Chapter 74: He is Not a God! (Please Subscribe!)

Chapter 74 He is Not a God! (Requesting Subscriptions!)

Karen picked up the spoon, scooped a spoonful of condensed milk into his coffee, then poured in some milk and sprinkled a pinch of powdered sugar. Finally, he began to stir with the spoon.

In fact, he had originally wanted to make a pattern, but then felt that what he made would definitely not look good, so it was better to just stir and mix it evenly, telling himself that this was true purity.

On the tray, besides this cup of milk coffee, there was also a teacup with tea leaves already placed inside;

A dish of raisins, a dish of sugar cubes, a dish of candied fruit;

Lifting the tray with his right hand and picking up a newly filled thermos with his left, Karen walked up to the third floor.

Just at this moment, the grandfather clock on the third floor began to chime.

When Karen reached the door of his grandfather's study and was about to put down the thermos, the golden retriever that had been lying under the windowsill stood up and approached, propped itself up, pressed down the doorknob with its paw, and the door opened outward.

While pulling the door outward, its paw remained on the handle, and its two back legs supporting its body kept kicking and jumping backward.

Finally, when the door was wide open, the golden retriever let go of its paw, lost its balance, fell backward, and tumbled over.

"Hehehe."

Karen was amused, and as the grandfather clock chimed its final stroke, he stepped into his grandfather's study.

The golden retriever immediately scrambled up, followed him into the study, and hooked the study door with its hind leg.

"Click."

The door was brought shut.

Just as the golden retriever was about to flash a cute smile and wag its tail at its master, it saw Karen, who had already sat down behind the desk, naturally placing both hands on Pu'er, who was lying on the desk.

Pu'er just lay there quietly, allowing Karen to use her as a hand warmer, while casting a slightly disdainful glance at the golden retriever sitting on the floor.

The golden retriever shook its head, walked to the foot of the desk, and lay down against it.

After warming his hands, Karen opened the black hardcover book that Diss had left on the desk.

The title of the book was also "The Light of Order," but the printing date must have been much earlier than the one Diss had given him.

There were letters tucked inside the book, and more than one.

Karen opened to the location of the first letter, where the content of this volume happened to describe the story of the God of Order before ascending to godhood. However, a description of the God of Light appeared here; it did not say that the God of Light had awakened the God of Order, but rather referred to the two sides having once joined forces to suppress an evil god.

Still, this was already much better than his own edition, where the God of Light had no role to play at all.

Opening a letter that Diss had slipped in here, the handwriting was very rigorous, which was Diss's style.

This letter must have been written recently, not a past "reading reflection," but likely written specifically for him.

The content of the letter:

"In my youth, I once believed that Order was an insurmountable dividing line, which separated this world into black and white, and completed the isolation between the world of gods and the world of men.

The affairs of gods are left to the gods, and the affairs of men are left to men.

Order, then, is the boundary between god and man.

With it,

Gods can no longer brutally interfere with men, and men no longer need to fear the gods in fear and trepidation.

Gods can continue to be high and lofty, while men can raise their heads to admire the gods.

The God of Order was born in the last epoch, that era when gods competed to manifest themselves.

God and god fought,

Those who worshipped the gods also slaughtered each other,

Wars in the name of God transcended nations and ethnicities, becoming an undeniable and inevitable factor, because gods did not allow themselves to be profaned.

And the God of Order,

Was the only god who would choose self-punishment;

He threw his own daughter, who had committed a fault, into the mouth of a ferocious beast to be chewed to pieces, and in such a way, lit the light of Order.

Perhaps,

This is where the charm of the God of Order lies. In that era when gods were high above, he, as a god, set rules for the gods!

It is also the reason why I believe in him and believe in Order.

Under the illumination of the light of Order,

Humble humanity, for the first time, had the opportunity to straighten their chests before God.

God,

To the God of Order, should be a symbol of strength, not a symbol of status.

But gradually,

I found that I was wrong."

...

"According to the 'Regulations of Order,' you are accused of apostasy, deviating from Order, and insulting faith. Now I officially announce a query against you;

Diss,

Do you admit to the aforementioned charges, do you admit to the mistakes you have committed!"

