Becoming a Saint Since the Age of Myth

"Hurry up! Stop dawdling!"

Manigoldo offered no further explanation, his tone growing much more urgent.

At that moment, Wuxin was certain something must have happened.

For even someone as devil-may-care as Manigoldo to become this anxious, something major must have happened.

Wuxin wasted no time. He immediately rose and headed for the Sacred Mountain.

In the blink of an eye, he streaked like a silver light to the foot of the Sacred Mountain, outside the gates of the Aries Temple.

At that moment, a familiar golden figure came into view.

It was Aries Shion, sitting dejectedly on the steps as though he had suffered some major blow.

Considering their earlier trip to Italy to investigate, Wuxin was certain they must have encountered Alone, who had just awakened as Hades.

"It looks like something must have happened to Tenma!" He immediately recalled the story he had once known.

In that encounter, Alone had gravely wounded Tenma with a single blow, even casting his soul into the Underworld and leaving him on the verge of death. Only Sasha's blessing had barely kept him alive.

Perhaps aware that the Pope had summoned him, Shion did not stop him or even ask a single question. As though he had not seen him at all, he simply let him enter the Aries Temple.

The next few temples were the same. None of the Gold Saints guarding them stopped Wuxin, letting him pass straight through.

But as he passed through the Libra Temple, Wuxin saw a damaged Libra Cloth resting quietly deep within the temple. It seemed to have lost its life, no longer possessing its former dazzling brilliance.

"The Libra Cloth was damaged this badly! It looks like Dohko was seriously injured this time!" Wuxin understood at once.

Dohko was nowhere to be seen inside the temple. Presumably, he had gone to tend to his injuries.

No wonder Shion had looked so grim when Wuxin passed through the Aries Temple.

Failing to protect Tenma was bad enough, but even Dohko had been injured this badly. They had suffered quite a blow on this trip.

Before long, Wuxin passed unimpeded through the Twelve Golden Temples and arrived at the Pope's hall farther above.

Sasha sat upright in the seat of honor, while Pope Sage stood quietly beside her.

"Greetings, Lady Sasha. Greetings, Your Holiness!"

Wuxin immediately dropped to one knee in salute.

"Please rise, Crater!" Sasha raised a hand to gesture, her voice somewhat hoarse.

"Yes!"

Wuxin slowly stood, hearing a trace of sorrow in the girl's voice.

"Lady Sasha, may I ask whether you summoned me so urgently because you have an important mission to assign?" he asked tentatively.

"Yes! There is indeed a very important mission we need you to carry out, Crater!" Sasha's eyes were slightly red as she turned toward the Pope beside her.

Understanding her meaning, Sage immediately stepped forward and explained, "Earlier, we sent two Gold Saints to Italy to investigate."

"But something unexpected happened there."

"They discovered Hades's reincarnation, who had only just awakened!"

"Hades?!" Wuxin acted "shocked."

Although he had already guessed this outcome, it was still better to pretend he knew nothing.

"Yes, Hades himself!"

Pope Sage nodded and continued, "Hades's reincarnation is none other than Tenma and Lady Sasha's childhood friend. His name is Alone."

"On the day Hades first awakened, he turned the entire town where he lived into a sea of flames and killed everyone in it."

"Tenma also met with misfortune in this battle. A single blow left him on the verge of death, and his soul fell into the Underworld!"

"This... this..." Wuxin was completely "stunned."

Sage continued, "I imagine you also know how important Tenma is to Sanctuary, as well as how special he is."

"To ensure victory in the Holy War, we cannot do without him. We must therefore send someone into the Underworld to bring back Tenma's soul."

At this point, Wuxin gradually caught on and asked in surprise, "Lady Sasha, Your Holiness, do you mean for me to enter the Underworld and rescue Tenma?"

They had summoned him at this particular moment and specifically described Tenma's predicament. Clearly, they were not simply giving him a battle report.

"Yes!"

Pope Sage nodded and said earnestly, "Originally, we intended to send Cancer Manigoldo into the Underworld."

"With his mastery over the power of death, he would naturally find it very convenient to operate there."

"But a Gold Saint would draw too much attention and could easily be detected by the enemy. So we decided to change our choice and send you to the Underworld in Manigoldo's place."

"You also command the power of death, so you will find it convenient to operate in the Underworld!"

"I see!" Wuxin's expression grew much more serious.

In the original story, the people Sanctuary had chosen to enter the Underworld and rescue Tenma were not him, but Crane Yuzuriha and Unicorn Yato.

