The Path to Sainthood from Fairy Tail

In the vast first floor of the church, only Dinan and Pusi remained.

Dinan couldn't help but ask first, "So we're just going to be free to do whatever we want? Is this what you call being left to our own devices?"

Pusi nodded in agreement: "It seems so, but at least we have a goal to follow, so we haven't been completely abandoned. Since she wants us to go find Li Xuan, let's go."

"Yeah, it's been so long since we last met, I've started to miss Li Xuan. Maybe I can get him to tell me about his experiences in the capital. Apparently, things suddenly went into chaos there, and people from other churches are fighting tooth and nail..."

……

The Peacock Kingdom, capital city, headquarters of the Church of the Elemental Gods.

On this continent, most churches locate their headquarters near the capitals of the major kingdoms.

Although the church headquarters occupied a piece of land in the capital, the king had no right to interfere with the church; in fact, the church was a state within a state.

But on this day, something extraordinary seemed to have happened at the church headquarters.

"Wow! That was really exciting! To desecrate a statue at someone's headquarters, you're so brave!"

As Li Xuan fled, he didn't forget to tease the golden beetle on his shoulder.

Behind Li Xuan was a group of fanatical priests.

"Evil heretic, you shall be burned alive!"

"The thunder will never let you go! Heavenly lightning will surely cleanse you of your filth!"

"What awaits you is the punishment of being torn apart by six horses!"

"..."

The believers were filled with righteous indignation, wishing they could tear Li Xuan, who was fleeing ahead, to pieces.

Li Xuan fled with ease, even turning around to remind them, "Aren't you the Elemental Church? Why are you using animals as a means of punishment? And using six horses is such a waste!"

"Damn it! How did that bastard run so fast?"

"Wearing a mask in broad daylight, who let him in?"

"If I catch him, I will make him suffer terribly!"

Li Xuan glanced at the woods ahead and a smile played on his lips.

He turned to look at the pursuers behind him, "Although I'm reluctant to leave, you guys are too slow, so I won't play with you anymore. See you later!"

After his provocation, Li Xuan plunged into the forest and quickly disappeared from the pursuers' sight.

"Damn it, don't let him get away!"

"Heretics, even if I chase you to the ends of the earth, I will make you receive the punishment you deserve!"

"Chase!"

The pursuers from the Elemental Church plunged into the forest, determined to bring Li Xuan to justice.

However, the forest was exceptionally dense, with tall trees and low shrubs blocking the group's path and greatly restricting the pursuers' progress.

They searched until nightfall but did not find any trace of Li Xuan. In fact, due to the rugged terrain, they suffered non-combat losses.

In fact, as Li Xuan entered the forest, he activated optical mimicry, blending himself into the surrounding environment.

Then, taking advantage of the pursuers' deep penetration into the forest, they slipped along the edge of the forest and escaped.

After confirming there was no danger, Li Xuan grabbed the golden beetle, looked down at him, and asked, "We're safe now. Can you tell me why you toppled the statue of the elemental god back then?"

"If we hadn't done that, we wouldn't have been chased by those fanatical cultists at all!"

Baili Muyun smiled awkwardly: "Don't worry, we did get something this time. At least it confirmed my guess, about one-fifth of it."

Li Xuan asked instinctively, "You're not going to go to other churches and destroy their statues of gods, are you?"

Baili Muyun said with absolute certainty, "That's right! Once we find the remaining churches, my hypothesis will be completely confirmed. Then we can simply wait for the war to end and the blockade to be lifted!"

Li Xuan said listlessly, "We still have so many places to go. You can definitely sit on my shoulder without any problems. Don't forget, I'm the one who's making the journey!"

Baili Muyun said helplessly, "Stop complaining. Let me tell you something to be happy about. Based on the timeline, the passage you want is probably almost ready. As long as you go back, it will bring your hometown a ticket to a wider world. Isn't this what you've always wanted?"

Li Xuan gave a helpless, bitter smile. "I think you've misunderstood. It's just a small world, not worth my lingering there. The reason I want to build a bridge of communication is simply because someone over there wants to see a wider world."

"Moreover, entering the boundless universe may not be a good thing for them."

Baili Muyun: "Perhaps. Whatever you think, the appearance of this passage will ultimately give your universe more options."

Li Xuan did not express any further opinion.

He did this simply to fulfill a promise.

It can also be seen as breaking the shackles for a group of unfortunate people who can't get what they want.

As for how this passage will be used in the future, that's none of his business. He believes that the fire chasers will protect this flame.

During their journey, Baili Muyun seemed to find it too boring to let Li Xuan travel alone, so he took the initiative to start a conversation: "By the way, do you have any special races over there? I remember in a universe I explored before, there was a race whose individuals were all composed of gaseous matter, and their shapes were all kinds of strange."

"Race? Do elves or dwarves count? I think I've only ever seen humanoid races like that, and then there are different kinds of beasts. Oh, right, we also have insectoids, machine races, and demons from hell over there."

Baili Muyun clicked his tongue and said, "So many races that are hard to control. Life over there must be quite miserable."

Li Xuan thought for a moment and couldn't help but agree, "Indeed, the living space of humans over there has been compressed to a certain extent. However, the problem of the intelligent machines has been solved, but the demons are still the same, they like to entice people to do bad things."

"However, these things are no longer my concern. To truly resolve the dangers posed by the Zerg and the demons, we still need to rely on the people of that world."

Baili Muyun nodded. "That makes sense. But are your AI systems really that weak? Generally speaking, once a civilization has developed to a certain level and an AI catastrophe occurs, unless it completely reverts to a primitive, slash-and-burn era, it shouldn't be able to completely eliminate it!"

Li Xuan shook his head. "The omnics weren't destroyed by us. Instead, their own king self-destructed and then took all the omnics with him. The whole process was very quick, as if it had been planned for a long time."

Baili Muyun listened attentively to Li Xuan's description; these kinds of strange tales were his favorite kind of story.

After all, he works in intelligence, and his specialty is extracting key information from all sorts of outrageous stories and then exchanging that information for meager rewards.

"Your AI leader is truly selfless, going to such lengths for his race. However, there are too few races on your side; there are only three that can truly rival humanity."

"Most importantly, of these three, it seems that only the Zerg are native races."