Your Preference (9)
Want to kiss her.
Xu Jiao heard her words of longing, didn’t feel much, just smiled a bit, and then asked, “I recently heard Pope Henry talk about the adventure meeting, did your academy mention it?”
Lilith lay beside her, as if merely breathing the same air as Xu Jiao made her feel happiness and joy, she answered cheerfully, “Of course!”
Lilith smiled and said, “This is a great training opportunity for all students, everyone can participate. I recently learned a few new divine arts, would you like to see?”
Xu Jiao rested her chin on one hand, raised her chin towards Lilith, and cooperatively made an expectant expression.
Lilith then used those summoning light group spells, one by one, golden light balls large and small appeared in the room, like fireflies gathered into a cloth bundle, also like floating light balls, drifting high and low inside the deep night hall, very beautiful and dreamlike.
Those lights fell into Xu Jiao’s eyes, making her pupil light reflect very gently.
She slightly raised the corners of her lips, praised, “Not bad.”
Even such a simple, unemotional praise made Lilith extremely happy. Seeing that it was getting late, she dared not disturb Xu Jiao further, obediently said goodnight, and was about to leave.
Xu Jiao suddenly called her.
“Wait.”
Lilith: “?”
Xu Jiao beckoned to her, and when Lilith walked back to her side, Xu Jiao raised her hand and placed a golden light on her forehead. The light brightened and then dimmed, leaving Lilith’s sea-blue eyes filled with confusion.
Xu Jiao said to her, “This is my blessing for you.”
Hearing these words, Lilith smiled again, like a warm and bright little sun. She carefully touched her forehead, her movements filled with cherishing, then like a little rabbit, she bounced away.
Xu Jiao watched her back, the earlier gentle smile slowly faded, and at night, her expression appeared especially calm.
……
The banquet held by the six great temples was especially grand.
Interestingly, the adventure meeting started right after the banquet, which means that if some students focused on toasting and mingling, the next day they might wake up to a ground with already extinguished bonfires and empty surroundings.
In such a situation, even those who indulge in pleasure would want to show their best side, so the drinks that night were the least popular thing.
The men wore convenient knight attire for beauty and convenience, adding some flashy decorations only at the shoulders. Although the women wore skirts, they had no floor-length designs, all intended to allow them to attend the banquet and then directly enter the forest.
As for mosquitoes, snakes, and wolves, those were not concerns for the theology academy students, as they had many ways to keep those unpleasant things from approaching them—
Moreover, it was the illusion forest.
Everything was both real and unreal; no one knew what was true or false inside, or what maze they might mistakenly enter.
Xu Jiao wore an outfit prepared by the Sun Temple, with a bit too much golden element, even her forehead hair accessory was golden, making her appear noble and coldly beautiful. Her distinctive black hair earned her many gazes, but seeing that she was surrounded by high-status popes and others, no one dared to even shift their gaze presumptuously.
Today, she saw the popes of the other temples, both female and male, but uniformly—
No one’s inner voice was audible to her.
Xu Jiao was holding a cup of brewed grape wine, smelling the fragrance emitted from the open-air barbecue rack, along with the various flower and fruit scents floating through the air, seriously pondering what the reason was.
All around her were noisy sounds; students from each great temple rarely gathered together. Some wanted to know each other, but more were engaged in mutual comparison.
The speaking voices and inner voices intertwined, making Xu Jiao, who was used to being solitary in the Sun Temple, feel as if she had been thrown into a vegetable market, making it somewhat hard for her to concentrate.
Because some people’s inner voices would be amplified according to their intensity and divine power strength, fluctuating wildly, if not for her strong mental fortitude, she would have already been disturbed to irritation.
She calmly sipped the wine in her cup and followed Henry to meet the popes of other temples one by one. When she reached the Fate Temple, Xu Jiao suddenly had an inspiration.
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But she didn’t show it, only calmly accepting the other popes’ hand-kiss or cheek-kiss greetings, then returned to her spot, waiting for the banquet to start, or for the adventure meeting to start later.