But judging by the current circumstances, with those at the Seventh Sense or above unable to act lightly, there was indeed no one better suited than him to go to the Underworld.

For him, who also commanded the power of death, going to the Underworld was just like going home.

The course of this world's development had diverged at this point in time.

The butterfly effect he had caused was beginning to grow.

"Well? Are you willing to accept this arduous mission?" Sage asked with a solemn expression.

"Of course I am!"

Wuxin agreed at once, without hesitation.

He knew very well that although the old man appeared to be asking his opinion, he actually had no choice at all.

After all, this was a mission assigned jointly by the goddess's reincarnation and the Pope.

Refusing would be tantamount to betrayal.

Perhaps they would do nothing to him on the surface, but they would certainly never trust him again. They might even take back everything they had already given him.

So he could not show even a trace of hesitation.

"Very good, very good!"

Sage nodded in satisfaction and added, "It seems Lady Sasha was right about you! My elder brother also made the right choice in taking you as his disciple!"

Chapter 55: A Dual Mission

"Besides rescuing Tenma, we have another important mission for you!" Pope Sage said very earnestly.

"Another mission?"

Wuxin froze for a moment, but soon remembered what it was.

As though recalling the brutal wars of the past, Pope Sage said gravely, "The Specters come from the Underworld, and their power originates from the one hundred and eight Malefic Stars."

"These one hundred and eight Malefic Stars are linked to the fundamental laws of the Underworld. As long as the Underworld is not destroyed, the Malefic Stars will never truly die. They possess the power to return from death."

"What a terrifying power! Fighting enemies like that is far too unfair to us!" Wuxin exclaimed.

"It is indeed unfair!"

Sage nodded and continued, "To suppress their power of resurrection, Lady Athena in every generation must expend a great deal of power maintaining a barrier to suppress the Specters' corpses."

"Now, in this generation, we have finally found a way-a way to counter the Specters' resurrection."

At this point, a sharp gleam flashed in the old man's eyes.

"May I ask what that method is, Your Holiness?" Wuxin followed up.

Although he already knew inwardly, he still had to pretend to know nothing.

"A divine messenger delivered a method of crafting a 'Demon-Subduing Rosary' to Sanctuary!" Sage replied very earnestly.

"A divine messenger? A Demon-Subduing Rosary?" Wuxin was astonished.

He knew about the Demon-Subduing Rosary. It should be the string of prayer beads that Asmita later forged through a blood sacrifice, possessing the power to seal the Specters' resurrection.

But he knew absolutely nothing about this divine messenger.

The original story had never explained how Sanctuary obtained the method for crafting the Demon-Subduing Rosary, or how they learned that such a thing could counter the Specters. It had appeared very abruptly.

Now, hearing the Pope explain it, he finally understood.

Sanctuary had not devised the method for crafting the Demon-Subduing Rosary itself. Someone else had delivered it.

Moreover, that someone was a divine messenger. Clearly, a god was working behind the scenes to aid Sanctuary.

Ignoring Wuxin's astonishment, Pope Sage continued, "After repeated analysis and testing, we confirmed that there are absolutely no problems with the method for crafting the Demon-Subduing Rosary."

"It can indeed suppress the Specters' power of resurrection."

"However, its main material is extremely difficult to obtain."

"That is also why Sanctuary has yet to successfully craft the rosary!"

"May I ask what that material is?" Wuxin followed up again.

With a solemn expression, Pope Sage said earnestly, "Only something from the Underworld can counter something from the Underworld."

"To suppress the Specters' power of resurrection, we can only obtain our materials from the Underworld."

"And the main material for the Demon-Subduing Rosary is the fruit of the divine Soapberry tree, which grows at the edge of the Great Waterfall of Blood in Hell."

"As the saying goes, things reverse when they reach their extreme."

"The Underworld represents the ultimate extreme of death, while the divine tree born in the Underworld represents life at the utmost extreme of death."

"And it is precisely this sole life that can, in turn, suppress the Specters, who represent the Underworld's laws of death."

"I see!"

Wuxin nodded and said in "realization," "So my second mission this time is to go to the Great Waterfall of Blood in the Underworld's Hell and gather fruit from the divine Soapberry tree?"

"Yes, but not entirely!"

The Pope sighed softly and said helplessly, "That divine Soapberry tree is extraordinary. Only Pegasus's Cosmo can stimulate it to bear fruit."

"No matter how hard anyone else tries, they cannot make it bear fruit."