Ten minutes later, Mo Tan, who had noted down Ji Xiaodao's contact information (she hadn't left it last time), returned home and idly browsed the forums.
At the same time, Ji Xiaodao walked home expressionlessly, a hint of confusion subtly contained within her misty gray eyes.
Time flew by… and then stopped a little.
Real-world time: PM 19:09.
Mo Tan, under his 'chaotic neutral' personality, only just now lay on the sofa to actively switch personalities, the reason being that half an hour ago he had a sudden urge to beat his own 'Minesweeper' record, which he had modded.
A minute later, Mo Tan opened his eyes and practically jumped into the game pod, expressing his utter speechlessness at his previous behavior.
...
“Your spiritual connection has been detected, synchronizing personal information...”
“Connection complete, reading character information.”
“Welcome back, Absolute Neutral Black Vatican, loading Innocent World. Good night.”
...
Hofur City Central District, Holy Church United Chapel.
Mo Tan, who was twenty minutes late, immediately sent a message to Yu Cheng in a hurried panic after logging in. However, she calmly replied, 'No need to rush, Holy Maiden isn't awake yet m(__)m!'
The person in charge (correct) of the Great Purification Ceremony for the entire Hofur City actually overslept on the day of the ceremony. Mo Tan was impressed by this miraculous operation.
“Actually, it’s fine as long as it’s within today.” The Holy Maiden, who had been waiting in the Chapel hall, smiled, and whispered to Mo Tan, who had just run down from upstairs, “Holy Maiden Xia Lian was busy until very late last night and hasn’t rested much since, so it’s good for her to sleep a bit longer.”
Mo Tan nodded slightly, “Holy Maiden Xia Lian truly works hard...”
“Yes, extremely hard.” Yu Cheng spread her hands, complaining in a low voice with a headache, “She stayed up half the night with a phantom Dawn Goddess outside my room, waiting to catch you in the act if you tried to... night raid. That must have been very tiring.”
Mo Tan was stunned after hearing this. After a long while, he chuckled dryly and suggested to Yu Cheng, “Why don’t you just get a bucket of water and splash her awake? With that much energy, she shouldn’t catch a cold so easily, right?”
He was, of course, joking, as Yu Cheng’s personality would never allow her to act on it, so it was just...
‘I tried, but Holy Maiden Xia Lian has divine power protecting her (`ω)!’
Mo Tan was instantly choked. Before he could say anything, he heard a clear call, “Black Vatican Gege~”
He turned his head and saw Wen Qiu, who seemed not to have been online last night, now kneeling gracefully before the statues of the gods, waving at him. The frail young man named Gareths stood behind Wen Qiu, smiling wryly, seemingly helpless at her innocent and lovely clamor.
“Be a little quieter here.” Mo Tan walked up to Wen Qiu and gently tapped her smooth forehead with a cross, smiling, “The gods are watching us.”
This extremely Theocrats-like phrase was something he had seen while quickly memorizing the Dawn Sect scriptures in his room yesterday. After all, among his three characters, only 'Black Vatican' had the most convenient conditions in this regard; understanding the so-called 'gods' in Innocent World was much easier than for his other two Incredulous characters.
“The gods are watching us?” Wen Qiu tilted her head curiously, slowly standing up as she asked Mo Tan, “But Wen Qiu didn’t feel any gods when I was praying just now. Are they really watching me?”
Mo Tan, like a true mainstream believer, answered as a matter of course, “Of course.”
Yu Cheng, who had just walked over, blessed by the gods and a Holy Maiden, also nodded, saying with very little confidence, “They will… right?”
Mo Tan looked at the girl, torn between laughter and tears, feeling that he was more like a professional Theocrats than she was.
“Is that so?” Wen Qiu still looked a bit confused, asking with innocent cuteness, “Then if the gods have already seen us, why don’t they go save those people who are about to die? What about those super powerful miracles?”
Yu Cheng was momentarily speechless and thought for a long time but couldn't figure out how to answer Wen Qiu.
‘This is a game, kid. Be careful not to get caught by dozens of clerics and get a good spanking!’
Mo Tan quickly sent a message to Wen Qiu.
However, the somewhat taciturn Gareths squatted beside Wen Qiu, patting her shoulder and smiling, “Miracles, whether divine or otherwise, do exist.”
