Probably because they were leaving Gagor, therefore leaving behind the temple, Brainless Sheng had been very quiet the last few days, no longer clamoring for control of the body, which made Zhou Yun Sheng let loose a huge sigh of relief.
At the moment, he was sitting in a luxurious and comfortable carriage, carving a statue of the Light God. In doing so, Brainless Sheng would be quieter, after only four hours of prayer every day and finishing a statue, he would go to sleep.
The Pope was also with them on the road. After passing through the elf and beastman villages they would part ways, one visiting the dark forest, the other returning to the Central Church.
Zhou Yun Sheng knew that the continent was not peaceful, but the situation was even more serious than in Joshua's memory. Demon fog seemed to be everywhere, in every passing town they would meet parasitic human beings. They either boldly slaughtered, or secretly made trouble to breed fear, disturbing the villagers' quiet and peaceful lives with earth-shaking events.
More demon fog corrupted and mutated plants and animals were lurking in the dark, waiting for their chance to move. Land and waters gone black, withered vegetation, these were the scenes Zhou Yun Sheng had become familiar with.
If things went on like this, the situation would become more and more serious. As the God of Light, shouldn't he be benevolent? Shouldn't he spill out light to banish the darkness? Why does Adounis seem to be behaving like a spectator? Can he not fight the Dark God?
Whenever Zhou Yun Sheng had such speculations, Brainless Sheng would jump out to vigorously defend his Father, giving him a very painful headache, so over time, he stopped thinking about it.
The Pope's team was falling in behind him. Every time they met a demon, the warriors and mages who guarded the Pope would work together to kill it, so the Pope never showed up, even the light circle that surrounded the group was held up by several other light priests.
After a long time, Zhou Yun Sheng finally bothered to speculate. He knew that the Second Prince and Boel's crowns and rings were broken, so the Pope's scepter should also be lost. The Light God had even rejected his destined lover, he wouldn't be more lenient on the Pope. It was not enough justice to just destroy his symbol of right, the Light God could've possibly also recovered the power he'd given him.
Yes, in this motherfucking world, a light priest's power could be taken away at any time, which was why Zhou Yun Sheng was not allowed to offend the God of Light. The God of Light manipulated the world with divine power, making all the creatures dance to his tune, who knows, maybe even the spread of demon fog was according to his will.
In this way, the God of Light didn't seem so bright. Of course, he only dared to rapidly flash this idea across his mind, afraid of waking up Brainless Sheng and bringing trouble.
He preached the gospel all the way, dispersing the demon fog, killing demons, purifying the contaminated land and water, causing the name of Priest Joshua to be gradually known. Especially to the people of Sagya Kingdom, who had already dubbed him a Holy Man.
One day, they finally left the Kingdom's land and set foot on the boundary of the elves and beastmen's land. The demon fog's situation there seemed to be more serious than in previous lands, along the way, large tracts of the forest was shrouded in black mist, just like another dark forest.
And the demonic and dark beasts were more frequent, and at a higher level.
Because there were no really strong light priests to prop up the light circle, the Pope's team suffered heavy casualties, which also confirmed Zhou Yun Sheng's suspicions. But he would never be kind enough to help the other man, instead, he chose to stand idly by. It would be best if the Pope died on his way back to the Central Church, he didn't forget that the Pope was coveting his light scepter and holy robe with poisonous eyes.
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A king-level dark saber-toothed tiger leapt out from the bushes and roared toward the team. Its crimson eyes were full of desire for flesh and blood, and it could breathe a strong corrosive black fire, as long as it touched something, it couldn't be extinguished. Clothes, human bodies, weapons, and even magic tools would be burnt to ash.
Only the power of light could resist its flames from hell.
The priests of the Central Church had spent all their power of light on the way, even if the group of priests joined together, they could barely hold up a thin layer of light, and once it was struck by the saber-toothed tiger, it rippled like waves, then gradually disappeared.
In contrast, the team with the troops from Sagya Kingdom just had one young man sitting on top of the cart's shaft, one foot dangling down, one foot bent, relaxing on the hand carved wood. He didn't hold his scepter to summon light, nor did he chant any spells, but he could hold up a light circle brighter than the sun under heaven.
The saber-toothed tiger obviously felt the boy's strength, so it always avoid him, and didn't dare get close to his team. When it was occasionally hit by a warrior or mage and coincidentally landed on the boy's light circle, it always felt like its body was about to burst from the pain, so it was even more afraid to get close.
As a result, the Pope's team endured almost all of its fury, in just ten minutes, more than half of their manpower suffered casualties. A light priest couldn't stand it anymore and shouted, "Priest Joshua, please help us! Don't forget, it's your duty to protect the Pope."
