Don't disturb the sorcerer's scientific research

Chapter 174 The Unspeakable Horror Trial
Jia Xiu carefully studied the Bible of the Moon Mother Goddess Cult.

He was genuinely curious about how far the strange cult in this town had progressed in its martial arts.

This is indeed extremely rare.

It's astonishing that a religious sect would make such a claim.

In a world that doesn't feel like it's reached the Industrial Revolution yet, and where magic still exists, being a boxer is incredibly imaginative.

Fortunately, the influence of the Moon Mother Cult was limited to the small town of Çachdis.

I haven't heard of this claim anywhere else. Even at universities like St. Terrell and Larvin, which are known for being open to new ideas—good or bad, beneficial or harmful—I haven't heard of any such theoretical proposition.

That's good news.

This sect doesn't seem very bright. Given their extraordinary power and extremely high potential for individual strength, it's hard to imagine them creating this kind of narrative.

This has nothing to do with gender, and even the concept of equality of life cannot be disseminated here.

It's not that the world is too cruel, it's just the way it is.

A legendary-level superhuman and an ordinary person with no superhuman abilities, apart from being born into the same species, have a difference in ability that is greater than that between ordinary interspecies.

On this basis, it would be unrealistic to insist on equality.

What surprised Jia Xiu even more was that after studying dozens of pages of this so-called Bible, he realized that their true claim was not even a pretense of equality, but rather a desire to take full advantage of others' interests.

They don't even need to act. The heaven described in the scriptures is directly the "beautiful girls," who are the true and rightful rulers of the world, while the foul-smelling males, who are described as being created carelessly from scraps at the time of creation, are naturally destined to be inferior to humans.

Yes, that's direct enough.

Jia Xiu felt that this was at least better than those who clearly wanted privileges but always talked about equality.

It's only slightly better, not by much.

What's even more outrageous is that this bizarre claim was described in a surprisingly convincing way.

The scriptures describe a devastating catastrophe that will ravage the world. To overcome this catastrophe and move towards a better future, warriors blessed by the Mother Goddess are needed, and the Mother Goddess's power can only be bestowed upon women.

In conclusion, for the future of the world, there must be enough Mother Goddess-blessed warriors, and the Mother Goddess warriors who have taken on the responsibility of fighting against destructive disasters should be even more noble.

No matter how bizarre this explanation is, it's at least somewhat plausible.

Fortunately, there is a market in this small town.

They have fully benefited from the "dividend" of having a low level of education.

It's usually not enough to deal with outside adventurers, so they can only rely on releasing vampire clones to create a dangerous environment, and then pretending to perform miracles to fool people.

If it weren't for creating a very desperate and urgent situation, it would be hard for adventurers not to doubt this story.

With a little thought, one can imagine what kind of god could only bless women.

Although each race has its own gods, and conventionally these gods only protect their corresponding race, that does not mean they can only protect their corresponding race.

They can bless any race, as long as they want.

If the power of gods has to be limited to certain users, then the power of gods is too weak.

Jia Xiu now strongly suspects that the so-called "unawakened state" of the Mother Goddess of the Moon is a state of complete unconsciousness, incapable of responding to any external stimuli.

If He were even slightly sane, He wouldn't have deliberately excluded half of His followers when the pool of believers was limited to the population of a small town and the few dozen adventurers who only came every few years.

Is someone out of their mind?

The only possibility that Jia Xiu could think of was that the Mother Goddess of the Moon was completely asleep.

Unlike many historical stories about sleeping gods, who, although their physical bodies are asleep, still have avatars or spirits active, or who are simply unable to move and can only communicate with individual believers through consciousness.

This is essential; otherwise, the needs of believers' prayers cannot be met at all.

But if the Moon Mother Goddess is truly in a complete slumber and unable to respond to prayers, how did the High Priest's abilities, his blessings upon priests, and his altered forms come about?

Is he really out of his mind, not wanting even half a believer...?

It seems plausible that there are mentally unstable individuals among the gods.