“Ah?” The little girl widened her eyes, looking at Gareths in surprise, “Really?”
“I can guarantee it with my own character.” The latter nodded seriously, then subconsciously glanced at Yu Cheng, and whispered, “Because I was once blessed by a miracle, even if it was just a miracle in my own heart. But Wen Qiu, you will also encounter your own miracle, no matter how dark this world becomes...”
“Is this the difference between an outsider and a local?”
Mo Tan was surprised again. He found that this young man, who seemed to be a server, was even more of a Theocrats than he was.
And Yu Cheng was still immersed in the girl’s recent question, her small lips pursed in thought.
Only Wen Qiu noticed Gareths’s subconscious glance just now, but she didn’t say anything more. Instead, she looked up at Mo Tan with a pout, “Those things don’t matter. Why didn’t Black Vatican Gege greet Wen Qiu just now! Do you not like Wen Qiu anymore! Is green grass going to grow on Wen Qiu’s head!”
“What nonsense are you talking about!” Mo Tan rubbed the girl’s hair irritably and said helplessly, “I just came down a bit too quickly and didn’t notice you, little one.”
The girl pouted, pointed at Yu Cheng, and snorted, “You were clearly putting all your attention on this timid, big-chested elder sister!”
Yu Cheng’s face turned completely red as she tried to retort, but she couldn’t figure out any part of the other person’s words that she could refute.
“Can you at least be a little more obedient?” Mo Tan picked up Wen Qiu and held her high, then sternly lectured her, “You’re clearly very smart and understand everything, so why do you pretend to be foolish?”
Wen Qiu observed Gareths out of the corner of her eye for about half a second. After confirming that he showed no abnormalities, she sighed with some regret, then pouted at Mo Tan, “Put me down! I don’t understand everything!”
“Haha, I’ll put you down if you quiet down.” Mo Tan held Wen Qiu high as she struggled, completely unaware that his current actions seemed a little disrespectful to the gods.
Unexpectedly, the girl pouted, and then in the next second, she loudly wailed with her clear and melodious voice, “Molestation ah ah ah ah ah!”
Thud!!
A figure flashed, and then Mo Tan found himself spinning and flying towards the Chapel entrance, while a half-awake female voice came from behind him, “Beast~”
However, the force from behind just now wasn’t very strong, so Mo Tan instinctively twisted his body in mid-air, actually performing a rather cool ‘three-and-a-half rotation, horse stance landing, followed by White Crane Spreads Its Wings’ at the Chapel entrance.
“Holy crap!” Xia Lian, who was holding Wen Qiu and preparing to watch Mo Tan faceplant, instantly woke up. She stared at Mo Tan, who was awkwardly retracting his ‘White Crane Spreads Its Wings’, and loudly asked, “You little brat, aren’t you a spy sent by the Thieves' Guild to our Dawn Sect?”
Mo Tan, who was indeed a Thief in a certain sense, chuckled twice, “Accident, accident.”
“Your ‘accidents’ are this flashy?” Xia Lian looked at him suspiciously, then waved her hand indifferently, and walked out, pulling Yu Cheng along, “Forget it, let’s go. Time is tight and the task is heavy.”
The young girl almost tripped over her mentor. After finally steadying herself, she quickly turned back and gently said to Wen Qiu and Gareths, “Then we’ll be going first.”
Gareths bowed slightly, “Please be sure to return safely.”
“Wang Yu Elder Sister, turn around!” Wen Qiu, however, tightly closed her eyes, gritting her teeth and shouting loudly, “I’m lactose intolerant!”
Yu Cheng’s face instantly turned bright red.
And Mo Tan almost rolled down the steps in front of the Chapel.
Only Holy Maiden Xia Lian remained calm, then looked at the frowning little Wen Qiu with a particularly impressed expression, and mumbled, “Child, you have talent. Do you want to learn breast enhancement from me?”
The girl shook her head uninterestedly, “No thanks, I think I have more potential than you.”
The First Holy Maiden of the Dawn Sect instantly turned pale.
Two minutes later,
Gareths, who had watched the three leave, suddenly noticed Wen Qiu’s figure sway, and her rosy little face turned a sickly pale. He quickly squatted in front of her and asked with concern, “What’s wrong? You look very ill.”