Zhou Yun Sheng blew off some wood shavings and gently stroked the face of the statue in his hands, casually opening, "The words you just said seem somewhat off. The strong should be protecting the weak. I'm only 18 years old, my tittle is only that of a small light priest, how can my strength be compared with the 300 yr. old His Holiness Pope? You should ask your Pope for help, not me. After all, you are his men, not mine."
The words rendered the light priests speechless. They looked at each other, then looked into the carriage behind them.
The Pope's forehead burst out in cold sweat. Only he knew, as time went on, even if he didn't participate in any battles, his body's power of light was slowly leaking out. It was as if there was an unseen hand, erasing his light attributes bit by bit, if things went on like this, he would turn into an ordinary man sooner or later.
No one knew better than him about the contempt and isolation priests who lost all their power of light suffered, not to mention, he was once the superior Pope.
Along the way, he desperately prayed to the Father, but instead of a gift from the Father, his light power drained faster. He realized that he had been completely rejected by the Father.
At the moment, don't even expect him to hold up a light circle, even a shower of light was beyond him. If everyone else became aware of this, he could only imagine the future that was awaiting him.
Go out or don't go out? That didn't seem to be his choice. The Pope's teeth clenched and his expression twisted, he hated Joshua to the bone.
But as one of the protagonists of the world, he still had a little luck on his side, so, when he was about to open the carriage's curtain, a light circle suddenly appeared over his team, extinguishing the saber-toothed tiger's black fire. Then, several burly beastmen and beautiful elves appeared in the light circle as if out of thin air.
Their levels were in the middle of king level, so together they could deal with the peak king level dark beast without difficulty. After some back and forth, a group of light arrows pierced between the dark beast's eyebrows, killing it.
Demon fog quickly corroded the dark beast's body, only leaving behind its black animal nucleus, which shone with an ominous light under the sunlight. If they let another animal swallow it, it would turn it into another dark beast.
An elf wearing a white priest's robe gracefully jumped down from a tree, singing a purification spell. The demon fog within the animal nucleus dispersed, then he picked it up and handed it to his companions.
He had long, ankle-length blonde hair and emerald-green eyes, he was also holding a short scepter, its top inlaid with three light stones. His status was second only to the Pope, the elf clan's High Priest – Bowen Derek.
Because the elf clan didn't like to interact with humans, their temple was independent of the Central Church. Their High Priests were not governed by the Church, and therefore didn't follow the Bishop's name.
But Bowen and the Pope were not enemies, in fact, they had quite a harmonious friendship.
He glanced at the boy who had refuse to assist with cold eyes, then entered the Pope's carriage.
"Herman my old friend, are you okay?" He whispered.
The Pope smiled bitterly, "I'm afraid I've been better. I got injured fighting a high-rank demon, the wound will take a long time to heal." He said this while pulling open his robe, letting Bowen see the huge black hole in his chest, a wound from demon fog erosion.
This was his arrangement. He knew who saved Boel, and also knew just how corrupt the demon's fog was, so he'd collected some demon fog into a sword and stabbed himself in the chest, letting all the demon fog pour in. Although the wound was very painful, it could help him cover up his lack of strength, and once he went back to the Central Church, there was naturally a large amount of holy water to cleanse the demon fog.
Bowen observed the wound intently, then his face suddenly changed, "This demon fog is so overbearing, I'm afraid that only a Devil King of the Dark Abyss could leave such a wound behind."
Devil King? Far greater than that! The Pope forced a smile.
Bowen immediately cast a few healing techniques, saw that the wound was slightly easing, then whispered, "Boel is in our tribe's land. I heard you were plotted against by a priest named Joshua? He arrived at our doorsteps with very heavy injuries, such a good person, why would anyone be willing to hurt him? What did you experience?"
Boel's description was very vague, but because he always revealed a horrified expression when trying to talk about it, and even kept waking up screaming from endless nightmares, the Elf King and the High Priest didn't dare probe him too much, so they only knew he had an encounter with a boy named Joshua.
The elves and beastmen originally lived in different lands, but because the mainland was being eroded by the demon fog, they had to move into the same forest. They knew that only with someone else to watch their backs and help, could the remaining three races survive. The beastmen also learned of Boel's plight and felt endless heartache.
Before they even met, the two clans had already declared Joshua an enemy.
The Pope's eyes flashed, then he sighed, "It's just a matter of jockeying. Joshua was supposed to be the next Bishop of Sagya Kingdom, but because of Boel's arrival, he lost his opportunity ….." He didn't elaborate on purpose, keeping the details allusive. He knew that the elves have always been a prideful and forthright race, they were very impatient with these types of sneaky schemes.
Bowen frowned, his eyes filling with disgust, and sure enough, he didn't ask for elaboration.
"Speaking of which, the other team is led by Priest Joshua. You should've seen him out front, haven't you?" The Pope pointed outside to the opposite carriage.
"Was that him? No wonder! And such a man can be called a light priest?" Bowen's impression of the boy fell directly to the bottom.