In game.

The next day, when the sky was getting light and the first ray of sunlight shone on the statue of the holy goddess on the highest tower of the island floating in the air, the nun sleeping in the Papal Palace and the witch in the polluted area opened their eyes at the same time.

They jumped lightly from their beds, put on their clothes, turned their heads to comb their hair, and walked slowly towards the door that was being knocked.

The cardinal opened Phoebe's door and said lovingly, "It's time for you to go to the inquest for the witch trial, my child."

"Today's witch trial is about to begin." Standing outside the door, Youzhen took Liu Jiayi's hairband and tied her hair, saying in a heavy tone, "But today we have to prepare to raid the Papal Palace and try to break through the ladder to see if we can get up. We can't spare any manpower to rescue people in the trial court."

Liu Jiayi raised her head slightly and smiled sweetly: "At this time, aren't the men placed in the city useful?"

"If they don't want the witches to judge them after they win the war, isn't it their responsibility to show their loyalty and take the initiative to save people?"

Yuzhen paused while tying her hair.

Phoebe put on her nun's hat, turned around, put her hands together, and made a prayer gesture with an innocent and holy expression: "I am ready to pray for those guys who deserve to go to hell, Your Excellency."

The cardinal thought Phoebe was talking about the witch, and nodded sympathetically: "Good child. You did the right thing."

As Phoebe walked past the bishop with her eyes lowered, she said briskly, "May God bless you to hell, Bishop."

The bishop did not hear clearly and asked in confusion, "What did you just say?"

"Nothing." Phoebe smiled sweetly, put her hands behind her back and blinked, "I'm praying for your future."

Meanwhile, in the western safety zone warehouse.

Bai Liu's communicator vibrated. He took it out and saw the message Liu Jiayi had just sent:

【Break out in two teams.】

[Bai Liu Kai Mu Si Cheng panel and Mu Ke go to the Pope's Palace. Your skills are obscure and suitable for stealth. Look for the ladder inside the Pope's Palace. The ladder is said to have a mechanism and only the Pope can open it. Look for the key to open the ladder on the Pope, cooperate with the witch to open the ladder, and wait until the sky city. ]

[Mu Sicheng and Tang Erda lead the rest of the group to attack the Tribunal. They only rescue and capture people, and do not fight to the death. They avoid direct clashes with the King's Guild members who may be on the side of the Holy See. After rescuing people, they go to the Pope's Palace and cooperate with the witches to break out.]

[Let Tang Er pay attention to the high-injury cooperation between the nun and Liu Ji. ]

"Phoebe." Qi Yifang followed the nun anxiously, "Do we really have to split up? Our opponent is Bai Liu. His methods are very extreme. He might sacrifice his own players to exchange with us. If Bai Liu plays a counter-exchange tactic, our queen will be on the island, and we will be at a disadvantage with one less player. We'd better not..."

Phoebe glanced at him calmly and said, "Since when can ordinary team members question the choices of the tactician?"

Qi Yifang shut his mouth in embarrassment.

"Their tactician this time won't be Bai Liu." Phoebe turned her eyes back and dropped a bomb in her usual tone, "As you said, Bai Liu is a guy with extreme means, but from what we know so far, whether it's breaking out of the Tribunal or fighting against witches on the sidelines, they are all steady and stable tactics, not radical, and are mainly aimed at protecting their own team members and reducing casualties."

"This tactic is not the style of that crazy Bai Liu."

"This is more like the work of a little witch."

Qi Yifang was startled: "You mean..."

"I suspect that they have replaced their tacticians just like us, because this map is obviously the home turf of the little witch, and the profit-seeking Bai Liu is a man, so he can't gain any advantage in this map." Phoebe said indifferently, "He will probably transfer the authority of his tactician like Hong Tao."

"And if the little witch is the tactician..."

Phoebe's eyes lit up, and she said happily, "I have been observing and watching her growth. No one knows the tactics she will use better than me."

"Her tactics have always been based on protection and stability. In this case, in order to minimize team damage and maintain team coordination, she will most likely split up the more experienced team members and lead the novice team members separately, such as Bai Liu leading Mu Ke, and Rose Hunter leading Mu Sicheng. Then, she will put the main tasks on Bai Liu, such as attacking the Pope's Palace to find the key to the ladder, and put the offensive tasks on the hunters, such as rescuing the witch who is to be tried today from the courtroom."

