Chapter 99#

The Fallen Evil God’s Saint#

“A smell?” Lin Pei was stunned. “No.”

This was the highest point of the castle. Other than the fragrance of grass and trees brought by the night wind and the moisture from the artificial lake, what other smell could there be?

Lin Xiaodong frowned tightly. “No, I smell something like…” Gunpowder?

A few seconds later, the expression of doubt on the man’s face suddenly changed.

The heart in his chest beat rapidly, almost bursting his eardrums. Lin Pei took a deep breath, trying hard to suppress the trembling in his voice. “Xiaodong, come here quickly!”

“What?”

The youth still looked at him uncomprehendingly, as if he hadn’t heard clearly.

In that brief instant.

Something cold brushed past Lin Pei’s cheek and sank into the chest of the youth directly in front of him.

The color vanished from Lin Pei’s face in an instant.

Lin Xiaodong stared at him blankly, his expression as if he hadn’t yet realized what had happened. But his body was pushed back half a step by the impact of the bullet, he swayed weakly, having already lost his balance.

In this moment, Lin Pei’s mind went completely blank.

He even forgot that his legs could not yet support any weight, forgot that he was still sitting in a wheelchair, and instinctively stood up and lunged forward, trying to grab Lin Xiaodong’s hand.

But in the end, he only touched the youth’s cold fingertips.

The man stood there numbly, but could only watch helplessly as Lin Xiaodong’s body, like a kite with a broken string, fell into the endless darkness from above the terrace in the blink of an eye.

“I… screw his ancestors!”

Lin Xiaodong was almost driven mad with rage.

“What kind of thing is this? Eh?” He gnashed his teeth in the void space. “Not even a single warning? Don’t let me know who did it! Otherwise I will definitely…”

At this point, he suddenly became listless.

…It seemed he truly couldn’t do anything to the murderer.

The system comforted him: “Alright, Lin Pei definitely won’t let the murderer go. You should worry about your own mission first.”

Lin Xiaodong gave a dry laugh. “Thanks for the comfort. I feel better all at once.”

他 scratched his head in frustration. This was the first time Lin Xiaodong had failed a mission, just one Good Person Card short!

If he had known someone would come to attack Lin Pei tonight, Lin Xiaodong thought resentfully, he would have done anything to perform a heroic sacrifice and then say a few heart-wrenching last words… but now look, standing by the terrace and being shot down in one go, not even a moment to say a word.

Too sudden!

“But then again, your mission was set up very unreasonably to begin with,” he complained. “Who gives a Good Person Card to their own boyfriend? Unless they want to break up, it simply doesn’t make sense logically.”

The system said innocently: “But the problem is, we also never thought you would actually sleep with a plot character.”

Lin Xiaodong: “…………”

“In any case, this mission failure wasn’t my problem. Remember to report it to your headquarters,” he said recklessly. “Also, what’s the penalty for mission failure? I remember you mentioning it before.”

System: “Yes, but some new rules have been updated. The specifics will have to wait until after the crossover. Do you want to enter the next world now?”

Lin Xiaodong rubbed his temples. He originally wanted to say let him relax first; his brain was still stuck in the previous world. It truly was unexpected, being forced to depart without any preparation.

But there was no way. This pent-up frustration in his chest couldn’t be dispelled. After traveling through so many worlds, this was the first time he had died so haphazardly.

The more Lin Xiaodong thought about it, the angrier he got. He could only grit his teeth and nod vigorously. “Yes!”

System: “Alright. I’ll mention in advance that because of the mission failure, the points you obtained this time are only five hundred. The current total points are one thousand two hundred. The danger level of the next world is relatively high, so remember to save them.”

Lin Xiaodong rubbed his hands together, saying righteously, “Come on!”

“Preparing…”

“High-magic module loading… 10%… 60%… 100%, loading complete.”

“Godhood special characters archiving…”

“World barrier established…”

Just listening to this series of unfamiliar broadcasts, Lin Xiaodong knew that the next world was indeed very unusual, as the system had said.

Even something completely unscientific like “Godhood” had appeared. No wonder they had to be so cautious.

Just as he was wondering whether the system headquarters’ authority was higher or the gods’ ability was greater, a white light suddenly flashed before his eyes.

“Light upon the earth, all filth swept away…”

A low, distant hymn echoed in his ears. Lin Xiaodong breathed in the cold air and slowly opened his eyes.

