Chapter 99 — On Religion

Hearing this, Hetty and Rebecca both wore thoughtful expressions—the former pondering what the royal house and the Church might be thinking and planning, the latter mainly trying to work out what on earth the Xuanmai Sect's blah-blah-blah had actually meant.

Having finished, Gao Yang immediately brought up another matter that had been weighing on his mind. "Also... there's one thing Princess Viroday said to me that I find rather concerning."

Amber grew curious. "Which thing? She said plenty to you today!"

"'Though there are many gods, only the God of Holy Light can embrace all things; at the end of the Holy Light lies the final salvation of the foolish multitudes,'" Gao Yang repeated Viroday's sermon-like words without missing a syllable. "Don't you think there's something off about that sentence?"

"What's off about it? Isn't that just the sort of phrasing those mystic Holy Light fanatics love to use?" Amber scratched at her hair. "What they love most is preaching about how loving their god is, as if the whole world were their sons..."

"Most of what came after is indeed standard Church of the Shining Star missionary talk, but she prefixed it with 'though there are many gods,'" Gao Yang said, his tone somewhat grave. "It's a very short phrase, and she said it very mildly, but it's not something the Church of the Shining Star's faithful normally say."

Hetty took a moment to react, then said uncertainly, "Is she... placing the God of Holy Light above all the other gods?!"

Gao Yang gave a slight nod. "An unobtrusive bit of leading—but that is indeed what it means."

Everyone present wore a strange expression.

This world abounded in faiths—that much Gao Yang had known for a long time. There were dozens of major sects with names and reputations, hundreds of small sects with limited reach spread through the countryside, and esoteric faiths hidden away and passed down within certain small groups and organizations numbered beyond counting. And nearly every sect that could be passed down stably possessed its own divine arts, which meant that behind them stood a true source of divine power—a god, or something as mighty as a god.

And yet so many sects maintained a relatively balanced situation on the continent today. Their balance even transcended nations and races; even when several countries broke out in war, the mainstream religions of those countries would remain aloof.

Of course, it had not always been so. In fact, throughout history, this continent had seen more religious wars than one could count, and the annals of history were filled with annexations and invasions carried out in the name of religion. Even in the days when humanity was united under a single realm, factions of differing faiths within the borders of the Gondor Empire still frequently erupted into localized wars.

In those years when Gao Yang was hung up in the sky, he had watched so many spectacles of religious war that he grew thoroughly sick of them. As a side note, unfortunately, in those days he could neither turn over nor close his eyes...

But no matter how hard the various sects battered one another's brains out, today they were indeed "peaceful."

All disputes had ceased in the year the Gondor magic tide erupted.

The gods chose silence in the year the magic tide arrived—and were silent for a full year.