Don't disturb the sorcerer's scientific research

Chapter 195 Justina's "Pilgrimage"

Holy Light Theocracy.

Holy land Yebrama.

As the largest, strongest, and most cohesive religious organization on the mainland, the Holy Light Church is a theocratic state founded on religion.

Located at the very center of the continent, it is sandwiched between the old and powerful Iris Kingdom and the rapidly rising Ukmark Empire.

Although the area is not large, due to the enormous influence of the Holy Light Church, neither of the two countries has ever invaded the theocracy.

After all, attacking the theocracy is not just about attacking that country; it also involves the numerous Holy Light believers within its borders and the entire pantheon worshipped by the Holy Light Church.

Contrary to stereotypes, the Holy Light Theocracy is not a "demonic" nation that does not engage in production and devotes itself solely to self-sacrifice.

On the contrary, the Holy Light Theocracy is a fairly developed country on the continent.

This place is rich in excellent priests, all of whom are priests of the Holy Light pantheon.

Of the professional priests registered with the Spellcasters Association, 40% come from the Holy Light Theocracy, and another 20% have had educational experience studying in the Holy Light Theocracy.

They make up half, or even more than 10%, of the priest profession.

Due to the flourishing of the priesthood profession, they are also the largest producer of medicines on the continent. Apart from magic addiction drugs and poisons, they produce almost all kinds of medicines, all of excellent quality.

However, there are rumors that the Theocracy is also secretly producing addictive drugs and deliberately spreading them, even at cost price, because saving the "lost ones" who are suffering from addiction is a major source of believers for the Holy Light Church.

This claim is a well-known conspiracy theory that is widely circulated in mainland China, and it can almost be said to be the most famous one.

As for the conspiracy theory, there is clearly no substantial evidence to date.

This gave rise to another famous conspiracy theory: that in addition to the Inquisition, the Holy Light Church has a secret and powerful assassination organization specifically responsible for dealing with anyone or anything that wants to investigate the Church's secrets...

Aside from priests and medicine, what the public doesn't know, and which is quite inconsistent with the image of a theocratic state, is that this place is also a major producer of weapons.

It's not basic weapons and armor, but high-end, more profitable enchanted weapons, blessed plate armor, and even large golem constructs.

Their enchanting and construct crafting skills are second only to the dwarves.

However, thanks to the dwarves' "optimistic" attitude towards life, their habit of taking it one day at a time, their tendency to drink heavily and forget about important matters, leading to delayed orders, and their fighting in the workshops causing a decline in quality control, the Divine Kingdom has replaced the Dwarven Alliance as the largest exporter of enchanted weapons and constructs.

Although dwarves have a higher skill ceiling, when it comes to military supplies, it's better to trust the believers rather than gamble on whether the dwarves are drunk while working. Lowering the skill ceiling slightly in exchange for a significant increase in the yield rate.

Supported by the two highly profitable industries of pharmaceuticals and arms, the Holy Light Theocracy became extremely wealthy.

In addition to that, it is also a tourist destination.

It is not because of its unique and beautiful scenery, but because of the holy site of Yebrama.

Yebrama is an abbreviation of a word in a relatively uncommon human language, and its full name means the City of Eternal Glory.

According to the doctrine of the Holy Light Church, all believers must make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land in their lifetime, otherwise they are not devout enough, and the greatest pilgrimage event is the Feast of Advent.

The day when, according to legend, holy light descends upon the world.

Every year on Holy Spirit Day, Jebrama is packed with countless believers.

The air throughout the city is filled with a peculiar, unpleasant odor—a mixture of sweat and an indescribable smell—that comes from when there are many people around.

Justina would describe it as having a human flesh flavor.

Although it sounds strange, as if she were some kind of cannibal.

But this was the most fitting explanation she could come up with.

The smell that would fill her nose even if she held her breath reminded her of the military camp back then.

What's even more amazing is that if you stay in this kind of smelly environment for a long time, you will gradually get used to the smell until you can't smell it at all, as if you have been assimilated by the environment.

Justina felt like she was about to be assimilated.

She squeezed through the crowded flow of people, but did not appear as the Radiant Knight.

The gods of the Holy Light pantheon will not appear in the Holy Land on Advent unless absolutely necessary.

Even though she was just a demigod with little influence, those who came here were the most devout, or rather, fanatical believers.

If they were recognized, there would be a lot of trouble. Suddenly, hundreds of thousands of people would start praying, crying and shouting to feel the holy light. Some might even faint, and others might be trampled to death.

