Millennium Witch

Book 3: Chapter 279: Go Wherever She Wants

After passionately imagining the future, Yvette Loxivia pulled the quilt more tightly around herself, full of motivation—then decided to sleep a bit longer.Unfortunately, she had barely slept ten minutes when Shuanghua came in. Looking at the chestnut-haired short-haired girl lying in bed with only her head sticking out, she said, “Grandmaster, I’ve told Esvia Solomon about you.”

Yvette thought, Why is it always like this? Things only ever show up precisely when I have zero motivation.

Resigned, she crawled out of bed. Lifting the quilt sent a puff of warm air rolling out. “What did he say?”

When it came to spreading the Silver Witch Church in the Snow Country, there was no way to sidestep the Great Prophet of the Snow Country—after all, he was the spiritual leader of the nation.

Still, Yvette’s impression of him wasn’t bad. Most importantly, despite his position, when Shuanghua had had the Snow Emperor Temple withdraw from worldly Authority, this Great Prophet had actually managed to endure it.

In the past, the Ritual Council was, in theory, a subordinate institution of the Snow Emperor Temple. It was responsible for training priestesses and sending them to various settlements to perform divine arts, essentially serving as a four-in-one role of priest, healer, exorcist, and guardian. But because the Snow Emperor Temple did not interfere with the secular world, the Ritual Council gradually formed tight利益 ties with the clans. Later, when the Snow Emperor Temple tried to issue orders to the Ritual Council, it became… difficult.

It wasn’t open defiance, but they would follow in name and ignore in practice. What could you even do about that?

After all, following the Snow Emperor Temple meant serving the people, whereas following the four great clans meant living the high life.

So Yvette had Shuanghua ask Esvia what he thought about the Silver Witch Church’s development in the Snow Country. If he wanted help reclaiming Authority over the Ritual Council, she could lend a hand.

After all, the dignified Snow Emperor couldn’t very well personally issue a divine edict specifically ordering the Ritual Council not to sideline the Snow Emperor Temple. She could—once she’d mastered faith spells, Shuanghua had that ability—but it would damage the image of a god as transcending worldly affairs and make the Great Prophet look incompetent.

“He wishes to meet you,” Shuanghua said. She stood by the bed, hands folded in front of her, posture respectful and a little stiff.

“Sure.” Yvette stretched lazily.

In the afternoon, with the sunlight over Snowmist Lodge just right, around two o’clock Yvette walked into a tearoom inside the lodge. It was a room built entirely of warm jade, snowflake patterns finely carved into the walls. In the corner stood a bronze incense burner, coils of sandalwood smoke rising from it, filling the space with a calming fragrance.

Then she saw an elderly white-haired man in a white robe embroidered with snowflakes sitting behind a table. He smiled and nodded to her. “You must be the Throne of the Silver Witch Church, Your Eminence?”

His voice was low and mellow, like a bell tolling in an ancient temple.

“Yes, Your Excellency the Prophet,” Yvette replied calmly, taking a seat opposite him.

Before coming to the Snow Country, she had thought she would have to seize the chance during the Snow Emperor Festival to pay her own way to meet the Great Prophet and inquire about the War of Divine Judgment’s ruins. But now that she had Shuanghua’s help, the situation had reversed—the Great Prophet was the one requesting an audience with her.

As for the chestnut-haired short-haired girl before him who looked utterly ordinary at first glance, Esvia Solomon felt no inclination to underestimate her. On the contrary, his smile grew even warmer.

He said frankly, “Since Her Highness has conveyed Her divine will, the Snow Emperor Temple will wholeheartedly assist with anything Your Eminence requires. However, I believe Your Eminence also knows that the Snow Emperor Temple’s control over secular Authority is quite light. It can be gradually reclaimed, but that would require a long time to consolidate.”

He set down his teacup and continued, “The process might take decades—even over a hundred years.”

“You want me to help speed that up?” Yvette guessed his intention.

Esvia Solomon was a high-tier mage with a mana presence that was stable and deep, and in each of the Snow Country’s four great clans there was a Great Mage level powerhouse holding the line. As the spiritual leader and interpreter of the Snow Emperor’s will, he could reclaim Authority if he truly wished—but with so many利益 entanglements, the process would be an enormous headache.

It would be a long and grueling tug-of-war. Every clan chief was a crafty old fox who would never willingly hand over Authority already in their grasp.

“No.” Esvia shook his head and smiled. “What I hope is that the Silver Witch Church under Your Eminence’s leadership can squeeze the Ritual Council’s space and compete with them for secular Authority.”

Yvette was a bit surprised. From her observations, the Snow Country was essentially a theocracy. The power of the four great clans of Icehammer, Winterwolf, White River, and Coldstar had originally come from the recognition of the Snow Emperor Temple. Later, they and the Ritual Council became tightly bound together, you in me and I in you.

If the Silver Witch Church stripped the Ritual Council of all its Authority—how would that be any different from becoming the de facto government of the Snow Country?

Wouldn’t that mean this part-time Throne of hers would also be moonlighting as Snow Country’s monarch?

