magic high school

Chapter 164 I Can't Save You

Li Ge was stunned. The Pope hired hackers to attack Gensokyo?

He already knew from the list that Gensokyo's forces were systematically eliminating the paladins, but he didn't expect that the old Pope's side was also sending people to mess with Gensokyo.

Seriously, what's this? Is it some kind of fierce partisan struggle?

Li Ge complained. Because no matter how you look at it, Gensokyo seems to be one of the Church's forces, and even the priests here are all big shots with a lot of influence outside. I didn't expect that the internal factional struggles have evolved to the point of assassinating each other.

Should we then label them as heretics?

Li Ge thought to himself, and at the same time he immediately remembered and pulled out the photos he had taken before, and saw one of the names that was underlined.

Charles, a name that signifies both a paladin and a hacker, has been assassinated.

Could the hacker mentioned in this letter be this Charles?

Li Ge immediately began searching the desk for other information, especially letters and documents related to the old priest's communications with the outside world, which were the most important.

Yi Lian was also searching on the bookshelf. However, the more he searched, the more troubled he became; the documents here were mostly of a certain kind—

--handle?

It was filled with scandal after scandal, documents he kept locked away as a tool to threaten others. Even though he only glanced at the cover and table of contents.

Yi Lian felt that there was no trust or loyalty among these people; their relationship was based on sinful deals: only if I have something on you can you sit down to eat and gain my trust.

And those who haven't been caught red-handed? Then they resort to all sorts of slander and rumors. These "godchildren" even genuinely treat people with the mindset of "Even though I haven't caught you red-handed, you must have done it." So they'll shift all the blame for their own actions onto others, believing that if they did it, the other person must have done it too.

Here, no one can escape unscathed!

This environment, devoid of any sense of integrity or morality, made Yilian extremely uncomfortable.

He misses the Han Dynasty.

Although he had only spent a short time in that world and didn't really understand its culture, that spirit of integrity deeply fascinated him. It wasn't just Xiaoye who had considered taking advantage of him; perhaps he had too.

That loyalty, honor, morality, and integrity felt like a devastating blow to him, especially since he had recently seen the memories of the dead members of the Datong Cult.

Now, seeing something similar again, Yi Lian felt the dead memories start to haunt him again, and he missed the Han Dynasty.

As Yilian continued searching, all she found were one scandal after another, along with a series of horrifying and chilling photographs.

And he finally saw something different, even though it was a scandal.

Pope Saint Jorge's blunder in battle resulted in the deaths of nearly a thousand paladins!

The church under Pope St. Howes was corrupt, leaving hundreds of thousands of people homeless and starving.

Pope St. Howes' mismanagement caused a grain truck carrying disaster relief supplies to derail.

This record is different from the other incriminating evidence. The other incriminating evidence was documented in detail and recorded on camera as evidence.

But when it comes to the Pope, the whole thing is: since it's under your rule, any problems are entirely your fault.

Although Yilian was indeed angry when she saw it, upon reflection, she realized that these events and the accident at least proved that the Pope was actually doing something. She could only say he was incompetent, not that he was bad. When refugees appeared, his first priority was to transport grain there, even though the grain carts overturned.

As for the one caused by command errors in combat, it's hard to comment on that; it's also a matter of ability.

From this perspective, this pope may be a bit incompetent, but he seems like a good person no matter how you look at it.

And that's it? Didn't you fight this hard with the Holy Knights faction to the point where all you managed to get was this little bit of information? Not even a little bit of gossip about the Pope and the little boy?

Yilian was somewhat disappointed, then continued to browse through the records on the bookshelf.

Then he saw another familiar name, Charles.

That guy who was assassinated by the higher-ups of Gensokyo, the hacker and the paladin?

He immediately looked down and, sure enough, it was full of dirt on Charles.

However, after reading it, Yilian discovered that most of the shady information involved the theft of data, which indirectly led to the deaths of many people.

Although this number is extremely exaggerated, and this hacker named Charles doesn't seem like a good person at all—he stirs up trouble in the virtual world, stealing data, inciting public opinion, and so on—

However, just like before, this intelligence lacks concrete evidence and differs significantly from other people's evidence.

After searching around a few more times, I discovered that this place was less like a bookshelf and more like a museum of sins, containing records of the crimes committed by almost all the famous people. I don't know if it was kept here for blackmail or as leverage.

