Chapter 112
He suddenly looked up at the wooden door in front of him, the expression beneath his mask no longer able to maintain its calm.
What on earth is happening inside?!
Why is he so deeply affected by it?
The sounds seemed to carve themselves into his mind; no matter how hard he tried to calm down, they showed no sign of fading.
The buzzing of the spiritual alarm echoed in his brain, merging with the murmurs to create a symphony, the instruments made of various bones and organs, while the vocals were composed of wails and cries of despair.
If this continues, the anomalies here are likely to be detected by the cult of the Savior Goddess!
Though he had no idea what the priestess was doing inside, the bishop could no longer afford to hesitate; he had to go in and stop her!
He raised his hand, and a white shadow shot out from behind him, smashing the door to pieces with a single punch!
Boom—
The towering doors of the sanctuary shattered into fragments, revealing the vast interior, a sight that left him momentarily stunned.
In the center of this immense space, beneath three colossal stone pillars, countless corpses lay prostrate.
These mangled bodies, as if gnawed upon, all bowed in the direction of the holy seat.
A massive blood array enveloped them, the bloodlines of all the corpses interconnected, forming a gigantic web of blood.
At the center of this web, the bloodlines twisted upward, feeding into a vortex that was red, almost black, and the murmurs in the bishop's mind were influenced by that dark blood vortex.
This is...
A blood sacrifice?!
How could she?!
The bishop looked down along the blood vortex and saw, hovering in mid-air before the holy seat, a withered corpse... that was the priestess.
She... is dead.
Then... who is conducting the ritual?
Thud—
The drained corpse slowly fell to the ground, revealing a figure with red hair that had been obscured.
She wore a half-mask marked with tattered bloodstains, while the other half of her face bore a smile as she gazed up at the dark vortex above the sanctuary, slowly raising her right hand toward it.
Brilliant starlight drifted from the dark vortex, floating toward the corpse before her.
In that moment, it felt as if the bishop's brain had been struck hard; all the wails and murmurs vanished as if they had never existed.
He stared blankly as the radiant light entered the corpse, watching as it slowly rose.
Cocooning, breaking free, metamorphosing... a terrifying figure, half-human and half-insect, appeared before him. In that instant, he felt an unprecedented calm, along with a sense of familiarity that seemed to emanate from the depths of his soul.
The figure, as if stepping out from a statue, stood so real before the sanctuary, its back turned to him, making it impossible for his eyes to look away.
Summoned... summoned it?
It really... worked?
The Holy Ascendance Sect had spent countless years, sacrificing generation after generation without success.
Now, it appeared before him like a dream.
The potion could no longer suppress his emotions; tears streamed from behind his mask, pooling and dripping from his chin.
Like other devout followers, he stepped into the blood array behind the corpses and knelt, gazing at that pure, divine figure that seemed to have emerged from scripture...
Slowly kneeling before the altar was the girl.
Bishop: "?"
He had been wanting to ask this since earlier.
Who is she?
"Mother Goddess... above..."
An ethereal voice echoed in the bishop's mind. After a brief moment of daze, his expression shifted from confusion to disbelief and shock.
Ignoring the murmurs that began to stir in his mind again, he suddenly turned to the girl before the holy seat, his mouth beneath the mask slowly opening.
What did She say?
Who is the Mother Goddess?!
No... no, no... calm down... you must stay calm...
You are a mature "Glowing Bishop"; there is no way that girl before you could be the Mother Goddess. If she were, you would have lost all capacity for thought by now.
If the Mother Goddess had descended to the world, the Holy Ascendance Sect would have long since taken control of everything.
She... can only have one identity...
The avatar of the Mother Goddess "Sadana," sent to observe the mortal realm... the Holy Ascendance Sect's own saintess!
He knew that the saintess of the Savior Goddess cult was a fake! Because she had yet to awaken any of the so-called goddess's powers!
They, the Holy Ascendance Sect, were the few who walked the right path!
A sense of glory and pride surged from the depths of his heart. As a witness to this miracle, he was already overwhelmed with excitement.
Now, he could hardly wait to report this to the higher-ups, to tell them that the time for a true counterattack had come.
But not yet... he couldn't bring himself to move even a step away. Even a moment's distraction from this sacred scene would haunt him with regret for the rest of his life.
At that moment, Xia'er also noticed the "Glowing Bishop" who had knelt behind the corpses.
From the very beginning, Xia'er had seen him smash the door, which had startled her into hastily allowing the summoned radiance to possess the corpse of Ji Ti before her.
Now, as she anxiously awaited the emergence of the half-human, half-insect creature, the bishop had knelt down upon seeing the creature break free from its cocoon?
Xia'er was not influenced by the spiritual being, so she couldn't sense what the bishop had seen, but she was certain that he had misunderstood something after witnessing the creature kneel before him.
However, given the current situation... it seemed like there was no need to fight?
After a moment's thought, Xia'er shifted slightly to the left, hiding behind the summoned spiritual being, and called out toward the bishop, "Who are you?"
Upon hearing Xia'er's voice, the bishop's form began to twist, gradually transforming into a well-dressed man. He looked up in her direction and spoke:
"I am Bishop Brak of the Holy Ascendance Sect."
He bowed deeply, respectfully saying, "I apologize for inadvertently interrupting the ceremony of the Holy Spirit... please forgive me, Your Holiness."
Your Holiness...?
Xia'er blinked.
Oh, come on, is this never-ending? How is it that both the Savior Goddess cult and the Holy Ascendance Sect can make the same mistake of mistaking someone for another?
Every time she encountered herself in simulations, she was always called "Your Holiness"... it seems that they truly are from the same church originally.
The Savior Goddess cult was fine; they only suspected her of being the saintess due to various circumstances. Whether it was Yulis or Xiu, they both said they would take her back to the church to confirm her identity.
But this "Glowing Bishop" before her, upon seeing her summon a spiritual being, directly assumed she was the so-called saintess.
Is the standard for identifying a saintess simply whether one can create a stir from the "Otherworld"?
Is this a rare thing? Can no one else in this world communicate with the Otherworld?
It seems that aside from the initial disguise when she heard the divine oracle, every other time she was mistaken for a "saintess" was somewhat related to the Otherworld.
Xia'er temporarily set aside her thoughts about the Otherworld; her understanding of it was still shallow, and she couldn't come up with any conclusions.
She looked back at the cult bishop named Brak, hesitated for a moment, and then issued a control command to the summoned spiritual being.
Although the bishop seemed to have completely misunderstood her identity and had not shown any aggression, he was still a third-tier "Glowing Bishop."
Even a slight misstep could reveal something unusual, and Xia'er could be controlled in an instant, or even brainwashed, branded with the "Sadana Mark" and turned into a cultist.
Only by completely controlling him could Xia'er feel at ease.
After she issued the control command, the spiritual being kneeling before her slowly turned to look at Brak.
Upon seeing the spiritual being turn, Brak immediately lowered his head, avoiding direct eye contact.
This was not only for his own sake but also out of respect for the Holy Spirit.
A mundane gaze meeting the face of the Holy Ascendance would be a form of desecration... he was not an avatar like the saintess, and Brak was quite self-aware.
However, he soon sensed something was off.
He looked down at his shadow, where a pale arm was slowly emerging.
Brak instinctively tried to control the white shadow, but found it completely unresponsive to his commands, as if it had lost all supernatural abilities.
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