Chapter 4

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Chapter 4: Resurrection Overture (IV)

The man who had made Chen Baiqi feel depressed for so long yet suddenly had come back from the dead abruptly opened his eyes and grabbed her, asking eagerly, “It’s a long story. I’ll elaborate later. Where’s Ning Zhou? Is he back yet? I want to see him! Right now!”

Chen Baiqi’s face changed. Ning Zhou had come back, but he’d left again. First, he went to the Holy See in Neverland. Now I’m afraid he’s gone to Purgatory…

The sound of an aircraft came overhead. The two people looked up and watched the small aircraft land beside them. Before landing, the hatch was opened. Al, an executive officer of the Court who was familiar with Qi Leren, jumped out of the aircraft and landed firmly beside the Qi Leren: “Why are you here? Are you not dead?”

“Dead, affected by a special-magic-resurrection-tool, and alive again.” With this, Qi Leren remembered Maria’s entrustment and asked Al, “Is the Prophet in the Courthouse? Ms. Maria asked me to give him something.”

Al and Chen Baiqi looked at each other in disbelief. Chen Baiqi pondered and asked, “Ms. Maria?”

“I saw her… soul? Or the remaining consciousness? I don’t know what it was… but it should be her,” Qi Leren said.

Al looked solemn. “I’ll take you back to the Courthouse first.”

Qi Leren nodded, followed Al on the aircraft, and then turned back and told Chen Baiqi: “I’ll be back soon. You tell Ning Zhou that I’m fine… I, I have something to tell him.”

The hatch was closed, and the aircraft carrying Qi Leren took off from the beach. Just now, the huge movement had attracted the nearby pedestrians. Fortunately, this area was relatively remote, and the Court issued martial law in the area before the onlookers gathered. Chen Baiqi was also politely asked to leave. She was familiar with the executives of the Court and left the beach while talking about the situation just now.

Looking at aircraft flying farther and farther, Chen Baiqi gave a long sigh. Until Ning Zhou wrote back, she really couldn’t contact him.

After many days, Qi Leren once again came to the Court. After the aircraft landed, he was directly brought in front of Si Ling, and Qi Leren was deeply impressed by the Court’s acting chief executive—mainly because he was flamboyant looking and had long hair, and his eyes were still those unsettling snake eyes. Although Si Ling had always been very polite to him, Qi Leren always felt that this was for Ning Zhou’s face and that Si Ling didn’t really like him.

It should be said that Si Ling didn’t seem to like anyone.

After seeing Si Ling, Qi Leren told him about Maria’s entrustment but did not say what it was.

“The Master Prophet is sleeping. When there’s no major business, we try not to disturb him.” Si Ling said, “You can give us the item and when the Prophet wakes up, we will give it to him.”

On the way back to the Village of Dusk, Qi Leren had almost been robbed by an unknown great god. He flatly refused: “I can’t violate Ms. Maria’s trust. This thing is very important. I must give it to him personally.”

Si Ling smiled—let’s just call it a laugh. In Qi Leren’s eyes, none of his facial features moved, only his mouth raised: “I’m afraid you don’t understand what kind of existence the Prophet is. I’ll give you a simple example: Remember when you went undercover with the Slaughter Secret Society? At the last minute, when the Lord of Slaughter’s believers fled everywhere we sealed off the whole enchantment of the Village of Dawn, but it was still too late and we let two believers escape. Why was it so late? Because even if it was such a thing, we had not awakened the Prophet but had indirectly borrowed his strength. Otherwise, no fish would have slipped through the net.

"If you want me to wake up the Prophet in advance, you have to prove to me the importance of that thing,” Si Ling said.

Qi Leren fell into hesitation. Should he tell Si Ling? In fact, he was very clear: if even the boss responsible for guarding order in the Twilight Township couldn’t be trusted, there was no one to trust in the whole Twilight Township, or in other words, this human camp had been completely finished. Although he didn’t like Si Ling’s attitude, intellectually speaking, he understood Si Ling’s actions.

“Okay, but I can only tell you alone. The less people who know, the better,” Qi Leren said.

Si Ling thought for a moment and agreed to his request. Al shrugged aside and went out, closing the door for them.

There was only Qi Leren and Si Ling left in the office.