"The little witch has split up, so we must split up as well. Otherwise, they will be doing dual-line tasks while we are doing single-line tasks, and our task progress will be twice as slow as theirs."

“The question now is how to split it up.”

Phoebe turned around and looked at Qi Yifang and Liu Ji who were following behind her, and scanned them with narrowed eyes.

Just like she understood the little witch and could guess the pairings she would use, the little witch was such a smart person that she naturally understood her and could guess the pairings she would use.

But Phoebe is not the type of tactician who would change her tactics just because her opponent guessed it.

She believed in her choice, and even if she was guessed right, she could still win.

"Liu Ji and I will go to the Tribunal together. Qi Yifang will stay in the Papal Palace and cooperate with Titan's skills to steal the Pope's scepter." Phoebe gave the order calmly. She looked at the ladder next to the nunnery opposite with a dark look. "If nothing unexpected happens, we will decide the winner today."

At the same time, the eastern contaminated area boundary.

Leah, who was standing still, looked at the white dots approaching not far away, and a bad premonition arose in her heart. She took out her binoculars and looked into the distance, holding her breath.

She saw the Inquisition's Vatican Army pushing vats of eels towards them, along with many crossbows made of eel bones. The man leading them was the bishop, who held up a loud speaker and shouted toward the witch-contaminated area:

"Listen, witches! We have developed a large number of secret weapons to target you! If you don't want to be shot to death by random arrows, come out and surrender now!"

"Now the merciful Lord has given you a new path."

The bishop pointed to the male eels that were pushed over and said, "These are the male eels that were offered by the indigestible believers. We have heard that you have a child with strange witchcraft in your hands, a little witch. The poison she created can even dissolve eel bones."

"If you are willing to hand over the little witch and let her use witchcraft to digest these male eels, then the Church can let all of you witches live."

Seeing no response from the witch area, the bishop narrowed his already small eyes unhappily and raised his voice: "As long as you hand over this witch, you will be forgiven by the Church and have the right to re-enter the safe zone."

"Keeping her here will only help your warlike spirit, but she is only one person. How can she protect each of you all the time? After the eel bone arrows are invented, your struggle will eventually fail one day."

"Not only that, occupying her will not save you, but every day you occupy this strange little witch, these male eels will be dissolved one day less, and a large number of eels will be produced, and more people will be harmed by these eels! More women will be corrupted by the mind and turned into witches because of swallowing eels!"

"Don't you claim to save all witches? But your selfish behavior is clearly forcing them to become witches. You are making enemies with all mankind!"

Leah gritted her teeth, raised her arrow and shot it - this was a signal of disapproval.

The bishop was wrapped in dense bone shields. The arrow hit the bone shield in front of him. The threat so close to him made his face involuntarily gloomy.

"It seems that you do not accept the mercy of the Holy See."

"She is indeed a dirty witch who refuses to repent."

The bishop raised his hand and said in a sinister tone: "Shoot!"

Thousands of arrows were shot towards the witch district.

With a solemn look, Leah transformed her legs into snake tails, surrounding the entire area, and took a deep breath - the battle was imminent, and she was ready to die.

Witch Code No. 5: If freedom ultimately requires sacrifice, then sacrifice also symbolizes a kind of freedom.

——A kind of freedom of the soul after death, a kind of freedom in the future.

When the first arrow pierced Leah's snake tail and splashed blood, she raised her head with a grimace of pain and looked at the island floating in the sky. She breathed rapidly and gave a hoarse command:

"Attack!!"

The Papal Palace.

Bai Liu and Mu Ke followed the map given by Liu Jiayi and used Mu Ke's shadow stealth skills to quickly go around the back door of the Papal Palace. They knocked out two priests, dragged them into the shadows, stripped off their clothes and put them on, and sneaked in the shadows all the way to the main hall of the Papal Palace.

Mu Ke, who was hiding in the shadows, glanced in front of the main hall and frowned: "Why are there so many guards?"

"It's not just the guards. Look over there." Bai Liu tapped Mu Ke's shoulder and pointed to the side of the main hall. "There are many cardinals reading, and there is also a choir."

