The white brick building on the other side of the river turned out to be a small church.
Hao Ren came to the door of the white building with the kettle in hand. On the closed door, he saw the familiar Letta runes and a coat of arms composed of a circle, a triangle, and a lightning bolt. The latter was the symbol of the Disciples of Glory in this world. He had learned about this symbol when he listened to Vivian's introduction of the Disciples of Glory. He knew the meaning of each part of it: the circle represented the church's interpretation of the world, that everything belonged to perfection and chaos, forming a world in the cycle of reincarnation. The triangle represented the authority of the goddess. It was located inside the circle, supported by three vertices, and determined the shape of the circle, meaning that the power of the goddess determined the rules of the world. The lightning in the middle of the pattern was the church, and its top was one of the vertices of the triangle, meaning that the authority of the church came from the blessing of one-third of the power of God. This was a very interesting sect. They precisely defined their scope of authority, which was "one-third of the divine power". It was the first time that Hao Ren had heard of a sect where the clergy would specifically state that they could only represent one-third of the god, so he remembered this point very clearly.
If not for this symbol at the door, Hao Ren really could not associate this small house with the church: it was too small, and it was not a characteristic steeple building. There were no gorgeous stained glass windows or religious decorations outside. It seemed that the churches in small villages could not be compared to those in towns. This should be an economical church.
The light that shone on the river had disappeared, and the small church was dark. However, Hao Ren remembered that the light came from the round hole above the main door of the church. He let the MDT float up to take a look, and confirmed that the small round hole was a decorative hole on the wall that led directly into the church, and there were no lights installed inside.
When the light appeared, the church seemed to be brighter for a moment, but because the door was closed and the main windows were on the side, Hao Ren did not notice the abnormality in the church from the direction of the river.
Hao Ren put his hand on the church door and gently pushed it. It did not budge. He frowned and said, "The door is locked."
"Do you want to go in and have a look?" The MDT floated beside Hao Ren, seemingly interested. Since it had business to attend to, it did not play with the little mermaid for the time being. Lil Pea was curled up at the bottom of the pot, resting. The frightening scene in the river had scared the little mermaid a little, so she should be quite quiet for a while.
Speaking of which, Hao Ren really wanted to laugh when he thought of the little guy using all its strength to flop around in the torrent!
"Go in and set a target, then teleport me over." Hao Ren came up with a good idea: high-tech gadgets should be used flexibly. The MDT's teleportation function was a miracle. No matter how heavily guarded the place was, as long as there was a gap bigger than a mouse hole, Hao Ren could sneak in!
The MDT did not waste time and floated in through the round hole above the main door of the church. After a moment, it sent Hao Ren into the church without making a sound or damaging the door.
The church was empty. The rectangular empty room was covered with a solemn dark red carpet. Other than that, there were no chairs or anything else. The church of the Disciples of Glory was not like the churches on Earth, which had benches for the believers to rest and listen to the sermon. Because the Disciples of Glory preached the theory of human atonement, even the pope could not enjoy a seat in the church.
The high pulpit not far ahead was the only furnishings in the room.
Hao Ren came to the pulpit and lifted his legs to walk up the four steps. He had already noticed that the number 'four' seemed to have a special meaning in this world. The Kingdom of Holletta had four sanctuaries, four ruins, and the Orb of the Holy Synod would stay on the Blood Lake for four days. And now, the steps in front of the pulpit were exactly four steps. What did this mean? He had not heard of any religious explanation related to it so far.
There was a rather heavy black book on the pulpit. The deep black cover seemed to be mixed with a very imperceptible dark red. Hao Ren opened the book and found that it was just a very ordinary 'Bible'.
He turned to the chapter about the Goddess's exploits. The book used obscure grammar to narrate what seemed to him to be a boring story. "… At the beginning of heaven and earth, she slept between heaven and earth. She had spirit and no spirit. She was the supreme existence that mortals could not understand … She was the first water, the first sea, the first source, the first storm, the place where life was born and promised … Because she was the mother of all life, she was regarded as the Goddess … She incarnated into millions and existed among the stars. She sculpted the world and sowed billions of mortals like dust and ants. This was her authority and mercy …"
"I don't really understand." Hao Ren read for a long time and felt that he could not get the point. He flipped to the back of the Bible. This time, it was the chapter about the destruction of the world by the Goddess. "… Mortals went astray in pursuit of the truth. They faced the warning of God and did not repent. There were also the foolish kings of the ancient werewolves, the Blood Clan, the Elves, and the humans who were arrogant and absurd. They wanted to seize the Sea of Origin as their backyard garden. So God was angry and said, 'It is a great mistake to give you spiritual knowledge. You must be corrected.' Then, God burned the old world, but there were also the wise men of all races who knelt and worshipped … So, all things survived. "
Hao Ren read for a long time and felt even more confused.