“You don’t want to reclaim the Ritual Council’s Authority?” Yvette asked in puzzlement.

“Many people think it was the Ritual Council that hollowed out the Snow Emperor Temple, but they never realized that this too was a choice of the Snow Emperor Temple itself.” Esvia took a calm sip of tea, and in his eyes a scene from many years ago surfaced.

It had been a very simple conversation, sparked by some minor local conflict. Afterwards, Shuanghua had asked him whether such incidents could be prevented from happening again. He had replied with just one sentence: I shall heed Your Highness’s instructions. And that was where the conversation had ended.

Recalling those scenes that remained vivid even through the years, he let his gaze drift to the snowflakes falling outside the window, his eyes turning distant. “Authority is a demon. No matter how devoutly a cultivator serves Her Highness, once they get a taste of Authority, they will fall into the abyss and never be able to quit it.”

“And the only way to avoid that is to give up Authority of one’s own will. Otherwise, even I cannot guarantee that I would never lose myself in it.”

Then he turned back, looking straight into Yvette’s eyes. His gaze, unlike that of most old men, was not cloudy but remarkably clear. “Besides, with Her Highness’s temperament, She would surely not know what to do and would gradually end up indulging them. She is too merciful. That is a blessing for mortals, but for a god it may not be. By handing the Ritual Council over to the clans, the Snow Emperor Temple can remain pure, and Her Highness’s holy name can remain untouched.”

“Your Excellency the Prophet, you truly are a pure believer,” Yvette said.

From what she knew, the Snow Emperor Temple had only formally emerged about a hundred years ago. Although belief in the Snow Emperor already existed, wars broke out frequently between the clans and the Snowfield Council had not yet been formed. Not until certain wars became too brutal for the Snow Emperor to bear did He send down His will. Only then did the young Esvia Solomon appear, and only then did the Snow Emperor Temple—and the Snow Country as it was today—come into being.

Not long after the Snow Emperor Temple was founded, it voluntarily relinquished control over the Ritual Council purely to preserve its own purity. With decisions like that, no wonder Shuanghua trusted the Great Prophet so deeply.

“You don’t trust yourself, but you turn around and trust me instead?” Yvette asked.

“In the beginning, the Ritual Council still performed fairly well. But in these past years, the tributes they collect have grown higher and higher, and some of their actions have gradually passed the limits of what can be tolerated. If not for Your Eminence’s appearance, I might have had no choice but to reclaim all Authority. That would have been an extremely troublesome process—but fortunately, you appeared. That is truly wonderful,” Esvia said with a smile.

Looking at the smile on Esvia Solomon’s face, Yvette felt that something about this situation was a bit familiar—wait a second, was this old guy finding governing the Snow Country too troublesome and just looking to wash his hands of it?

Had he given up on the Ritual Council out of devotion to the Snow Emperor, or because, like her, he believed in the doctrine of minimum effort?

The elderly Great Prophet naturally had no idea that the girl across from him was judging him by her own standards and silently grumbling about him in her heart.

He went on cheerfully, “Of course I trust Your Eminence and the Silver Witch Church. Her Highness’s judgment could not possibly be wrong. But more than that, I believe that introducing a new, competitive church can serve as pressure to push the Ritual Council to reform—at the very least, to stop them from getting any worse.”

“All right. And legitimacy?”

“I would ask that, during the Snow Emperor Festival, Your Eminence the Throne attend the ceremony together with me. At that time, I will introduce the Silver Witch Church to the believers who have come from afar as the sole allied church of the Snow Emperor Temple. What do you think?”

“That’s fine.”

After that, Esvia Solomon didn’t stay much longer before taking his leave. In truth, he had still wanted to chat—after all, the Silver Witch Church and this Throne of theirs had both appeared out of nowhere, and he was very curious. But since Yvette couldn’t be bothered to talk, there was nothing he could do.

In the remaining days of December, Yvette devoted herself to studying and experimenting with ways to build bridges between divine realms.

Once that bridge was complete, she would become the most unusual divine-realm powerhouse. All she needed to do was designate one larger divine realm as her main divine realm. From then on, wherever she went, she could drop anchor points like a hen laying eggs, and the main divine realm would become a transportation hub directly connecting all the subsidiary divine realms. In other words, she could go wherever she wanted, with teleportation gates scattered all over the world.

During this time, even though the Snow Emperor Festival had yet to arrive, the Silver Witch Church had already gained quite a bit of fame across the Snowfields.

Part of it was due to all sorts of rumors among adventurers, and part of it came down to the special healing effects of the holy statues. The Ice Stone Valley settlement had already been brought under Sara’s wing, becoming the very first stronghold of the Silver Witch Church.

This still didn’t arouse the Ritual Council’s vigilance. The Ritual Council had been rooted in the Snow Country for over a hundred years, and its upper ranks were now entirely composed of members of the four great clans. In their eyes, even the True Gods’ churches had failed to gain a firm foothold in the Snow Country. For some random new sect that popped out of nowhere to threaten the Ritual Council’s status? That was pure fantasy.