"Something must have happened to the Pope in the main hall, and he was frightened, so there are so many people guarding him."

Bai Liu stroked his chin, thinking, "But we didn't come to the Papal Palace yesterday, and we didn't do anything to the Pope. It must have been Hong Tao and the others who did it."

"This greatly increases the difficulty of our stealth." Mu Ke looked solemn. "We don't know what level of monsters these guards are, whether we can kill them, and what buffs they have. In addition, even if we can kill them, so many guards will take us a lot of time. After all, we are here to steal the key. Such a big commotion may scare the Pope inside and make him run away with the key. Our trip will be in vain."

"Not only that." Bai Liu added, "The worst outcome is that the Pope takes the key and runs to the island, and locks the ladder. Then we can't climb up, and the witches who attack at the same time will be trapped here by heavy guards."

"From Jiayi's description, the witches can't withstand such heavy casualties."

Mu Ke nodded and said worriedly, "So our actions must not go wrong."

"With such tight security, and the Pope being a coward who is always very cautious... How can I avoid being spotted and still sneak into the main hall?"

The same problem also troubled Qi Yifang who was anxiously wandering around the side door of the main hall.

Although he was a priest of the Vatican, he was still turned away by the Pope when he sought an audience with him. The news of the witch's attack reached the Papal Palace, making the Pope like a frightened bird, and he refused to meet anyone.

This also made Qi Yifang, who had received the theft mission that needed to be completed carefully, understand why Phoebe would inexplicably leave the Titan, a huge monster, to him.

This means that he has no time to talk and can just use the Titan to break through the goal!

...This is really a tactic used by Phoebe, who likes to force things.

Qi Yifang couldn't help but smile bitterly when he thought of this, but if he forced it, not only would the variables increase, but the Queen who was imprisoned by the Vatican would definitely be affected. He didn't want to force it until the last step.

But if he doesn't force it, how can he meet this Pope who is like a frightened bird?

Qi Yifang had a terrible headache.

To be honest, he felt that the Pope would not receive anyone under such circumstances.

Mu Ke had the same opinion. He frowned and said, "There is no gap in the main hall that we can sneak into. We can only force our way in."

"...It seems so." Bai Liu looked at the door of the main hall, his eyes narrowed slightly, "But the cost-effectiveness of the strong attack is indeed a bit low."

"Why not try a different way of betting?"

Mu Ke was stunned: "Take a gamble?"

"Normally, the Pope will not open the door to meet anyone." Bai Liu analyzed calmly, "But there is an exception. According to the information Jiayi gave us, this Pope highly respects the person who sold the island to him. Although I don't know who this person is, all the games I have come into contact with so far have the shadow of Bai Liu behind them."

"Let's assume that the person who sold the Sky City to the Pope was Bai Liu. Under this attack, the extremely panicked Pope, who made his fortune from the island, would definitely meet with Bai Liu, the god who helped him realize his wish."

"And I look exactly like Bai Liu."

Bai Liu said in a light tone: "If my guess is correct, if I come forward to see the Pope, the Pope should open the main gate to welcome me."

"But what if the person who sold the island to the Pope was not Bai Liu?" Mu Ke frowned, "Just like in the previous game, Bai Liu found a medium to contact the other party, this is also possible."

"It won't be too late to launch a strong attack then." Bai Liu said, he adjusted his gloves, adjusted his expression, raised his hands high and walked out.

"?!who!"

The guards turned their crossbows and aimed them at Bai Liu, who was in a surrendering position, and demanded fiercely, "Who are you?!"

Bai Liu explained calmly, "I am a guest of the Pope."

"The Pope's guests?" The guard's tone was doubtful. He aimed the crossbow at the aorta beside Bai Liu's neck, approached and lifted Bai Liu's chin, "The Pope did not invite any guests today."

"Maybe if you tell the Pope whether the key to the Sky Island in his hand needs to be repaired, he will remember it." Bai Liubolan raised his eyes without surprise.

——If Bai Liu is the one who sold the island, then the key in the Pope's hand that can kill the witch was probably made by the bored god using his own power.

He didn't think that a mediocre and stupid mortal like the Pope could have the ability to make the key to the sky city.

