Chapter 529: The Witch Trials

In-game.

Qi Yifang followed Phoebe cautiously, eyeing her up: "Are we really not going to save the Queen? She's given you access, so she must be in a critical condition, right? Why don't we go up to the Sky City and watch ......"

"He gave me access because he knew I had the advantage over him." Phoebe interrupts Qi Yifang's crumbling comment as she gives him a spare glance, "He should have done this a long time ago."

"He's never going to win with that soft defensive play, he's only wearing himself out."

"Relying on [shields] doesn't make you weak ......" Qi Yifang's defensive voice faded under Phoebe's emotionless gaze, "We also got second in the ......"

"If this is the right tactic, why would Hearts want me on the team?" Phoebe countered gently, "Why should I be given the status of heir to the presidency and access to the tactician?"

" Hearts is only doing this to show - he knows himself that he can't win that way and he's using me to help him win, so doesn't that just prove that I'm doing the right thing more than he is?"

Qi Yifang was anxious and upset: "I'm still Buming White, the Queen can still fight, she's so young, why is she so anxious to give you the guild to inherit?"

"Is she leaving the guild to do something?"

"He's not leaving the guild, he's trying to get out of the game, he's trying to escape it all." Phoebe replied in a light tone, "So he's been looking for an heir to take over the guild, first the witch and then me."

"Get out of the game?" Qi Yifang asked incredulously in return, "There's a way out of the game?"

Phoebe replied in an even tone, "Of course we do, don't we have people leaving the game every day all around us?"

Qi Yifang was confused: "Around me? How did they leave?! How come I don't know?!"

"What's the best way to get out of the game, apart from winning the league and making a wish at the end?"

"Die." Phoebe yawned lazily, looking at the dumbfounded Qi Yifang with that gentle smile on her face as she prayed, "You can leave even after you die, have you forgotten?"

Qi Yifang stopped dead in his tracks, his expression blank for a few seconds before he realised what Phoebe meant by that.

"You mean ......" Qi Yifang questioned Phoebe incredulously, "You mean the Queen wants to die?!"

"Or what?" Phoebe shrugged, "What reason but death would motivate a ruler at the peak of his power to seek an heir?"

"Why?!" Qi Yifang was going crazy, his mind was shaken and his pupils were lax, "Why is the Queen seeking death?!"

Phoebe, with that pitying, careless smile on her face, replied, "Because he's weak."

"No matter how many [shields] he finds to protect himself, he's still too weak to face here, to face himself anymore, both in and out of the game."

" Sister Phoebe!"

Far away, across the nunnery, a man in bishop's clothes was calling out to Phoebe, who was waving, his voice tinged with urgency: "Please come quickly!"

"The Pope has been attacked on the Island in the Sky! The witches are attacking all the Inquisitorial Courts and we need your help!"

Phoebe raised her eyebrows a little: "The Pope was attacked?"

If her information was correct, the pope was the same priest who had promoted Quan Baola, captain of the first generation of saints.

He also succeeded in suppressing Quan Baola, who was a powerful witch, and further established the position of the Holy See, so to speak, and his promotion was like a rocket. He was soon promoted to the papacy.

No matter how well prepared he was, no matter how terrible the sorcery used on him, he was useless and died without a scratch. It's hard enough for anyone to attack the Pope, who seems to have armour all around him.

It was the first time I had heard of this attack.

...... and still attacked on the Island in the Sky.

The ordinary NPCs of this world are already shocked by the majesty of this Pope who has no part in the attack on the witches. The existence of this Pope has made them more and more convinced that God exists and blesses the people of the Holy See, and the more they dare not disobey the Holy See, not to mention those who are screened by the Holy See to get on the island of the sky, there will be no one who will not think of attacking the Pope.

Unless this assailant of the Pope has the strength and confidence to kill this Pope at first sight.

Phoebe narrowed her eyes - she suspected the attack had been done by Hearts.

But if the attack was carried out by Hearts, the pope should not have been attacked, but killed - and cut to pieces, by a thousand cuts.

So what's going on? What's on Sky Island? Why is this Pope not dead?

The Island in the Sky.

Hearts is half pinned to the ground by a group of men, surrounded by a scattered pile of playing cards, a mess of knife marks on his face and a pile of used up game props on the floor.

His shoulder-length hair slid down the side of his face to his god, his eyes brimming with red and purple as he looked in the dim candlelight, and on his lips were dried blood stains that he licked away before he slowly raised his head to look across at the man sitting in the chair - a man dressed in a pope's line, with a face so familiar to him that he couldn't help but start to laugh, and so he did laugh.

"Do not be rude to the Pope!" Someone raised his sceptre in anger and gave him a sharp blow in the face.

So he was slapped across the face, blood dripping from the corners of his mouth, and Hearts slowly pushed his tongue against his cheek, which was sore and numb from the headstock of the sceptre, and laughed more and more, almost to the point of a frenzy.

It was so funny, he hadn't dreamed of this scene for years and he actually saw it again in this fake game.