She was caught in a dilemma: whether to leave or stay.

Just thinking about it gives me a headache.

She wouldn't have come here at a time like this if she didn't have something to do.

Justina sighed helplessly.

The reason for the crowds is that the use of the delivery service is prohibited during Holy Spirit Day, in order to avoid making the already strained traffic management even more chaotic.

As a demigod of this pantheon, even though she is currently in mortal form, she still has to take the lead in abiding by the rules.

Her destination was the Cathedral of Holy Light.

Without any other prefix, it is simply called the Holy Light Cathedral. Among the hundreds of thousands of Holy Light Churches on the continent, it is the only one directly named after Holy Light, which undoubtedly represents the sacred and lofty status of this church.

It took six hundred years to build this church, and the total cost is impossible to remember.

Built on the legendary site where holy light descended, it covers an area of ​​30,000 square meters, and its tallest spire reaches 260 meters, both of which are the world's tallest.

Justina "wriggled" into the Cathedral of Holy Light. There were so many people that she couldn't move her legs at all, so she could only "wriggle".

Follow the crowd as you walk through the magnificent corridor surrounded by murals and statues.

She tilted her head back, trying to get some fresh air from the "high altitude" with her height of over 1.8 meters.

Ah! I see my own statue, and next to it is a mural depicting her suffering and being chosen by the Holy Light.

It's a bit unrealistic; the painting is too clean. She's enveloped in a layer of radiance, making her look incredibly holy.

Actually, he was covered in blood and mud at the time. He was far from being holy, and it was hard to even call him a human being.

The more I look at it, the harder it is to hold my breath.

The immense embarrassment forced Justina to lower her head.

Ugh! That smells awful...

If it weren't for Jia Xiu, would she have come here to suffer like this?

Justina, a demigod of the Holy Light pantheon, attended the Advent Festival in mortal form solely for Jasshu's sake.

In order to find the devil's corpse.

She said she wanted to find people she could completely trust to assemble a team to study the body.

This matter is extremely important; it concerns whether they have any hope of winning the war against the demons.

A decisive study.

The demons must not find out, otherwise they will do anything to destroy it.

But where can you find someone you can completely trust?

The extent to which various countries and organizations have been infiltrated is currently uncertain. Ever since the invasion of the elven holy land of Serdarion, everyone has been investigating whether there are any demonic spies within their ranks.

No one can claim to have absolute certainty that they have thoroughly investigated and eliminated all undercover agents.

They haven't even come up with a single absolutely effective solution.

The Spellcasters' Association has held several meetings on this matter, and each time they come up with a new plan, and each time they manage to uncover some new moles.

This means that each time it's not thorough enough.

They even discovered that the Daedric were aware of their organization's response to Belial's invasion of Serdarion.

They just didn't tell Belial.

The king of lies was deceived by his own kind.

Good news: the demons are still busy fighting amongst themselves, and their internal strife is even a higher priority than invading the continent.

The bad news is that the mainland has been thoroughly infiltrated, even while the demon race was busy fighting amongst themselves.

This left Justina completely bewildered as to who she could trust.

There are definitely followers of the Holy Light. There are even Tieflin followers among them, who all have demon blood. So what's the big deal about collaborating with demons?

This is what religious sects that teach without discrimination are like.

If the devil were willing to convert to the Holy Light, the Vatican might not be unable to accept it. As for demons, their minds are probably too limited to comprehend the concept of conversion.

And what about the gods of the Holy Light pantheon?

To be honest, this involves one of the darkest chapters in the history of the Holy Light pantheon.

There are gods in the pantheon who made a deal with Asmodeus, the lord of hell and god of demons.

Because there was no hope of progress within the pantheon, they chose a more extreme approach.

Obviously, He failed and was dealt with. The official explanation was that He sacrificed all His divine power to fight against natural disasters and protect all living beings.

He is remembered as a very positive deity.

Their reputation within the pantheon is higher than that of the Radiant Knights; living gods are less respected than dead gods, or even gods who have betrayed their faith and died.

This is dark humor for Justina.

But she couldn't tell anyone about it.

Even her closest subordinate, the first "archbishop" (a title she bestowed unilaterally, which the other party had not yet accepted), Jasius, could not know.

Anyone who dares to announce this is going against the entire pantheon.

Both she and Jia Xiu must be dealt with.

It's not too bad. After she's dealt with, she'll probably be given a good reputation for sacrificing herself for something.

Given this dark history, even the gods of this pantheon are not entirely trusting.

