Chapter 1 The Presence of the Goddess

Before the Saint Statue of Gomona, Goddess of Storms, the blessed candles burned calmly. Heavenly light poured from the dome, illuminating the city-state's bishop in his dark robes as if bathed in divine grace.

Bishop Valentine lifted his head in the light, quietly gazing into Vanna's unwavering gray eyes. His words seemed to possess a certain magic, and faintly, Vanna heard the gentle sound of waves in her mind, followed by thunderous roars—with external assistance, the goddess's power finally broke through the veil, exploding within her heart.

Vanna gasped, as if returning to land after suffocating in deep water. Her chest heaved, and her heart pounded. The feeling of the god's gaze pressed down overwhelmingly, and in her semi-trance, she heard Valentine's voice continuing to reach her ears:

"Historical records mention the existence of the *Shixiang Hao* (Lost Hometown). Furthermore, the omen dream you experienced is an objectively existing fact. With these two points confirmed, your normal reaction should be to first assume the existence of a threat, and then seek a solution—but you subconsciously questioned whether the *Shixiang Hao* truly exists. This indicates that your subconscious is avoiding the information conveyed to you by the omen dream.

"Inquisitor, you are subconsciously denying the existence of the *Shixiang Hao*. This is proof that the ship truly exists—it seems it is indeed approaching the territories of the civilized world."

Vanna felt a layer of sweat break out on her forehead, but the "veil" that had always obscured her from the goddess seemed to have vanished. This, in turn, made her feel much lighter, and the city-state bishop's words made her realize what had happened:

Unbeknownst to her, she had already been affected by the *Shixiang Hao*!

This was precisely a characteristic of many anomalies or aberrations with horrific tendencies: causing cognitive distortion in those who come into contact with them, creating a subconscious sense of neglect and denial, so that the influence they exert grows unknowingly!

This subconscious neglect and denial is originally an instinctual reaction for intelligent beings to protect themselves, a mentality of avoiding danger. However, when encountering anomalies, this instinctual reaction becomes a source of carelessness, ultimately leading individuals to unknowingly become victims of the anomaly!

As an inquisitor who frequently deals with supernatural forces, Vanna was well aware of this knowledge, but she never imagined that she would fall into this kind of "psychological trap"—had her strong will not produced any effect at all?

"I don't know when I was affected," she said frankly. Before the bishop, who was also a devout believer, she did not avoid the weakness she had exposed—being affected by an anomaly or aberration and falling into a psychological abnormality was a normal occurrence. Shame and concealment would not help. "After waking up from the omen dream, I came directly here. I did not speak with anyone or come into contact with any books or antiquities. I believe I was not corrupted by external influences during this process."

"But you did indeed show a deliberate avoidance of the omen dream… so the influence must have occurred earlier," the bishop stared intently at Vanna's face, as if constantly observing the changes in her eyes and the fluctuations in her aura. "Have you come into contact with anything abnormal recently? It may be… pollution from the *Shixiang Hao*, leaving an anchor in your subconscious in advance."

"Recently…" Vanna frowned, then suddenly recalled the "sacrifice" who had fallen at the scene of the Black Sun ritual, recalled the green flames that flashed in the other person's eyes, and her own severed finger.

Her eyes widened, and she stared at the bishop. "The day before yesterday, I led a team to clear the Black Sun ritual site in the sewers. Was there a report of an unnamed pollution on site? Was there a report of a 'sacrifice' who was contaminated?"

The bishop shook his head. "…No, you sent those cultists to the church and went straight back."

Vanna's heart sank. "Did anyone else who participated in the operation that day report anything about this?"

"No reports have come in—all case files only recorded matters related to the Dark Sun heretics."

Under the statue of the goddess, the bishop gazed at Vanna, and Vanna gazed at the bishop.

"It seems we've found the earliest point when the pollution 'came ashore'," the bishop exhaled softly, his expression still calm, but his eyes seemed to brew a strong power, as if a storm was about to break. "In the sacred name of Our Lady Gomona, Inquisitor, is your memory of that night still clear and complete?"

Vanna took a deep breath. "In the sacred name of Our Lady Gomona, I remember all the details of that night."

