The Villain Saint is my secondary account

There weren't any really dangerous battles throughout the whole thing; the most thrilling part was probably the few shrimp in the lake.

But upon closer examination, this incident seemed far more troublesome than any he had ever encountered before.

Chapter Fifty-One: A False Triumph

When everyone returned to the well, the situation in the mountain village had undergone some subtle changes compared to before they went down into the well.

They had been struggling in the well all night, and now the sun had risen again from the eastern mountain peaks, casting its rays through the thin mist into the remote village.

The villagers were no longer filled with fear and apprehension. Instead, they happily gathered around to welcome Reinaldo and the Templar Knights' team, even eagerly inquiring about the results of their exploration.

As they spoke, Ye Xiao learned from the villagers that they had become heroes who exorcised evil spirits and rescued the villagers from the clutches of evil gods.

Reinaldo was completely bewildered. He was still well aware that they hadn't actually done anything, and the false history hadn't yet filled his mind, but his men were happily chatting with the villagers.

"Congratulations on the triumphant return of the Knights Templar."

The elderly village chief led the villagers in congratulating Reinaldo, as if they had truly rid the place of some evil spirit.

"Knights, please forgive us for being just a poor mountain village. These fruits are our token of respect."

As he watched the villagers around him smilingly offering him fruits and local specialties, Reinaldo felt a chill run down his spine.

However, while Reinaldo was still struggling with his confused memories, Ye Xiao also noticed that the little goddess statues that were originally placed in the corners of these villagers' homes had been properly enshrined back in their shrines.

These small goddess statues represent the true form of the black dog god; it's unclear whether this phenomenon signifies anything.

Ye Xiao frowned in thought.

This pollution affects more than just people's memories and cognition. From the altered texts of ancient books to the changed appearance of statues, we can see that this pollution also has an impact on the material world.

Could it be that some of the rules governing this island have also changed?

Ye Xiao quietly walked up to a burly villager. Since he also possessed the skills of a Templar Knight, he could immediately confirm some of his suspicions.

He murmured something, and a faint holy light appeared in the palm of his left hand. Then, he gently patted the villager on the back.

The holy light caressed the villagers' backs, gentle and warm, and nothing happened.

The villager felt a tap on his back, turned around, and was startled to see Ye Xiao suddenly appear beside him. But he quickly recovered and asked curiously, "Is there something you need, sir?"

"nothing,"

Ye Xiao took a silver coin out of his pocket and handed it to the villager. "Thank you for your cooperation, sir. Consider this money as payment. Use it to buy some food for your children."

Although the villagers didn't know what was going on, they still happily accepted the silver coins.

Ye Xiao watched the villagers walk away with the silver coins, stroking his chin in deep thought. Although he had already guessed this might be the outcome, the fact that the holy light would no longer scorch the villagers meant that even the laws of holy light within the island's territory acknowledged the legitimacy of that evil god's power.

Even the God of Light can be affected? Or, according to the laws of Holy Light, that evil god is at least a true sea goddess within this island?

While pondering this, Ye Xiao went to find the bewildered Reinaldo.

"Knight Commander, once you return, try your best to keep your fleet from leaving the free port in the next few days to prevent the pollution from spreading beyond the island. I will find a solution to the source of the pollution as soon as possible."

"After I go back... you mean you're leaving?"

Reinaldo looked at Ye Xiao.

"Of course, the history of the island has changed, which means that the battle is over for both you and Theresa. She will definitely call you back, but you should understand that we didn't actually do anything. History has changed, and the real trouble is just beginning."

"But once you leave... I'm afraid I won't be able to hold onto my inner self anymore."

Reinaldo's Adam's apple bobbed slightly. "You know, I always feel like my real memories are slowly turning into dreams, becoming more and more unreal and distant."

In response, Ye Xiao could only pat Reinaldo's arm helplessly, "Just bear with it for the sake of the Holy Temple and your young lady."

“The more widespread the contamination becomes, the more powerful the deity behind it will become once you leave with it.”

After speaking, Ye Xiao glanced at Fisher, who was now guarding the rescued Prince Aslan closely.

The latter had remained silent since she came out. He wasn't sure if her memory had changed, but Aslan's fleet wouldn't arrive until tomorrow. In any case, Fisher should at least have to wait to reunite with the Aslans, so there was no need to worry about her leaving too early.

So, there should be some time before this large group of people leaves the island. Ye Xiao pondered cautiously, and he seemed to have realized why the evil god chose this particular time to alter history.

If the church fleet had not yet landed on the island, the distorted doctrines would have been rejected by the church if they had spread, meaning they would never have become orthodox.

However, the Boromeo family, led by Theresa, has witnessed the change of course on the island, corrupting some of the church's still influential believers. This may cause divisions within the church, allowing the distorted and false doctrine to gradually move back to the right path amidst the disputes.