Who knows which one made the deal?

In this regard, the only person Justina could think of who she could absolutely trust and who was completely incapable of being possessed by demons was Him.

Great holy light.

This was not out of blind worship of the Holy Light. Although the Holy Light had granted her demigod-like power and she did worship it, she still came to this conclusion through careful reasoning.

Justina's line of thinking is as follows.

If the great Holy Light were also on the side of the demons, then there would be no more.

What can the various races possibly resist now? The strongest gods are all on the enemy's side. Let's just surrender and let the demons win.

Therefore, since the demons have not yet achieved a complete victory, the Holy Light is definitely not on the opposing side.

reasonable.

Justina reaffirmed her thinking.

We must pray to the Holy Light and ask what to do, and whether there is anyone we can absolutely trust.

So she came to the Cathedral of Holy Light.

The Cathedral of Holy Light on Advent is her only opportunity to pray directly to the Holy Light.

It sounds outrageous, but that's how the Holy Light pantheon is structured.

Although ordinary believers can pray to the Holy Light, their prayers are distributed to the various gods within their own pantheon for processing.

In other words, all the troublesome tasks were left to the grassroots level.

And the prayers of the grassroots gods should, in theory, reach the Holy Light.

But that's just in theory.

If she prays directly to the Holy Light now, it will be reported up the lineage of gods, demigods, gods, and so on, level by level, until finally reaching the Holy Light.

Then the problem arises.

What if there's a point in the middle where you're possessed by a demon?

Justina now sees everyone as a demon.

Therefore, the only opportunity is during the Feast of Advent.

According to doctrine, this festival commemorates the incarnation of the Holy Light, and is therefore a day of the year when the Holy Light receives direct prayers from all believers in the land of His incarnation.

The place of birth, which is the cathedral.

Unfortunately, this church can only hold 100,000 people at a time.

Justina was so engrossed in the queue that she could no longer smell human flesh and could barely keep her eyes open. So she turned to her prayer channels and read some hellish jokes about her, nails, and shelves to cheer herself up.

But you can't laugh out loud.

Laughing out loud in such a situation is extremely disrespectful.

Finally, after an unknown amount of time, Justina finally got her turn to use the prayer room.

It was a very small room with only a carpet, a high table with scriptures, and a small window.

To be honest, it's almost like a prison cell.

Justina suspected that she had been watching too many hellish jokes, and these "disrespectful" thoughts kept popping into her head.

She composed herself and explained that each believer could only use the prayer room for a maximum of ten minutes, so they had to hurry.

Justina spoke at breakneck speed, quickly explaining the situation she faced and the issues that needed to be addressed.

And they prayed for guidance on how to find trustworthy people.

The process was very simplified, and Jia Xiu was not mentioned, not because Jia Xiu was to be excluded, but because it was feared that Jia Xiu's behavior would be disliked by the Holy Light.

She needed to protect her "archbishop".

"Holy Light, please guide me."

After Justina finished her prayer, she waited quietly for a response.

However, one minute passed, two minutes passed... and the prayer time was about to end, but there was still no response.

What's going on? Is the Holy Light too busy with official duties?
Justina suddenly remembered a terrible rumor: many people said that praying to the Holy Light would not bring a real answer, but only empty words and general blessings.

She had initially thought that the Holy Light, like her, was just going through the motions in the face of excessive prayer.

Of all the gods, there are those who don't slack off.

But now it seems that things are not quite the same.

You can't fool ordinary people, you can't fool her. She's a demigod of our religion, after all.

Could there be something wrong with the Holy Light? No, the priests are still using the power of the Holy Light.

Just as Justina was feeling anxious, suddenly, a light flashed in the window.

"is it you?"

A sacred voice echoed in her mind.

Is it you? What does "Is it you?" mean? Is it asking if she was the one who discovered the body?

Did the Holy Light discover that she had deliberately concealed Jia Xiu's affair?

So Justina had no choice but to pray again.

"I have a... um... companion named Jia Xiu..."

Before she could finish praying, a piercing buzzing sound suddenly appeared in her mind.

What's going on?
It's over, the Holy Light truly despises Jaxiu.

"Actually, Jia Xiu..."

Justina wanted to explain things to Jasmine.

However, a new divine revelation occurred.

"It's him. I've granted you the eye to see through demons. Protect him..."

Then, the voice of the holy light disappeared.

"what?"

Justina was stunned.

What do you mean by "him"?
Could it be that Jia Xiu is the key figure, and she's just a gift?
(End of this chapter)