Lord of the Mysteries

The prayer hall in the Evernight cathedral was as dark as before. Only the holes on the walls allowed some light to seep in, like stars in the night.

Klein sat in a corner that wasn’t eye-catching. He took off his tall hat and began praying like a pious member of the congregation.

He simply mentioned how Roselle had revived in his last mausoleum, and focused on the corruption of the Primordial Moon. He deliberately emphasized that, in order to prevent the “crimson moon” within him from being born in the real world, Roselle had chosen to terminate the process of having his Black Emperor Uniqueness and three Sequence 1 characteristics return to him.

At the end of the prayer, Klein pointed out the hidden dangers of the Cards of Blasphemy, and he expressed his concerns about the whereabouts of the Mother card and The Moon Card.

In fact, Roselle only mentioned the need to be careful of the Mother card and didn’t mention The Moon. However, Klein knew that the two pathways of Earth and Moon belonged to the Mother Goddess of Depravity. Therefore, to be cautious, he specially added The Moon Card.

This was also the main reason he was worried about Earth Mother Lilith.

Compared to most of the twenty-two pathways, the High-Sequence Beyonders of the Planter and Moon pathway had a huge advantage. That was that they didn’t need to worry about the Primordial One from awakening in their bodies. They didn’t need to worry about dissociation from approaching the world underground. This was because the Beyonder characteristics they possessed didn’t directly come from the Primordial One which led to no corresponding mental imprint. However, if they were to directly go underground and enter the Chaos Sea, no matter who it was, they would encounter corruption. It was just that the extent would be different.

This advantage was very likely due to the fact that the Sanguine Ancestor Lilith was more special than the other ancient gods. After all, “She” didn’t need to divert a large part of “Her” energy to resist the will of the Primordial One awakening within her. And back then, the invisible barrier protecting this world was still sufficiently sturdy, separating the Mother Goddess of Depravity and the other Great Old Ones from Earth, making it difficult for “Them” to exert too much of an influence on the situation inside.

But with the passage of time, this advantage gradually became a problem.

As the underground corruption became weaker and weaker, the invisible barrier also became weaker and cracks began appearing. Under such circumstances, Earth Mother Lilith’s situation became worse. This was because “She” was facing the intrusion of the Mother Goddess of Depravity that was ever increasing in potency and terror. In this aspect, the original Creator—the Oldest One—who was dead was definitely inferior to the living Mother Goddess of Depravity.

Considering how Outer Deities who had transcended Sequences had an influence on Beyonders from their own pathway, Klein felt that he couldn’t afford negligence on such matters.

After he finished his prayer, he waited for nearly five minutes. After confirming that there was no response, he stood up, put on his wandering magician’s tall hat, and walked out of the cathedral that belonged to the Evernight.

To him, this was mainly a disclosure obligation. As for what the Evernight Goddess planned to do with it, or if “She” would remind him of certain matters, it was beyond his control.

In short, Klein could only temporarily believe that the Evernight Goddess knew the relative importance of matters.

…

Backlund, at the Harvest Church south of the Bridge.

The top-hatted Emlyn White got off his carriage and looked at the sun covered by the clouds and mist.

On the way to the entrance of the cathedral, he gently rotated the ring on his left hand, as if to flaunt his identity.

The ring was semi-translucent in color, as though it was made from light-red amber. There was a blood-red gem embedded on its tip—a reward Emlyn had received a long time ago—Lilith’s Ring.

After becoming a demigod, Emlyn could suppress the effect of bloodthirst from the ring to a certain extent. Every day, he only needed to drink three bottles of human blood to be immune to the corresponding negative effects. Therefore, in order to showcase his special identity as the Ancestor’s Blessed, he began wearing this ring permanently.

After entering the Harvest Church, Emlyn automatically removed his top hat.

At this moment, Cosmi, Ernes, and the other Sanguine in Backlund, who were waiting for Bishop Utravsky, stood up one after another. Looking down at the aisle, they greeted softly, “Good morning, My Lord.”

Emlyn looked ahead and nodded indiscernibly.

“Is Mistral still not here yet?”

“Count Mistral set up a chapel at home,” Ernes simply explained.

Emlyn didn’t comment on this. He walked forward and casually said, “He will still have to come when Mass is held.”

He looked around before saying, “Where’s Bishop Utravsky?”

“The bishop is waiting for you behind. The Church’s envoy has arrived.” Ernes controlled his facial expression as he answered Emlyn’s question politely.

The Church’s envoy… Emlyn rotated the light-red ring on his left hand and walked to the back of the cathedral.

Soon, he saw Father Utravsky and the slightly curly black-haired envoy the Church with a tall nose and deep eyes.

“This is the archbishop, His Grace Loreto,” Father Utravsky introduced the envoy to Emlyn.

He stood by the window, blocking most of the light.

