The Villain Saint is my secondary account

"Oh my god, I was wondering where you followed me." Ye Xiao was startled when he saw the blond-haired, big-faced man climbing up to the roof beam. "So you were hiding here."

"Hmph." Greta proudly raised her little head.

The castle's terrain was very complex, and there might be hidden sentries and alarm arrays, so even on the roof beams, Ye Xiao moved very cautiously.

He wandered along the network of corridors and stumbled upon a servant lurking suspiciously around a corner.

He lay on the roof beam and saw the guy looking around below before quietly slipping into a storage room.

Just as Ye Xiao was about to jump down as well, he suddenly noticed a guard walking over from the end of the corridor.

Ye Xiao frowned slightly. Ella, who was squatting on the top of a tower outside the window, immediately used her beast-like arm to throw a small pebble in this direction.

A sharp cracking sound of shattering glass came from the other end of the corridor. The guard, attracted by the sound, quickly turned around and rushed over.

"What a coincidence?" The kitten squatting on the roof beam was completely bewildered, not understanding where the sound came from that had attracted the guards away.

Taking advantage of the moment, Ye Xiao jumped off the roof beam and listened intently at the door of the storage room, only to find a faint snoring sound coming from inside.

Good grief, you're hiding here, slacking off and sleeping, huh?

Ye Xiao tiptoed open the door, went in, and gave the sleeping guy a chop to the back of the neck to physically prolong his sleep. Then he took off his clothes and stuffed him into a wooden barrel.

After putting on the servant's clothes, Ye Xiao walked openly down the corridor.

The first floor is mainly the lord's hall and banquet hall, with some rooms for personal guards and servants along the side corridors.

As Ye Xiao passed through the lord's hall, he saw Eileen, who had just returned from outside, chatting with a group of people of all ages dressed in fine clothes. He guessed they were probably relatives of the Malz family.

But Lord Marz didn't seem to be in the hall, which surprised him—his daughter had returned, and he, as her father, wasn't even coming out to see her?

Just then, Eileen, who was greeting her relatives, also asked the same question, "Is Father not home?"

"The Earl is ill and resting in his bedroom." "It's all that damned little guild's fault, they actually tried to assassinate the Earl." "Yes, I heard that little guild is even subordinate to the Holy Maiden of Light." "That young lady from the Heville family, no wonder she's so audacious..."

A group of relatives chattered on, leaving Eileen completely bewildered. "Holy Maiden? Assassination attempt on Father? What's going on?"

She had seen the Seven Luminaries Society's wanted posters outside, but she hadn't looked at them closely. Now that she heard about them, they were actually related to the Holy Maiden.

They're trying to smear me again.

Ye Xiao, who was hiding nearby pretending to wipe a vase that was already very clean, frowned. He knew that Earl Malz could not have been assassinated by them.

But judging from what these people were saying, it seemed that something had really happened to Count Maltz.

Ye Xiao subconsciously sensed the problem and knew he had to go upstairs to check the lord's bedroom.

Chapter Seventy-Four: A Journey for Two

The lord's bedroom was usually on the top floor of the main hall.

In the architectural style of Loren's castles and palaces, the higher the status of a person, the higher the location of their residence. The lowest level is usually guards and servants, the second level is for high-ranking servants such as hired alchemists and butlers, the third level is for guests, and so on.

Therefore, Ye Xiao's goal was quite clear: to find the upward staircase in the corridor and continue forward.

However, the density of guards increases as you go up in the hierarchy. While it's not a big deal to be spotted once or twice as a servant, constantly wandering around will inevitably attract attention.

Ella's field of vision was ultimately limited, and with the towers obstructing the view, there were also many windows in the main hall that Ella couldn't see clearly from.

What should I do...?

Ella crouched on the spire of a tower, somewhat conflicted. If she lowered herself too close to the main hall, she feared being noticed by the guards on the towers.

As she pondered, she suddenly noticed several crows perched on a horizontal flagpole nearby.

A flash of inspiration struck her, and several tentacles from under Ella's cloak shot out with a "whoosh," accurately grabbing the dazed crows and pulling them back to her feet.

She remembered that in her previous life, during the final battle in the Holy City, Ye Xiao was chased all over the place by a large dog that had been corrupted by tentacles.

Since both humans and dogs can be transformed into corrupted beings using tentacles, transforming even smaller crows shouldn't be too difficult.

Sure enough, after being forcibly stuffed with mouthfuls of silt called "living soil," the crows' bodies began to mutate, cracks appeared on their skin, and tiny tentacles grew out.

At the same time, Ella did indeed gain control of the crows.

She could then spread the crows' wings and fly to the various towers or windowsills around the main hall, allowing her to get a 360-degree view of the entire main hall from their perspective.

