A man among dragons, building a mysterious ancient church.

Chapter 397 Changes in the Spirit Realm

"Mr. Xu, we've arrived." Aso Makoto led Xu Lie to the old temple in Tokyo.

When Herzog stole the power of the White King, he caused a massive elemental turbulence, which led to tsunamis from all sides. Later, Xu Lie took over, and the elemental turbulence subsided at lightning speed, greatly reducing the tsunamis.

Thanks to this, Tokyo was not flooded as depicted in the original story, and the scale of the disaster was limited.

After the rain, the elemental turbulence did not cause too much damage to Tokyo. In the square in front of the old temple, children still played, old people chatted under the ginkgo trees, and believers made their way to the shrine with devotion.

After the battle to hunt down Odin, Xu Lie originally planned to leap onto the Source Castle, but was invited by Aso Makoto to come back and take another look at the Tokyo Diocese.

Aso Makoto, as the Archbishop of the Tokyo Diocese, is revered by the clergy and loved by the faithful. However, he always regarded Xu Lie as the true founder of the Tokyo Diocese. Simply put, Aso Makoto considers himself the CEO, responsible for daily operations and management, and regards Xu Lie as the chairman of the Tokyo Diocese.

Since Xu Lie had come all the way to Tokyo, how could the founder not return to the Tokyo diocese for a visit? At Aso Makoto's enthusiastic invitation, Xu Lie had no choice but to come back with him.

Aso Makoto was in high spirits: "Mr. Xu, this is your first time visiting the Old Temple. Let me introduce it to you. This temple is modeled after the Bronze Temple of the Fool..."

Xu Lie pretended to be very interested, praising Aso Makoto's clever idea as he listened, without mentioning that he had already visited the old temple once during his time as a fake Ince, so as not to dampen Aso Makoto's enthusiasm at the moment.

Greetings, Bishop Aso.

"Bishop Aso, may God bless you and me."

Along the way, believers kept greeting Makoto Aso, which shows that he has a good relationship with believers and is at least trusted by them.

Aso Makoto politely responded to each of Xu Lie's requests before leading him into the temple. The interior of the temple was similar to most old temples, with various bronze artifacts and bronze candlesticks. At the end of the main hall was a wall entirely cast in bronze.

In the center of the wall is embedded that unique symbol, which represents error.

As soon as Xu Lie entered, he could see the incorrect symbol. Aso Makoto leaned over knowingly and lowered his voice: "This symbol is the one I moved from the Sumitomo Building back then."

Reminded by Aso Makoto, Xu Lie recalled that when the Tokyo Diocese was first established, it didn't have its own territory at all. Everyone was crammed into one floor of the Sumitomo Building. At that time, Aso Makoto led the members of the Demon Clan he had recruited to pray to the symbol.

What was once a small parish has now expanded into a large parish throughout Japan under the leadership of Makoto Aso. The contrast makes Xu Lie feel lucky to have met such a promising member as Makoto Aso.

After reminiscing about the past, the two quietly exited through an archway on one side of the main hall and entered a rather modern side hall.

The atmosphere here suddenly becomes more relaxed. The walls are made of sound-absorbing microporous bronze panels, and the floor is covered with a soft, dark gray carpet. Several low sofas and armchairs form several conversation areas. The furniture frames are still bronze, but the seats and backrests are covered with thick, dark fabric, which softens the coldness of the metal.

In one corner of the side hall, a small indoor water feature is cleverly arranged. A stream of clear water flows slowly down a bronze plate etched with water ripples and falls into a stone trough below, making a continuous and gentle gurgling sound that effectively soothes the restlessness in one's heart.

"This is the side hall, where people often sit when they are on night duty."

"The other side hall opposite is my and Inuyama Taro's office," Aso Makoto explained briefly, then led Xu Lie around the side hall to the side hall diagonally behind the main hall.

This is the deepest and most secret area of ​​the temple, where complex concentric circles and radiating lines are engraved on the ground, forming several different and enormous arrays.

The dome of the side hall is not enclosed, but rather a perforated grid of bronze components that can be opened and closed freely using modern electronic switches. At specific times, sunlight, moonlight, or starlight can penetrate and project precisely onto a point on the ground array.

Most importantly, there is also an incorrect symbol here.

When the two arrived, many members of the Tokyo diocese were busily engaged in a mystical ritual.

Taro Inuyama was keeping a close watch to prevent any accidents from happening due to improper operation by the members. Several temple keepers were still instructing the newcomers: "Yes, that's it. Isn't it simple? It's just making drying talismans. It's not difficult at all."

"Let's all work harder. This sudden tsunami wasn't big, but it still affected the Tokyo Bay area. Let's make as many drying talismans as possible to help the residents of Tokyo Bay."

"Baka! What did you do during the ritual? How could you fail at such a simple spell? Remember the ritual magic the church teaches!"

Aso Makoto arrived here with a hint of pride in her expression. She had put a lot of effort into this side hall area: "This is the occult ritual area, which is specially provided for parish members to perform ritual magic and make various talismans."