“Good morning, Your Grace,” Emlyn replied with the etiquette of the Church of Earth.

Loreto smiled and spoke in rather awkward Loenese.

“There’s no need to address me as Your Grace. Although you aren’t an archbishop, you have the status of an archbishop. From today onwards, you will be a hierophant, a high-ranking deacon of the Church. You will be in charge of the Sanguine matters in Backlund.”

Without giving Emlyn any time to digest this information, Loreto continued, “I came to Backlund under the Holy See’s orders. I’ll tell you everything that needs to be taken note of within the Church.”

“Please speak,” Emlyn suppressed his glee and said politely.

Loreto’s expression immediately turned serious.

“First of all, the most important point is that, be it the clergymen of the Church or the believers of the Earth Mother, as long as you claim that you have obtained a revelation, they are individuals who have been enticed by demons—with no exceptions.

“If anyone reports something like this to you, or if you have obtained a revelation personally, please inform Bishop Utravsky as soon as possible and report it to the Church.”

Father Utravsky didn’t mention this before… This request sounds very strange, as though there’s some suspicion… Emlyn frowned as he looked at Father Utravsky who was standing by the window.

“The bishop never said anything about taking note of such matters…”

Before he finished his sentence, Emlyn suddenly realized that he came off as criticizing Bishop Utravsky, but he couldn’t find any better explanation in his haste.

Almost at the same time, he understood what was odd about what Archbishop Loreto had said.

This was telling everyone that the Earth Mother you sensed isn’t the real Earth Mother!

This is saying that a large number of the revelations us Sanguine received from the Ancestor are fake. It’s from demons or evil gods… The look in Emlyn’s eyes sank as he tried to maintain his composure.

At this moment, Loreto didn’t mind and smiled.

“Bishop Utravsky didn’t tell you because he didn’t know either.”

Father didn’t know… In that instant, Emlyn actually felt a little sympathetic towards Bishop Utravsky. He felt that as a Feysacian, a hierophant who had changed faith in his later years, he had been ostracized by the other members of the Church of Earth.

Sensing the change in his gaze, Loreto added, “That’s because he’s a Blessed. He doesn’t need to care about the temptation of demons and evil gods.”

Bishop Utravsky nodded and said calmly, “The revelations of Earth Mother are in ‘Her’ Holy Bible, in those lines of teaching. Anything other than that is heresy.”

Emlyn was somewhat puzzled, but he couldn’t think of any question. He grunted and said to Loreto, “Then what is the second point that needs paying attention?”

Loreto made his expression turn serious.

“If you receive a revelation, don’t blindly believe it. Please immediately seek confirmation from Bishop Utravsky.”

“Why?” Emlyn was puzzled.

This was basically telling him that the only response he would receive was either from evil gods or demons.

Loreto deliberated over his words and explained in detail,

“In this world, there are many evil existences. ‘They’ will pretend to be deities, and bewitch the clergyman in an act of enticing believers.

“That’s because the two main pathways of the Church of Earth Mother are related to life. Therefore, the effects they receive are more severe than the other Churches. From time to time, there are people who will take the wrong path and attempt forbidden life experiments; thus, slowly degenerating.

“In order to prevent such a development, we reorganized the Church a long time ago under the guidance of the Mother’s will to establish the system of a Favored and Blessed.”

Favored and Blessed… Emlyn’s understanding of the Church of Earth was limited to the Holy Bible and part of the scriptures. He was momentarily at a loss.

He had never taken the initiative to ask Father Utravsky about the Church of Earth Mother.

Loreto glanced at Emlyn and nodded slightly.

“The Favored are clergymen who have won the Mother’s favor and are from the two pathways of Earth and Moon. The Blessed refers to people who have obtained the Mother’s blessing and are from other pathways.

“The latter is less affected by the demons and evil gods. It can help us verify the authenticity of the revelations.

“Under such circumstances, even if it’s a decree issued by the Holy See, there has to be at least a second-in-command Favored. Otherwise, it can be regarded as null and void.”

As he spoke, Loreto took out a document and unfolded it in front of Emlyn. Apart from what the archbishop had just said, it included the details of him accepting the mission and appointment as an envoy.

At the end of the document, there were a few names. The first was from the Holy See of the Church of Earth, Matriarch Roland, and the rest were all names that Emlyn didn’t know. He barely recognized the last one to be Father Utravsky.

Father Utravsky’s handwriting is really ugly… As Emlyn mumbled to himself, he began to have a strong sense of doubt regarding the Blessed and Favored system.

Why were the Blessed less enticed by evil gods or demons?

Why were they able to verify a revelation, but the Favored couldn’t?

As his thoughts raced, Emlyn suddenly noticed a detail:

The Blessed aren’t from the two pathways of Earth and Moon!

Therefore, the problem didn’t lie in the Favored, but the two pathways themselves? Emlyn vaguely felt that his guess was the truth.