However, some of them have obvious weaknesses that have been exploited.

"Yilian, come and see this!" Li Ge said.

Yi Lian hurried over and found Li Ge frowning as she looked at a letter.

"This is----"

"The Heavenly Ritual—" Li Ge began slowly.

"Hmm?" Yilian asked.

Li Ge slowly pushed the letter in front of him, and Yi Lian froze on the spot after reading it.

"We were wrong. The Heavenly Ritual is actually a ritual in which the Son of God eats the fruit that represents purity, thereby achieving sublimation," Li Ge said slowly.

In that instant, Yi Lian was greatly alarmed.

Although he had just seen many records in the Sin Museum, he did not look at them in detail, because the first book he picked up was a gossip record, namely the tragic love story between the current president and the former president.

Then a photo of two old men pressed together in the record made him feel nauseous, and he kept assuming that all similar records that followed were like that.

He immediately returned to the Hall of Sin and began to open the other documents instead of just looking at a cover. In that instant, he froze on the spot.

Sure enough, he was not suited for intelligence work, because he felt a deep sense of anger!

"Only the children of the gods can ascend to heaven, and the ritual is completed after they consume the fruit that represents purity," Li Ge said slowly.

"The divine children are those nearly ten thousand people who came here, and the fruits of purity—"

"It's us!"

"They will eat our bodies, our souls, and even our excrement. They believe that by consuming everything of the Children of Purity, they can also attain purity and ascend to heaven."

"No wonder, even nuns are ranked above us!"

Yi Lian couldn't hold back any longer and said, "But I always thought 'cannibalism' was an adjective. You're telling me it's a noun description without any rhetoric?"

"Does that mean that the divine children Zero saw eating roasted meat with excrement, that meat was—"

"The flesh of the Son of Purity—" Li Ge added.

"Ugh—" Yi Lian suddenly felt an indescribable reaction.

In particular, when he thought of Zero lying in the ventilation duct, looking down at the God Children eating meat and indescribable things, his spiritual vision was too low at the time, and he thought that the most disgusting thing was just the Snow Eater.

Unexpectedly, what was truly terrifying was the roasted meat he hadn't noticed at all—that child still doesn't know what kind of hell he had witnessed.

"We don't have time to be angry, Xiaoye and Valerie are in danger." Li Ge, on the other hand, didn't react much and said directly.

Just then, the radio they had been carrying with them started playing a completely different sound.

"Run! We're about to destroy this place!"

"There will be no guards in the cave beneath the church during the banquet. Use the yacht there to escape quickly!"

"Run! We can't save you—we can't save everyone—everyone who can escape is a chance—"

The radio broadcast completely different content.

At that moment, Li Ge and Yi Lian immediately connected all the intelligence.

Whether it was factional infighting or simply that the paladins disapproved of another faction's rituals, they discovered the sordidness here.

For a long time, they fought amongst themselves. Led by the old Pope, the paladins tried to find enough information and evidence to expose what was happening here, and even hired hackers to attack the place, causing Gensokyo to be completely detached from information technology and even have a primitive, natural design.

Most of the lamps in the city were oil lamps, and communication was entirely done on paper—all consequences of the paladins' attacks.

However, the Gensokyo forces, led by the Divine Child, directly launched assassinations, killing off the Holy Knights one by one.

The paladins then decided to completely destroy the place.

These innocent children were merely victims and sacrifices in this struggle and game.

However, at least some of the paladins were still thinking about saving them, telling them when they could escape. These paladins probably knew they couldn't save everyone, so they chose to save as many as they could.

They might not even be able to save themselves, yet they still harbor the intention to help these innocent children.

Although they may not be able to rescue anyone due to insufficient ability or power, they can only hope to give the children who still want to escape a direction and a goal, constantly sending signals, like a ghost drifting in the sky above Gensokyo.

That's why they say "we can't save you," because they might not even be able to save themselves.

I understand, I understand everything.

At the same time, he also understood why the ability to be born evil had such a great effect. It was equivalent to denying the pursuit of purity by these purity parties from the bottom up. They wanted to be pure and go to heaven, but what if they couldn't go to heaven?

You'll only go to hell!

All the information came together at this moment, weaving together the vast network and main structure of this place called "Gensokyo".

"So the paladins' action time is—"

"Tonight!"

"boom!"

An explosion occurred in the distance, right in the direction of the cathedral!