“Now you can say it.” Si Ling folded his hands on the table, as if he would listen carefully.

Qi Leren looked at the “Scepter of Hell” in his item bar. It didn’t even have a description. The description that should have followed the name was three question marks.

Qi Leren said, “Maybe you haven’t heard of this thing, but it’s very important. On the way here, I met an unidentified person who tried to cheat it from me. This thing is called the ‘Scepter of Hell’…”

“…Fuck!” Si Ling jumped up from his chair, one hundred thousand percent surprised, “Say that again?!”

Si Ling’s reaction was too big; the teacups on the table were overturned and the hot water flowed all over the table, but he didn’t feel a thing at all, staring straight at Qi Leren as if he meant to take it from his item bar personally.

Qi Leren was shocked and said, "The Scepter of Hell.”

Si Ling took a deep breath and covered his forehead: “This thing is in your hands…”

“To be precise, it’s in Ms. Maria’s hands, I’m only responsible for the transfer,” Qi Leren corrected.

Si Ling called Al in: “Convene all the deliberation members immediately and hold a meeting in 20 minutes. I’m initiating an urgent agenda requesting to awaken the Prophet.”

Al looked at Si Ling with a face of confusion, then at Qi Leren’s face of innocence, nodded, and turned away.

“You wait here, I’ll take you to the Prophet in half an hour.” Si Ling seems to be sure that this proposal would be passed. He picked up his coat from the back of the seat and strode to the door.

Once again, Qi Leren looked at his item bar. So, this was really something very important? Si Ling had walked so fast that he didn’t even have time to ask… Forget it, knowing too much wasn’t a good thing.

Fifteen minutes passed and people came one after another to the huge conference room. Most of them were wearing the uniforms of the Courthouse. One of them smiled at Si Ling: “Boss suddenly called an urgent meeting. Is it because of the holy light that arrived just now?”

A blindfolded woman handling cards said faintly, “The light came from the direction of the Holy City, and the breath should be the Holy Nun.”

“Hasn’t her Lady the Holy Nun already fallen?”

“It’s normal for field-level master’s consciousnesses to remain in the world.”

“That’s true. Is it related to the sudden collapse of the Holy City’s field a few days ago?”

“Ah, I feel certain that something big is going to happen…”

The people in the conference room talked quietly.

Five minutes passed and only one seat remained empty. Si Ling impatiently knocked on the tabletop with a pen: “Where is the Illusionist?”

The middle-aged man sitting next to him said, “I entrusted him to perform a task, I’m afraid he won’t be back until tomorrow.”

Si Ling said strangely, “How can the work of the heresy-judgment section be handed over to someone of his discipline?”

The middle-aged man replied: “The people who believe in this Utopia are very special, very good at illusions, and they are suspected to have been demonized. Several executives who had dealt with it before couldn’t cope with it. Let him be a visionary.”

Si Ling nodded: “Let’s have the meeting now. The urgent agenda should be attended by the special envoy of the Holy See. However, since Mr. Ning Zhou has left the Holy See, the Holy See has not yet decided on a new special envoy, so everything is simple. I will submit the meeting to the Holy See later.

"Just now, someone brought a message from the Holy Nun back from the Holy City, which is of great importance. It is necessary to inform the Prophet immediately. The specific content is not convenient to disclose. Now vote.” Si Ling’s slender vertical pupils passed over everyone’s face.

……

……

……

After the meeting, Qi Leren was led by Si Ling, who looked solemn and resigned, and walked towards the Court’s underground. He didn’t expect it to be so big here, and there was snow and ice everywhere. Even the elevators were made of ice, carrying them to the endless abyss.

The elevator stopped, the translucent ice door opened, and there was deep darkness ahead, but with their arrival the bottomless and chilly darkness lit up, and a dazzling white light lit the underground ice palace like an invisible sun. Right in front of it was an empty corridor with ice pillars that would need four or five people to reach around them on each side. They were tens of meters high, making one feel that this wasn’t underground but rather as if they were on a planet of ice and snow.

In this cold silence, Si Ling walked forward with Qi Leren.

It should be very cold here, Qi Leren thought, because the air he exhaled quickly condensed into a cloud of white gas. It was strange that his body didn’t feel cold, making him wonder whether there was something wrong with the temperature here or with his body.