Believers dressed in white cloaks, chanting softly, stood on a vast plaza. At a glance, there seemed to be no end to them. Grey stone bricks formed high-towered buildings. Behind him was a cathedral towering into the clouds. A statue of the God of Light stood behind the church. Under the grey sky, the wings spread behind the stone statue almost blocked out the sun.

But Lin Xiaodong’s first reaction was—this completely violates the principles of architecture.

However, there were many more unscientific things in this world. He stood on the cathedral’s rooftop, wearing a pure white Saint’s robe, a heavy silver laurel crown on his head, and a golden scepter in his hand carved with religious figures in openwork—each figure’s face had a different expression, detailed down to their eyelashes and the wrinkles around their eyes.

Just this intricate carving alone was enough to make a craftsman with decades of experience feel despair.

“Heaven-sent Saint, protect all living beings…”

The chanting of the believers below grew louder. The circular plaza seemed to have a sound-gathering effect, the voices echoing in the sky and startling a flock of white pigeons. Lin Xiaodong’s body trembled involuntarily. A vast power of faith surged from the dense crowd of believers, floating in the air like specks of light, and then merged into the statue of the God of Light behind him like a tide.

A very small portion of it fell on him, but even these few scattered specks made Lin Xiaodong feel a warm, comfortable sensation, as if basking in the sun. He felt full of strength, and even his vision became clearer.

“…Return, return, return!”

Accompanied by the final prayer, the believers all knelt on both knees, bowing deeply toward the church.

Dozens of people kneeling is completely different from receiving the simultaneous bows of tens of thousands. At least Lin Xiaodong was very uncomfortable now, his breathing unconsciously lightened. Even knowing these believers were actually bowing to the God of Light statue behind him, he still felt as if he were being pricked by needles all over, very uneasy.

“I am a steadfast materialist, though not so steadfast now,” he complained to the system. “But joining a religion is definitely impossible, impossible in this lifetime.”

System: “You can just say that to me. Don’t ever tell anyone else in this world. The people here are all extremely devout believers, the kind who would unhesitatingly kill their own sons like lambs for sacrifice if the god demanded it.”

Lin Xiaodong: “Don’t worry, I’m not stupid.”

He understood the concept of seeking common ground while reserving differences. Even if he didn’t believe in the religion himself, he respected others’ beliefs.

“Your Holiness, it’s time for confession.”

A young man dressed as a divine servant walked respectfully to a position half a step behind him and spoke softly.

The youth with golden hair and snow-white skin turned around, his eyes as blue as the sky curving as he gave a slight smile. “Alright, thank you for your trouble.”

Even though he had seen it countless times, the servant still felt breathless at the Saint’s other-worldly handsome face. He quickly lowered his head, not daring to meet Lin Xiaodong’s gaze. But after the youth passed him and left, he stared longingly at the snow-white cloak trailing on the ground, wishing he could kneel and kiss the hem of his robe.

Meanwhile, Lin Xiaodong was reading the plot introduction for this world.

Saint Lynn, hailed as the person closest to the gods in the Kingdom of Noding. He possessed a faith more devout than anyone’s, called himself a servant of the gods, was gentle in character and kind-hearted. Before being chosen as the Saint, he was just a young traveling poet, good at singing and dancing, with a voice as beautiful as a nightingale’s. He sang for the poor and turned the aristocrats’ atrocities into songs to be sung everywhere.

Precisely because of this, the aristocrats all saw him as a thorn in their side. A high nobleman even sent knights to kill him. However, at the moment Lynn’s life hung by a thread, the knights of the God of Light found him first—after the previous Saint’s death, according to the priest’s prophecy, Lynn was chosen as the next servant to serve the God of Light.

There was only one god in this world: the supreme God of Light. He led the people away from darkness and evil, fought against the fallen evil gods of the abyss, and ultimately brought light to the world—this was written in the first chapter of the highest doctrine of the Church of Light, the Luminous Codex. All people believed this firmly.

The Saint who served the God of Light naturally held a supreme position. However, in Lin Xiaodong’s view, the power of the entire church was basically controlled by the Pope. Although the Saint’s status was high, it was mostly an empty title, more like the symbolic position of the British Queen. After becoming the Saint, although Lynn was happy to be the person closest to the God of Light, he loathed associating daily with hypocritical nobles and knights. Thus, he made up his mind to change all this through his own efforts.

