Chapter 355: The Church of the Sun's Calculations (43K — Subscribe Please)

"The Church of the Sun has declared war on the Nieyu Sect? Hiss…"

Bishop Ash did not speak, but Herbert, who was hiding under her skirt eavesdropping, instinctively repeated it.

Huh?

What kind of development is this?

This… doesn't seem right, does it?

What happened back then shouldn't have been exposed!

Herbert and Nie Nasha had confirmed it repeatedly — they had stolen authority back then, and the Sun God should have been completely unaware of it.

How would He know to go make trouble for the God of Nieyu?

"And… taking a step back, weren't you the one who did the hitting?"

In the previous conflict, Nieyu was the one who should have been angry.

The Divine Favored died, the corrupted city was gone, the plan was ruined, the avatar was destroyed… Herbert had made Him lose thoroughly.

If anyone should be angry, it should be the God of Nieyu — so how did it end up the other way around?

"The one who got beaten hasn't said anything yet, and you're already throwing the first punch?"

The villain filing the complaint first? Acting smug after getting the better of the deal?

Brother, what's going on with you?

Is this our righteous Sun God?

And Herbert's confusion was actually what Bishop Ash was thinking at this moment too, though her first reaction was more direct — absurd.

Having seen the scene at the time in Quinna's memories, Bishop Ash knew that the Sun God's power had intervened in the battlefield against the God of Nieyu, becoming an important force in shattering His plan.

However, she was clearer than Herbert on one thing — the one who made the holy war declaration was certainly not the god himself.

The news that the Sun God's condition was off and He was suspected of falling into slumber had already been spreading through the world for several hundred years.

And during this period, the Church of the Sun's actions had also restrained themselves to a certain extent — although they still charged at the front lines against evil, they were no longer as "fanatical" as before.

And if the Sun God really was in such a state, then the one who made this decision was certainly not the Sun God himself, but the Church of the Sun under Him.

Although the Church represented the god's will, it did not act entirely according to the god's intentions.

Objectively speaking, they did have some subjective initiative of their own.

"Are you sure they launched a holy war?"

Bishop Ash frowned and asked: "Are you sure what they declared was a 【Holy War】?"

Battles between god-churches, cults, and sects were actually quite common.

Especially after entering the second millennium of the Faith Era, when the honeymoon period between the gods of faith gradually ended, relations between all sides began to worsen.

To compete for believers — such a precious resource — They would often have their subordinates engage in open and covert clashes.

Sometimes, even close allies on the surface would have their subordinates fight fiercely in the shadows over the gain or loss of a single city or territory.

But as long as it didn't escalate to the level of a holy war, it was actually a small matter — just minor skirmishes.

Once it escalated to the level of a holy war, however, it concerned the very survival of two god-churches.

Any holy war between god-churches was extremely dangerous — mishandled, it could turn into a great decisive battle between two sects, even drawing the gods themselves into the fray.

A great decisive battle over such a trivial matter as "our god gave Miss Xie Shen a beating"?

Is it worth it?

No — is this even reasonable?

"Although it's regrettable, but… yes, they did indeed declare it as such."

The Knight Commander's expression also grew solemn. He nodded, then sighed: "I sent them a message to confirm — the other side insisted it was 'a glorious holy war to restore the radiance of our Lord.' Heh."

At the end, he couldn't help but let out a mocking, cold laugh.

This is the justice they insist upon?

Truly laughable.

"…"

Bishop Ash frowned and slowly asked: "What exactly happened? Why is the Church of the Sun so furious?"

The Knight Commander shook his head and explained: "According to their account, the God of Nieyu — for some unknown reason — sent out a squad of Corrupted Apostles a few days ago, attempting to forcibly corrupt an entire devout city that worships the Sun God…"

Herbert:?

Bishop Ash:?

Wait, this is news I haven't heard — what's going on now?

In his confusion, Herbert instinctively raised his hand to scratch his head, then stopped halfway.

He glanced sideways with the corner of his eye and saw the snake tail sitting quietly nearby.

He was surprised to discover that when he made the move, the snake tail actually didn't react by dodging.

"…Oh ho?"

Realizing that Bishop Ash's attention was focused elsewhere, the corners of Herbert's mouth curved up slightly.

"Chance, has come." Herbert muttered soundlessly, gently licked his lips, and began slowly moving toward the snake tail.

He placed both hands on the ground, exerted a little force, lifted his cross-legged body half an inch, then moved along on his ten fingers.

His two hands were like two big spiders, moving "quickly" in a quiet, stealthy posture.