Diss just stood on the steps of the church, looking at Rasmar in front of him.

Floating on either side of Rasmar's body were two books: one was the "Regulations of Order," and the other was "The Light of Order."

The Church of Order was not a nation, but after a religion developed to a certain extent, it would inevitably derive secular and high-end branches;

The existence of the shrine was the truly high-end part. The elders of the shrine possessed the true secrets of the Church of Order, and at the same time held the right to transmit and interpret the will of the God of Order.

As the Grand Priest, Rasmar was one of the peaks of the secular Church of Order, possessing nominal supreme decision-making power within this system of church operation.

But in front of the shrine elders, he was merely an older child left at home to help look after his younger siblings while his parents went out to work.

Therefore, the operational system of many large churches, including the Church of Order, was a divine-secular separation; the former controlled everything, and the latter controlled the former.

"Diss, do you admit to the mistakes you have committed!"

Rasmar issued the query for the second time.

Diss did not answer; he just stood there.

In fact,

The current atmosphere was very subtle;

One kept questioning whether the other admitted to the mistake, while the other just stood there without speaking, which already projected an endless sense of mockery.

On the murals inside the church, one side depicted God descending to the human world to bring blessings to humanity, while the other side depicted God leading men to defeat demons and rebuild their homes.

This was a small church. Although this church had a god, it was a stitched-together god;

Because it did not exist at all, or rather, its existence was merely to satisfy the religious spiritual needs of ordinary people.

Taking some ambiguous doctrines, fabricating some familiar stories, a plausible church, and a slightly kind-looking priest would suffice.

In fact, you could completely compare this church to a park, a necessity for the spiritual life of the residents of the community streets, no different from a station, a hospital, or a police station.

Yet, precisely because of this,

as one looked at the radiant smiles brimming from the faces of both god and mortals within the murals on either side, it was truly the height of irony.

The figures in the murals seemed to mock:

"Look, he has already honored the God of Order by calling Him the son of a whore, yet the other one keeps asking if he admits his fault. Oh, are you deaf? You must be deaf!"

"Diss, I ask you once more, do you admit your transgressions!"

This was the third interrogation.

Diss remained silent.

"Diss, it was you who proposed this negotiation, and we granted your request. It is by your invitation that we came to keep this appointment today.

So,

what is your meaning now?"

Diss finally spoke, saying, "I invited you here to negotiate, not to subject me to an interrogation."

As he spoke,

Diss reached out and pointed toward Lasma:

"If you continue to accuse me of sin, then I shall consider the negotiation over. We need not waste any more time; we can proceed directly to the next phase."

Lasma's expression shifted in a fitful dance of light and shadow. He desperately wanted to look back to receive the will of the three elders behind him, but he knew all too well that at this moment, the three temple elders could give him no counsel.

For this was no glorious, prideful matter. No matter how one tried to gloss it over, what was unfolding here today was an internal fracture within the highest echelons of the Church of Order, a stain upon the Church's history.

A god could not condescend; or rather, until the absolute last resort, a god would always maintain the unblemished radiance around his form.

The temple elders were the same; bearing divinity within themselves, they naturally guided their every word and deed in the mortal realm by far stricter standards.

Thus, the dirty work, the grueling labor, could only be left to Lasma, and must be done by Lasma.

The Temple did not wish to lose Diss;

before that point, they needed to exhaust every effort to drag Diss back into the Temple's fold.

"Heh..."

Lasma laughed. With a wave of his hand, the volume of the *Regulations of Order* floating beside him plunged straight to the floor.

Then,

he continued forward on his own initiative, walking toward Diss, yet he did not truly approach him. Instead, he sat down upon the frontmost bench, looking up at Diss who stood upon the dais:

"In truth, I do not agree with those accusations against you. I believe them to be nothing but slander and absurd rumors.

The Inmells family is a lineage of long standing within the Church of Order; nearly every generation of Inmells has made monumental contributions to the Church.

