vncnus Chapter 916: Not Bad Luck!
Chapter 916: Not Bad Luck!
Bright Divine Realm.
An endlessly vast territory, divided into three major parts.
The outermost area is where ordinary peasants live.
Even after thousands of years, the peasants here still lead an agrarian life.
Their entire lives are dedicated to three things.
Farming, eating and sleeping, and praying.
Among these, prayer occupies even a third of their time.
No matter how busy their farming work becomes, they must never neglect prayer time.
If a person dedicates a third of their time to prayer, it will produce a Faith Crystal, which must be submitted to the Divine Temple daily, the most crucial task in the Bright Divine Realm.
If the Divine Temple discovers a missing Faith Crystal, it will be considered blasphemy, with penalties ranging from punishment to execution, possibly implicating the entire family!
Due to the time constraints, the peasants live extremely impoverished lives.
No matter how industrious one is, dedicating a third of their day to prayer leaves little energy for anything else.
Poverty, backwardness, and hardship are synonymous with being an ordinary peasant here.
However, the Divine Temple eventually offers these people a sliver of hope.
If three generations of a poor family consistently submit their Faith Crystals on time, they can earn a scholarship for education.
A child from the family can be sent to the second layer of the Bright Divine Realm for education and life experience.
The second layer includes the Sea of Divine Grace and the Prison of Divine Might, where scholarship-awarded children can study to become Temple Knights or cultivators!
This is the only path for ordinary peasants to escape their suffering.
The best among the Temple Knights and cultivators can enter the core of the Bright Divine Realm, the Divine Realm.
Legend has it that the God of Light resides there, living free from worry, with an eternal lifespan.
Everyone in the Bright Divine Realm hopes that one day their descendants can enter the Divine Realm.
...
Dong!
Dong!
Dong!
The Divine Temple bell tolls, signaling the time to submit the Faith Crystals.
"Sally, let’s head out together..."
In a simple farmhouse courtyard, a little girl of seven or eight years old blinks her big eyes and calls out to her friend.
"Namu, are you alone? Isn’t your mom going with you to the Divine Temple?"
Sally’s mother rubs the little girl’s head with a smile.
Namu sniffs and mumbles, "My mom has to go submit the Faith Crystal..."
A hint of pity flashes in Sally’s mother’s eyes.
Namu’s father has passed away, and now only her mother is around — indeed, there’s no one accompanying her.
"Alright then, you can go to the Divine Temple with Sally."
Sally’s mother says gently.
Today marks the eighth birthday for both little girls, who will undergo baptism at the Divine Temple and receive divine grace.
Starting today, they can begin to pray and produce Faith Crystals.
In this way, the children don’t need to work, allowing more prayer time, which frees adults to work more — it’s rare good news for Namu’s family.
Only then does a little girl with a sprinkling of freckles on her face step out of the simple house.
"Mommy, can I not go to the Divine Temple?"
The little girl Sally affectionately takes her friend Namu’s hand and looks at her mother.
"Why?"
Sally’s mother looks at her daughter in surprise.
Sally bows her head without speaking.
She dares not say that she feels she may not have faith in the God of Light.
If God really exists, why are their lives so poor?
Her parents were like this, her grandparents were like this, even her grandfather’s grandpa was like this.
Always just barely managing to get enough food.
She can’t understand why, if God exists, they don’t let them live better lives.
Seeing her daughter not speaking, Sally’s mother assumes it was just an offhand remark and doesn’t think much of it.
One hand holding her daughter, the other holding Namu, she walks toward the Divine Temple.
The Divine Temple is the grandest building in the village.
While many households have rundown, simple wooden houses, the Divine Temple boasts a splendid marble structure.
Villagers come here and instinctively feel inferior and reverent.
On this day, there were six children in the village turning eight years old and undergoing baptism.
A cultivator, dressed in a white robe, comes expressionlessly before Namu.
Namu anxiously grasps Sally’s mother’s hand.
"Before the God of Light, in the name of God, I bestow upon you the sincerest blessings. From today, you may call upon the name of God, praying in his name..."
The cultivator from the Sea of Divine Grace routinely recites the baptism scriptures.
With a wave of his hand, a white light from the Holy Codex in the cultivator’s hand falls into Namu’s brow.
Namu’s face suddenly reveals reverence, faith, compassion, brightness, gratitude, and a blend of emotions.
Perhaps Earth dwellers could never imagine such complex emotions appearing on one face; this might be the power of the divine.
After baptizing Namu, the cultivator proceeds to Sally, reciting scripture anew.
Sally’s mother, meanwhile, smiles and congratulates Namu.
"...praying in His name..."
The cultivator waves his hand once more, and a white light shimmers from the Holy Codex.
Just as the cultivator is about to step away, he suddenly finds, bewildered, that the white light suspends before Sally, completely still.
The cultivator is somewhat astonished, seemingly unable to understand what has happened.
Sally’s mother moves her gaze between her daughter and the cultivator, puzzled — she’s never heard of such an occurrence.
At this moment, like recalling something, the cultivator suddenly cries out, "Blasphemy! That’s a Blasphemer!"
Boom!
The cultivator raises his hand, sending a red beam straight into the sky!
Beep, beep!
Alarms sound, and a moment later, three armored Temple Knights rush before Sally’s mother and Sally, pointing their glittering Cross Swords at them.
The cultivator, frantic, points at Sally, as if seeing some Demon.
"Kill her, kill her now! She’s a faithless Blasphemer!"
Pity the cultivator, who, during studies at the Divine Temple, only heard elder cultivators talk about faithless Blasphemers appearing during baptism.
Yet, having been in the village for fifty years, he never encountered a faithless Blasphemer before.
So much so that he initially failed to comprehend what it meant for the Godlight not to enter the little girl’s brow.
"No... Cultivator sir, there must be some mistake somewhere!"
Sally’s mother stands before her daughter, her face full of terror.
Namu stands there, stunned, watching her little friend, not understanding what’s happening.
"Accursed faithless Blasphemer, die!"
Three Temple Knights, faces twisted, swing their swords to slash, intending to kill Sally and her mother together.
Seeing mother and daughter about to die under the Temple Knights’ blades, a bolt of thunder explodes in the sky!
Rumble!
The mighty sound of thunder shakes the surroundings.
The three sword-wielding Temple Knights stumble, falling to the ground in embarrassment.
The grand marble church shakes in the thunderclap.
Everyone wears a look of terror.
Clap, clap, clap!
Footsteps sound from outside the Divine Temple.
Squeak.
The Divine Temple doors are pushed open, and a white-clad figure walks in from outside.
The white robe on this person flutters in the breeze, floating like an immortal.
Different from the attire of Divine Realm peasants or temple cultivators, it’s a strange style.
"There are survivors? Quite lucky..."
The newcomer speaks in a foreign language, which no one present can understand.