"You ......!" The man was about to fight when the Pope, sitting within a wide sofa chair, raised his hand to stop him.

The loving, middle-aged Pope looked at Hearts with an inexplicable pity: "He is after all my child, there is no need for that."

"But he attacked you! My Lord Pope!" The man next to him accused with righteous indignation, "This foul son of a witch actually tried to kill us all!"

"If we had not had the blessing of God, we would have died by his hand!"

Hearts Lifting his eyes, he looked up at the panel of monster books that was spinning above the heads of the Pope and the group of cardinals:.

[Witch Trials Monster Book Refresh - Pope (Master of the Sky City) (1/4)]

[Attack Value: Attacks against members of the Order are weakened, weakening one member of the Order by fifteen percent of their blood at a time, attacks against witches and the judged are enhanced, weakening the opponent by twenty percent of their blood at a time (combat style has been unlocked by combat)]

[Attack: Sacred Scepter, Words of Judgement]

[Weakness: ?? (unexplored)]

[System Alert: Unlock the first page of the Witch Trials Monster Book, "The Pope", due to player Hearts' persistent attacks]

[Note: The NPC should have been promoted to Pope for leading the coming of the Witch Trials period and gained the Oracle Blessing shield, which can ignore attacks from all males in the area ruled by the Papacy and all witches who have been judged, and can trigger rebound attacks under special circumstances].

[System Alert: Player Hearts, because you are both a tried witch and a male in the area ruled by the Holy See, every attack you make against the Pope will trigger the bounce mechanism and be bounced back to yourself, please attack with caution].

[The Witch Trials Monster Book Refresh - Cardinal (Sky City VIP) (2/4)]

[Attack Value: Cannot attack the Pope, one attack against a member of the Order will weaken one member of the Order by ten percent of their blood, attacks against witches and the judged are enhanced by weakening the opponent by fifteen percent of their blood at a time (combat style has been unlocked by combat)]

[Attack: Mallet, Doctrine Recitation]

[Weakness: ?? (unexplored)]

[System Alert: Unlock the second page of the Witch Trials Monster Book, "The Cardinal", due to persistent attacks by player Hearts]

[Note: As this npc has gained the Oracle Blessing shield for judging countless witches, it can ignore the attacks of all males in the area ruled by the Holy See and all witches judged, and can trigger rebound attacks under special circumstances].

[System Alert: Player Hearts, because you are both a tried witch and a male in the area ruled by the Holy See, every attack you make against the Cardinal will trigger the bounce mechanism and be bounced back to yourself, so please attack with caution].

"That was ...... so much fun." Hearts cocked his head and looked up, his eyes amazingly bright and his face not at all disheveled, but with a smile on his face at the Pope's familiar face, "It has been a long time, my father."

"After all these years, I can't believe I'm in your clutches again."

"So guess this time ......"

Hearts twirled his wrist and two fingers on his hoisted right hand flashed a playing card while he lifted his eyes and smiled almost lazily, "How soon will I destroy your island?"

Meanwhile, the witches' quarter.

Having defeated the Order, Quan Baola took Liu Jiayi back into the witch's quarter, where she spread out a map and began to talk seriously to those around her about the next attack.

Liu Jiayi was watching, and as she watched, she suddenly frowned and tugged on Quan Baola's coat: "Can I ask a question?"

Quan Baola turned his head to look at her: "What's the problem?"

"This location is the core of the Papacy, right, with the Papal Palace below and the Sky City hovering above, so generally speaking we should attack this place first, right? Once we take this place, all the main members of the Papacy will be wiped out, and the remaining Inquisition will not be a problem, so we can take our time to clear it." Liu Jiayi wondered, "Why are all your attack routes bypassing this place?"

Quan Baola's face stilled, the rest of the witches did not have as much control over their emotions as Quan Baola did, and a few of their faces sank instantly.

Liu Jiayi was keenly aware that something was wrong: "This place, is there something bad to fight?"

Quan Baola remained quiet for a moment, but opened his mouth, "Everyone who has been on this island is immune to the witch's attacks, and in some cases can even bounce back from our attacks."

"The last time I prepared a small team to go to the island once." Quan Baola's purple eyes dimmed for a moment, "Everyone gave it their best shot, but it ......"

A witch next to her whispered through gritted teeth, "Any attack on them is ineffective as long as the witch has been tried!"

"I have tried to board the island many times in all the years since I defected to the witches' quarter." Quan Baola said in a very soft voice, "We even formed a team from the males that were rescued after realising that the witches couldn't make it to the island, but there was still no way to attack them."

"Some say that the Sky City is the closest place to heaven, that they are blessed by God because they judged us and did the right thing, and that God gave them the Island of the Sky to protect those who go on it from us wicked witches. "

Liu Jiayi reacted almost instantly - this island should be a boss of size, with armour stacked on it.

And the gauntlet is deliberately aimed at witches.

Liu Jiayi looked at the floating island on the map and pondered - if a witch who had been judged could not attack, and neither could a male of the local population, then there were only two identities in this map that could fight a boss.