So,

how could you possibly do such a thing, Diss?

Furthermore,

regarding your previous form of address toward the God of Order,

I do not find it to be any sort of fault,

for my own mother was a whore, and I was raised by a whore;

therefore..."

Lasma raised a hand and pointed to his own ear,

"Therefore, to my ears, the phrase 'raised by a whore' carries no offensive meaning. Rather, it brings a sense of warmth, because it reminds me of my mother, who passed away long ago."

Diss looked at Lasma,

and in the end, took half a step back,

bowing slightly toward him:

"My apologies."

Lasma, seated upon the bench, seemed rather embarrassed instead, waving his hands:

"It matters not, it matters not at all. Since you are willing to take back your words just now, we can now enter the true negotiation. Look, I have already cast the *Regulations of Order* aside; now, floating beside me is only the *Light of Order*.

Presently, I am not the Grand Priest of the Church, and you are not the Inquisitor of the Church. Between you and me, there is no distinction of status. We are both believers, believers of Order, believers of the God of Order."

"No, the statement from just now, I will not take back."

"Err..." Lasma froze.

Diss's gaze fell upon the three temple elders:

"Perhaps among the three of you, someone knows whether the words I just spoke are, in fact, correct?"

Xiti took a step forward at this moment,

and said in a deep voice:

"Presumptuous!"

Diss's eyes narrowed slightly as he pointed a finger at Xiti:

"It seems you do not know."

At that moment,

the hundred-odd red-robed clergymen of the Church of Order on the periphery began to chant of their own accord. Using their bodies as focal points and the power of their own faith as a connection, they swiftly conjured a massive phantom of a divine throne above the cathedral... the Throne of Order.

All the red-robed clergymen floated into the air at this moment, and almost simultaneously, all closed their eyes.

"In the name of the God I revere, I pray for Your divine majesty to descend and wipe away the dust of Order."

"In the name of the God I revere, I pray for Your divine majesty to descend and wipe away the dust of Order."

Beneath this invocation that surged almost into a tidal wave of sound, the Throne of Order began to press down slowly.

Finally,

a tremor that seemed capable of rippling into the depths of the soul radiated outward in all directions, with the cathedral at its center.

Once all the "dust had settled,"

the four legs of this Throne of Order stood firmly around the perimeter of the cathedral. The cathedral itself was completely blanketed beneath the Throne of Order.

Simultaneously,

the statue of the Stitched God within the cathedral began to distort gradually; the murals on the walls on both sides of the cathedral also began to melt away.

In the end,

the Stitched God behind Diss transformed its appearance entirely, changing from a man into a sword—this was the manifestation of the Sword of Order.

Meanwhile, the murals of the original Stitched God on the walls of both sides reverted into the silhouettes of black knights, one after another.

These knights sat upon horseback,

some holding bows, some holding blades, some holding lances, some raising shields...

They held weapons of every shape and form, but where their faces should be was entirely pitch-black, their features completely indiscernible.

The knights numbered twelve in all.

In the mythic lore of the Church of Order, they were twelve mighty warriors resurrected by the God of Order, summoned back to become His most loyal guardians and the ultimate executors of His divine will.

They had, in times past, even hunted gods.

A solitary black speck dripped from the cathedral eaves, rapidly expanding until it transformed the church, once dominated by immaculate white, into a solemn expanse of black—a sanctuary for the Judgment of Order.

Rasma remained seated, legs casually crossed, exuding an air of easy comfort.

This was no mere pretense; after overcoming his initial unease, he had let go of his tribulations completely.

For this was a game far beyond his league to join; he was not even the host, merely an intermediary catalyst, and so, what psychological burden remained for him to bear?

Rasma spoke once more:

"Thys, if you are willing to bow your head now, the gates of the Temple of Order remain open to you.

The Light of Order shall continue to shine upon us both, and the God shall forgive your every transgression."

"Rasma, do you truly know the reality behind the Light of Order?" Thys inquired.

"The Light of Order symbolizes the supreme majesty of Order," Rasma praised. "It is the beam that illuminates the bond between god and man, like the gaze of a benevolent father."