Jia Xiu couldn't think of a reasonable explanation for the time being.

or……

A thought suddenly popped into his head: perhaps the so-called Mother Goddess of the Moon didn't exist at all.

Despite Mia's new big data prediction suggesting a high probability of the existence of god-like power.

But it may not necessarily be God himself.

It's not impossible that some kind of artifact could provide blessings or enchantments.

Using magical artifacts to perform various "miracles" is a niche doctrine, and those who possess such artifacts are simply mentally unstable.

That way of thinking seems to make sense.

The probability of a human being being abnormal is still higher than the probability of a god being abnormal.

If being a deity is considered a profession, it's actually a very stressful one. If someone is mentally unstable and can't maintain their followers, then naturally another god will take over. The faith market is a pure "red ocean market."

So, assuming it really is a powerful artifact, it's highly likely that the clues about the hidden dimension of the vampire who marked Bubu are also on it.

As for where this artifact exists, there is no doubt that it is firmly under the control of that high priest.

So ultimately, you still need to advance through trials.

Jia Xiu seized the time to continue studying the scripture in order to gain a more detailed understanding of this sect.

First, we need to figure out what kind of "fist" they are using—whether it's radical or subtle—and align ourselves with their approach so that we can successfully advance in the next few days.

After considering the possibility that the Moon Mother Goddess might not exist, reading this scripture felt even stranger.

If there were no such god, and all the theories and glorious histories of the various mother goddesses in these scriptures were conjured up by the author, then that author must also be a god.

This scripture is extremely thick, containing a vast amount of information and covering a particularly wide range of topics, including but not limited to the history, culture, languages, and species knowledge of various ethnic groups...

From a unique "mother goddess narrative perspective," everything is explained in a very ingenious way.

The repeated arguments that the world should be governed by great women and that the current situation is a complete mistake.

Putting everything else aside, this author is quite knowledgeable, especially considering that books are expensive in this era.

He has a wealth of knowledge, but he doesn't use it for anything worthwhile.

No wonder this unfortunate sect has morning and evening prayers every day, spending all their time studying scriptures.

You really can't learn it if you don't study it every day.

Jia Xiu tried hard to memorize this knowledge, but forcing himself to learn content that was completely contrary to his original values ​​was still quite difficult.

Seeing too much of it makes me nauseous.

The morning class, which lasted for more than an hour, felt more tiring than a full day of magic classes.

Just as the morning service was about to end, another priest approached Jasmine.

"Priestess Samantha".

Having been Samantha for less than a day, Jashu paused for half a second before realizing that the other person was calling him.

"What's the matter?" "We're in charge of today's town court hearing. There was a dispute between some townspeople that needs to be adjudicated."

"Okay, shall we go now?"

The so-called town court is the place in Çachdis town responsible for resolving disputes between townspeople.

As a small town where everything is controlled by a cult, the court is no exception, and is managed by the Cult of the Moon Mother.

The basis for the judgment is naturally the sect's Bible.

Using religious texts as the basis for adjudicating disputes may sound unreliable, and in fact it is quite unreliable. There are many ambiguous descriptions in the scriptures, leaving a great deal of room for interpretation. However, this practice has indeed existed in many places throughout history, and for quite some time. Even now, several theocratic countries still do this.

The "judges" in charge of adjudication in the town were, of course, priests from the religious sect.

All the priests take turns acting as "judges," with two priests at a time, supposedly for the sake of impartiality.

The final judgment will only take effect when the two priests reach a consensus.

Today's shift is for Samantha, who is now a dried-up corpse, and this Priestess Gary.

On the way to the courthouse, Jia Xiu couldn't help but sigh once again at the hardships of life for cult members.

I work the night shift late at night, then attend the morning meeting, followed by an early morning class, and then I still can't rest; I have to continue being the "judge" on duty.

This is outrageous! So cults are all a bunch of ultimate monsters, or are they blessed "mother goddess warriors" who don't actually need to rest?

In order not to reveal his identity, Jasmine decided to speak as little as possible and just imitate what Priestess Gary did.

The so-called courtroom was nothing more than a small room of less than 20 square meters.