Shift, shift, shift…

Bishop Ash had indeed put all her attention on the "holy war intelligence" the Knight Commander was delivering, and no longer paid Herbert any mind.

In her thinking, since Herbert had already sobered up once, he should behave and stay put, and not do anything outrageous again.

But she never expected Herbert would be this bold!

Still daring to keep courting death in a situation like this!

……

"Although those Corrupted Apostles did not succeed, their plot was detected by the Church of the Sun just as the ritual was about to begin, and no casualties were caused, but the Church of the Sun treated it as a grave provocation."

"…I truly cannot fathom why the God of Nieyu would commit such a provocative act."

Saying this, the Knight Commander sighed with some perplexity: "Choosing to do this serves no purpose whatsoever besides provoking the Sun God."

"But even if it really could provoke the Sun God, wouldn't that just be asking for trouble?"

The Knight Commander expressed that he did not understand.

Is this an itch that needs scratching, wanting the Sun God to give it a little burning?

What kind of person would actively provoke that violent sun?

Tired of living?

"One can only say that Miss Xie Shen's behavior is truly hard to fathom, to actually commit such a completely baseless, mad act."

Bored with nothing to do, going to provoke the Sun God?

Truly cannot figure it out.

As expected, one should not use human thinking to gauge the deeds of Miss Xie Shen.

The Knight Commander shook his head and sighed: "What on earth is She after?"

For what, exactly?

Bishop Ash was silent, only then roughly guessing why the God of Nieyu would do such a thing.

But while she could keep her composure, there were those who could not.

"Right? No, no, no — going berserk for no reason, isn't that just a pure madman?"

It was not without reason.

And Herbert, listening from within the skirt, shook his head again and again, sighing with a half-stiff, half-amused air: "Sigh, in this day and age, even Miss Xie Shen has her own difficulties~"

"After getting beaten up once, if you can't beat the other party, then you have to holler a couple of times at least."

To outsiders, the God of Nieyu's provocation made no sense whatsoever, like suddenly going into a fit, completely illogical.

But in Her own eyes, this was already a very restrained, very measured retaliation.

After being beaten up once, She only sent apostles to intimidate some commoners, didn't even really make a move… If She hadn't deliberately leaked information on Her side, could the Church of the Sun have detected the problem so quickly?

Probably not.

If Miss Xie Shen had truly intended to act, then when the Church of the Sun arrived they would have only seen a stretch of corrupted flesh and blood on the ground.

The God of Nieyu only wanted to salvage a little face for Herself, and did not plan to truly fall out with the Sun God — that would do Her no good at all.

It was merely a small, even one might call it humble, completely unequal retaliatory strike.

Lose the fight, but not the front.

After losing, bark twice like a dog, to prove one has not bowed one's head.

This behavior was already clownish and embarrassing enough; She believed the Sun God would not care about Her "whimpering, frenzied barking."

In the end… the God of Nieyu had still miscalculated.

The Sun God indeed did not speak up or make a statement, but the Church of the Sun blew its top.

As the deity's loyal faithful, they simply could not tolerate such "provocation" from Miss Xie Shen!

How dare She attempt to corrupt the city?

Good, this is no longer your run-of-the-mill evil-god cult!

We must strike hard!

"Heh."

Bishop Ash agreed with Herbert's view, gave a cold snort, and said disdainfully: "What holy war? They're merely using this opportunity to vent."

As an elder who had seen far too much, she saw through the unusual point of this matter in an instant — the Church of the Sun's reaction was a bit too strong, even too extreme.

"What on earth are those fellows thinking, with their heads full of purifying others with Sacred Solar Flames? Held back for all these years, and finally couldn't stand it any longer?"

One need not think hard to guess what kind of frenzied state the Church of the Sun would be in upon seeing the Blazing Sun's anomaly.

They have probably already fallen into revelry, celebrating the deity's revival.

Because of the Blazing Sun's slumber, this group of people had also been dormant for far too long, and had finally found a chance to vent their discontent… how could they possibly let it slip?

Clearly, the Church of the Sun intended to make a mountain out of a molehill and milk this incident for all it was worth.

Treating it as an opportunity to once again display their might to the world, to remind people of the Blazing Sun's power.

Their purpose needs no guessing — it must be that one thing — Make, the Church of the Sun, Great, Again!

Anyone with eyes could see the true intent hidden behind the Church of the Sun's over-the-top operation… no, these fellows didn't even bother to hide it, they outright declared they were going to do exactly this.

I want to make an example of them, treat the Nieyu Sect as a model case, to declare to the world — your Sun, has returned!

