Chapter 368: Just Find Someone to Blame

As the goddess who governs evil and chaos, Lilith’s power could bypass all conditions and directly drive others insane, making them go berserk and lose their minds.

It seemed like a form of mental domination, but it was actually a soul-penetrating ability, completely different from ordinary mental control.

In other words, Lilith’s evil aura didn’t interfere with the mind or influence one’s thoughts, but directly infiltrated the soul, injecting it with the “poison” of evil and chaos.

Once infected by this “poison,” even the Goddess of Life might not be able to save them. That was why the Divine Race and Demon Race in ancient times were helpless against it. In the end, the Divine Race could only seal Lilith and the beings she had driven mad, restoring peace to the world.

Under such circumstances, Maeve didn’t expect to be cured by Shien.

“Don’t look at me like that.”

Seeing Maeve’s surprised look, Shien curled his lip.

“I can save you only because you haven’t been completely corrupted. As for those ancient beings here, I can’t save a single one.”

This was the truth.

Although [Celestial Breathe] was very powerful and known as an almost omnipotent legendary healing magic, using it against the power of the strongest evil god was a bit too much.

People like Maeve, who hadn’t been completely corrupted, or those who had only been corrupted recently, could still be saved. But for those who had been in a state of madness for too long, whose self-awareness had already been erased, Shien was completely helpless.

Otherwise, Shien wouldn’t have directly granted those ancient beings peace earlier.

“…Thank you.”

Maeve was silent for a moment, then thanked Shien.

“Thank you?” Shien raised an eyebrow and said with a smirk, “I kidnapped your saintess, and this situation definitely has something to do with me. You’re actually thanking me?”

Indeed.

Lilith’s seal had weakened because of Shien, causing the evil aura to leak out and the ancient beings to break free from the seal and come to the outside world.

Judging from Maeve’s current state, the beastmen priests guarding the temple had probably been driven mad by the evil aura.

Moreover, Shien had also kidnapped Elise. These beastmen priests should hate him to the core, right?

Therefore, although Shien had saved Maeve, he was prepared to be held accountable.

Who would have thought…

“…This evil aura and these evil beings didn’t escape because the seal weakened.”

Maeve was silent for a while, then gritted her teeth and said these words resentfully.

“They didn’t escape because the seal weakened?” Shien was taken aback, then frowned and looked at Maeve. “What do you mean?”

The meaning was actually simple.

“The evil aura and the evil beings escaped because of the Old Demon Faction.” Maeve took a deep breath and said, “It was the Old Demon Faction who interfered with the seal, causing the evil aura to leak out and the evil beings to be released before Lilith herself broke free.” 𝐑Ἀ₦ՕꞖÈŠ

Maeve then explained the whole story to Shien.

It turned out that after Shien kidnapped Elise, while the beastmen priests were panicking, the Old Demon Faction, who had attacked here before, reappeared.

This time, they didn’t launch a large-scale invasion. Instead, they took advantage of the beastmen priests’ panic over Elise and collectively infiltrated the dark temple, reaching Lilith’s seal.

“Their goal should be to free Lilith, but they seem unable to break the seal directly like you, so they could only interfere with it, slowly trying to break it.”

Maeve looked at Shien and said.

“Therefore, in order to occupy the dark temple and slowly break the seal, the Old Demon Faction released the evil aura and the evil beings within the seal.”

“They wanted to use the power of the evil aura and the evil beings to eliminate anyone who tried to approach or stay near the temple.”

“We discovered this, but it was too late. We couldn’t attack the temple in time and reclaim it. We were also attacked by the evil beings and separated.”

Speaking of this, Maeve couldn’t help but reveal a worried expression.

She was worried about her companions, not knowing how they were doing now that they were separated.

Shien could guess that those beastmen priests had either been driven mad by the evil aura, like Maeve earlier, or attacked by the corrupted beings, and their chances of survival were slim.

“What about the Saintess?”

Maeve suppressed her worry and looked at Shien intently.

“Please return Saintess Elise to us.”

When she said these words, Maeve’s tone was pleading.