People would often come to listen in on other people's disputes, which was a rare form of entertainment in this boring little town.

There weren't many people listening in today, because today wasn't a boring day. The threat of vampires from outside town hadn't been eliminated, so it was hard to find anyone with the leisure to listen to disputes.

As for the parties involved in the dispute.

Jia Xiu, imitating his "colleague," sat down in his assigned seat and sized up the person in question.

He was also a little curious about who would cause trouble in the courtroom at such a special time.

No matter how you look at it, the two people in front of you are ordinary people who couldn't be more ordinary. They are local townspeople who don't know magic and are low-level believers of the Moon Mother Goddess Cult, but they can only be considered as one and a half believers.

One of them was a woman with an unhappy expression, seemingly disgusted by the person next to her, while the other was an honest-looking man who appeared troubled. Since men are automatically considered inferior in the sect, they can only be counted as half a member.

"What happened?"

Priestess Gary asked.

The man clutched his hat and stammered, “It’s like this, my wife, my wife, I found out she went to see a younger guy in town, very intimately, I saw it with my own eyes, didn’t Mother Goddess teach us we should return to our families?”

After listening to the man's account, Gail looked at the woman.

Is the situation as he described?

"Yes, Your Excellency."

The woman answered without hesitation.

Priestess Gail then looked at the man, "So, what is your request?"

"I need her apology, but she refuses to apologize no matter what I say."

Jia Xiu, who had remained silent the whole time, was secretly shocked.

Is it really that serious? All you need to do is apologize.

The woman wouldn't even apologize, while the man only asked for an apology, his tone so weak it was as if he had done something wrong.

Wow.

Have the townspeople in this town been disciplined to this extent?

It seems that this sect's "fist techniques" are of a relatively severe nature.

"That's it?" Priestess Gary asked rhetorically.

"That's it, that's it."

I guess the verdict will just be that the woman has to give a perfunctory apology.

Jia Xiu thought to himself.

Given the nature of this sect, that's probably the most it can be.

However, Guildhall's words immediately shattered Jasmine's thoughts.

"Your wife doesn't need to apologize; it's you who needs to reflect and apologize! You're just her husband; you can't control her life like that!"

His tone was very certain, and his expression left no room for doubt.

Jia Xiu and the townspeople who wanted only an apology to "forgive her" were both stunned.

The words they spoke seemed to be common language words, but when put together, they didn't sound like human speech.

"But, I, she, is her, how..."

The victim was somewhat incoherent.

Priestess Gary continued, “The sacred scriptures of the Mother Goddess state that it is your duty to serve your partner and bring her joy. And she, this innocent lady, chose someone else because you did not fulfill your duty. Therefore, you need to reflect on why other wives did not do this.”

Jia Xiu was greatly shocked.

It was more severe than he had imagined.

This sect is too extreme.

"Therefore, you must seriously reflect on where you went wrong, which forced this upright lady to seek help from others."

An upright lady, and she had no choice!

Jia Xiu rarely saw anyone with more outrageous rhetoric than himself; this was quite an eye-opener for him.

"You not only need to reflect on your actions, apologize, and promise to do better in the future, but you must also provide financial compensation as compensation for bringing such a lady to the courtroom."

Priestess Gary delivered the final verdict.

After saying that, he didn't forget to ask Jassiu, who had hardly offered any opinions, for his thoughts.

"Priest Samantha, do you see anything that's still lacking?"

“Inadequate? No, not at all. I think this is a very fair judgment.”

Jia Xiu replied in this way.

It seems his study of the classics of the Moon Mother Cult was still superficial; it should have been interpreted in the most radical direction.

In that case, if you want to continue to progress in this organization, relying solely on your own understanding is no longer enough.

To achieve good results in the trials, one must learn from the "wise men".

For a moment, Jia Xiu recalled the classic operations from numerous news reports on his hometown Earth. He figured their level of expertise must be a perfect match for the needs of the Moon Mother Cult.

It's time to use magic to defeat magic...

(End of this chapter)