The bishop nodded, turned, and lit a special incense. Then, while placing the bronze censer at the foot of the statue, he said in a steady voice, "What happened then?"

Thus, Vanna recounted everything that had happened in the sewer ritual site from her memory—she did not omit any details. With the aid of the sacred incense, her memory and thoughts became clearer than ever. The experience of that night was as vivid as if she were reliving it…

She still remembered the sacrifice suddenly opening his eyes, still remembered the green flames leaping in the sacrifice's eye sockets, she still remembered the flames falling on her finger, but she had decisively executed purification. On the way back to the church, she silently told herself, the pollution has been completely purified, the pollution has been completely purified, the pollution has been completely purified…

She had been murmuring this sentence all the way, and all the guardians walking with her were also murmuring this sentence!

No one thought there was anything wrong with it!

Looking back now, it was such a terrifying and bizarre scene—under the desolate night, the church's guardian squad passed through the silent and deserted streets, each person constantly muttering the same sentence, until they returned to the church.

And in this process, they still thought they were doing things normally: guarding the heretics they had just captured, cleaning up the polluted ritual site, escorting the cultists back…

"…Spiritual flames fall on the soul. The physical purification brought about by severing a limb is ineffective. What you got was just a deceptive comfort—the correct approach is to immediately light incense, sprinkle holy oil on the ground to set up a temporary holy ground, and then use a prayer ceremony to invoke the power of the goddess to perform a ‘spiritual’ purification."

"…This is my mistake," Vanna said in a heavy tone. "I should have been more vigilant and more perceptive."

"It's a slip-up, but not a mistake," the old man shook his head. "You have great power, but as an inquisitor, you still lack experience. Fortunately, you are now free from the influence, which means that the 'pollution' remaining on that sacrifice was not too strong. It only caused psychological interference to you… Through the incense ritual just now, I can roughly judge its intensity."

At this point, he paused, as if deliberating and judging something. "The guardians who acted with you at the time should have been less affected. They were just standing around you, and the impact should have dissipated quickly with prayer in the church.

"Overall, although the pollution you suffered at the time was dangerous and bizarre, because the source has been cut off, the subsequent impact is not terrible. Based on your performance just now and the feedback from the incense, even if you hadn't come here today, you would have noticed something was wrong in a few days.

"Compared to this, what we need to worry about more is the future."

"The future…" Vanna repeated the bishop's last word, her expression slowly becoming serious.

Yes, the future. This matter was not over yet.

The scene shown by the omen dream was a warning from the goddess—what she had encountered so far was probably just the prelude to a storm.

"The *Shixiang Hao* has not appeared within the civilized territories for many years. Many people believe that it has returned to the sub-space, becoming one of the many shadows in the deepest part of the world, but now it seems that Captain Duncan's obsession with the real world still exists."

Bishop Valentine spoke slowly, while turning around to look at the Saint Statue of the Storm Goddess.

"A century ago, the *Shixiang Hao* fell into the depths of the sub-space. Although there is no clear evidence, many eyewitness reports mentioned that a large storm was lingering in the nearby waters at the time. The sinking of that ship was, to a certain extent, influenced by the storm…

"The storm is the authority of Our Lady."

Vanna frowned. "Do you think that Captain Duncan wants to… take revenge on the gods?"

"It's hard to say—even for a ghost returning from the sub-space, seeking revenge on a god is unimaginable. The gods reside in the divine kingdom, and the divine kingdom is hidden above reality, and everything in the world only has the logic of falling from the upper layers of the world downwards. I've never heard of anyone being able to go to a 'divine kingdom' that is higher than reality in reverse…

"But if that Captain Duncan wants to seek revenge on Our Lady's representatives in the human world… the possibility is very high.

"The Sacred Storm Cathedral patrols the world on the boundless sea on behalf of the goddess, and most of the time it sails on hidden routes. No one can find its whereabouts, and in contrast… the Pland city-state is the largest anchor of faith in the world for the Storm Goddess, apart from the Storm Cathedral… It is also an anchor of faith that everyone can visit.

"Considering this point, it is also logical that the vengeful spirit chose to land in Pland."