Complete domination!

There’s not even any need to activate the array.

Just relying on perfected Purification Skill, in this narrow cave, not a single heretic could stand up again.

The majority of heretic powers are made up of magic power and pollution—the higher the tier, the heavier the pollution ratio.

And for these heretics whose polluted magic power also contains divine power, the pollution proportion is even higher.

Even the Saint Court’s standard purification would probably have little effect on this kind of contamination.

Only Rose’s specialized purification targeting pollution, after some tailored handling, could be effective—and it still isn’t as effective as it is on regular pollution.

Of course, for this group of mere Tier One and Two heretics, it’s more than enough.

Especially since they can’t even display their abilities in this cramped cave.

Hilia walked forward, countless heretics fell to their knees along the way, painful expressions on their faces.

Purification of pollution meant their powers were being drained away.

This draining even affected their power ceiling.

Put simply: she purified their mana cap.

As she walked, Hilia thought about it, but in the end didn’t bother finishing them off. 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

"Forcefully purifying the pollution off them like this—even if they don’t die, they’ll have to stay in bed for a few years and their bodies will be left with aftereffects. They’ll never be able to touch pollution again; if they do, they’ll be bedridden for months... Better leave them for the Saint Court to handle."

Hilia passed by everyone, slowly moving deeper inside.

She sensed the array was being operated by someone, but not to attack her—rather, it was used to lock down the entire base, strictly forbidding anyone from escaping.

"As expected of the most secretive sect, gotta give them credit."

Hilia gave the operator a thumbs-up, then used the array to mark him, quietly stripping him of administrator privileges so he couldn’t open the array and escape either.

After that, Hilia didn’t bother seeking them out; once she made sure no one could get out to call reinforcements, she purified heretics as she headed for the array’s core sector.

Hilia already confirmed: this was the base of the Polar Blood Alliance.

Every one of them wore the Polar Blood Alliance badge—a badge that appears on every battlefield whenever war breaks out, and the badge carries stubborn pollution that’s hard to purify.

Hilia used to not know why purification was so tough. Now she does: it’s because of divine power in it, which can’t be purified—needs Evil God’s purification skills.

The Polar Blood Alliance’s array core zone is completely different from that of the Deep Sea Mutual Aid Association—the Deep Sea Mutual Aid Association hides their core area, while the Polar Blood Alliance put theirs in the center of a cavern used for prayers, building an underground altar at the core.

Around the altar, heretics are praying devoutly.

But now, all the heretics had moved, blocking Hilia’s way—then were devoutly purified.

Hilia entered the underground cave for rituals, her whole body glowing with the divine light of Purification Skill, gazing at the hundred-plus heretics inside.

As soon as she appeared, the previously death-defiant heretics immediately collapsed in agony on the ground, wailing over and over.

At least a handful of Tier Three heretics could still resist by using magic.

Seeing this, even Rose laughed: "These heretics are probably going to purge all the pollution out of their bodies overnight from now on."

"It’d be best if they did; pollution does plenty of harm, and who knows how long they can live relying on polluted power anyway."

When a bunch of people collapsed, writhing in agony and staring desperately as their power was drained, those still standing were glaringly conspicuous.

Hilia, radiating holy light, slowly came up to the ones still standing.

Five in total.

All Tier Three mages.

They’d been somewhat affected, but it wasn’t a big problem.

They stared at Hilia as if they’d seen a ghost.

One of them shouted angrily, "Who the hell are you!?"

Hilia gave them a slight bow, smiling: "Saint Court prospective Holy Daughter, Hilia. Nice to meet you all."

The group exchanged glances, and the lead one’s face darkened.

"The Saint Court actually managed to improve purification magic, to achieve such terrifying effects... We mustn’t let her leave! Capture her and make her hand over this purification skill!"

All five summoned magic puppets.

Hilia’s magic puppet moved to guard her, acting as the main fighter. Hilia maintained Purification Skill, continuing her wide-area AOE spam.

Just like what she did outside Southern Border City against the heretics before.

It’s a total cheat.

But it feels awesome.

With no Tier Four mages present, facing heretics, Hilia is basically their natural enemy!

You sweated bullets, somehow managed to fuse divine power with pollution to counter the Saint Court’s purification magic?

Heh—well, I have God-given Purification Skill!

Hilia controlled her magic puppet and, with support from Purification Skill, easily took on five at once—oh wait, add magic puppets and that’s ten at once!

Her sense of danger had, to some extent, been given to the puppet as well, making it much more fluid at dodging attacks.

The standing heretics became fewer and fewer.

When their defenses were smashed by the magic puppets and they had to directly face Purification Skill—even Tier Three couldn’t stop their pollution ebbing away, just not as quickly as Tier One or Two.

"If I were getting surrounded by Tier Three Ice Wolves outside, maybe I’d lose, but against you lot—it’s easy-peasy."

Hilia slowly walked up to the altar. In front of her, all five Tier Three heretics were knocked down one by one, lying at her feet as if submitting to her.

On the altar, Hilia looked at the spiritual object being offered up.

It was a white, semi-transparent, elongated hexagonal crystal stone. Inside the stone was a tiny black dot, radiating pollution even stranger than what the heretics gave off.

Rose said, "This crystal stone is a spiritual object for collecting faith—called a Faith Crystal. A thousand years ago, the gods used it to gather faith, but it got phased out: first upgraded to idol collection, then to intangible collection."

Rose smiled as he continued, "The reason they upgraded? Zeus’s thousand-year faith wars got way too intense. Their earliest method for fighting over faith was to destroy Faith Crystals—later, they destroyed enemy gods’ idols, pushing everyone to find new ways to collect faith without tangible objects."

"But, you see, intangible faith collection only absorbs less than a tenth the faith of an object, plus it’s impure, easily contaminated by other energies—like abyssal demonic qi."

"Also, this kind of remote faith collection requires prayer to a specific god; no idol or Faith Crystal is as efficient, but it’s convenient."

Hilia picked up the Faith Crystal, curiously inspecting it.

Rose added, "With object-based faith collection, the believers don’t have to pray by name—once their prayer’s in, the spiritual object collects it. If you don’t lock it, any god can use it. Hang onto it; once we get back, I’ll check which god is absorbing faith inside this thing."

"Okay."

Hilia put away the Faith Crystal, then looked at all the heretics below.

At the array’s core, she operated the array and, shortly after, used the array to link into the Star Spirit Network and send the location and details to Vanessa.

"Let Vanessa mom call the Southern Border City bishop to handle these heretics."

Miss Hilia just wants to study magic in peace.