Unfortunately, the distorted form after the transformation into a tentacle-covered creature is too horrifying. Small animals like crows are less likely to notice it from a distance.

If you bring out something like a dire wolf or a saber-toothed tiger, everyone else will definitely lose sanity when they see it.

If this appearance issue can be resolved, Ella might be able to create some convenient monster guardians in the future—with a wave of her hand, a giant dragon will descend from the sky behind her; just thinking about it is so cool.

With the visibility issue resolved, Ye Xiao wandered through the main hall's long corridor as comfortably as if he were at home. Even Greta, the cat following him on the roof beam, was puzzled as to why he could hardly see anyone along the way.

Occasionally, when a guard is blocking the way, a crow will fly in through the window and swat at the guard's helmet with its claws or throw a valuable object at his face, which will anger the guard, who will then chase after it while cursing.

Although the guards of Wind Chaser Fortress were far stronger than the watchtowers of the Dead Sea Prison, Ye Xiao reached the top floor of the main hall with almost no effort thanks to the tacit cooperation of the two of them in stealth.

Upon arriving at this place, Ye Xiao became more cautious, mainly because he was afraid of encountering that troublesome fake saintess.

But the empty corridor was deserted, and the defenses seemed even weaker than downstairs.

Just as Ye Xiao was about to step out of the stairwell and onto the wool carpeted floor, Greta, who was standing next to him, grabbed his shoulder with a paw. "Wait!"

As it spoke, the kitten jumped to the ground and gently pressed its paw on the ground.

Blue light-emitting magic circles emerged from the floor like bamboo shoots after a spring rain, causing Ye Xiao to frown. "Holy crap, are these all alarm magic circles?"

"Hmph, now you know how powerful this maid is, right?" The kitten raised its head and traced a line on the magic circle with its paw. All the magic circles seemed to freeze, no longer slowly rotating, and the light on them gradually dimmed, turning into gray circles. "You can go up now."

"No, does this lord never leave his room? If he takes a walk, wouldn't his footsteps make the whole castle rattle?" Ye Xiao was a little confused and carefully stepped on the carpet covered with hidden magic arrays.

The magic arrays in this world aren't intelligent enough to choose whether to trigger based on the object. After all, these are just magic arrays and can't be equipped with AI, so they can't achieve strange things like scleral recognition or gait analysis.

However, there is a practice of sealing a soul into a defensive magic circle to serve as a tool for identifying visitors, but that's a different matter altogether.

The layout of this floor is much simpler than that of the downstairs floor. The staircase connects to a corridor that surrounds the outer wall, and a straight corridor that runs through the center of the corridor to the deepest part of the floor.

The lord's room, with its luxurious double doors, stood at the end of the corridor, seemingly waiting silently for visitors.

Ye Xiao slowly walked forward, but none of the ambushes or traps he had anticipated appeared.

He simply went to the door and then gently pushed it open.

The scene inside was unexpected, yet somehow made sense.

Nothing at all.

That's not entirely accurate, because the desk, windowsill, cabinet, and sofa—all the usual furniture—are still there, and they're even decorated in a rather luxurious way.

But the lord who should have been there, Earl Malz, was not there.

The empty room was deserted; all the windows were covered by heavy curtains, and the dimly lit interior was eerily quiet.

Ye Xiao frowned as she entered the room, lifted the heavy curtains covering the window, and discovered that from here she could see the Liancheng Bridge and the North District and the entrance to Storm Harbor on the distant coast.

As sunlight streamed into the room, he noticed several scratch marks on the wall that resembled those of wild animals.

In the gaps of the carpet, some small objects glittered in the sunlight.

Ye Xiao squatted down and picked it up, discovering it was a mixture of glass shards and scales.

Fish scales? What on earth happened here?

Just then, a familiar voice suddenly rang in Ye Xiao's ears.

"I originally intended to kill everyone who came here. I never expected to meet you, little brother."

Ye Xiao quickly turned around, and even the kitten lying on his shoulder looked a little surprised.

They didn't even notice that a figure had appeared at the doorway at some point.

A tall woman in a leather trench coat was seen leaning against the closed door, as if she had been standing there for a long time.

That familiar purple shoulder-length hair, and that slightly provocative tone, belonged to Atolina, the future famous assassin whom Ye Xiao had met in the imperial city.

But unlike before, this time Atorina had half her face wrapped in white bandages, and her eyes, the only part of her face that was visible, looked somewhat haggard.

But that languid yet alluring charm remains unchanged.

“My disguise doesn’t seem to have any effect on you, Miss Artorina.” Ye Xiao slowly stood up. “I thought you had already left Loren.”

“I tried,” Artorina said, slowly walking forward. “Unfortunately.”

Chapter Seventy-Five: Escape

"I can help you."

“It’s too late, Sia is in their hands.” Artorina shook her head. “I owe you a favor, little brother. Leave here and never come back.”

