Chapter 123 The Source of Divinity

Hao Ren stared blankly at the fragmented scroll, utterly clueless as to what had just happened. "What was that about? ...Did I break it?"

"The scroll just emitted a mental signal similar to that of a sentient being, but it was instantly torn apart," the data terminal immediately flew into the air, scanning Hao Ren's entire body and the scroll fragments, running repeated tests before finally realizing what had happened. "Oh, crap... I get it now. It was an attack with divine properties."

Hao Ren instantly felt his hair stand on end. "Divine properties?!"

"This unit knows this is a bit difficult to understand," the data terminal suddenly switched to mental communication. "But it seems this scroll possesses divine properties—very weak properties, just a trace because it was once connected to a true god. However, it was still enough to inflict mental damage that bypasses defenses on an ordinary person."

Hao Ren looked up and noticed that everyone around him was staring blankly in their direction, especially the Pope and several bishops, whose gazes made him feel awkward all over. He quickly waved his hand. "Oh, it's nothing, nothing... Just give me a moment to study this."

As he spoke, he and the data terminal ran to an empty corner, and he muttered to the terminal in his mind, clutching the remaining scroll fragments, "These scrolls came from a true god? Could they really be relics of the Goddess of Creation?"

"That's the only possibility," the data terminal was still constantly scanning the remnants of the scroll, but now its power had completely dissipated, making it no different from an ordinary object. "It looks like those cultists somehow obtained a genuine divine artifact, no wonder they dared to organize this assassination. This unit estimates that once this operation succeeded, they would have quickly announced that the Pope had abandoned the goddess and was being punished by the divine. Of course, that plan is impossible now."

Hao Ren clicked his tongue. "Those cultists are quite capable. But this scroll is a bit too bizarre. If it was an ordinary object, that would be one thing, but it possesses divine properties... Could the Goddess of Creation have used this thing back in the day?"

"Unlikely. It exhibits characteristics of a two-stage reaction, so it should be a ritual artifact related to the goddess, such as a sacrificial offering or magical instrument used by an ancient race to worship the goddess," the data terminal took the opportunity to explain some knowledge about divinity to Hao Ren. "'Divinity' is a very complex thing, an extension of information mapping and information disturbance theory. It's not only things personally used by a true god that possess divinity, nor does everything a true god uses necessarily generate divinity. It requires a mapping rule. One such rule is 'ritual sacrifice.' If things used by mortals in rituals that imitate the Holy Spirit gain the recognition or attention of a true god, they will sometimes generate divinity. At that point, it's not a divine artifact, but it's no longer an ordinary item. The scroll in your hand should be something similar."

"Something used by an ancient race to worship the goddess..." Hao Ren mused. "Could it be from the ancient magic empire? But that's not right... There are no Leyta runes on it, and the ancient magic empire's belief in the Goddess of Creation doesn't seem as strong as modern faith. They shouldn't be able to produce such a high-end item."

The data terminal swayed. "This scroll probably wasn't made on this planet... Its material is very special, a synthetic fabric with an unusually complex structure, requiring extremely high technology that doesn't match the current planet's technology tree or the known technology tree of the ancient magic empire. This unit suspects that this thing and the giant brain summoned by the cultists came from the same place."

Hao Ren nodded, but then frowned. "If it's really a sacred relic related to the Goddess of Creation, then why would it attack the Pope? Is there anyone in this world more devout to the goddess than the Pope?"

"What if it indiscriminately attacks all targets?" the data terminal suddenly said. "The Goddess of Creation in this world is clearly mentally unstable, and everything related to her is just as crazy. It's hard to say how many of the sacred relics related to her are actually controlled."

Hao Ren nodded slightly, thinking that this was at least a possibility. Then he rubbed the fragments in his hand curiously. "Then why did it suddenly explode?"

"Because it used divinity to attack you," the data terminal bumped Hao Ren's chest. "And you are a divine envoy."

Hao Ren: "...Huh?"

"You're a divine envoy, the kind with a contract, so the conflict between the scroll and you can be strictly seen as a conflict between the Goddess of Creation in the Dream Plane and the Raven 12345. The Raven 12345's rank is clearly higher than the Goddess of Creation’s, so your rank is also higher than this scroll. Divinity is like a permission tree to the rules of the world, absolutely effective but rigid. When something with low permission tries to invade an information source with high permission, the only result is a bug."

Hao Ren was stunned, suddenly feeling like he was awesome. "Why do I feel like my status has suddenly risen after you said that?"

The data terminal banged Hao Ren on the head. "Nonsense! You're a clergyman to begin with! And a clergyman who reports directly to God! Even if you're usually a lazy bum, loafing around, smoking, drinking, getting a perm, and tattooing a hairtail on your arm, you're still a clergyman! So can you please be a little more aware of this in the future? At least remember that you have an ID card when you're out there!"

Hao Ren didn't feel that way at all. He got excited for a few seconds before reverting to his original self, scratching the back of his head and sighing. "Tsk, tsk, I didn't expect this identity to have any practical use. But besides causing this kind of thing (referring to the scroll) to blow a fuse, does it have any other effects?"

The data terminal thought for a moment. "...Does it count that the title on your ID card is longer than other people's?"

Hao Ren: "..."

He quietly collected the scroll fragments into his personal space, then came to the Pope and the others. After thinking for a moment, he decided to conceal the matter of "divinity" to prevent a large-scale collapse of faith in the Church of the Beacon. "This thing is one-time use. It blew up after letting you withstand one attack."

The Pope took the messy fragments and, finding that they no longer posed any threat, casually handed them to a bishop beside him. "Put these aside for now. On behalf of the Church of the Beacon, I once again apologize to all of you esteemed guests, and thank you for your help in subduing this blasphemous creature. Bishop Malfoy, take this blasphemous creature to the Inquisition. Hopefully, he can still communicate with people."

Izhaks stepped aside, allowing several church knights to step forward and bind the twitching monster. This process took a lot of effort, but the monster, weakened to this point, was no match for the strong church knights. He was soon bound into a ball with holy silver chains and stuffed into a cage. Before the knights carried away the cage, Izhaks frowned and asked, "Do you plan to interrogate this guy?"

"We're just doing our duty," the white-robed elder, known as Bishop Malfoy, nodded slightly. "If he can still understand human speech, I hope he can redeem some of his sins by confessing his crimes."

Clearly, even the bishops of the Inquisition weren't very confident that they could extract any useful clues from this mass of flesh, which was also the biggest headache for the Church of the Beacon in dealing with the cultists recently: those cultists used bizarre flesh magic to create many monsters and magical constructs, and most of their destructive actions were carried out by those flesh monsters, while the controllers behind the scenes almost never showed their faces. The church knights and kingdom knights had wiped out dozens of outer cults before finally threatening the root of this cultist group, and this was the biggest difficulty they encountered.

Izhaks crossed his arms and thought, hesitating for a long time before asking, "What are your thoughts on soul interrogation?"

Hao Ren immediately sensed the aura of a villain from the great demon's words.

There were rudimentary studies of soul science on the planet Holletta, and the strong also had the ability to sense souls, but clearly they hadn't developed to the point where they could pull out souls and flatten them into a circle. The Pope and Bishop Malfoy were a little stunned. Seeing this, Izhaks explained, "It's like this: I possess the ability to control souls. If you need me to, I can extract the monster's soul. If I'm not mistaken, there's only one dominant soul locked within this mass of flesh, and the rest, including that knight named John, are just trapped in the body. This way, I might be able to rescue those innocent people. I wonder, does this violate your doctrine?"

Vivian poked Hao Ren's arm. "Old Wang is finally doing something a demon lord should do."