He wanted to fight for more rights for the commoners, wanted people to realize that the God of Light’s true teachings were kindness and integrity, wanted to persuade the nobles to treat their servants well and not to kill… However, clearly, the nobles did not take his words seriously, only being superficially perfunctory out of respect for his status as the Saint.

Day after day of failure left Lynn very disappointed. He became withdrawn, no longer sharing his heart with anyone. Because of his high status, he was not allowed to sing, so he could only spend his free time in the church’s library.

Commoners here were not allowed to keep books privately because books represented magic and the demise of faith; commoners could not possess magic. All “forbidden books” were either destroyed on the spot or handed over to the church. Therefore, Lynn was able to see precious ancient texts from all over the world in the library.

By a chance opportunity, he found an ancient fragment without a name or author’s signature. Lynn didn’t recognize the writing on it, but unexpectedly, he could understand its meaning—this book actually recorded the ancient history before the birth of the Church of Light!

Lynn became more and more obsessed as he read. As he learned more of the truth, his faith began to waver, and his prayers were no longer sincere. Someone inside the church even discovered him speaking “blasphemous” words about the God of Light to the divine servants around him… In the eyes of these fanatical believers, all signs indicated that Lynn had completely “fallen.”

Combined with the aristocrats who were usually dissatisfied with Lynn pushing from behind, the priests soon found an opportunity to make Lynn tainted with the aura of abyss corruption. Using this as a pretext, they put him on public trial and executed him by tying him to a stake and burning him.

“So did Lynn actually fall?” Lin Xiaodong finished reading, still feeling there were some parts he didn’t quite understand. “Is the so-called abyss corruption aura real? Is there really an evil god of the abyss? Or is it just a framing excuse made up by those priests and nobles?”

System: “It’s not clear for now, but what is certain is that there truly are gods in this world.”

It explained to Lin Xiaodong what level the existence of gods actually was. if the level of ordinary natives in small worlds is one, and a higher-level plane like where the headquarters is located is two, then gods are existences between one and two—perhaps 1.5, but potentially 1.1, 1.8, and so on. The specific value depends on the power the god possesses.

“Then isn’t it very dangerous for you to be here?” Lin Xiaodong frowned. “What if someone infinitely close to level two comes? Wouldn’t you be discovered instantly?”

System: “Cases like that are rare after all, but the situation you mentioned can indeed occur. To be safe, in this world I will try to minimize my appearances and remain in a disconnected state. You’d better not get too close to the gods either. However, as long as you don’t truly become a devout believer and dedicate your heart and soul to the God of Light, this kind of problem usually won’t arise.”

“That definitely won’t happen,” Lin Xiaodong said.

It was the same old saying: he had no good feelings toward any religion, especially fanatical believers. One could tell just by looking at Lynn’s way of death. Despite the existence of magic and faith, the moral perception of the people in this world basically remained at the level of medieval Europe.

He followed Lynn’s usual route to the confessional, sat down in a small dark room, and prepared to wait for believers to come and confess to him.

But only believers from the aristocratic class could enjoy such treatment.

“O great God of Light,” a young woman’s crying voice came from the darkness, “my son passed away from drowning last week. He was so young… I hate it so much!”

Lin Xiaodong cleared his throat and comforted her, “Ma’am, please do not be too sad. The God of Light will protect you. In the near future, you will certainly have another bright, lively, and healthy child.”

Yes, this was the Saint’s daily job—providing psychological counseling to the nobles.

“But, but, I just can’t swallow this anger,” the young woman sobbed. “Looking at the commoners’ children on my estate still running happily, I can’t help but feel heartache, can’t help but think of my poor little John. O God, please forgive me! I truly found it hard to sleep last night, so I took advantage of the night to walk into the fields and set fire to those commoners’ houses… I know I have sinned, so I have come to confess to you. Please forgive a poor mother who has just lost her child!”

She finished speaking, but for a long time there was no response from the Saint on the other side.

The young woman was a bit dissatisfied, but for the sake of the Church of Light, she still asked patiently, “Great God of Light, do you have anything you want to say to me?”

The Saint must keep everything that happens in the confessional secret. Even if a noble tells Lin Xiaodong to his face that she committed murder and arson, Lin Xiaodong cannot use it as an excuse to take her to court and find her guilty.

So, he could only clench his fists in the darkness and curl his lips into a cold smile:

“No… dear lady, God will understand your suffering. May the God of Light protect you.”