The guard hesitated for a moment, then turned around and asked someone next to him to pass the message.

"I won't accept an audience with anyone!" The panicked Pope shouted angrily when he saw the guard coming in. "Who told you to open the door and come in? What if you let those witches in?"

The guard who came in was terrified by the Pope's shout and fell to his knees on the ground. He trembled and reported: "Yes, it's like this, Your Holiness, there is a man who claims to be your guest."

"I didn't make an appointment with anyone today! Catch him and execute him severely! He must have been sent by the witch!" The Pope hysterically threw the exquisite porcelain cup in front of the guard, "Get out now! Let me stay safe alone!"

The flying fragments of the cup startled the kneeling guard. He quickly knelt back and nodded frantically: "Okay, Your Holiness!"

"I will torture and execute this witch spy who claims to have sold you the island and the key to repair the Sky Castle!"

The Pope paused in his funny shouting, and an angry expression froze on his face. He stood up suddenly, holding on to his seat: "Who are you talking about?!"

The guard hunched his shoulders in confusion. "A man who claimed to have sold the island to you."

The Pope took two deep breaths and trembled as he stepped down from his chair. But then he thought of something and walked back, pacing anxiously. His chest was heaving with emotion. He muttered to himself in a trance, "Why would that person come in person?!"

"...No, not necessarily. His idea... is to get involved in anything that's interesting. Right now, the witches are fighting us. Maybe that's something interesting in his eyes..."

"Maybe, maybe he will really come to help me!"

"Describe it to me," the Pope asked cautiously, holding onto the armrest of the throne, "what does that guest look like?"

"He looked like a young man in his early twenties, wearing a white coat and black gloves under his priest's uniform," the guard described carefully. "He looked like he had an extraordinary background. He remained calm even when we pointed a crossbow at him."

The Pope closed his eyes and walked down quickly, almost rolling down from the throne: "Why don't you invite him in!"

The guard nodded quickly: "Okay, okay! I'll invite that distinguished guest in right away!"

The door of the main hall of the Pope's Palace, which had been tightly closed, opened layer by layer, and the magnificent interior decoration was displayed in front of Bai Liu. The colorful paintings on the huge glazed glass reflected layers of colorful halos on his face, making him blink slightly.

The guard who had just pointed his crossbow at Bai Liu bowed to him respectfully at a 90-degree angle and extended his hand to lead the way for Bai Liu: "I didn't recognize you just now and offended you. Please forgive my sin."

"The Pope said that if you want to come anytime, anywhere, the main door of the Papal Palace is always open to you. Please come in."

Bai Liu nodded slightly and followed the guard forward, while glancing at Mu Ke who was waiting beside him.

Mu Ke, who had been waiting with bated breath, let out a sigh of relief. He put away the dagger in his hand, returned to the shadows, followed Bai Liu closely, and instantly sneaked into the Pope's Palace.

Qi Yifang, who was guarding the side hall, moved his ears. He heard the noise of people being greeted in the main hall. He was stopped by the guards at the side door and was about to seize the opportunity to rush in, but was stopped by the guards again.

"The Pope is receiving distinguished guests." The guard's tone was clearly warning, "Please do not enter the main hall without permission, Father."

Qi Yifang gritted his teeth, his face darkened, and he reached into the priest's robe silently and grasped his weapon - a weather vane.

The secret code between him and Titan was that if there was an unusual storm in the Papal Palace, Titan would rush to the seaside and directly blow up the main hall of the Papal Palace.

Originally, he wanted to solve all this in a gentle way, but it seems that the Pope couldn't handle it and could only use a "storm" to solve it?

...But under such circumstances, who was the guest who could be received with such high standards by the Pope who was so afraid of death that he kept the door of the main hall of the Papal Palace open the door?

Qi Yifang moved his gaze towards the main hall of the Pope's Palace and fell into deep thought.

Inside the Papal Palace.

Seeing Bai Liu being welcomed in by the guards, the Pope excitedly walked down from the throne tremblingly the moment he saw Bai Liu's face. He stopped two meters away from Bai Liu, lowered his body in a very respectful and humble manner, raised his right hand and took off his hat.

