Chapter 186

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Protagonist:

Jiang Xuan

Looking at the Night Goddess's confused expression, Jiang Xuan waved his hand: "You wouldn't understand even if I said it! You just need to know that I need a large number of faithful believers right now!"

"It's possible! Now the Clerics need fewer and fewer believers, the various Churches are more harmonious, and with cults losing the power of faith, the True God Church's large-scale thorough investigation of cults means there are still quite a few places that can provide you with faith!"

Jiang Xuan nodded slightly, never expecting that a small cultivation method he had spread would actually pave the way for him to accumulate loyal fans in advance.

Looking up and down at the Night Goddess wearing clothes, all the symbols of authority on her body had disappeared, and the dark aura around her and the moon behind her were all gone.

These mysterious powers unintentionally emitted were actually because although the Clerics stood at the top of rules, they could not understand rules, nor could they control the rule power leaking out, causing the vast majority of believers to be unable to look directly at her and unable to withstand the leaked power.

The disappearance of these symbols was not a bad thing, but rather represented that the Night Goddess was gradually removing the spiritual interference left by the Original Creator within her body, gradually understanding the essence of rule power, and developing in a good direction.

After chatting for a few sentences, Klein walked out from the Gray Mist Space he had left behind, and beside him was Audrey, the "Justice" lady of the Tarot Club, who had now also reached the level of Sequence Three Saint.

Audrey, as someone who had been using the Refining God Law from the beginning, had almost completely integrated the power within her.

The remaining unrefined rules were actually related to the physical quality she had improved when using potions; the source of these powers unique to the Original Creator still partially affected her control over all her own powers.

The only method was to use the Swallowing Heaven Demonic Art he had modified to completely absorb and refine the power within his body into his own, but Klein's Swallowing Heaven Demonic Art was handed to him by the Night Goddess, and unlike the Refining God Law, he did not dare to casually give it to others to cultivate.

Klein's aura appeared completely restrained, almost having broken free from the potion system, and after becoming a god, he had never expanded his faith again; the remaining believers, besides the Tarot Club members, were only the people from the God-Abandoned Land that Jiang Xuan had brought out in his name back then.

"Senior! You're back!" Zhou Mingrui's eyes were full of excitement; he had once thought that Jiang Xuan would not appear again before he could cultivate enough to leave this world, never expecting to see him again so soon.

Miss Justice curiously observed Jiang Xuan; she had once thought Jiang Xuan was the Fool's attendant, until later when discussing Jiang Xuan, Zhou Mingrui told the Tarot Club members that Jiang Xuan was someone more powerful than a True God.

"Klein! Your cultivation seems to be going well recently!" Jiang Xuan laughed; after returning, he instantly probed that Gray Mist Space, which had become a gathering place for the Tarot Club, and whether it was Klein or the Tarot Club with some additional members, they were developing quite well.

"You can still call me Zhou Mingrui!" Zhou Mingrui said with a bitter smile.

"Changed back?" Jiang Xuan looked at him in surprise.

Zhou Mingrui nodded slightly; ever since he had settled everything for his brother and sister, his brother and sister had also given up stepping onto the Sequence path, living ordinary lives in peace, and Zhou Mingrui had completely given up the name "Klein," changing back to his own name.

This allowed him to better recognize his soul and original heart, which was of no small benefit to him overall.

"Since you're all here, let's just convene an Eight Gods Meeting!" Jiang Xuan said with a smiling squint.

As the words fell, a fluctuation of space and will spread and expanded in all directions like a storm.

In the eyes of ordinary people, it was nothing more than a gentle breeze blowing past, but in the eyes of the gods, a rule torrent directly crushed their bodies' protection mechanisms, like a transparent mirror scraping through the gods' souls; every True God sitting in meditation absorbing Source Quality opened their eyes, and their bodies instantly disappeared within their Divine Kingdoms.

Not long after, the remaining five True Gods stood before Jiang Xuan.

……

Deep in a secluded alley in Tingen, a small boy wearing patched clothes with a pale and thin face secretly pushed open a wooden door covered in mold spots; after looking around and seeing no one, he carried a basket and secretly walked out of the room.