"Why don't you believe me this time?" Ye Xiao turned slightly to the side and stretched out a hand. "Come with me and tell me where Xi Ya is. We'll go save her right now."

Based on the visibility of the crows around him, Ye Xiao noticed that several personal guards were rushing up from downstairs.

It seemed as if a hidden alarm had been sounded somewhere. There was no piercing sound, but the guards were swarming towards the top floor of the main hall like a swarm of bees.

This surprised Ye Xiao. All the magic arrays had been dispelled by Greta, so why was the alarm still triggered?

Artorina listened to Ye Xiao's words and gave a wry smile, then raised her hand and removed the bandage from her face.

Beneath the bandages was half a face covered in fish scales.

"I can't leave now."

"Believe me, this is a minor problem. I've cured far too many cases like this." Ye Xiao wasn't lying. As long as one hasn't completely transformed into a corrupted individual, Ella's "Healing Light" can cure all ailments.

Artorina flicked her sleeve, and a sharp dagger appeared in her palm. "You may be right, but I'm sorry, I can't afford to gamble."

"Then at least tell me where Xia is." Ye Xiao's gaze was firm.

Atorina's eyes narrowed slightly, as if she was hesitating.

As the dense footsteps outside the door drew closer, she finally made up her mind and whispered, "There is a tunnel beneath the main hall that leads directly to the sea. Sia and what you may be looking for are there."

"Two days from now, the witch will perform a blasphemous ritual against the sea god at the banquet. That will be the final deadline."

With a loud bang, the door was flung open, and a group of armored guards rushed into the room.

At the same time, accompanied by the shattering sound of breaking glass, a flock of crows squawked through the window and rushed into the room, swarming towards the belated guards.

After the guards blocked the doorway chased away the crows for a few seconds, they saw that only Artorina, whose shoulder was stabbed, was left in the room, leaning against the wall. Cold wind rushed in through the open window, indicating that the person who came had already escaped through the window.

This was undoubtedly Artoria's superb performance; Ye Xiao had nothing on him and could not possibly have injured Artoria.

While the guards were distracted, he grabbed Greta on his shoulder and leaped out of the window that had been smashed by crows, grabbing the windowsill directly below him in mid-air.

He then used his feet to push off the wall, leaping between several windowsills before jumping into a window that Ella had already observed was open.

The entire castle was immediately engulfed in a piercing alarm, and the massive fortress went on high alert.

Ye Xiao hurried downstairs. Fortunately, he was already familiar with the terrain and had the assassin skills that Atolina had given him. Ye Xiao's figure was sometimes seen flying out of the window and leaping between the walls and towers, and sometimes hanging from the roof beams and jumping between the large candles hanging in the hall. With the help of Ella and the crows' vision, he arrived at the first floor of the main hall without any danger among a group of guards who were searching the area.

This escape also increased Ye Xiao's proficiency in assassin skills, but it was tough on the little cat maid who clung tightly to Ye Xiao's shoulders with her little paws, trembling all over from Ye Xiao's jumping around.

After finding the servant who had been placed in the wooden barrel in the storeroom, Ye Xiao changed back into his porter's clothes and hurried to the warehouse.

At that time, a group of guards had surrounded the upper floors of the main hall. Little did they know that Ye Xiao, who had triggered the alarm on the top floor just half a minute ago, had already slipped down to the warehouse.

"Who goes there?" The guards stationed at the warehouse entrance immediately stopped Ye Xiao.

"Moving things." Ye Xiao pointed to the movers who had gathered back in the warehouse because of the alarm.

The foreman inside the door saw Ye Xiao appear at the door and greeted him, "Hey, why are you only arriving now, bro?"

Seeing that the foreman recognized him, the guards stopped stopping them.

"I just had diarrhea. What's going on here? It's so noisy, it scared me." Ye Xiao walked towards the movers with a puzzled look on her face.

After some banter, sure enough, a group of guards followed the steward to the warehouse to count the number of people.

When suspicious individuals appear in the castle, martial law is declared. The vigilant guards will begin to count all outsiders, and anyone who is missing will naturally be considered a suspect.

But Ye Xiao acted so quickly that he had already returned to the warehouse while the headcount was being taken.

Even if he were discovered missing, Ye Xiao was confident he could escape from the castle guards as long as the fake saintess didn't reappear. However, he was mainly afraid that the porters would be mistaken for his accomplices.

If such a thing were to happen, the fate of the laborers would be unimaginable.

So Ye Xiao went through all that trouble to come back, just to make sure that the Malz guards wouldn't notice anything unusual when they were counting heads.

Ella had already evacuated from the rooftop, since there would soon be more sentries on the tower.

However, with martial law in effect, there was no longer a chance to explore the area beneath the castle, which gave Ye Xiao a bit of a headache.