This invisible and intangible pollution could very well lead to the complete subversion of the Holy Temple once Theresa and the others return to the Holy City.

Fortunately, Teresa had severed the connection with the Holy Casket beforehand, so Reinaldo's consciousness could remain clear, and the contamination might not spread along the Holy Casket for the time being.

Ye Xiao tried his best to figure out the current situation in his mind.

But even in something like this, doesn't that old God of Light, Deng, do anything about it?

If you didn't know better, you'd think the pantheon of gods had gone extinct. This unknown evil god is even trying to conceptually possess the ocean goddess, yet not a single righteous god has bothered to look at him.

That being said, Ye Xiao, the only one who can see the changes in this situation clearly, has no choice but to take on the task of dealing with this evil god.

While pondering, Ye Xiao observed through the crow familiar that Theresa's side had even started a victory celebration banquet at the temporary camp, preparing to return in triumph. It seemed that their knowledge had been completely overwritten with the disappearance of the large cocoon in the underground lake.

The orc army became the remnants manipulated by the evil god. In the present history of the island, Theresa and the Freeport army joined forces and successfully fought against the unknown apostle of the evil god head-on. They also sent Reinaldo deep into the western hinterland of the island to eliminate the "evil god".

This seems quite similar to their original true purpose, but unfortunately, it was just a false success.

Chapter 52 Time Gap

A day passed in the blink of an eye after I returned from the small mountain village.

On this day, Reinaldo returned to the military camp to meet with Theresa. After cleaning up the battlefield, they returned to the Freeport city with the Holy Alliance.

The unconscious Prince Aslan was also escorted by the allied forces back to the city. Ye Xiao had examined the man but found nothing suspicious, so he left him in the care of the Holy Temple for the time being.

Meanwhile, the lord of the Free Port City-State, Tored Sea Shark Fang, soon received news about the Holy Alliance at his residence.

The fallen leaves brought news that the Holy Temple had returned victorious, the Dark Shepherds had suffered heavy casualties, and the evil god behind them had been wiped out by the Holy Temple Knights Commander leading a lone force of elite cavalry deep into enemy territory.

Prince Aslan, who was trapped in the lair of the evil god, was also rescued in time and recuperated at the city lord's mansion.

The news quickly spread throughout the streets and alleys of Freeport, and the citizens cheered, no longer worried that the Aslan warships would one day raze the city to the ground.

Everything looks wonderful.

Ye Xiao, however, was sitting in a corner of a tavern, fiddling with a wooden goddess statue in his hand, looking sullen.

He spent the last two days using the portal to wander around Freeport, inquiring about everything from remote western villages to bustling urban areas, but he couldn't find the opportunity to trigger a historical change.

The remaining Dark Shepherds vanished without a trace, as if they had evaporated into thin air. The orc army, stationed on the west side of the island, also remained silent.

Ye Xiao also left a crow as a spatial anchor point in that strange underground lake, but after returning to the shipwreck and looking at it twice more, he still couldn't find any useful clues.

Ye Xiao still has no clue how the evil god changed history.

He felt like a player who had explored all the waypoints on the map but couldn't find the main quest marker, experiencing a sense of helplessness as if he were stuck by a bug.

"That doesn't make sense."

Ye Xiao stroked the tentacles on the wooden goddess statue and murmured softly.

The golden retriever's head drooped on his collar, yawning.

"Gredia, how exactly do you think that guy altered the history of this island?"

"If we're talking about methods, there are actually many similar techniques in the Old Age of Gods."

Greta cradled her chubby cheeks with her paws. "Use the power of time to travel to the past, use the power of fate to reweave the threads of destiny, or use the ring of fate to forcibly merge the history of another timeline..."

"But no matter which method you use, it will seriously disrupt the stability of the existing world order. Logically speaking, they should have been almost completely banned in the new age of gods."

"What you said is as good as nothing at all."

Ye Xiao gently rubbed the cat's head with her fingertips. "What other methods are still usable now?"

“Theoretically, it doesn’t exist… For example, the power of time. Although some gods have mastered the relevant laws, they are also bound by those laws. To return to the past of the present world, they must accept the thread of fate and become a living being, thus allowing them to travel in reverse.”

"But as a living being, as long as it cannot simultaneously observe the impact on the future, everything it does in the past will be incorporated into the established history of the present world."

"What do you mean?"

Ye Xiao was somewhat confused.

"Imagine this thorn represents the two ends of time, and you jump from the right end, representing the future, to the left end, representing the past,"

Greta fiddled with the plate with her cat paws and said, “Something might have happened on the right side—for example, I would have eaten this plate of grilled fish, and you would have wanted to jump back in time to prevent it from happening, so you would have advised your past self not to order the grilled fish, and then I wouldn’t have been able to eat it.”

