Chapter 112
Quickly Wear the Face of the Devil
Zhou Yun Sheng was confused and heartbroken by Boel’s bragging and provocative words.
If it was a normal day, the most he would do was curl up at the Father’s feet and carefully hold on to his legs, but now, he rushed into his arms and laid on his knees as he cried.
The waterfall of tears fell onto the statue, which was equivalent to falling onto his own skin. The hot temperature caused the Light God to finally understand what it meant to be distressed yet at a loss of what to do. His sat stiffly in place, his dark gold eyes troubled.
Zhou Yun Sheng talked irregularly between wiping his flushed eyes and sniffling, “Father God, what do you like about Boel Britte?”
“I don’t like him, in fact, I don’t even know who he is.” The Light God carefully explained to the water mirror. He was now very upset. His Little Believer was an easy crier, but in the past, it was because of piety or joy, those tears were very sweet, but now, he was crying in heartbreak for the first time, and he really didn’t know how to comfort him.
“His face is not as beautiful as mine. He is not as devout as I am. He is not as strong as I am. I’m so excellent Father, why do you always ignore me?”
“I look at you every day, my baby.” The Light God sighed helplessly.
“Father, I want to kiss you, as gently as the kiss of dew. I want to hug you, like an embrace of flames, truthfully, I want to love you more than anyone has ever loved you, to give you my frantic and warm love. Father, can you please love me? I don’t know why I have such disrespectful thoughts. You are the only God in the continent, all the creatures in the world are your followers, and they are all eligible for your love and affection.”
“But you know, I wish you could only look at me, to love only me. For a light priest, this is such a selfish idea, it is sinful enough for the Bishop to throw me into the fire. But even if I die, I still want to be a pile of ashes in front of you, so when you inadvertently walk through me, I can firmly cling to your robes, and never be separated from you.”
“Do you like to hear people sing? I can sing a lot of songs, all the songs created in your honor are deeply engraved in my mind. For you, I’m willing to sing until I lose my voice.”
The boy blurted out all the crazy love hidden in the bottom of his heart in one breath. When he finished, he finally realized what he had said, and quickly buried his red face into the statue’s knees.
The Light God froze for a moment, then helpless and happy laughter overflowed from his mouth. This was the only person in the world that could move him, his beloved darling. How could he be so cute? Many times, when he was praying to the statue, he wanted to go to him and kiss his pink mouth, to see if it was made of the sweetest honey and flower nectar.
Just as he thought this, the boy suddenly straightened up, then gently and quickly gave the statue a light kiss. Because he was tied to the statue, even if the kiss was only in a blink of an eye, the God of Light still felt an unprecedented shock. His mind shook, even his Godhead started trembling, clamoring crazily ‘I want him!’
Zhou Yun Sheng was also shaken. He’d only kissed a statue, but his heart was filled with the sensation of touching the real Light God. But after all is said and done, he’d desecrated his beloved Father, what was the difference between this behavior and Boel Britte’s? He quickly retreated a few steps and kneeled in front of the statue to beg forgiveness.
The Light God was now in a very complex mood, he wanted to grab the boy and kiss him frantically, but also lift him up and severely spank him. How could he retreat after moving his heart? This was really torturous. He was about to bring his avatar to Joshua’s side, when the Pope, Bishop, and Boel’s figures appeared in the water mirror, so he had to stop himself.
If he’d known, he would have placed a ban on the door of the main hall, so when Joshua was praying, he could be alone with him, excluding all other people.
“Is this the Father’s true image?” The Pope looked up, but quickly lowered his head and covered his stinging eyes.
The Bishop whispered an affirmative, from start to finish, he didn’t dare go into the hall and look up.
Boel suddenly exclaimed and startled everyone.
Zhou Yun Sheng looked back with disgust in his eyes and said, “You are inside the temple, please don’t make loud noises. Do you really come from the Temple of God? How can you not understand the rules?!”
Boel’s eyes were closed, he shouted in panic, “My eyes hurt, like there’s a fire burning inside, please help me!”
The Pope covered his eyelids with his palms and applied a healing light technique. This made the boy slowly quiet down and snuggle into the Pope’s arms, gasping for breath, clearly frightened.
“The Father doesn’t allow us mortals to look directly at his real image, looking for too long will result in punishment.” The Bishop leisurely explained. Of course, what he didn’t say was: Even the most humble maid in the temple wouldn’t be so harshly punished for looking up at the statue.
Boel’s eyes were almost fried like eggs, the Father clearly expressed his disapproval with this message. This is the Darling of God? What a joke!
The Pope nodded and accepted the explanation. He’d also felt a stinging, so he thought that because Boel had stared for too long, the damage to him was bigger.
