Chapter 1 The Crime of Matricide

Though the data terminal’s mouth is perpetually deserving of a slap, one must admit it always summarizes things perfectly. The earth-shattering conspiracy in the Dream Plane ten thousand years ago and the subsequent world-ending disaster could indeed be summarized in one sentence: the crime of matricide.

The giant probably wasn't lying. Of course, even if he wasn't lying, what he knew might not be the whole truth, but this didn't affect the overall picture of the event being clear and reliable. At least for now, no one could be more authoritative than the guardians of that time. Hao Ren looked at the silent crowd on the scene, feeling a strange and oppressive atmosphere permeating the air. Although the council chamber was quiet, unseen turbulent factors were brewing within this silence.

Before this turbulence could erupt, he stood up: "I know most of you don't believe this, so feel free to ask about the details. But other than that, don't ask me to verify the authenticity of this information. I'm just relaying it to you. Believe it or not is your business."

Archbishop Auberon raised his eyelids, the runes on his face fluctuating with a faint glow. His voice was calm: "Do you know what these truths mean?"

"God is dead. For a church, that's the most fatal shock, right?" Hao Ren sighed. "I can guess the other effects, such as the Regression Church being the true believers, humanity's sins being far from cleared, and the Radiant teachings being distorted and untrue… Tsk, if you really want to say it, you'd have to admit the accusations of those heretics at this time."

The Regression Church's beliefs were closer to the truth than the Radiant Church’s – this was definitely a great irony. Archbishop Auberon still wore a stern face, making it difficult to discern his inner thoughts from his expression as usual. He slowly said, "If the guardians come again to execute divine punishment, what should we do?"

Lili scratched her cheek: "Oh right, that's also a problem… If you really follow the teachings, you should lower your heads and accept the execution."

If one were to strictly adhere to the teachings, the Mind and the First Born were both guardians of the Goddess, characters like "divine messengers" mentioned in the Holy Scriptures. Their actions were the will of God, and from a historical perspective, their cleansing activities against human species were completely justified punishment. Thus, these church spokespersons fell into a huge contradiction. Lili spent a long time sorting out the relationships in her mind and couldn't help but sigh: "How could such a serious matter be made to resemble an eighty-episode family drama…"

"Wasn't this whole thing a family dispute to begin with?" Hao Ren scratched his hair, looking at the Archbishop. "I shouldn't be meddling in your teachings as an outsider, but I'll still give my opinion: Although your ancestors were the ones who stood by and watched the Goddess die, the sins shouldn't be passed down to their descendants. Didn't that sane guardian eventually give up on cleansing you? I think that can be seen as a kind of forgiveness. You should just live your lives as you were. As for those mad Mind or First Born running to this place again in the future… don't regard them as guardians anymore, after all, they're already mad."

"Archbishop Auberon, can these things really be taken seriously?" At this time, an archbishop sitting in the corner stood up, obviously still unable to believe the shocking news brought by the foreigners. His reaction was natural, and in fact, not only him, but everyone on the scene wouldn't simply believe Hao Ren's words. Several other archbishops also stood up, raising their own questions or opinions. But from their questions, Hao Ren and his party could see that the seeds of doubt had already been planted in their minds.

Hao Ren answered a few questions, and finally Archbishop Auberon interrupted this meaningless debate: "Enough, this kind of debate is a waste of time. Foreigner, I believe you have no need to deceive us, but I have a question: If, as you said, God is dead, then whose voice are we believers hearing in meditation?"

Hao Ren's heart skipped a beat: As expected, this question was raised!

After talking with the giant, he couldn't help but think of this point: The most important reason why the Radiant Church could spread throughout the entire planet and become the pillar of faith for the entire civilization was not the efforts of the missionaries, but the fact that they had genuine magical powers. Pious believers could communicate with a high-level consciousness suspected to be the Goddess in a meditative state. They could obtain some inexplicable supernatural abilities out of thin air through prayer and belief. High-level believers even learned knowledge in meditation that didn't belong to this planet or this era at all. The application of those knowledges in reality made the Radiant Church not only a religious organization, but also one of the most advanced representatives of productive forces in this world: these real things couldn't be fooled by tricks and public opinion.

If God is dead, where did these "gifts" in their hands come from?

"The fall of a true god is different from human death," Hao Ren stroked his chin, trying to explain the phenomenon of divine death in his own understanding. "True gods are entangled with the laws of the world. Even after their death, they can leave a long-lasting impact on the basic laws of the universe. I call this 'afterglow'. Perhaps what's responding to you isn't the Goddess herself, but a trace of her power or a trace of her will left behind after her death. After all, since the establishment of the Radiant Church, none of you have been able to clearly hear what the Goddess is saying, right?"

As he said that, he glanced at the bearded man. Others on the scene probably wouldn't understand, but this man had met Corvus 12345, so he naturally knew what the true god's tone was like when responding to believers' prayers… well, the tone was probably different, but at least the clarity was guaranteed.

The bearded man nodded to Archbishop Auberon, who began to ponder after seeing such an expression from a devout ascetic: "Perhaps that is the case."

"Can unbelievers really understand what faith in the Goddess is like?" An archbishop looked at Hao Ren and the others with some suspicion. This question didn't necessarily carry much malice, but insiders would definitely ask this question when they saw a group of outsiders coming to give guidance on their work.

Hao Ren immediately wanted to bring out his Pope status and discuss with them who the real professional was, but after rolling Corvus 12345's face in his mind twice, he felt really guilty and didn't have the nerve to speak…

He really couldn't say with a straight face, "Actually, I also believe in a great god" – no one would believe that.

But what was unexpected was that Archbishop Auberon helped him out at this time: "I believe the news brought by the foreigners is credible."

The other archbishops immediately questioned him, but Archbishop Auberon waved his hand with great momentum: "According to the scriptures, in the case of the Pope's martyrdom, I can temporarily act as Pope, so the debate on this matter will end here for now. I will explain the specific situation to you later. Before that, a few foreigners, I wonder if you could come with me to a place."

Hao Ren didn't know what this archbishop with a face full of bullet comments wanted to do with him, but he knew that the other party's personality wouldn't be to chat about trivial matters, so he got up and followed: "Okay. Should we all follow?"

Archbishop Auberon looked at Hao Ren and his companions and nodded slightly: "Come on."

Hao Ren and his party followed the archbishop out of the council chamber in a daze, leaving a group of generals, ministers, and archbishops looking at each other. After a moment of silence, Prince Huffman greeted Ofra: "Shall we continue the discussion?"

Ofra sat wearily on the chair and waved her hand: "Stop all previous topics. Let's study public opinion guidance now and discuss a general unified tone… I suddenly regret smashing the table with a sword just now."

Huffman didn't react for a moment: "Huh?"

"I want to find a place to lie down for a while," Ofra rubbed her forehead, "or you can discuss it first, and I can find a place to play dead."

Huffman: "… Marshal, please be serious!"

At this time, Hao Ren and the others had already followed Archbishop Auberon out of the council chamber and entered the depths of the floating fortress along a secret passage.

Finally, they arrived at a simple dark room.

"This is…" Nangong Wuyue turned her head and looked around, discovering some religious emblems of the Radiant Church hanging on the wall, "A prayer room?"

"The Pope used to meditate here before his martyrdom," Archbishop Auberon nodded slightly, raising his finger and pointing to the holy image in the center of the dark room, "He pondered for several hours in front of the holy image."

Hao Ren immediately reacted: "He left something behind?!"