Zhang Nannan was no longer the innocent and romantic maiden from the academy of yesteryear.
She knew the Saintess Cult might have ulterior motives, yet she still agreed.
She often felt she had failed the academy's teachings and the sweat she had shed practicing swordplay.
So when she was discovered, her first thought wasn't to betray the Saintess Cult and save herself, but to end it all by taking her own life.
Had Xu Yi not appeared, she would never have opened up and told the truth.
As the words fell, a long silence followed.
Xu Yi and Xiong Zhuangzhuang finally understood why the Saintess Cult was expanding outward at such a terrifying speed. Did the cultivators who joined the Saintess Cult truly not know that the cult was deceiving them?
No, they knew. They simply didn't want to expose it, wanting only to use it to comfort themselves.
If they didn't join the Saintess Cult, they would forever remain the lowest-tier cultivators on the Nine Continents Continent, unnoticed and bullied by all.
But by joining the Saintess Cult, everything changed; they were now cultivators with a sect.
They were no longer scattered sand that could be dispersed with a single grasp, but a sandstorm that could gather together and stir up trouble.
It could be said that the emergence of the Saintess Cult was an opportunity to tightly bind these frustrated cultivators who had no outlet for their grievances.
Xu Yi couldn't help but feel a chill.
A rope breaks with constant sawing, and a stone is worn down by dripping water. Who knew what kind of energy such an uncontrollable force could unleash when gathered together?
Especially since, even now, they still didn't know if the person behind the Saintess Cult was righteous or evil.
"How many times has the Holy Emissary conveyed the holy edicts to you? What did the edicts say?" Xu Yi suppressed his inner unease and continued to ask.
Since Zhang Nannan had decided to reveal everything, she hid nothing, stating directly, "The previous holy edicts were all to encourage the disciples to continue developing the cult. This time, the holy edict informed us that the Saintess was about to descend, instructing us to await orders and be ready to welcome her at any time."
"The Saintess is about to descend?"
Xu Yi and Xiong Zhuangzhuang exchanged glances, both seeing the surprise and wariness in each other's eyes.
"Then you..."
Before Xu Yi could finish his sentence, Zhang Nannan shook her head first, "I am just an insignificant follower within the Saintess Cult. I don't know when or where the Saintess will appear. Even if you ask me, I cannot give you an answer."
Xu Yi was taken aback, then nodded. Zhang Nannan's words were indeed true. Given her background and cultivation, she indeed had nothing particularly eye-catching about her.
"No, you are wrong. Your existence is far more important than you imagine," Yin Li, who had been silent all along, suddenly spoke.
Her words caused both Xu Yi and Xiong Zhuangzhuang to look at her, and Zhang Nannan also raised her head in surprise, a mocking curve appearing on her lips, "Oh, really? How come I haven't noticed anything about myself that warrants attention?"
Yin Li chuckled, "If you weren't important, that purple-robed person wouldn't have rushed here while you were severely injured. Do you really think that was a coincidence?"
The curve on Zhang Nannan's lips instantly froze.
She looked over in disbelief, and indeed, not far from her lay a figure she found incredibly familiar.
It was a Holy Emissary.
She had met them not long ago.
"You mean she came for me?"
Zhang Nannan still found it somewhat hard to believe. She hadn't noticed any unusual attitude from the Holy Emissary towards her. She had always thought she was just an insignificant, dispensable character.
"You probably don't know that when the Holy Emissary conveys holy edicts, they usually gather all nearby disciples to convey them together. But it was only you that the Holy Emissary conveyed the edict to privately. Isn't that very suspicious?"
Yin Li had felt something was amiss when she was being pursued by the purple-robed person and the red-line hawk. It was only now that she had finally pieced together some clues.
The first point of suspicion was how they were found by the purple-robed person.
They were able to find Wang Yao's hiding place by relying on the treasure-seeking mouse's powerful innate abilities. But how did the Saintess Cult manage to find their location in such a short time?
Yin Li couldn't figure it out at first, but when she saw that Zhang Nannan also held a snake-shaped token identical to the Holy Emissary's, she understood.
The two snake-shaped tokens must have a special connection. The Holy Emissary could track Zhang Nannan's whereabouts, or even check her condition, through the snake-shaped token.
This meant that the reason Yin Li and Fei Hua were chased again was not because they had accidentally stumbled upon a gathering of Saintess Cult disciples before, but because Zhang Nannan was injured, which triggered a mechanism on the snake-shaped token, thus attracting the purple-robed person's attention.
The second point of suspicion was what she mentioned earlier: that Zhang Nannan received the holy edict privately, rather than with other disciples.
This was very strange.
Yin Li and the others had indeed discovered a location not far away where a group of Saintess Cult disciples had gathered, a place Zhang Nannan could have easily reached.
Yet, the Holy Emissary still made a special trip. This further highlighted Zhang Nannan's importance.
In fact, Yin Li had another suspicion she hadn't voiced.
This might involve sect secrets. Even though Xu Yi had a good relationship with them, Yin Li couldn't fully disclose it and could only keep it in her heart for now, waiting for a suitable time to speak to Xiong Zhuangzhuang.
Zhang Nannan was now filled with confusion.
Was she really that different?
But no matter how she thought about it, she felt she was just an ordinary person with nothing that the Saintess Cult would value.
Why did the Saintess Cult favor her?
She was also quite bewildered.
"They might not have come for you."
Xu Yi's words were like a bolt of lightning, dispelling the dark clouds in Zhang Nannan's mind.
She blurted out, "You mean they came for Qiming Academy?"
She had thought of it. The most noteworthy thing about her was Qiming Academy, which was behind her.
The instructors of Qiming Academy were all individuals of great merit and fortune, and the academy had hundreds of students, who, combined, formed a force that could not be ignored.
The Saintess Cult didn't value her, but the benefits that Qiming Academy could bring.
"You mean I almost dragged the academy into danger?"
Zhang Nannan looked at her own hands as if she saw them covered in blood.
She broke down.
Since childhood, she had been taught by the academy's instructors. Even after being injured and returning to Mò City, it was the academy that took her in, allowing her to continue learning from the instructors without worrying about spiritual stones or other external matters.
But she never expected that she would almost bring catastrophic disaster upon the academy.
She could completely imagine that when the Holy Emissary went to the academy to proselytize, there would inevitably be conflict with the instructors. And the Holy Emissary, being cold-blooded and merciless, would surely show no mercy.
At that time, the academy, which had been infused with the fragrance of ink, would become a sea of corpses, and she, the culprit, would be unable to escape responsibility for everything.
Zhang Nannan clasped her hands together and hit her forehead hard, harboring a death wish.
"Zhang Nannan!"