At the end of the corridor an underground church, which was as tall and majestic as a castle of ice and snow, suddenly appeared in front of him, which was more magnificent than the church on the site of the Vatican. Perhaps it was due to the material. It looked like a giant cathedral. Standing in front of the door, Qi Leren and Si Ling were even less than a quarter of its height.

“Is this a church?” Qi Leren asked.

“No, this is a tomb,” Si Ling answered.

Qi Leren eyed him with puzzlement, and Si Ling looked intently at the church door. The vertical pupils like those of cold-blooded animals showed obvious respect and an indescribable helplessness.

“You will meet the Master Prophet in a moment. No matter what he says, you don’t have to be surprised,” Si Ling said.

“I’ll try my best.” As Qi Leren spoke, he couldn’t help wondering if the Prophet had the ability to see the future, or else why he was called a “prophet”?

The door of the church opened slowly in front of the two. The people who opened the door were two tall ice sculptures. They opened the huge door silently, and then went back to the sides and stood quietly. If Qi Leren hadn’t seen them move with his own eyes, he wouldn’t be able to see the difference between them and the other ice sculptures.

Behind the door was the inside of a cathedral, just like an ordinary church with rows of pews, but there was no statue of any religious figure at the forefront, but rather a frozen pool. In front of the pool was a wall as tall as a mountain, with a relief of the Vatican mark on it. Qi Leren had seen this pattern on Ning Zhou’s collar, symbolizing that God’s authority would suppress demons in hell forever.

No matter how you’d look at it, it was a church. Why did Si Ling say it was a tomb?

Just when he was about to ask, Si Ling led him to the middle of the pool. The thick ice could completely withstand the weight of two people. Qi Leren even suspected that the whole pool had frozen into a large piece of ice.

Si Ling drew a cross on his chest and a faint light came out from him. Suddenly there was the sound of ice cracking at his feet. Qi Leren got a fright and quickly lowered his head—the ice at his feet had already cracked, revealing the blue water under the ice! Before Qi Leren could react, they fell into the freezing cold water together!

With a bang, Qi Leren felt that he had fallen into water, but when he hurriedly inhaled he found that he didn’t choke on water, but instead smoothly sucked in a mouthful of air. The water was not as cold as he had imagined, and he had no discomfort except the feeling of floating with his feet unable to touch the ground.

The bottom of the water was faint blue. Somehow there was an ice lotus floating with light blue light, which made this mysterious water seem like a dream. At the bottom of the pool, there was an ice coffin that had sunk to the bottom of the water, and a figure could be seen vaguely through the ice.

Was it the Prophet? Qi Leren felt an “alarm” in his heart when he saw the Master Prophet who had been “sleeping” for a long time. Suddenly there was a bad feeling…

The ice coffin never opened, but there were countless silvery white spots in the water which condensed into an illusory figure. He was dressed in a white holy robe and his appearance was that of a young teenager, just like an inexperienced youth, but when one looked into his eyes, they would suddenly forget their own judgment—because he was like a “God” who had come down from religious murals, not a person with joys and sorrows.

“I didn’t expect to meet you again so soon, Qi Leren.” The Prophet did not speak, but his “voice” echoed in the waters, ethereal and otherworldly.

“We’ve met?” Qi Leren asked, puzzled.

The Prophet suddenly showed a sly smile—at this moment, his holy and alien temperament was swept away and the part that belonged to divinity was hidden, leaving the part that belonged to humans, which made him come alive in Qi Leren’s eyes for a moment.

He said in a lively and cheerful tone: “Of course, we lived together for seven whole days. You were very shy about taking off your clothes and showing me. We also discussed makeup techniques with each other. Although your mouth was reluctant, your body honestly painted me very beautifully with makeup. In fact, I really want to wear women’s clothes and walk around the Courthouse, but for the sake of everyone’s hearts, I still only show my students a reserved appearance…”

“Master Prophet, please try to keep your mouth shut for the sake of the Courthouse and your personal image, okay?” The last two words are almost squeezed out of Si Ling’s teeth.

The Prophet, who had revealed himself as soon as he opened his mouth, resumed his divine smile: “No.”

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