This was the first time Zhou Yun Sheng heard that mortals couldn’t look directly at the statue. He stared at the Bishop and saw the Bishop wink at him, silently saying, “Boy, you’re the most special one here.”
Am I the most special? He looked up at the statue in the hall, then his mouth pulled up, he couldn’t help but smile sweetly.
“Are you not the Father’s most beloved? How can you not even look directly at the Father’s image? You’re not a liar, are you?” He didn’t have a habit of bragging of his uniqueness, but he wanted to provoke Boel. He hated the superiority he always gleamed from his eyes, and he hated him for seducing his Father with his filthy body.
Father is worthy of the best of everything.
Boel was very guilty, he racked his brain for a rebuttal, but the Pope spoke first, “If he was a liar, the Father wouldn’t give him such a pure and precious light stone. Joshua my child, you have lost your humble heart, this will make cultivation very difficult for you. You know the Father doesn’t like dark jealousy to occupy the hearts of his light priests, yes?”
Zhou Yun Sheng scoffed, “You don’t have the final say in what the Father does or doesn’t like.” As long as he was alive, he would never let the Father fall in love with Boel. He doesn’t deserve such a blessing.
The Pope was the supreme ruler of the Church, even the most powerful King on the continent bowed when he saw him, how could he stand being contradicted by a small priest? If he was somewhere else, he would immediately cast light flames to burn the boy to ashes, but he didn’t dare act rashly under the Father’s eyes.
He hid the poisonous serpent in his heart and bloomed a loving smile, he shook his head helplessly, like he was facing a spoiled but lovely child.
The Bishop timely reminded “The Light God is above, we should begin praying.”
“Okay.” Boel’s eyes felt much better, but he was very frightened. Joshua was right, he was a liar, and maybe the Father was angry at him, so he almost dusted his eyes. He must obtain the Father’s forgiveness.
The four men knelt on a soft mat and began praying, the Bishop and Zhou Yun Sheng were very earnest, but the Pope and Boel were kneeling on needles. This was not a hyperbole, but the real sensation of kneeling on needles. At first, they only felt itchy, but after a few minutes, they felt like the cushion was growing thousands of needles, each of them aiming straight for their knee bones. The intense pain was causing them to sweat.
They stood up and checked, but found no mystery around them, they knelt again but the pain was even more intense, causing them to feel like cutting off their knees.
The Bishop noticed the strange atmosphere and opened his eyes to see the situation. Zhou Yun Sheng was immersed in pious prayer, even if there was a war outside, it couldn’t wake him up.
“This mat has a problem, like there are needles buried in it.” Boel opened in an aggrieved tone, he also intentionally or unintentionally glanced at Joshua. The Pope kept his solemn appearance but kicked at the mat.
In order to prove the child’s innocence, the Bishop immediately called people to lift up the mat, thoroughly checking underneath it several times, but nothing was found. If he had to guess, this was probably a punishment from the Light God, because the two men were going against Joshua.
The Pope couldn’t make accusations without sufficient evidence, and he didn’t dare start trouble in front of the Light God’s statue, so he grabbed Boel and left.
Zhou Yun Sheng ended his prayers for the day, and when the moon climbed above the treetops, his gentle and kind expression slowly disappeared, replaced by a cold expression that slowly turned red with anger.
He only knew that the fanboy’s prayers were very effective, but he didn’t expect that he would have to take part in catfights, barking woof woof, what’s the difference between him and a bitch?
The protagonist arrived and Joshua immediately started a fight, and as it turns out, the protagonist’s degree of mental deficiency was not less than Joshua’s. Joshua also tried to prevent the God of Light from falling in love with the protagonist, which was simply an unobtainable dream. The protagonist’s unauthorized escape attracted the attention of the God of Light. From the day the protagonist arrived on the continent, the God of Light had been using his water mirror to observe his behavior and he was slowly fascinated by his strong, kind, and brave conduct.
In order to protect him, the God of Light quietly injected his ring with half of his divine power, as long as he was in fatal danger, the divine power would illuminate the entire continent, and annihilate any evil that threatened him. Could this kind of diligent care be ignored? Doesn’t fanboy’s blessings seem negligible by comparison?
So what if you can look directly at a statue? Maybe the Light God didn’t let Boel look because he was jealous he had taken other lovers? This is just a game between lovers, can’t you understand? Put me in charge!
Zhou Yun Sheng stood in front of the floor length mirror, poking the boy in the mirror, his expression grim and frustrated. This psychological sequelae was very serious, it exceeded his estimation. If this was allowed to go on, the uncontrolled Zhou Yun Sheng in the day would go too far against Boel, and they would be forced down Joshua’s old path of fate.
His original plan was to stay far away from the protagonist and his admirers and travel the mainland to spread the gospel as a qualified light priest.
