The Evil God Summoned by the Saintess-Chapter 60 - 58: The Angler’s Self-Cultivation

Deep within the stronghold, a large number of heretics stood on high alert.

Earlier, they had been warned by Shark that the Holy Court might have discovered this stronghold. If they noticed any outsiders sneaking in, or sensed any disturbance, they needed to be ready for battle.

"The arrival of the Sea Successor cannot be interrupted. This is the guidance from our God. The deep sea shelters us—we will surely defeat all our enemies and welcome the coming of the Sea Successor!"

A heretic paced back and forth around the combatants, rousing them with his words.

"You’ve all sensed the commotion just now. The Holy Court’s dogs are barging in. We must not let them interrupt the ritual."

"Lord Shark has prepared for everything. Once they come in, they will most certainly be buried here!"

"And all of you shall return to the embrace of the deep sea, to the embrace of Roster, the King of the Deep!"

Just as he was motivating the heretics, a cold voice suddenly came through—

"We’re not sure if we’ll be buried, but you guys are definitely going to hell."

Immediately after, a bolt of lightning flashed, striking the little heretic leader who was doing the pep talk, turning him into a member of the Tang Clan.

"Everyone, drop your weapons immediately, don’t resist. Accept the baptism of the Holy Court—confess and be leniently treated, resist and face strict punishment, submit to reformation, and be reborn. Otherwise..."

"We’ll let you atone before God, right here on the spot!"

Blake led the group as they appeared before the heretics, staring them down fiercely.

The heretics were unfazed by their little leader receiving "electrotherapy." Amidst shouted slogans, they charged at Blake and the others.

The skirmish ended with the Holy Court crushing the heretics—one group of Tier Four versus a bunch of Tier Ones. It was like puppies attacking an armored vehicle; any resistance was laughable.

Hilia did not participate in the battle, so as to avoid getting hurt by accident. She was asked to record the whole process from the side as historical video data.

Once the battle was over, Alina came over, gave Blake the footage Hilia had recorded on her behalf, and said to her, "Thanks for your hard work, Hilia. It’s getting late, let me take you back."

Hilia yawned and nodded at her words, "Then I’ll leave it to you, Ms. Ailina."

She had checked the time just now—it was already past midnight. Her regular schedule made her sleepy, and she really envied how energetic these Tier Four bigshots still were.

So after advancing in tiers, you don’t need to sleep anymore?

Hilia was honestly jealous.

This time, Hilia didn’t return to Deep Red Town, but was brought straight back to Divine Magic Academy by Alina, went to her dorm, and fell asleep the moment she touched the bed.

After she’d fallen asleep, Rose, who no longer needed sleep, thought for a bit and ultimately didn’t control her to get back up and work. Instead, he made the magic puppets work overtime and took out that fish scale.

He could feel the abundant Power of Faith stored inside the fish scale.

This Power of Faith wasn’t pure—it was deeply polluted by Abyssal demonic qi, which made Rose frown.

"The Sea God uses this crap to collect faith? How pathetic."

To absorb Power of Faith that’s been tainted by the Abyss requires extra Divine Power for purification. In Rose’s view, the efficiency was even lower than the worst kinds of faith—if you take normal Power of Faith as 100% efficiency, the absorption rate here was only about 1%-5% at best.

This was downright miserable. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

If they weren’t enemies, Rose might almost feel sorry for him.

"There are too many suspicious points. Once I find him and have a proper chat, I should get my answer."

Rose put the scale in a container, picked up a piece of metal for rune carving, and began etching a tracking rune on it.

But just as he finished carving, the whole piece of metal flashed, and with a "bang," shattered.

Rose hissed, "I already simplified it this much and it still can’t handle it? Does the school really hand out such crappy materials?"

Not giving up, he kept trying to engrave runes on those standard metal pieces.

By the time all the metal was used up, only two pieces succeeded.

Two just wasn’t enough.

But there were no materials left now, unless he dismantled the magic puppets...

No way out.

He had planned on controlling a puppet to go out looking for better carrier materials now.

But on second thought, there was no rush—it wasn’t that urgent.

If the Sea God wanted to run, he would have done so the moment Rose seized the fish scale.

Rushing wouldn’t help.

Besides, it’s been a thousand years anyway. No rush for a little more time.

Rather than looking himself, he might as well send the Little Saintess girl instead.

Now that would be interesting.

After leaving a Spiritual Power alert with Hilia, Rose returned to the sunless, pitch-dark sealed land and started cultivating.

Although he’d already decided not to forcefully break the array, in case something happened on Hilia’s side, he could still use the old solution.

Leveling up yourself is always the number one priority of a Sim-Player.

...

The next day, when Hilia woke up, she saw that all the rune materials she’d gotten from the school had turned to scraps, lying quietly on the floor waiting for her to clean up.

Rose sensed Hilia wake and said, "You’re up. I used your materials to make something last night, but the materials were too lousy—they all got wrecked by accident. My bad."

Hilia: "..."

She really should be angry.

But she just couldn’t get mad.

"It’s fine, I’ll just apply for more from the school." The girl gritted her teeth.

"Apply for what? These metal materials have terrible magitech properties, super high defect rate—using them for basic Concentration Arrays drops efficiency by 50%. Why would you even want them?"

Hilia: "...If I don’t get more from the school, where else am I supposed to get rune practice materials?"

"Buy them."

"No money," Hilia replied, dead serious.

"Then go look for some." Rose said flatly, "Here’s your new task: without leaving campus, after school every day, take your fishing rod to the Forbidden Forest Lake and fish. You must catch one extraordinary fish every day."

"Huh?" Hilia was stunned.

She thought Rose would give her a fast way to get materials.

Turns out...fishing?

Well...fine.

At least she wouldn’t have to eat school food—fresh fish every day sounded pretty great.

That day, after classes, Hilia grabbed her old fishing rod and headed to the edge of the Forbidden Forest, greeting Oston, the forest’s guardian.

"Hello, Mr. Oston, can I go in to fish?"

Oston smiled and tossed her a card: "Of course you can. Go ahead, just remember to be back before dark."

"I will!"

With her pass, Hilia ventured in, and before it got dark, returned to hand the card back—giving most of her catch to Oston.

Oston saw that besides the regular fish Hilia had caught, she’d also landed an extraordinary-rank fish, so he paused, then smiled, "Not bad, another one! Come on, I’ll help you handle it."

"Thanks, Grandpa Oston." Hilia’s sweet voice was adorable.

He thought it was just a fluke, but by the second, the third day...Hilia had caught an extraordinary fish every single day. Oston’s expression went from calm, to impressed, to outright shocked.

After Hilia returned to give the card back yet again, Oston grabbed his fishing rod: "Kid—no, dear Hilia, tell me, where exactly do you fish? Got some time? Can you show me?"