang. Only then did he introduce Xia Xifeng and Qin Lang’s identities to the King of Atlantis: “These two are pioneer knights appointed by Amuruo, Lords of the Hope City—Xia Xifeng and Qin Lang.”

The Evil God incident in “Green Sand City” had been reported to all kingdoms, so the King of Atlantis was naturally aware of it too.

He tightened his grip on his long spear and smiled bitterly. “It seems the situation is even more troublesome than I imagined.”

The King of Atlantis clearly believed the Evil God targeting him this time was the same one stirring up trouble in Green Sand City.

Actually, his guess wasn’t wrong either. Though not the same one, they were in cahoots.

After Siger’s introduction, Xia Xifeng and Qin Lang reintroduced themselves in turn.

Xia Xifeng pulled out the trident, pretending it had detected something, and ostentatiously used it to indicate directions.

The abundant divine power radiating from the trident made the King of Atlantis’s body jolt.

He looked at Siger. “The Lord of the Hope City is a Sea God’s Favored?”

Siger replied, “No. But they have received my Lord’s blessing.”

The King of Atlantis felt utterly helpless.

Why were the people the Sea God frequently blessed never the God’s Favored?

Oh, great Sea God… sigh.

If you don’t like giving blessings to your Chosen, then why choose any Chosen at all?! Your Chosen are very embarrassed, you know!

Yes, the King of Atlantis was, in fact, that very embarrassed Sea God’s Favored.