However, after flipping through a few pages, he came to a conclusion: Although the Disciples of Glory worshipped a specific god, their teachings never mentioned the image of this god.
All the passages that mentioned the goddess in the canon used vague phrases such as "the place of origin" or "the original XX" to describe the goddess. Unlike other belief systems, it never clearly or vaguely described what the goddess looked like, whether she had wings on her back or was eight feet tall, whether she was covered in holy light or had a dignified demeanor. These elements were not mentioned at all in this religious literature. The goddess did not seem to have a physical body, not even a vague and abstract description of her image. It gave the impression that the Disciples of Glory were worshiping a symbolic thing.
Although she was called a "Goddess," what Hao Ren saw in the Bible seemed to be a natural phenomenon.
They were worshiping a certain "phenomenon that created everything in the world."
"Their views on God are quite interesting." Hao Ren could not help but think of Raven 12345. He then shook his head vigorously. "There's no comparison at all."
"Where did that light come from?" Putting down the Bible, Hao Ren curiously looked around the empty chapel, but he could not find anything that could be called a light source. He turned back to look at the mural behind the pulpit. It was reasonable to say that there should be a statue or some other religious symbol in this position of the chapel, but the Disciples of Glory had placed a strange picture of distorted shadows, red mist, and light behind the pulpit. He did not know if the other churches were the same, but anyway, Hao Ren felt that this chapel was very strange.
After searching for a long time, he still found nothing. Remembering that the others were still waiting for him at the village chief's house, Hao Ren could only give up his exploration here and hurriedly returned to the mountain people's village.
The chapel returned to darkness again. Only the hazy light of the two moons shone into the room through the stained glass window. A beam of moonlight fell on the strange mural behind the pulpit. Under the moonlight, the distorted and grotesque black and red on the mural continued to slowly roll at a speed almost imperceptible to the naked eye.
And between the black and red bands, the bright hue that represented the light was a little dimmer than before.
As soon as Hao Ren returned to the room, Vivian came up to him. "Where have you been? It's been so long … Ugh, what's wrong with your pants?"
Before he could explain, Lily jumped up to him. "Ah! Mr. Landlord, did you pee? "
Hao Ren's bellyful of questions disappeared in an instant. For the first time, he could not help but rush up to Lily and pull her ears hard. "Can't you use your brain before you speak? Can't you use your brain! "
Lily jumped up and down in pain and cried miserably, "Ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch … I'm wrong, I'm wrong … I forgot that a human can't pee so much in a day …"
Hao Ren was speechless.
Hao Ren threw the hopeless husky aside. "I was washing my hands by the river just now, and I accidentally slipped. By the way, is there a chapel on the other side of the river? "
He casually mentioned the chapel on the other side of the river, but he did not mention the abnormality of the chapel and how he went to investigate.
"Oh, that was built by the pastor of Lamberg." The village head did not suspect anything. "Hehe, the mountain people believe in the spirit of the forest, but they are not against the Disciples of Glory. The pastor will come to the chapel to preach every full moon, and then help the villagers to see the sick. But the chapel is usually closed. Are you a believer? If you want to go in and pray, I have the key here. But you have to wait until tomorrow. "
There were two bright moons shining in the sky. The bigger moon was called the primary moon, also known as the big moon or the big moon, and the smaller moon was called the secondary moon. The cycle of the secondary moon was seventeen days, exactly half of the cycle of the primary moon. Many religious activities of the Disciples of Glory were linked to the cycle of the primary moon and the secondary moon. The full moon of the secondary moon was one of the more meaningful days.
"Uh, no, I was just asking. I didn't expect there to be a chapel here." Hao Ren smiled and waved his hand, not showing any unusual expression.
"Hah — I'm sleepy." Becky yawned exaggeratedly. "The village head arranged for us to rest in the two houses next door. The girls can squeeze in. You two men will benefit from the small number of people."
Hao Ren thought for a moment and felt that since the Disciples of Glory were in this world, they could not run away. There were many opportunities to explore the mystery of the world's mythology. So, he put this matter aside for the time being. Under Becky's guidance, he found his own room and rested for the journey tomorrow.
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