Psychics don't die from gunfire

Chapter 696: Beacon of Faith
Renata covered her forehead with her hands and laughed loudly.

"What a paranoid and ridiculous argument!"

"Then, a new question—" She slowly loosened her hand, turned her head, and looked at the young man: "Since you have made up your mind that it will not be shaken by external things, why did you join the Enlightened Ones in this life?"

"Hmm." She seemed to think for a moment: "If this sounds more to your liking. In other words, why did you become an important collaborator of the Enlightened One in this life?"

"Chakoro and I have a good relationship."

"Very convincing." Renata nodded: "Anything else?"

"Borrowing chickens to lay eggs."

"It sounds like a very derogatory term." Renata commented: "You have always been reluctant to be a manipulator, but you also don't want to be a pure spectator, so this time you choose to be an investor who places a bet - you choose Enlightenment."

"You made a bad choice."

"Whether it is right or wrong cannot be said with just words." Song Shi glanced at the other party: "But I would like to hear the details. What do you think about this?"

She smiled and declared divinely, "Because the Empire is right."

"Whether the Enlightened Ones are right or not, I really don't know, but they will win."

Song Shi's gaze shifted to the other person's eyes.

"Because I stand on the side of the Enlightened One."

After finishing the conversation temporarily, both sides focused their attention on "going down the mountain".

The outline of the city emerged from behind the mountain ridge, showing a gray tone, with a few bright colors occasionally, which made it even darker. Song Shi had seen many similar cities, the most recent one was the abandoned city "Hogarth" during the Seven Land War in [Infinity of All Things].

But the city before our eyes is different. Its grayness does not mean a dilapidated and desolate texture, but a solemnity that makes people subconsciously straighten their chests and purse their lips.

"introduce?"

Halfway up the mountain, Song Shi overlooked the city and estimated the distance to see if he could jump over in one breath.

It doesn't seem to work.
It is easy to fly over, but flying and jumping are not the same thing.

"I can." Renata's voice floated over: "Do you need a demonstration?"

"Hmm?" Song Shi turned his head.

"Because I thought so too." Renata plucked a leaf and watched it sway and sink down the mountain. "Judging from your reaction, I think I was right."

"Real masters don't rely on their legs to walk." Song Shi tutted in dissatisfaction and said righteously: "Jumping far? What's the difference between that and a walking chicken?"

“I hope your next sentence won’t be ‘Real masters don’t use electronic products.’”

Renata tapped her temple. "I heard that you were born in the Enterprise Alliance, but you don't have any prosthetics installed, and you even have to ask others for help for electronic maps. What is this? Is this the saying in the East Continent, 'Out of the mud, untainted'?"

"Who said I don't use electronic products?" Song Shi frowned. "Besides, who stipulated that corporate alliances must have prosthetic implants?"

"I know." Renata said, "You call natural people who reject cybernetics 'troglodytes'."

Song Shi was about to say something else when he suddenly moved: "Born. Are you still the Empire?"

"Yes, but it's not my original hometown." Renata said lightly: "A polluted border town. Heretics infiltrated there and wanted to summon disasters. It took me some time to deal with it."

"——Xiaqi."

Renata pointed toward the silhouette in the distance.

"There are hundreds of such city-empires. They are not given exclusive functions, but are just a basic unit to maintain the operation of society." She spat out a word: "Basic unit."

"Would you like to take a look?" she said, "or would you rather go straight to the most prestigious places?"

Song Shi gave the answer.

"eat first."

It was almost dusk when we entered the city.

Just as it looked from above, walking on the streets of "Siaqi", the gray tones embraced people tightly. Holy flags made of linen were hung under the eaves on both sides, and at this moment, the bells rang.

From the deepest part of the city.

The towering spire stood in the center of the church complex, and the huge brass bell vibrated slowly. The three consecutive bell rings spread to every corner of Siachi - through the radio in the streets and alleys. Many gray pigeons were startled and flew up one after another, like a large dark cloud floating across the sky.

People knelt down.

The city was suddenly paused.