Thys shook his head and said:

"Once in her childhood, Ankara was in foul spirits. To coax a smile from her, the God of Order bestowed upon her three purple bookmarks, bidding her write the names of three deities she detested.

Not long after, those three gods fell;

And Ankara smiled."

"That is precisely the human facet of the God of Order, the fundamental truth that distinguishes our Church of Order from all others," Rasma countered. "Those three purple bookmarks became the very symbols of our Church's authority. Only Temple Elders possess the right to bestow them, symbolizing the duty of punishment enacted in the name of Order."

Thys countered:

"Then why is it that later, when Ankara erred, the God of Order cast her into the maw of a ferocious beast, allowing that monster to crush her flesh and tear her soul asunder?"

"That is the true greatness of the God of Order. He sacrificed far too much for the sake of Order, just as we do, and just as your Inmemiles family does. We dedicate ourselves, we sacrifice willingly, solely so that the Light of Order may shine eternally."

"But have you ever considered this: back then, merely to amuse his daughter, the God of Order could bring about the downfall of three deities whose names were simply penned on bookmarks;

Yet later, when Ankara made a mistake, he could coldly fling her into the jaws of a monstrous leviathan?"

"Thys, the God of Order possesses both a human nature and a divine nature. He is a father, and yet He is the God who guides us. We worship Him, we revere Him."

"No, it was because he was hungry!"

...

"Because the God of Order was hungry?"

Reading up to this point, Karen's hand, which had just picked up a sugar cube to drop into his cup, froze mid-air.

The letter continued:

"He was hungry, deeply and profoundly hungry. In the beginning, he could still conjure specific pretexts to hunt down lesser deities and use them as his sustenance.

But later, he began to realize that his appetite could no longer be sated.

He was far too hungry.

I do not know the precise catalyst for all of this, but I know he needed to expand his hunting grounds, and even needed to cast his gaze upon the great True Gods.

And so,

He threw his own daughter into the jaws of the vicious beast, creating the Light of Order!

Beneath this radiant glow,

The God of Order could trample upon the laws, leading his followers to suppress any deities who violated the rules, branding them as malevolent and evil gods.

The Light of Order is merely a facade,

And beneath that Light of Order,

Lies a twisted and ravenous visage.

This was my original deduction,

But because of the words you spoke to me a short while ago, Karen—

What if that ferocious beast was just like our family's Purr?

Therefore,

The God of Order may not have truly slain his daughter; Ankara likely went through a mere charade, and she remains alive, shielded by her father.

Yet if that is the case,

Then the God of Order lacks even the base nature of an evil deity.

If he were brutal, he could be a fierce god!

If he were insidious, he could be an evil god!

A god

Is a single face,

A face of absolute purity,

And it can only represent one single faith, just as a face can only possess one singular emotion.

Yet upon his face, a multitude of emotions flicker.

He used illusions to deceive his believers, and even to deceive this entire world. He forged the Light of Order, which is nothing but a light of hypocrisy.

He wears the majestic mask of Order,

Yet beneath that mask,

Lies a hawkish countenance, shifting without end.

The God of Light, the God of the Abyss, the God of Principles, and all the other True Gods—they were born from the desperate cries of their followers. First came the faith, and only then came the gods.

When those gods manifested,

They were already gods in truth.

But our God of Order is different,

He first spent the previous era frantically hunting down weaker deities, and then personally fabricated a faith from nothing;

He is not a True God born of faith,

But rather... a charlatan."

...

Within the pitch-black cathedral,

Thys, clad today in the vestments of a priest, stood as the solitary beacon of white.

Beneath the high-hanging Sword of Order,

Under the watchful gaze of the twelve Knights of Order depicted in the murals on either side,

He raised both his hands,

He shouted:

“Our God of Order is no true god at all. Everything he has done was merely to ascend to godhood!”

———

I have no backlog of chapters, but on this first day of our premium launch, I will strive to write as much as possible. There will be another chapter around two o'clock.

Leave the typing to me; as for the voting, I leave that in everyone's hands!