# Chapter 18: Holy Council
After becoming a Witch Hunter, Su Xiao began wandering around the Holy Healing Church. As soon as he reached the second floor, a rough voice called out.
"Hey, newbie?"
A bearded man hailed Su Xiao, clearly not a friendly type.
"Mealtime, the cafeteria is on the third floor. Turn left when you get there."
The expected scene of bullying a newcomer didn't appear. Although this Witch Hunter's tone was harsh, his words carried goodwill. All of them were hunters risking their lives against witches, and with a simple power structure, internal conflict was unlikely under such circumstances.
The founders of the Holy Healing Church were far-sighted. They divided the Church's power system into two parts: the military department and the administrative department.
Stationed at the Holy Healing Church headquarters was the military department. All decisions here were made by the Holy Council, which consisted of twelve Holy Senators. The old man named Carmen was one of them.
The twelve Holy Senators directly governed all Witch Hunters. In truth, there wasn't much to manage—the Witch Hunters' only task was to investigate and hunt down witches.
The second part of the Holy Healing Church's power structure was the administrative department, namely the officials of Holy Healing City. They were managed by the Pope, who was essentially the king.
The military, finances, and officials were under the Pope's control, but the Pope could not interfere with the Holy Council or the Witch Hunters in any way. Although he was the king, he couldn't order Witch Hunters to do anything. Only the Holy Council could assign tasks to Witch Hunters.
The Pope outranked a single Holy Senator, but the twelve Holy Senators could easily depose the Pope when assembled. The Pope was elected by officials beloved by the people.
Power, finances, kingship, and the mystical side—the Holy Healing Church had clearly divided everything internally. Therefore, there was no scheming among Witch Hunters. No one knew when they might die hunting witches, so why fight among themselves?
Don't think Witch Hunters were kind. Every one of them had blood on their hands. Some extreme Witch Hunters didn't even care about the lives of civilians.
After greeting the bearded man, Su Xiao turned and walked deeper into the second floor. He planned to check the library—this was also his main reason for joining the Holy Healing Church: to investigate information about the character 'Mo.' Before understanding the situation here, he wouldn't rashly ask others.
Most rooms on the second floor were residences, with furnishings that hadn't been renovated in a long time. Loose on the outside, tight on the inside—that was the feeling the Holy Healing Church headquarters gave. Witch Hunters already had a hard enough time fighting outside every day. If this place was also strictly regulated, problems would eventually arise.
Along the way, Su Xiao saw a bare-chested man sitting on the windowsill picking his toes, a female Witch Hunter with her door open kneeling naked on the floor in prayer, and even a eccentric who hung himself upside down in his room to train for combat in that position.
After wandering around, Su Xiao arrived at the library door at the innermost part of the second floor. Pushing open the door, he seemed to see another world. The library was at least a thousand square meters, dry and warm, with rows of neatly arranged bookshelves and spotless floors.
As soon as he entered the library, Su Xiao saw a familiar face—the blonde girl named Shirley.
"Who goes there?"
'Shirley' grabbed a broom beside her, holding it like a shotgun, ready to 'blast' Su Xiao at any moment.
Su Xiao frowned. After careful observation, he noticed this 'Shirley' had a different hairstyle. The previous Shirley had her hair loose, quite the goddess type. This one had a side ponytail, and from her broom-holding posture, she was probably more of a crazy goddess.
"Witch Hunter."
"Hmph, don't think you can fool me. I'm Shaye Christine, the Witch Slayer."
"..."
Su Xiao stopped paying attention to this crazy woman.
"Tch, another boring guy."
Shaye put down the broom and slumped into a wooden chair.
"White Hunters can only borrow books from the outer area of the library. The innermost section is only accessible to Blood Hunters—those are classified~"
Shaye finished speaking and continued slumping in her chair, staring blankly at the ceiling. Her personality was completely different from her sister Shirley's.
Su Xiao began flipping through books one by one. Initially, he just wanted to find information, but after reading for a while, he realized the books here were valuable, mostly about combat. The most valuable book for Su Xiao—no, it should be called a notebook.
This worn notebook recorded the life of a ruthless person. The person didn't even leave a name or achievements. His entire family was killed by witches, so he picked up a sword and trained in swordsmanship. From then on, his life contained only a knight's sword and nothing else. What he left behind was just this old notebook.
"This is fictional. No way someone could use a sword to that extent."
Librarian Shaye leaned over. She watched Su Xiao as he read, and couldn't be chased away.
"One thought can reach the divine. Nothing is impossible."
Su Xiao put down the notebook and continued browsing other books.
"You're really strange. Don't you go hunt witches? If I were a Witch Hunter, I'd teach those witches a lesson."
"Shut up. You're too noisy."
"Uh, fine. Where was I..."
Maybe because no one had come to the library for a long time, Shaye the chatterbox started her non-stop talking mode.
"There's... no one else here, right?"
"No. Why?"
"Good."
A minute later, under the wooden table at the library entrance, the tied-up Shaye wriggled her body like a caterpillar.
At nine that evening, Su Xiao had read over 90% of the books in the library at lightning speed. This confirmed that the books in this area didn't contain many secrets. The books only accessible to Blood Hunters were what he really wanted.
Realizing this, Su Xiao put down a book about setting traps. The author was a genius with an incredibly creative mind. Su Xiao gained several trap-related inspirations from it.
Just as he reached the door, Su Xiao remembered the blonde girl under the wooden table. When he looked beneath it, he found she had fallen asleep.
Su Xiao untied the ropes and turned to leave the library. As soon as he left, Shaye sat up from under the table.
"How was it?"
An aged voice came from behind the bookshelf.
"He's here to find some secrets, probably about witches. If I'm not mistaken, his next goal is to become a Blood Hunter."
Shaye's erratic expression disappeared. She stretched, and her joints cracked.
"Good. Exploring secrets isn't dangerous, especially secrets about witches."
Carmen walked out from behind the bookshelf.
"Old man, are you sure this is fine? His close combat ability is definitely monster-level. Even a witch couldn't withstand it."
"At my age, you should show some respect."
"Tch, you're all Holy Senators. Who respects you? But overall, this man named Kukulin Bai Ye seems fine—at least qualified to be a Witch Hunter."
Just as Shaye finished speaking, the library door opened, and her twin sister walked in.
"He accepted a witch-hunting commission."
Shirley naturally carried a goddess aura in her words and actions. Her goddess vibe wasn't arrogance but gentle divinity.
Hearing her twin sister's words, Shaye asked, "How many commissions did he accept?"
"All of them."
"?"
"??"
Both Shaye and Carmen were momentarily stunned.
"He accepted that commission too?"
Carmen's eyes seemed to gleam.
"He hesitated for a few seconds and then accepted. I emphasized multiple times that it was a five-stage Elemental Witch."
"What did he say?"
"Oh."
"What?"
"He just said 'oh' and took the wanted poster."
Shirley imitated Su Xiao's expression. Her sister burst out laughing—Shirley's imitation was spot on.
Their conversation ended there. Not far away, Bubu Wang yawned, turned off the monitoring device in his paw, and swaggered out of the Holy Healing Church.