Lilith sat in a corner; she looked sweet, had a relatively well-behaved personality, and was a noble descendant. Logically, she should have been very popular in the academy, but because of her two sisters’ earlier unconscious “publicity,” now everyone was not too enthusiastic about her, especially after hearing she was very favored by the Saintess.
Currently, her classmates’ attitude towards her was polite yet distant, neither offending nor flattering, so she was actually quite solitary in the academy. But Lilith was not at all sad about this; compared to once being disliked wherever she went, she more enjoyed this feeling of not being noticed by everyone.
Too many gazes focused on her made her very uncomfortable because she had long lost the nature of being in the spotlight, and this way of existing like air allowed her to recall her original life rhythm.
She quietly stared at Xu Jiao, watching her taste grape wine, occasionally trying a little of other delicacies, secretly noting her preferences, while also worrying if the Saintess ate so little, would it affect her health?
After all, the Saintess looks… quite thin.
Noticing Lilith’s gaze, Xu Jiao met her eyes, slightly raised her lips in greeting, then moved her gaze away, until—
“Presumably, you all already know each other. I hope that after entering the illusion forest, you can help each other, remember God’s teachings: kindness, tolerance, help the weak. Nothing is more important than your safety.”
“God and the popes will be watching you here.”
Students from the six great temples knelt and saluted toward their respective temple pope’s location, this scene looked very much like a large-scale cult brainwashing event.
Xu Jiao’s gaze briefly touched on Lilith before withdrawing, seeing students all entered, just heard Henry beside her ask: “Do you wish to wait here with us, or…?”
He left Xu Jiao some choice, only hearing Xu Jiao say: “I want to go in and take a look.”
Henry nodded, immediately, a row of high-ranking golden knights walked out behind him, equipped with Holy Light swords and armor, shining brightly even in this dark night, like human-sized walking light bulbs.
He said to Xu Jiao: “Please be sure to pay attention to your safety.”
Xu Jiao showed no intention of refusal, and as a result, seeing Henry’s action, the other five temples also sent their high-ranking knights over. This spectacular lineup looked less like Xu Jiao was going for a stroll in the illusion forest and more like she was going to battle on the battlefield.
She was somewhat unaccustomed to having so many people following her.
But the popes were all very stubborn, and no one was willing to take her safety lightly, insisting on having these people escort her. Xu Jiao couldn’t oppose them, so the moment these people followed her inside—
She created an identical avatar, while simultaneously, her true form turned into a mist, merging with the entire forest as one.
The system promptly reminded her: “You seem not to trust these popes.”
Xu Jiao responded with a “Hmm,” sensing the prevalent demonic energy in the forest that she instinctively disliked, yet she strongly resisted driving it away, instead raising her hand to lightly touch the ground.
While probing, she took a moment to reply to the system: “Anyone who makes my cheat malfunction, I instinctively guard against 100%, Lilith is like that, and so are the popes.”
Xu Jiao closed her eyes, the probing magic light like golden small beans emerged from her fingertips, then seeped into the ground. The golden light quickly dissolved silently, not disturbing a single thread of demonic energy, swiftly penetrating deep underground, radiating outward, and finally…
The edge of the illusion forest appeared before her.
It was a…
Hexagram pattern.
Because she wanted to write about the Western theological world, Xu Jiao consulted many strange mythological materials during the writing of this work. If she remembers correctly, the most original name for the hexagram should be Solomon’s Seal.
It symbolizes positive protection.
When would protection be needed?
There is a legend about Solomon concerning seventy-two demon gods. This story is recorded in the 《Key of Solomon》, which says that Solomon compiled a book documenting his contracts with seventy-two demon lords, engraving these demon characters on seventy-two pillars. From then on, he could borrow the power of the seventy-two demon gods, and after death, his soul would return to them.
After Solomon’s death, this book disappeared, and the seventy-two demon gods wanted to escape from the door pillars, so they tricked ordinary people into signing contracts with them, under the guise of helping fulfill wishes, seizing people’s souls—
Because they are demon gods, their methods of helping fulfill wishes are all extremely terrifying.