"This is the ideal situation, but in reality, when you go back to the past to try to persuade yourself, the threads of fate in the present world will mend the problem. Because in your perception, you did not actually see your future self when you ordered the grilled fish, so fate may trigger various coincidences and accidents, causing your actions to lead to the predetermined ending of 'I ate the grilled fish'."

"For example, you might destroy all the fish buckets in the restaurant to prevent me from eating grilled fish. But it is precisely because of your action of destroying the fish buckets that the restaurant owner has to rush out to go fishing, and what he catches is exactly the grilled fish that I eat."

As Greta spoke, she scratched off a piece of the grilled fish with her paw, sniffed it, and said, "Hmm, why does it still smell of fresh river water? Could it really have been just caught?"

"I think I understand that even if you go back to the past, everything you do will be incorporated into your destiny and corrected."

Ye Xiao nodded, "If I simply went crazy, like slaughtering the entire neighborhood just to prevent you from eating grilled fish here, could the physical world correct that?"

"The power of correction in the mortal realm is limited. If it senses through the Thread of Fate that everything you have done exceeds the scope of its correction, you will be devoured by the Thread of Fate."

Greta raised her paw. "For example, being cursed by some inexplicable world and turned into a cat, or you yourself being turned into this plate of grilled fish."

"Therefore, just as a deity must first create an incarnation before entering the material world, without an incarnation there is no container to carry material interaction, but with an incarnation one will be bound by fate."

"Similarly, without accepting the thread of fate, one cannot touch the laws of time within it to return to the past. However, by accepting the thread of fate, all actions taken after returning to the past will be subject to the constraints of fate, making you a part of fate as well."

"What if... I could observe both ends of time simultaneously, for example, one that controls the past and the other that can see the future?"

Ye Xiao rubbed his chin. "Does this mean I can change history with minimal backlash from the laws?"

"Well……"

Greta frowned. "Theoretically, it's possible, but I've tried creating several avatars to travel back in time and obstruct the God of Light... cough cough, I mean, trying to change some harmless history, but after the avatars passed through the timeline, they lost contact with my mind, and I don't know what they did in the past... but realistically, they didn't succeed."

"In other words, even a great demon god like you cannot maintain a mental connection between your past and future incarnations."

Ye Xiao nodded.

"That's impossible,"

Greta waved her paw. "In the laws of time in the present world, spirits at opposite ends of a timeline cannot connect with each other."

Ye Xiaogang was about to indicate that he understood, but then suddenly paused, stunned.

He can perceive both ends of a timeline at the same time... Hasn't he done that before?

Ye Xiao suddenly remembered the ghost ship incident, in which he accidentally traveled to the past but was able to contact Ella, who was in the future.

He drew a triangular mark on Aslan's ship, and Ella was able to observe the appearance of that mark in the future.

At that time, he analyzed that his time travel might have come from the time magic released by the merman before his death, and the source of this magic should be the divine magic of the God of Life.

Thinking about this, Ye Xiao suddenly felt as if he had grasped some key point.

The God of Life and the God of Light are outer gods. If their time magic does not rely on the time laws of the present world, can it violate the "constraints" that Greta speaks of to some extent?

If... then the evil god also borrowed the time magic of the god of life in some way, then it means that everything He did has a reasonable explanation, and it is indeed a method that even Greta doesn't know.

But this is just unfounded speculation; no one knows where that evil god obtained the time authority of the God of Life from.

Such speculation alone will not solve the problem unless there are any clues to prove that this evil god, whom we have never even met, is related to the god of life.

Think about it again, Edward's ship... Prince Aslan... the false "Lydia" worshipped by the Dark Shepherds...

Oh, right, Lydia.

Since the other party has misused this name, it means they should at least know what "Lydia" is.

Ye Xiao's thoughts were racing, as if he had found a thread in a tangled ball of yarn.

Edward and Prince Aslan, I remember, were going to find the Fountain of Youth...

The Fountain of Youth is also one of the tombs of the God of Life. According to records left by the company, each tomb of the God of Life contains fragments of the God of Life's authority...

The Fountain of Youth is also guarded by a family of miracle mages who wields the magic of time and space, so the divine authority protecting it is most likely...

time?

As if struck by a sudden enlightenment, Ye Xiao's eyes widened in shock.

If that evil god visited the Fountain of Youth... is it possible that he stole the authority that remained there? Ye Xiao personally experienced and proved that the God of Life's authority over time was a loophole that could break through the laws of time in the present world.

So what exactly happened to the group searching for the Fountain of Youth that caused their ship to sink in that strange underground lake?

Ye Xiao suddenly realized that this might be the key to solving the problem.