Regardless of gender, age or what they were doing, merchants and customers stopped bargaining, whispering lovers loosened their clenched hands, and workers who had just finished a day's work and were in a hurry stopped moving forward.
In the low and solemn sound of the bell, they knelt down at the same time, facing the direction of the spire, crossed their fingers in front of their chests, closed their eyes, and only their lips moved slightly, as if they were silently reciting something.

"The setting sun is not the end of the world, but the temporary fading of the Holy Flame. As the seventh volume of the Codex says: 'Light grows in the ashes.' Please use your remaining warmth to protect the babies beside the hearth, and use your sparks to guide the lost lambs."

It was like a summer evening breeze blowing through a wheat field, and the full ears of wheat were leaning over in unison. However, in this otherwise harmonious scene, two very different wheat stalks popped up, standing stubbornly upright and extremely eye-catching.

Song Shi did not bow.

Renata didn't bow either.

But no one paid attention to them. Occasionally, someone would cast a brief look of surprise but would quickly look away and continue to concentrate on praying to the sound of the evening bells.

Song Shi, “saw” it.

--Light.

In the twilight, at some point, the wind blew up a hazy, milky white gauze, which gently floated over the eaves, the holy flag and the floor, and in the next moment, flew in the same direction.

blink.

The gauze disappeared, and Song Shi could clearly see their true appearance. Those milky white spots were clearly quicksand-like light spots, even smaller and more imperceptible than sand grains.

But when many such light points gather together, they turn into a veil that rolls across the entire city.

blink.

Whether it was the quicksand-like light spots or the milky white gauze, they all disappeared. People were still kneeling and praying, reciting prayers devoutly. What they had just seen seemed like a dream, as if it had never happened.

It’s just that “feeling” can’t be faked.

Song Shi knew what this was.

"Redundant spiritual energy." Renata shook her head and corrected: "It's 'power of faith'."

"I feel like you're the guy who goes to a stand selling baked potatoes and tells the owner that they're potatoes."

Song Shi replied.

In just a few minutes, the stagnant city resumed its flow, people stood up again, customers continued to pick out good-looking oranges, couples held hands, and workers after get off work hurried to the bakery to try to buy some discounted bread.

Nothing has changed.

Song Shi just glanced at the church in the center of the city.

Thanks to the development of construction engineering technology, magnificent churches that used to require a lot of manpower, material resources and time to build can now be mass-produced. Siach is just a remote town in the empire, but the local church is hundreds of meters high, and twelve rock pillars together support the magnificent gilded dome.

Indeed, compared to the commercial buildings of corporate alliances that are hundreds or even thousands of meters high, this church pales in comparison. Even in Western Khitan, there are many buildings taller than it.

But in the psychic's extraordinary vision.

This church is radiating a radiance that cannot be ignored!
Its light was so strong that it overwhelmed everything in Siachi without any room for rebuttal. It was like the brightest pearl inlaid in a crown. No, it was even more exaggerated than that. It was simply the only bright light in the room at night.

Really, it looks familiar.

Song Shixin thought.

Those milky white spots of light just now are the redundant spiritual energy of these believers, or the "power of faith."

They were all light, but compared to Ming Xianyuan's terrifying psychic power that was enough to tear apart planets and pierce the earth's crust, these lights were so insignificant. Not to mention Ming Xianyuan, just compared to himself, the scene just now - even if all the light spots in the city were added together, it was just a drop in the ocean.

It's not the difference between humans and ants, but the difference between whales and cells.

But this scene lasts for 365 days a year.

These 360 ​​days have been repeated thousands of times.

It was repeated in every corner of the empire, from remote conversion areas to the imperial capital, the hub of power. Countless days and nights, together with believers, promoted a huge project that lasted for thousands of years.

The network built in the name of "faith" spread throughout the empire, and one of the measures taken by the Vanpusta Empire to control this huge network was the church in front of him.

【Beacon of Faith】.

It is precisely because of these [Faith Beacons] as nodes that the empire can store and utilize the astronomical "power of faith" accumulated over thousands of years.