But the protagonist arrived, and fate’s trajectory began to rotate, in order to not repeat the same mistakes, Brainless Sheng must never appear again! From tomorrow onwards, he’ll have to cancel his psychological pushes.
Zhou Yun Sheng silently warned himself, and the scene of fanboy kissing the statue slipped into his mind. He covered his face and groaned, anxious to dig a hole and bury himself. He never imagined he would have such a wretched day, not to mention others, even he himself couldn’t bear to look directly at it.
Because he was too disgusted, he ignored the throbbing feeling he’d gotten in his soul after the kiss, attributing it to fanboy’s natural reaction to kissing his idol.
After finishing today’s self-assessment and tomorrow’s psychological boost, he took off his robe and readied to bathe, but someone announced outside the door, “Your eminence, Elder Bishop invited you to the Chamber.”
He acknowledged the call and changed into a causal robe.
“Elder Bishop, His Holiness the Pope, and Priest Britte, good night everyone.” He gave a graceful salute, a genial smile hanging on his mouth, his rebelliousness during the day was nowhere to be seen.
“Sit down my child.” The Bishop pointed to a chair.
“Hold this scepter and enter your power of light, my child.” The Pope handed him a scepter topped with four shiny stones.
Zhou Yun Sheng immediately realized what was going on. He didn’t ask and entered his power into the held scepter, when two of the light stones were lit, he stopped the input.
The three people waited for a few minutes, but the top of the scepter stayed at only two lit light stones. The Bishop was deeply disappointed, but the Pope and Boel revealed unsurprised expressions.
They didn’t suspect that Joshua was hiding his strength, everyone knew that once light stones were triggered, they would frantically absorb the user’s light power, only stopping when they reached their limit.
Anyone who could light all four stones had to be a top level saint, in the whole continent, only the Pope could light them. Lighting two stones was not bad, but it was not rare.
“Boel, you have a try.” The Pope motioned Joshua to hand the scepter to Boel.
Boel poured the light power in his body into the light stones, one, two, three, four, although the fourth one was dim, his strength was obviously unstable at that amount, the result was already considered a very frightening strength.
The Pope: “Bishop, as you have seen, Boel is the strongest priest in Sagya Kingdom. In accordance with the regulations of the Church, under the principle of not damaging reputations, the one with the strongest qualifications is eligible to inherit the Bishop’s positon. I’m giving back the documents you submitted to me about selecting Joshua for Bishop two years ago. Please change the name of the successor to Boel.”
To master the supreme power of the Church, you must place your confidant into important positions in all the powerful temples in the Kingdom. The previous plans of the Deputy Bishop were destroyed, now there was no one to object Boel.
The Bishop took the paperwork, his complexion gray.
Boel tried to resist a delighted expression. The Darling of God was nothing more than a fake title, Bishop of God was way more appealing.
Zhou Yun Sheng already knew that the Bishop title would be given to Boel. Although he was way stronger than Boel and even the Pope, it was not in his personality to expose his strength before his enemies. Staying in Gagor would likely cause him to be involved in disputes with Boel and his admirers, then he would inevitably become cannon fodder.
He was not the Brainless Sheng of the day, he would not deliberately fight with Boel.
As expected, the Pope continued, “The Bishop of the Kingdom must choose the most powerful person as successor, to be frank, they pick the one most favored by the Father. Joshua, you saw, Boel is stronger than you, so he is more loved by the Father. In the future, he’ll represent the Father in this temple and lead the Sagya Kingdom to win the dark war. Please abandon the prejudice, jealousy, and resentment in your heart. Obey his commands.”
Due to the psychological pushes day after day, Zhou Yun Sheng’s side-effects were more serious than he’d imagined. He thought that Rational Sheng was the main personality, and Brainless Sheng was a sub-personality, but he was wrong. The Rational Sheng that was suppressed for most of the day was the weak party, and the Brainless Sheng that bathed in the sun and rain grew stronger every day.
Now, once the Pope mentioned the Father, Brainless Sheng could automatically take center stage even without the hypnosis.
He turned and sneered, “What qualifications does he have to get the Father’s love? What qualifications does he have to speak in behalf of the Father? Will he use his mouth full of lies, corrupted human body, and filthy soul? I feel disgusted just looking at him. What ‘Obey his commands’? He will never be my Bishop!”
“How can you say that to me?!” Boel was trembling with rage.
The Pope was also very displeased, he said harshly, “Joshua, since you are still a child, I’ll forgive you for your rudeness. But I have to warn you to be cautious with your words. The Bishop position is carefully selected by the Father, slandering the choice is equal to slandering the Father. I can banish you from this continent for blasphemy!”
“No, His Holiness the Pope, please forgive Joshua for my sake.” The Bishop quickly bowed and asked for forgiveness.