"It's really you!" The Pope raised his head, tears welling up in his eyes. He followed Bai Liu and led him to the throne. Standing on the steps under the throne, the Pope bowed humbly and said, "Please sit on the throne. There is no other place in the entire Papal Palace that is worthy of you except here."

"Isn't this your seat?" Bai Liu lowered her eyes and asked in a nonchalant tone, "You gave it to me, so where are you sitting?"

"Before the gods, mortals have no place." The Pope looked up, holding his hat tightly in his hand, and looked at Bai Liu with a pious and crazy faith in his eyes. "You taught me this, have you forgotten?"

"We believers are not worthy to sit in front of you!"

Bai Liu sat down without any hesitation. He leaned his elbow on the armrest, propped up his face, and asked calmly with his eyes half closed, "Have you seen my face?"

"It was a chance encounter." After seeing Bai Liu's face, Pope Si had no doubts about Bai Liu. He recalled, "When I made a wish to you, you did not deliberately cover your face."

Bai Liu nodded nonchalantly and asked in a light tone, "Where is the key to your Sky City?"

"Oh!" The Pope did not doubt it and respectfully presented the scepter that he regarded as his life with both hands. He asked nervously, "I have used this key for decades. Is there anything wrong with it that needs to be repaired?"

Bai Liu lowered his eyes and looked at the scepter in his hand.

The wooden relief staff is covered with huge tentacles of unknown deep-sea creatures. The touch is uneven, and the tentacles wrap around and climb up to the top, where a cloudy gem emitting a silver-blue light hangs.

The warm halo of the gemstone condensed into a beam that was reflected in Bai Liu's dark and calm pupils, like a cosmic crack torn out from the night.

——It was the silver-blue rift that Bai Liu had seen countless times, the one that Bai Liu stepped out of.

Seeing that Bai Liu was just looking at the scepter in silence, the Pope clasped his hands together nervously, swallowed his saliva, and asked again: "Yes, is there anything wrong that you need to fix yourself?"

"Is there something wrong?" Bai Liu's voice sounded softly, as if he had realized something. He leaned casually on the throne that was a bit too big for him, crossed his legs, and glanced at the Pope standing in front of him with a half-smile. His posture and eyes seemed so nonchalant, and there was even a hint of smile at the end of his tone, "This scepter does need some modifications."

The Pope was extremely uneasy at Bai Liu's look. He asked with a trembling voice, "Yes, where is it?"

Bai Liu turned the scepter, held it, turned his head and smiled and replied to the Pope: "It is that the owner of this scepter deserves to be repaired and replaced with a better one."

"Mu Ke, kill him."

As the command came down with a smile, the assassin hidden in the shadows suddenly jumped up, his eyes sharp and cold, holding the dagger in his hand, he aimed at the Pope's neck with his pupils widened, and stabbed hard!

The Pope narrowly escaped, screamed in panic, and crawled forward in a panic: "Come, help!!"

At the same time, Qi Yifang held the weather vane. He looked at the guard in front of him and asked solemnly again: "Is it true that I can't go in?"

The guard raised his chin arrogantly: "I've told you so many times, you're just a priest."

"Priests are not qualified to enter the Papal Palace without permission."

"Well, there's nothing I can do. Although I don't like killing NPCs in the game, and I don't like [Storm] either." Qi Yifang sighed helplessly, his eyes fixed, and he took out a violently rotating weather vane from his priest robe, "But sometimes, only a storm can wash away all the dirty things."

"This is my tactician's order. I must enter the Pope's Palace. Please die for this order!"

[System prompt: All players use skills together to summon a localized heavy rainstorm lasting two hours.]

Suddenly, a storm arrived. The huge rainstorm and strong wind were like a player full of destructive desire. They rushed into the Papal Palace recklessly and began to destroy everything. The guard who had just been showing off his might was instantly blown away in fear. He held on to the pillars of the Papal Palace tightly to steady himself and screamed in fear: "What is this!"

In the distance came the sound of giants running and roaring, and the earth was shaking because of it - the Titans were coming.

Qi Yifang was completely soaked. He was hanging on a wind vane that was spinning like an electric fan. There were water droplets on his hair and face. He looked into the distance, wiped the rain off his face, sighed, and answered the guard NPC's question with a slight smile in his tone:

"This is a storm. Haven't you seen one?"