Therefore, someone discovered from Solomon’s records a kind of sealing gesture, capable of sealing demon gods summoned to the human world and unwilling to leave back into the door pillars.
……
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The position where Xu Jiao stood was not in the middle of the hexagram.
She sat cross-legged at her original spot, looking up towards the sky. Covered by thick fog, she saw nothing; her entire vision was a gray-black expanse, instinctively arousing negative emotions.
“Whether it’s sealing or protection, neither is a good thing,” she thought to herself.
If it is sealing, this would mean that demon gods once appeared here.
However, records about demon gods…
The books of the six great temples never mentioned them.
Either this darkness never originated here, or… the traces were erased by someone.
If it is summoning, that is even more significant. In this world with gods, anything associated with gods is beyond human power to resist, and even Xu Jiao cannot imagine what would happen if she faced a demon god in her current state.
“System, I feel like you’re trying to cheat me,” Xu Jiao said after a while, touching her chin and communicating with the system in her mind.
System: “?”
Xu Jiao, however, did not continue speaking. After expressing this sentiment, she looked towards the sky, then closed her eyes, opened her palm, and grasped at the air several times.
A few faint red lines flickered in and out between her fingers.
Just as she was about to grab them, the lines vanished again, and with a light grip, only emptiness remained.
Xu Jiao opened her eyes, her gaze cold and stern.
The system counted the number of lines that had appeared in her hand and asked, “Do you want to know the fate lines of the six popes?”
Xu Jiao curled her lips: “Yes, but guess what? Someone has hidden all these fate lines. I now have a demigod physique, yet I still cannot find them. Guess who might be hiding them?”
While asking this question, Xu Jiao looked towards the edge of the forest from where she came.
She seemed as though, through the layers of mist, she saw six pairs of eyes also watching this place.
In the next moment.
Xu Jiao moved her gaze, once again choosing a different fate line to grab—
A red line appeared in her palm, but the other half vanished into mid-air, and this scene looked extremely bizarre, as if the other half of the line had become invisible.
Xu Jiao pondered for two seconds: “Strange.”
What does this mean?
Why is Lilith’s fate line like this?
Half visible, half void?
Xu Jiao was just about to follow this line to examine Lilith’s life and rethink her own thoughts when she suddenly felt her heart skip a beat.
This is something she planted inside Lilith’s body, ensuring that she would sense it whenever Lilith encountered an unpredictable situation. Now, does this mean… Lilith is in danger?
Xu Jiao released her grip, allowing the red line to disappear. Immediately after, she focused on locating the direction where Lilith was and hurried towards that side.
……
Even someone as calm as Xu Jiao couldn’t help but be stunned—
What is this thing that appeared in the cave in front of her?
It’s not her fault for describing it so strangely, but what appeared in front of her was first a pure black, enormous snake tail, with a figure that had its back to her, and hair that had somehow turned completely black.
The sensation inside her told Xu Jiao that this was Lilith, the one she had previously placed a talisman on.
But…
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Why had Lilith turned into this ghostly form?
As she sensed the person approaching from behind, the snake-bodied figure slowly turned around, and when she clearly saw that face, Xu Jiao’s throat instinctively swallowed.
This is—
The exact same face as Feng Qingyu, Shen Yelan, and Xia Jingzhe.
Except for those cold vertical pupils.
Xu Jiao barely maintained her calm and asked, “Who are you?”
The creature seemed to understand, dragging its long tail on the ground, creating a heavy sound of friction against the sand and stones. Its face approached Xu Jiao, and with a cold breath, it slowly said:
“You don’t recognize me?”
Her complexion was excessively pale, devoid of any color. After seriously examining Xu Jiao, she raised her hand to cup Xu Jiao’s face and said in a low voice:
“My God—”
“I am your most beloved Lilith.”
As she spoke, she leaned down, as if wanting to kiss Xu Jiao.
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