The first is from within the Holy See.

The second is a witch who has not yet been tried - like her.

But both identities are a bit of a problem, Liu Jiayi narrows her eyes slightly - no wonder the witches have been holding back on this area, it's a zone that has been formed entirely against them.

"Witches like me, who have not been tried, should be able to attack them." Liu Jiayi spoke calmly, "But it's rare for someone like me to join the Witch District on my own before I've been tried, and there's no way to gather a team to attack the Upper Sky Islands, is there?"

Quan Baola was quiet for a moment, then nodded: "Yes."

Girls who have not yet been judged, even if they already have the signs of a witch, that will not easily defect and join the witch district, they will try to hide themselves until the moment of their trial comes to position.

"It is also possible for those within the Order to attack the Upper Sky City." Liu Jiayi said thoughtfully, "But the people inside the Order are too dangerous for you to contact, and even if you can turn one or two of your insiders, you won't be able to form a scale and form a war party."

But again, the Sky City is the core functioning area of the entire Papacy, and if they don't fight their way up there, the more vetted witches there are, the more cardinals will be eligible to ascend, and the more they won't be able to fight against, the more people with armour.

There are now two entry points, the first of which is from within the Holy See.

There is a very good entry point within the Holy See, and that is - the resident group of nuns on the City in the Sky.

Quan Baola seemed to have thought about this a long time ago as she recounted in an articulate manner, "We tried to contact the girls on the Sky City and they went up there and never came back down, which is not the same as what the Holy See told them at the beginning, nor is it like what the Pope told them before, that they were to be free to pick their partners up there and choose which of them they liked that and be happy with each other forever, but to be chosen by a different man every week, or even every day, and then be with each other."

"But they can't leave the Sky City, they can't contact the outside world, and naturally they can't tell the girls down on the island who still want to go up to the Sky City what they see up there."

"And you witches know what it's like up there, though." Liu Jiayi calmly adds the second half of Baola's sentence, "But when you speak, no one believes you at all."

"And in this extreme situation, the City of the Sky, as the only clearing for the female inhabitants who have not yet been judged, their best retreat apart from the witches, someone who denigrates the City of the Sky would be denigrating their last chance of survival, and they would not believe it."

Quan Baola did not speak, her expression had a still, skilful look, her eyes were slightly downcast as if she was a little sad, and it was a long time before she spoke softly, "Why don't people want to believe what the witches say?"

"Why do people prefer to believe in the casual trials of the Papacy rather than in the death-defying struggles of witches?"

"For no one will listen to the words of the judged and will feel that the other side is all arguing against their own crimes." Liu Jiayi replied in a faint tone, "Nor will anyone listen to the Holy See when you have cleansed the whole kingdom of all the tribunals of judgment after you have fought your way up to the city of the sky."

Quan Baola took a deep breath: "But fighting our way up to the Sky City is a big problem, and although we can reach the girls up there, they have never swallowed an eel, are not witches, have no resistance against the Papal bunch, and are so tightly controlled by the Papal bunch that it is difficult for us to see them. "

"But it's certainly an entry point." Liu Jiayi's tone changes, "There is another entry point that we can use for us."

Quan Baola was stunned: "What entry point?"

Liu Jiayi looked up into Quan Baola's shining purple eyes, and her tone couldn't help but start to wander a little: "But I'm not sure you can accept using these people as an aid to cut in."

"- is a group of men who have been used as reserve witches and transported from a foreign land."

"They are not local and not affiliated with the Order, so the attack on these people on the island should be effective."

"A male from another country?" Quan Baola nodded very gently as she replied seriously, "I will give the offer some serious thought, but we have another, quicker and more direct solution on our side."

Liu Jiayi asks, "What is the solution?"

"[The Heart of a Witch]." Quan Baola's tone was solemn, "We have a copy of the [Witch's Code] here, in which it is written that there will be a powerful witch who, hardened by extreme pain and hatred, will harden her otherwise insubstantial soul into a ruby red heart, and that by placing this heart on top of the highest Tower of Babel in the Sky City, the light emitted by the heart will break all the protection of the Holy See, and at that time we can ......"

A witch next to her raised her voice to interrupt Baola's somewhat agitated narrative and looked at Baola with great concern and seriousness: "The Witch's Heart is only a legend, Baola, you are not allowed to read it anymore!"

"If we ever catch you reading this legendary story in secret again, and privately using some so-called painful cultivation to harden your soul, it's going to be your ass!"

Quan Baola couldn't resist arguing, "But everything else in the [Witch's Code] is useful, and we've learned a lot of witchcraft from it, and if the [Witch's Heart] in the [Witch's Code] really exists, then all it would take is a heart, and everyone wouldn't have to work so hard to attack the island in one go!"

"But the extraction requirement for [the Witch's Heart] is [the soul leaving the body]!" The witch who was arguing with Baola couldn't help but raise her voice, "That means you're going to die! Baola!"

"You're going to die and your soul becomes a heart so we can get your [Witch's Heart]!"