Quietly closing the wooden door, the small boy hurriedly ran out of the darkness and onto a clean and tidy street; looking at the sun he hadn't seen in a day, feeling the warmth hidden within, a hint of an innocent smile appeared on his face.

"Kid! Want bread today? For just one penny you can buy plenty of fallen bread crumbs!"

The slightly sharp words made the boy's head involuntarily shrink slightly; he carefully looked at the fat auntie with a not-so-good complexion beside him, and mustered up courage to say: "Today I want two pennies' worth of bread crumbs, beautiful lady!"

The fat auntie's already not-good complexion seemed to get worse for some reason, with a hint of impatience on her face, but she still stood up and fiddled with something behind the counter, saying in a deep voice: "Got it! You don't buy bread every day, yet you want me to specially clean up bread crumbs for you!"

Hearing the fat auntie agree, the smile on the boy's face became even brighter; he walked to the bread shop, carefully wiped the dust from the bottom of the basket and placed it on the tabletop, afraid of dirtying this clean bread shop tabletop.

The fat auntie brought out a large handful of crumbs from inside and threw them impatiently into the bamboo basket, urging the boy to leave: "Alright! That's already three pennies' worth!"

The boy stood on tiptoe and lifted the basket again, looking at the many bread crumbs inside with a smile on his face.

He didn't know why bread shops elsewhere had no crumbs, while the fat lady's bread shop had plenty of crumbs, some even looking like torn fragments, but this indeed allowed him and his mother at home to barely make a living.

Because today's bread crumbs were given an extra penny's worth, the child's steps became even lighter as he walked into the most spacious Night Church.

The boy looked at his own shabby clothes and did not choose to sit on the church bench; instead, he stood in the corner with his hands clasped together, as if praying, as if making a wish! Pure faith power spread toward the Void.

"Yesterday A Lai saw that as long as he followed the crowd waving flags he could get five pennies; A Lai easily earned five pennies, today he spent two pennies to buy some good bread; Mom can eat no black bread today and eat her fill with A Lai!"

"May the Great Night Goddess bless us; hope there can be such a good job to earn money today too!"

Watching the central priest sprinkling holy water, a flash of envy crossed A Lai's eyes as he quietly left the church's dark corner.

Walking out of the Night Goddess's church, A Lai deliberately turned around on the street for a long time; shouts of chanting came from not far away, bringing a clean smile to his dusty face.

Following the sound, he ran over; a group of people were holding banners and flags parading on the street; people around either watched coldly or discussed for a moment before joining in.

A Lai squeezed into the crowd with his basket, following the people to the center where flags were being distributed; under his expectant gaze, the person distributing flags did not care that he was only about ten years old, and still handed him a flagpole.

Walking with the crowd on the street, waving flags while carefully watching if anyone put their hand into the basket holding bread.

Those at the front shouted words like "oppression" and "struggle"; he could hear them, and he heard some adults nearby explaining the specific meanings to others.

They wanted people to have stable jobs; stable market prices, instead of being monopolized by some people and skyrocketing; they wanted everyone to have food to eat and a house to live in!

Although he also very much hoped such a beautiful paradise could exist, in fact he was just looking forward to it ending quickly, so he could get the five penny wage reward with the flag right then.

Once he got the five penny reward this time, he would definitely spend seven pennies to buy a whole loaf of bread; Mom would definitely jump up from the bed in surprise!

Seems like a disturbance happened up front?

The crowd was blocked together, making it hard for him to see the scene ahead, but the screams and roars made him feel vaguely uneasy.

"Bang!"

Accompanied by a gunshot, countless gunshots rang out ahead!

The entire crowd fell silent for a second; accompanied by terrified screams, flags flying wildly, bullets weaving through, countless people spraying blood and falling to the ground; in the boy's daze, his basket was knocked over and spilled on the ground, and the countless people originally moving forward crazily fled toward the back and all directions away from this street.

A Lai's basket was knocked to the ground by a collision; fortunately, because the basket was deep, nothing spilled out. He hurriedly bent down to pick up the basket, but was submerged by the crowd.

The chaos on the street lasted possibly ten minutes, or possibly half an hour; A Lai, bending over to protect his basket, finally recovered from the pain and slowly stood up; scattered around lay several people who had fallen and seemed to have passed out, and even more lay on the ground who had originally been shouting at the front.

