Chapter 169: You Have Been Chosen by the Angel!

Bishop Qiao En felt as if he had been reborn.

This feeling was so wonderful that he almost became lost in it, unable to extricate himself.

It was not until his legs went numb and he couldn't help but take a step back that Bishop Qiao En was jolted awake.

He hurriedly knelt on the ground to repent, feeling remorseful for the base human nature he had just revealed.

After a good while, Bishop Qiao En finally caught his breath and managed to mentally prepare himself to accept his transformation.

At the very least, he appeared to have returned to normal; he opened his wardrobe, found a pure white mask inside, and put it on to cover his handsome, middle-aged face.

Bishop Qiao En did not want anyone other than his confidants to know about the changes in his appearance.

He looked into the mirror again.

The Bishop Qiao En in the mirror still carried a trace of indescribable, mysterious charm.

However, this could be attributed to his mask.

It was a high-quality mask custom-made for the personnel of the Shepherd department to add a sense of mysterious ritual to the Holy Spirit Sect; it was purely handmade, crafted by a top-tier Grandmaster from Sheng Cheng whose lineage spanned a thousand years.

It was already an artistic masterpiece, to say nothing of this particular mask worn by Bishop Qiao En.

After steadying his breathing in front of the mirror, Bishop Qiao En pushed open the door and walked quickly out of this Earth Palace.

Soon, as the most sought-after bishop at the moment, he only had to wait a short while before being granted an audience by His Holiness.

Several minutes later, in the secret chamber where His Holiness and Bishop Qiao En were alone.

Bishop Qiao En gave him a complete account of the entire process of receiving the angel's gift.

He showed him the stigmata on his chest.

He even took the initiative to approach His Holiness before reaching out with his right hand to slowly remove his mask, revealing his true face as it was now.

That already aged His Holiness could not help but exclaim:

"The Holy Lord is above; had you not explained beforehand that you received an angel's gift, I would have thought your body had been taken over by some ancient existence."

After confirming that the transcendent truly existed, His Holiness, Bishop Qiao En, and the others naturally dug out all the mysterious records they had previously disdained and read them carefully.

And the Holy Spirit Sect, being the closest to the modern era, was undoubtedly the top priority.

Regarding the aspect of possession, it was recorded in the notes of the last Wise One of the Holy Spirit Sect.

According to their account, once a body was taken over by an ancient existence from hell communicated with through a transcendent ritual, it would appear to regain its youth.

But in fact, although the physical body was restored, the person was no longer themselves.

Furthermore, because the ancient existence was too powerful, the physical body they inhabited would often Decay and turn to ash within a week.

When His Holiness and the others had read it before, they only felt that the person who wrote it might have been so obsessed with the transcendent back then that they had fallen into delusions and could not extricate themselves.

As for now, naturally, it was impossible not to believe it.

It was also for this reason that Bishop Qiao En had taken the initiative to come and reveal his identity, thereby avoiding any accidents.

After proactively proving his identity, Bishop Qiao En mentioned the name of the person the angel was looking for.

At the same time, because of some mysterious knowledge that had appeared in his mind, he proposed other requirements.

His Holiness naturally agreed to them one by one and supplemented his plan.

Not long after.

The priests and Cultivators in the Earth Palace beneath the Sheng Cheng Cathedral heard the broadcast summoning them.

Many people had been here for a week, and this was the first time they had heard this broadcast.

A portion of them keenly realized that something important might be about to happen.

Some took advantage of this gap to use the excuse of going to the restroom to transmit information through high-tech equipment.

And upon stepping out, these people discovered their peers—who could now drop the word "suspected"—and couldn't help but smile at each other.

Several gold-rimmed black-robed priests directly under His Holiness appeared here for the first time, opened a small scroll, and began to read out names.

Before long, the names of ten priests and ten nuns were called; after respectfully expressing their gratitude, they followed the priests to where His Holiness was.

The movements of these people were naturally not small.

Regarding this, intelligence personnel naturally observed this scene through various means and recorded it.

And in fact, the list of those chosen had been reported even earlier than those priests and nuns knew.

And it caused the intelligence department to begin acting to focus on investigating those priests and nuns.

Then... the major powers found, to their gratification, that one-fifth of them had leverage held over them.

Another fifth had already established a cooperative relationship with them.

As for the rest... there was also ready-made intelligence that could be utilized, and if necessary, all sorts of tactics could be employed.

The chosen priests and nuns were separately arranged in different small rooms.

Then, in order, they received an audience with His Holiness and Bishop Qiao En.

It looked like a normal means of winning over hearts, albeit a bit unexpected.

Until the last nun heard the summons, pushed open the door to the secret chamber, and saw His Holiness and Bishop Qiao En.

She heard Bishop Qiao En read out her resume:

Teresa, female, 20 years old.

She had attended the Sheng Cheng girls' school since childhood and graduated with excellent grades.

Her ancestors for five generations had been residents around the old Sheng Cheng.

Her parents and grandparents all had the tradition of attending weekly services.

Among her relatives were several respected priests and nuns.