"I used a lot of dragon blood materials and asked Mr. White Tower for help to draw sketches of mystical ritual magic patterns on the ground and dome. These mystical patterns can greatly increase the success rate of ritual magic and also provide various small buffs to the members."

"To ensure its successful construction, I spent all my time overseeing the construction team to make sure the patterns were accurate, and we finally completed the project." Xu Lie gave him an approving look: "Well done. I feel that this approach could be promoted in major temples around the world."

The idea behind this occult ritual shrine is indeed commendable. Currently, various dioceses have begun distributing potions to members who have passed the assessment, further strengthening the power of each diocese.

However, some pathways do not exhibit any extraordinary abilities in their lower sequence stages. For example, the Dark Path and the Judgment Path of the Tokyo Diocese do not have any outwardly visible extraordinary abilities in the Sequence 9 stage.

Unlike the apprentices of Sequence 9 of the Gate Path, one cannot simply open a door to mysticism and show off one's skills to believers.

Often, lower-ranking members lack the ability to quickly gain the trust of potential believers in missionary work. However, if each diocese had a place like a mystical ritual area, that would be much better.

Openly teaching ritual magic and spells to members who take potions, providing them with ritual amplification and spirituality to create spells, would likely greatly benefit the missionary work of lower-ranking members.

Receiving Xu Lie's praise made Masako extremely happy. Her efforts had not been in vain, and she had finally gained Xu Jun's affirmation. She had not let Xu Jun down.

If it's to be promoted, that would be even better, and Makoto Aso is happy to contribute to the old church that changed her fate.

The laughter lasted less than a minute before Asou Makoto and Xu Lie simultaneously looked at the ritual performed by the nearest member. Both of them sensed that the spiritual energy surging here was even stronger than that of ordinary ritual magic, which was very unusual.

This resulted in the parish member's ritual magic failing twice in a row.

"What's going on?" Asou Makoto asked, quite puzzled. "The members have never made talismans before..."

Xu Lie pressed down with his left hand, indicating that he knew the reason: "Make them stop first. The spirit world in this area has been undergoing some changes recently."

"It will be fine in a while; it's not that there's a problem with their ritual magic."

Aso Makoto unconditionally trusted Heo Lie and stepped forward to explain to the members.

Xu Lie was contemplating the changes in the Spirit Realm. He had just deceived Asou Makoto, and it wasn't just this area that was changing, but the entire Spirit Realm.

Therefore, Xu Lie decided to go to Yuanbao to see what was going on in the Spirit Realm. Fortunately, Yuanbao did not send any messages, indicating that the situation was not tense. Xu Lie had some leeway and accompanied Aso Makoto back to the Tokyo Diocese first.

It seems that this matter cannot be delayed. There are many other dioceses in the world besides the Tokyo diocese, and dioceses in various places are expanding rapidly.

If the ritual magic of the various dioceses fails frequently, it will greatly affect missionary work and, consequently, Xu Lie's anchor, so it must be taken seriously.

Xu Lie waited for Aso Makoto to return before preparing to leave: "I'll go to the Spirit Realm first. Makoto, could you please have the members check which ritual magic can be used now and which is prone to failure?"

"Okay." Although Asou Makoto wanted to show Xu Lie the backyard of the old temple again, he had important business to attend to, so he could only do it another time.

Anyway, everyone has plenty of time, and there will definitely be more in the future. After all, Asou Makoto's lifespan has reached 1,200 years since he became the Witch King.

As for the dangers of the Spirit Realm? That only applies to members of the lower and middle ranks. Aso Makoto can now explore the Spirit Realm on his own, let alone Xu Lie, who has already advanced to Rank 1. Aso Makoto has nothing to worry about.

Soon, Xu Lie arrived at Yuanbao. He didn't see Bao Lie near the familiar bronze table and chairs. Looking around, he found that Bao Lie had run to the edge of the gray fog and was looking down.

Xu Lie walked up and stood shoulder to shoulder with Bao Lie, and they both saw the changes in the vast spirit world.

As if stimulated by something, everything in the spirit world accelerated. Spirits grew and dissipated rapidly, and spirit creatures quickly became stronger. More spirit creatures began to appear in this vast and boundless world.

The seven lights beneath the gray fog became increasingly clear, their seven colors illuminating the entire spirit realm.

"The main body has arrived?" Bao Lie did not look away, still overlooking the extremely strange changes in this world: "It seems that the spirit world has undergone some kind of evolution, but it looks like there is no need to worry. The commotion is getting smaller and smaller, and it will probably be over soon."

Xu Lie didn't know this before, but as soon as he arrived at the Source Castle, he was able to sense the changes in the Spirit Realm, thanks to his successful containment of the uniqueness of error: "So that's how it is."

"This is the change in the spirit world that I caused after I embraced uniqueness. When I truly become error, the spirit world will be nearly complete and will give birth to the seven lights of the spirit world, whose status is second only to the true god."

"Only by becoming the Lord of the Ancient Mysteries in the future can the Spirit Realm be completely whole."

(End of this chapter)