"The use of the power of faith was once very popular in the East Continent." Renata looked at the spire in the distance: "But it weakened later and its momentum gradually dwindled."

"Faith is too restrictive. The will of all living beings is a poison to psychics."

Song Shi said casually: "It is true that one can become stronger, but if one is not careful, one will be bound by the power of will and have no control over oneself. There are also examples of people who have made a big mistake in this regard and finally lost their self-consciousness and turned into psychic entities."

"Besides, East Continent is always in a state of war, with the world torn apart and rebuilt from scratch, causing a religion to change drastically after a few hundred years. You yourself keep changing, how can you expect the faith provided by the believers below to be pure?"

"Hey"

The lingering sound of the bell completely dissipated, and the startled gray pigeons landed again and rested on the roof of the church. A pigeon tilted its head and looked at the young man for a moment.

"In this respect, we are indeed inferior to your Empire. Over the past two thousand years, the royal family has been in the fourth dynasty, but the position of the state religion has always been as stable as Mount Tai."

Song Shihui stared at the pigeon, which flapped its wings unhappily, turned around, and pointed its butt towards him.

"The Holy Spirit is the Holy Spirit, and gods are gods. So, the last name of the supreme God you believe in has changed four times in a row."

"Shh." Renata put her index finger to her lips: "I, the Inquisition, cannot bear to hear this."

"Really?" Song Shi smiled and said, "From the gossip I heard when I was in the duel arena, it seems that the probability of heretics and defectors in your Inquisition is the highest among all departments in the empire."

"This statement," Renata replied, "will not be heard by the Inquisition either."

"Stop saying these outrageous things." Renata put down her index finger: "At least don't say them on the street--"

"For my safety?"

"For their safety."

Renata pointed at the pedestrians around. Most of them looked strange when they passed by here, not knowing why two living people were standing in the middle of the road in the twilight. The former performed some tricks, probably a soundproof force field, which made the pedestrians unable to hear the specific conversation.

"Knowledge can be poisonous. Sometimes, 'knowing' itself is a sin." Renata still had a smile on her face, but when she said this, her eyes were obviously serious: "You can speak freely and happily, but they can't - do you want to carry out such deliberate harm?"

"Knowledge of poisoning?"

Song Shi sneered: "If something that is well known can be considered as drug exposure, then your standards are really set too low."

"Really?" Renata's expression remained unchanged. "I don't think that the ninth-class citizens of the East Road Republic can get away with talking about the first-class families."

"Oh, forgive me." She rubbed her cheeks and pulled down the corners of her mouth: "I'm sorry I shouldn't smile, but the words 'ninth class' and 'citizen' came out together, and I really couldn't restrain myself."

Song Shi also laughed. He chuckled twice: "Are you comparing the worst?"

As they talked, both of them took a step forward.

Song Shi's perception spread out, and after a casual scan, he locked onto most of the dining places in the city. First, determine all the heat sources in the city, and then mark the prominent heat sources that clearly exceed the civilian scope, and you can get the result. It's a simple matter.

A pop-up window popped up on the back of Renata's hand. The panel style was plain and simple. As the current Grand Inquisitor, her authority was extremely high. She was already a prominent figure in the empire. Considering the special nature of the [Tribunal], her authority was even half a level higher than that of other departments and personnel of the same level.

Demand raised.

Granted approved.

The next second, all the information about this city called "Siachi", from the arrival of a missionary to the day before, was transmitted to her personal terminal in great detail.

Naturally, this also includes restaurant recommendations.

"What a fuss?" Song Shi raised his eyebrows.

"The Empire has a complete and large remote support group." Renata selected one, put away the panel, and motioned for the other party to follow: "It includes electronic ghosts and intelligent machines. They have very low demand for rest."

She tilted her head and said, "Even if you are not a human sentient being, the Empire still treats you equally and regards you as its subjects - as long as you are willing to give everything for the Empire."

"Belief."

Song Shi nodded slightly without commenting.

"Can your unique consensus truly transcend the shackles of race and treat everyone equally? I will wait and see."

(End of this chapter)