It was also with the encouragement and recommendation letters of these relatives that Teresa was able to join the Shepherd department and, due to her excellent performance, was selected for training in the Earth Palace.

"Raise your head, Teresa."

"You are the one chosen by the angel, one of the future Wise Ones."

After Bishop Qiao En finished reading, he walked down from the platform and shouted loudly toward the nun before him.

Teresa's body jolted, clearly stunned by the amount of information in the Bishop's loud proclamation.

She was a standard young woman from southern Ouluoba, possessing delicate features and smooth skin.

Her long brown hair was curled up inside her nun's habit, yet it was still hard to conceal her beauty.

"I... have been chosen by an angel?"

Teresa repeated these words cautiously, seeing Bishop Qiao En nod with a smile.

This did not seem to be a joke!

While Teresa closed her eyes to thank the divine.

A trace of deep worry arose in her heart.

Oh Holy Lord, why would you make such a joke?

Could it be that you, who are omnipotent, have not discovered that, in fact... for so many years, I have been a non-believer?

Going to church, reciting scriptures—it was all just habit and to please my family.

Participating in the Shepherd department this time was also because I had my eye on the department's future prospects and the promises of certain people!

When Teresa was learning those mystical knowledges, she did indeed harbor a sliver of desire to master them and become transcendent.

However, when this desire was realized not through her own learning but by being chosen by an angel.

After Teresa recovered from the shock, the more she thought about it, the more afraid she became.

She even began to comfort herself that this so-called angelic selection was just another type of mystical ritual.

Just like those mystical knowledges she had learned before.

It looked like it was real, and learning it felt like it was real.

But other than deceiving one's own consciousness, it couldn't even affect a single strand of hair.

Bishop Qiao En could also be considered a half-transcendent who had entered the Qi Refining stage; in the Cultivation World, he would be a grandmaster martial artist with one foot on the threshold of cultivation.

Naturally, he understood that the nun before him did not quite believe it.

He did not mind; if he hadn't truly encountered an angel and gained stigmata on his body.

He would not have believed it so easily either.

After comforting Teresa with a few words and telling her to return as usual and not reveal her identity as one chosen,

Bishop Qiao En also bid farewell to His Excellency and returned to the cathedral.

In a room specifically cleared out inside the cathedral.

It was currently piled high with stone materials for carving.

Bishop Qiao En walked into the room, looking at these stones while recalling the extra mystical knowledge in his mind.

Then, without using any tools, he simply stretched out his hands and placed them on a rectangular stone block as tall as a person.

In the blink of an eye, as Dharma Power was poured into the stone.

This stone, which should have been hard, actually began to soften, becoming like modeling clay for Bishop Qiao En to knead at will.

This was the Stone Puppet Art from the Side-Door Path.

It could refine stone puppets similar to paper dolls.

It was just that this spell not only consumed a huge amount of Essence Spirit and Qi, but the strength of the stone puppet also had a great deal to do with the quality of the stone material.

A major characteristic of a Loose Cultivator is being poor; even if there were good stone materials, it wouldn't be their turn to use them.

Coupled with the fact that there is the Great Dao of artifact puppet refining, which has a higher ceiling and is more systematic.

Because of this, this Side-Door Path technique was quite awkward in the Cultivation World.

The Loose Cultivators who learned this technique could only refine stone puppets slightly stronger than ordinary martial artists.

In the end, they all gave up halfway and regretted it endlessly.

That it was given to Bishop Qiao En was just a whim of Su Ping, who planned to wait until he mastered it, then combine it with the Incense Divine Path to add and improve upon it.

To see if he could rely on the power of faith from Water Blue Star to enhance those stone puppets.

If it failed, he wouldn't lose anything.

Those stone puppets that could only deal with mortals might be just right for Water Blue Star, perhaps?

…………

Teresa returned to her room with a complex mood and also experienced insomnia for the first time...

Fortunately, the next day they learned the news that they had the day off.

Everyone only needed to complete their morning and evening prayers.

However, the mental exhaustion she brought on from insomnia was interpreted by others as being overly excited from having been received by His Excellency.

There were even other nun friends who came over to excitedly tell Teresa that they, too, had insomnia from being overly excited about seeing His Excellency.

Teresa responded to them vaguely.

After attending the prayer meeting, she was just planning to go back to catch up on sleep.

She discovered that a black-robed priest had found her.

He led her into the chapel deep within the Earth Palace.

There were no electric lights there; they used holy oil lamps for illumination.

Teresa saw that there were others besides herself; they were all those who had been summoned to see His Excellency last time.

Realizing that the mystical ritual might be about to begin.

Teresa felt a bit worried.

But soon, she and the other priests and nuns who had entered felt their pupils shrink slightly.

For they saw, beside the masked Bishop Qiao En.

Two gargoyles, one white and one black, each one and a half meters tall, appeared!

They were no strangers to gargoyles.

Outside many large churches and even on buildings, such statues would be placed for Punishing Evil and Warding Off Evil.

But this time, it was different.

These two gargoyles this time...

They were actually shaking their heads as if they were living creatures.

They even spread their wings, as if using some mysterious power to check if any demons had mixed in among the visitors.