“It’s nothing.” Wen Qiu’s body, much frailer than other children her age, trembled slightly, but her face still held a pure smile, “I’m used to it~”
Gareths shook his head, “I’ll go find a few Priest-sirs to examine you.”
“It’s okay, no need to trouble everyone.” Wen Qiu shrugged, and then actually fell directly into Gareths’s arms, “I just have dozens of places hurting, Gareths Gege, just take me back to my room.”
“Dozens of places?!”
“Mm, only dozens of places…”
At the same time,
Xia Lian stopped in the center of the square not far from the Chapel, embracing Yu Cheng’s shoulder listlessly and lamenting, “Why are children these days so honest!”
The girl said nothing, her expression even more dejected than the former.
“Little Wen Qiu is just like that.” Mo Tan chuckled dryly, comforting the two Holy Maiden-sisters in front of him, and pointed to the golden glowing symbols around them, trying to change the subject, “Is this the Divine Resonance Array?”
Xia Lian nodded dejectedly, “Uh-huh.”
“Holy Maiden Xia Lian, you’ll be presiding over the divine spell here later, right?”
“Uh-huh.”
“You must cheer up!”
“Uh-huh, I’m full of fighting spirit…”
“Yu Cheng is going to the west, right?”
“Uh-huh.”
Mo Tan bowed to Xia Lian, torn between laughter and tears, “Then we two will go first.”
“Uh-huh.”
“Let’s go.” Mo Tan patted Yu Cheng’s shoulder and turned to walk towards their destination, “I guess she needs some peace and quiet now. Let’s go scout out that church in the west first.”
Yu Cheng grabbed Mo Tan, “But that’s east!”
...
Fifteen minutes later,
Hofur City West District, Dawn Church.
Mo Tan looked at the white building in front of him, which lacked any sacred aura, and frowned slightly, “The smell is a bit nauseating… Is this a church that has lost its last bit of divine power?”
“Yes, this place is no longer blessed by the Goddess.” Yu Cheng, however, showed no aversion to the nauseating smell here. She merely looked around at the large patches of dried blood and many suspected human tissues, and sighed faintly, “The filthy blood that flowed from severe infections, the festering flesh scratched from the body when the itch was unbearable, the painful resentment of finding no hope in despair… This place would have been 100% transformed into a Cursed Land.”
Although the bodies had been removed and cremated, Mo Tan could still imagine the tragic state this place had been in before. While he wasn't entirely clear on the specific triggers for that 'Cursed Land,' he felt Yu Cheng was probably right.
After all, this was a sufficiently fantastical world where materialism didn't quite cut it. Therefore, it was natural for certain mysterious effects to arise from specific conditions, and the land beneath their feet was certainly capable of fulfilling a great many terrible conditions...
“Let’s purify this place as soon as possible.” Mo Tan sighed, looking at the golden circle of light on the church’s central floor not far away, “That must be it. Shall we go now?”
Yu Cheng nodded and slowly walked into the church, “Thank you for accompanying me, Mo Tan Tong Xue.”
The latter, walking alongside the young girl, couldn’t help but smile, “It’s alright, you’re much easier to coax than Wen Qiu.”
“Wen Qiu is very cute.” Yu Cheng stood in the center of the golden circle of light, her fair face illuminated golden, “It’s just that her focus is a bit strange…”
“Actually, I think her focus isn’t a big problem; it’s just that her brain and mouth are a little too unified.”
Mo Tan tried hard to control his gaze, thinking to himself.
A few minutes later,
“Here it comes!” Yu Cheng, who had been praying with her eyes closed, suddenly whispered. Then Mo Tan saw a magnificent dawn silently rise into the sky from the direction of Hofur City’s central plaza. It transformed into hundreds of golden halos in mid-air, spreading, changing, dispelling the gloomy gray clouds in the sky, emitting light comparable to the sun, and finally settling into an intricate and magnificent array pattern suspended in the sky.
It could also be described as a statue of the Dawn Goddess, exactly the same size as Hofur City!
Identical to the divine image depicted in the Dawn Church, Holy Church United Chapel, and the Dawn Sect scripture, it was a young woman with golden hair and a slightly blurred face. She had six wings on her back, wore a crown, and held a scepter, appearing noble and beautiful, majestic and dignified.
She looked as if she had no idea what cursing was like...
Chapter 171: The End