At this point, she could only hope that Shien would show mercy and return the saintess, who was their reason for existence, to them.

Shien sighed and shrugged.

“Unfortunately, Elise isn’t with me right now.” Shien told Maeve truthfully. “After discovering the evil aura, the Saintess rushed out like she was crazy. I followed her here.”

“What?” Maeve’s eyes widened. She asked anxiously, “So, Saintess Elise, she…!?”

“That’s right.” Shien nodded. “She might have already run in here, or even entered the temple and encountered the Old Demon Faction.”

Hearing this, Maeve abruptly turned around and rushed towards the temple at full speed.

However, she had only run a short distance when a hand pulled her back.

“Let me go!”

Maeve struggled and glared at Shien.

“Calm down, girl.” Shien, his expression unchanged, held Maeve’s collar tightly. “Not to mention whether you can break into the temple guarded by the Old Demon Faction alone, just look at these evil beings everywhere and the ever-present evil aura. Aren’t you afraid of going crazy before you even reach the temple?”

In this evil aura, ordinary people definitely couldn’t resist it effectively and would quickly be affected and driven mad.

Maeve was still able to move around freely, partly because her level wasn’t low, just one step away from level ninety, and her resistance to abnormal statuses was somewhat higher than that of ordinary people. The other reason was that Lilith hadn’t completely broken free from the seal yet, and the evil aura released was only a small part of her power, its effect not very strong.

Yes, the evil aura released now was just a remnant of Lilith’s power before she was sealed.

Airi had also said that before being sealed, Lilith’s evil aura had spread across the land, even enveloping a continent. Presumably, this evil aura was from that time, sealed in the temple along with those evil beings by the Divine Race.

This evil aura, after nearly ten thousand years of being sealed, had already been weakened significantly.

If this were the evil aura released by Lilith personally, then the entire Stalim Duchy would have already been enveloped by it, and everyone would instantly go mad, unable to save themselves.

Shien had a feeling.

(I feel like I don’t need to be afraid of the power released by Lilith personally…)

Although he didn’t know why he felt this way, Shien knew that others definitely couldn’t be like him.

The same went for Maeve.

“You can barely maintain your sanity now, but if you stay here too long, or get close to the temple, which is the center of the evil aura, you’ll probably be done for.”

Shien said, but he didn’t manage to persuade Maeve.

“That’s even more reason for me to go!” Maeve shouted, “The temple is so dangerous, if Saintess Elise went there, she would definitely… !?”

“Definitely what?” Shien interrupted Maeve, sneering. “Definitely be in danger? Don’t you underestimate the messenger of the Goddess of Life too much?”

These words calmed Maeve down somewhat.

“Understand?” Shien continued, “Unlike you priests, the Saintess has indeed received the protection of the Goddess of Life. Even without the Goddess of Life’s blessing, she can use her power to protect herself and not be affected by the evil aura.”

Saying so, Shien released Maeve.

“As long as she isn’t discovered directly by the Old Demon Faction or attacked by the evil beings, Elise shouldn’t be in danger. And it seems she can use the power of the Goddess of Life to observe things. Avoiding the evil beings and the Old Demon Faction shouldn’t be difficult for her.”

Shien explained.

“Right now, the Saintess is probably much better off than you. You should worry about yourselves first before worrying about her.”

Listening to Shien’s words, Maeve calmed down and began to think.

Shien couldn’t help but sigh inwardly.

Based on his personality, he wouldn’t waste so many words on a group of people who might not even be his allies.

But it couldn’t be helped. He was about seventy percent responsible for this mess, and Shien couldn’t just walk away irresponsibly.

Although even without him, the Old Demon Faction and the mysterious mastermind would probably break the seal in the temple and cause all this, that was just hindsight.

In fact, it was Shien himself who weakened Lilith’s seal, not anyone else. Shien was aware of this.

Since that was the case, he naturally had to bear some responsibility for the trouble he had caused.

“I really wish I could just find someone to blame like before.”

Shien missed the days when he could just wander around carefree.

Unfortunately, that was clearly impossible now.

Therefore…

“Let’s go.”

Shien said to Maeve.

“Lead the way.”