“Then please expel me, I’ll wait.” With this sentence, Brainless Sheng walked away with relaxed confidence. When they reached the room, he retreated to the subconscious, leaving Rational Sheng to deal with the backlash.
What the hell did I do to deserve this?! Have my tasks been too fucking easy for you?! The last time I almost lost my soul, this time it’s split into two halves, which fucking deity did I offend to get this punishment? Rational Sheng punched and kicked the big pillow on the bed, his expression frustrated.
In the Ninth Heaven above, the Light God really wanted to hold his Little Believer, who was jumping around on his bed like a monkey, into his arms and comfort him. The Little Believer looked very cute with his glowing red cheeks and shiny eyes, so he really wanted to kiss him, but he was still reluctant to see him so angry.
Every Bishop is chosen carefully by the Father? All right, he’ll let everyone know what his real will was.
——————————————-
The Pope appointed Boel as the next Bishop of Sagya Kingdom. The move was warmly welcomed by the ruler of Sagya Kingdom. He had heard of Boel’s exploits, he knew of his high strength and his noble origins, his presence in Gagor was the glory of the Kingdom.
But the Elder Bishop didn’t think so, so he personally went to the palace to negotiate with the King.
“I can’t tell you more, but I can assure you that Joshua is the most suitable candidate.”
“You don’t explain to me, so how can I believe you? This decision was made by the Pope, no one has the right to veto it, including me. Plus, I heard that the Pope gave Joshua and Boel a fair competition, but Joshua failed to live up to his expectations. My friend, you should know how dangerous the situation in Sagya Kingdom is right now. We need the support of more powerful priests and the Church. If you insist on this, the Sagya Kingdom will be overthrown in the dark war.”
The Bishop was silent. His heart was anxious to speak, but his mouth couldn’t reveal the truth. He eventually left the palace with a dejected heart.
A few days later, the King and the Pope issued a joint statement, Boel Britte will be the next Bishop, and his coronation ceremony will be in a month.
As soon as the news was released, bad news about the Crown Prince came back to Gagor. He was torn to shreds by dark beasts on his way to inspect the lands. The Crown Prince’s Princess, who was holding a crying month old baby, fainted, the King was also very sorrowful.
However, the Pope helped ease his anxiety, and he quickly cheered up and decided to set up the Second Prince as the Crown Prince, his coronation ceremony would be held the same day as Boel’s.
The Grand Prince’s funeral was held in a very impressive but hasty way. One big change after another made the people of Gagor feel restless, but the most restless one was Zhou Yun Sheng.
He’d stopped hypnotizing himself, but as long as he walked out of his bedroom, he would instantly start running at full speed toward the temple, carried by his love, then his rationality and emotions would start another battle. One shouting: If you go in there, I’ll kick you to death! The other curling up and crying: Even if you kick me to death, I’m going in!
So the passing servants and maids would meet a stiff faced and pale young priest, standing in front of the main hall all day long. Sometimes, the small priest would take two steps forward, then bounce several steps backwards like he was retreating from flames, it looked very comical.
The Light God was accustomed to listening to the prayers of his Little Believer every day. It was his wine, honey, and spiritual food. But for four or five days in a row, the Little Believer just stood in the entrance, his expression rotating between fragile sadness and anger, as if he was experiencing a violent psychological struggle.
Was he still jealous? Or shy from kissing me the last time? The Light God was never tired of guessing the Little Believer’s thoughts, and he relished his sometimes shy, sometimes angry, and sometimes dazed expressions. In short, no matter what he did, or how weird his behavior, he always looked very cute to the Light God.
Zhou Yun Sheng simply couldn’t suppress his desire for the God of Light. Every day, he walked closer to the temple door. Even without his psychological pushes, Rational Sheng and Brainless Sheng coexisted in his brain, constantly competing for control of the body. With the passage of time, he was horrified to find that Brainless Sheng’s leading occupation time was getting longer and longer.
His hair dropped out in anxiousness, to stop himself from kissing the statue’s instep and other shameful actions, he could only sit in the doorway of the temple and carve wooden God of Light idols. As long as he could see the God of Light’s beautiful face, Brainless Sheng would stay quiet, and even let him control his whole body in peace.
He never grew tired of carving, day and night, in just ten days he’d carved more than a hundred puppets, with all kinds of expressions and poses. He also carved puppets in his own image, and placed them around the Light God. Sometimes, Brainless Sheng would use the two puppets to enact a soapy, romantic love drama, and when he restored his rationality, he would immediately throw the two puppets far away like they burned his hands, and bury himself in his quilt with clenched teeth.
He was in a constant state of unprecedented confusion and embarrassment, it was almost enough to drive him crazy, but in the Ninth Heaven above, the God of Light observed his every move with amusement, and the once quiet and lonely Temple of God now echoed with hearty laughter every day.