The Knight Commander could also see what the Church of the Sun was thinking, and nodded:

"Yes, I think so too. They are using this opportunity to divert the internal conflicts within the Church."

Within any religious order there are factional disputes.

There are extremists, and there are conservatives.

And within the Church of the Sun, the extremists felt that they should strike hard against the evil-god cults.

While the conservatives felt the extremists' ideas were too conservative, not extreme enough — just hitting the evil-god cults, how is that enough? Why not just take down the evil gods along with them!

The Church of the Sun's momentum was like a rainbow, but Bishop Ash was not very optimistic about their chances of victory in this "holy war."

"It won't come to a fight, or rather, even if it does, they cannot possibly obtain the result they want."

Even at this moment before war had begun, she had already rendered her verdict — pointless, no chance, pure performance.

The God of Nieyu was indeed weaker than the Sun God in terms of strength, a bit lacking in raw power.

But She was never some easy-to-squeeze soft persimmon.

As an ancient Miss Xie Shen of high-tier divine power, the Miss Xie Shen Church she cultivated was by no means weak.

Moreover, what the Miss Xie Shen Church excelled at most was hiding — their whole style was: when in doubt, vanish.

If I can't beat them, can't I at least hide?

If it really came to playing hide-and-seek with the Sun Church, they could only stare helplessly.

So Bishop Ash deduced that this grand drama would most likely fizzle out and end on a sour note.

She gave a light hum, glanced at the Knight Commander who seemed to want to speak, and said coolly: "Speak. What is the real purpose behind their contacting you this time? I don't think they actually believe we'd send people to get involved."

The Mist Monastery was a holy ground for suppressing the remains of the Miss Xie Shen, independent of every divine church's system.

It would accept invitations and pleas for help, but never submit to any church's command or management.

For messes like a holy war, they would never get involved… Even if cultivators participated, that was their personal conduct — the monastery would not interfere.

The Knight Commander nodded silently and said slowly:

"As you said, that Lieri Sect Pope also guessed our reaction here. He raised another request — if we're unwilling to send people to help, he hopes we'll lend them that Lieri Sect Angel Battle Armor for use."

Hmm?

Herbert, who had already quietly shifted next to the snake's tail preparing to strike, happened to catch the keyword and his brow twitched.

Lieri Sect, angel… these two words sound awfully familiar!

The Sun Church is now setting their sights on Lucille's old clothes?

Wait!

Isn't Lucille's whereabouts supposed to be unknown to anyone?

Could it be that it's actually been exposed long ago?

"Heh, I knew it — that fellow still hasn't given up."

Bishop Ash snorted and sneered: "Back then, that angel personally handed the battle armor to the Archbishop before dying in battle. Their Sun Church has no right to take it back."

"Since they've thrown their old face out there to ask, you don't need to refuse — I agree."

"However, make the terms clear to them — lending is fine, but the battle armor must be worn by our people, and once it's over, brought back directly. No stalling of any kind."

At this point, as if recalling something amusing, the corner of her mouth curled up and she chuckled gleefully: "Otherwise… heh, someone will go collect it from them."

"I'm sure he'd be more than happy to make that little errand."

Hearing these mocking and threatening words, the Knight Commander fell silent; Herbert was delighted.

Both of them had guessed who that "delivery boy" would be.

Could there be a more fitting candidate than "the saintly old coot who's found an excuse to slip out for a stroll"?

Probably not.

Even if there were, they'd be quietly erased by a certain old coot.

Anyone who obstructed the Archbishop's leisurely outings would vanish without a trace.

Hmm, isn't that amazing?

"As for the candidate to wear the battle armor, you decide — just don't… huh!!?"

Bishop Ash, who had been assigning tasks to the Knight Commander, couldn't hold it in this time — her body visibly trembled.

Under the Knight Commander's shocked and bewildered gaze, she clenched her fists hard and bit down hard on her teeth.

Creak!

Knight Commander:???

Again?

What happened this time? Did she remember something infuriating?

The Knight Commander dared not ask and didn't want to ask, silently turned his head, and pretended he hadn't noticed anything.

And Bishop Ash could no longer be bothered with him — all her attention had shifted to her skirt.

Her! Bert!!!

You son of a—!

Just moving your hands would have been one thing…

How are you now using your mouth too!!?

At this moment, Herbert was clinging desperately to the snake's tail, and to avoid being thrown off, he even wrapped himself tightly to it with shadow tentacles.

Then… with his head lowered, he licked vigorously.

"REOREOREO—"

(End of chapter)