A Lai stood up with difficulty; although the basket was grayer, the bread fragments inside had not spilled out, just been jumbled more messily.

Besides that, he pulled out the flag he had been protecting from his bosom; this flag represented five pennies, and was his hope to buy a whole loaf of white bread.

Holding the flag, there was not a single person left on the street except those lying on the ground; the one who had scattered the flags had long since disappeared.

A Lai looked blankly around, pursing his lips as he carefully stuffed the flag back into his bosom: "It's fine, A Lai, as long as we have the flag we can go exchange it for five cents next time! Bread will be the same next time!"

Seeing the soldiers marching toward the wall at the end of the street, A Lai hurriedly picked up the basket and ran toward the lane leading home, pain coming from all parts of his body, yet he dared not stop for a moment.

"What's wrong with you? Your face is swollen from going out once? Were you beaten?"

Hearing the fat auntie's words, A Lai finally regained his senses and politely bowed: "Thank you for your concern, ma'am, these are all from my careless bumps!"

After speaking, he hurriedly slipped into the lane.

Seeing the other party still lively and jumping about, the fat auntie slowly sat back down, watching the patrolling soldiers pass by, and softly sighed: "Ever since the Church no longer manages the mortal world, ordinary people's lives are getting harder and harder!"

In the lane, a female worker with a child, one leg numb from years of factory labor, had originally been able to barely support this little child with some handicraft work, but now besides her income not rising, all controlled and monopolized daily necessities had gone up in price; even her bread had long since risen to nine pence, and life could no longer be described as difficult.

A Lai walked into the lane, only to find standing outside the door the person he least wanted to see.

Seeing A Lai, the middle-aged man dressed in a black tailcoat, wearing shiny white leather shoes, looked over: "A Lai! Where's your mother? The rooms around here belong to the factory; your mother has already been fired by the factory. I'm giving you one last night to get out of here!!"

After speaking, the man waved his hand to dispel the gloomy atmosphere around, disdainfully glanced at the dust-covered A Lai, then viciously poked A Lai's chest several times with the bottom of his cane before stepping toward outside the lane.

A Lai rubbed his painful chest, saw that the handle he had deliberately blackened was intact, and breathed a sigh of relief; as long as this place was dirty enough, the other party wouldn't come in to disturb his mother's rest!

He rubbed his cheeks to make himself look relatively clean, then carried the basket with a smile into that dim, windowless room.

On the bed, a woman with a pale complexion and hands full of old calluses lay flat on her back, looking at A Lai with a gentle expression: "A Lai! You're back?"

"Mom! I bought a lot of white bread today, and I even found a job that pays five pence a day! From now on we can all eat white bread!" A Lai sat by the bedside, eagerly placing the basket aside, and bit by bit took out a slightly larger piece of white bread crust, holding it high as if showing off.

The woman gently stroked A Lai's head without speaking, but her eyes were full of tenderness and pain.

A Lai eagerly talked about the fat auntie's trembling hands today, the Night Church's prayer, and the beautiful life proclaimed in the parade, his face filled with longing for the future.

"A Lai!" The woman's gentle voice interrupted him from continuing: "A Lai! You are very talented, but Mom has already been poisoned in the factory and left you! I no longer have the ability to continue taking care of you! The road ahead must be walked by yourself!"

A Lai's voice suddenly stopped; he pursed his lips, looking at his mother lying flat before him, the smile on his face receding, his gaze fixed on his mother's faint smile.

"A Lai! You are a strong little man! I believe you can do it! Mom won't be here; can you take good care of yourself?"

He hadn't cried when trampled on the street, nor when poked at the door, but now his eyes were brimming with tears, and he desperately held them back from falling.

Through blurred eyes, he seemed to see his mother still lying flat on the bed, without that familiar smile, without those gentle words.

But A Lai still nodded heavily: "Mom, rest assured! I definitely can!"

A faint white light in the whole room automatically returned into A Lai's body; A Lai wiped his tears, looking at his mother lying flat before him, and his tears once again could not help but gush forth like a spring.

Behind A Lai, Jiang Xuan's figure gradually condensed. (Chapter End)