Chapter 374 — The Priest Who Lost the Holy Light
Blade of Dawn · Page 2 of 4
"To be honest, I would rather not have seen it..." Wright sighed. "The Church has fallen... or rather, it fell long ago. I simply kept deliberately ignoring that fact, numbing myself with the saying that 'we all believe in the Holy Light.' The Spirit Plain is no longer a paradise where the Holy Light shelters the world. Greedy priests and covetous noble lords have colluded to squeeze the last drop of blood and sweat from the common people, driving everyone who will not obey them from the lands their families have lived on for generations. The only thing I cannot believe is that I left there only two years ago, and yet they could fall so swiftly and so completely..."
"According to intelligence from the Spirit Plain, ever since the Daystar Cathedral held a conclave of cardinals last year, their conduct has grown more extreme. On one hand, the Blazing Sun sect has for years stood at the peak of power among the various sects, and has grown bloated and corrupt; on the other, they must certainly have been acting on instructions from the Church's upper levels." Gao Yang then looked into Wright's eyes. "But I believe a church cannot be one hundred percent corrupt. You, for instance, are in my eyes a true practitioner of the Holy Light, Mr. Wright. Welcome back to this land that is still clean. The key to the church is with the manager of Preaching Square. I have already given instructions; you may return at any time to take charge of the church again."
"...My lord, that is exactly what I wanted to say," Wright suddenly smiled bitterly and spread his hands. "I am afraid I can no longer serve as a priest of the Holy Light. The same goes for managing the church."
This truly surprised Gao Yang. He stopped reviewing the reports and looked at the only priest in the territory with astonishment: "What happened? You didn't get so shaken that you left the faith outright, did you?"
Wright did not answer directly. Instead he raised both hands, and after a moment a little sacred white light flickered between them, but the radiance did not last even a second before scattering apart.
Gao Yang sensed only a very faint fluctuation of magic power. It was so weak that it could not be called formal divine arts or magic, nor even a cantrip.
"What is going on?" he asked with a frown. He knew Wright's original strength. The priest's style might have been a little strange, but his divine arts skills and priest class levels were genuine, and because of his firm faith and high affinity with the Holy Light, his divine power had even ranked among the upper tier of priests of the same level. How was it that after one trip out, he could not even produce a spark of Holy Light?
"I did something that goes against the Holy Light," Wright said with a bitter smile. "I beat a fellow believer of the Church who also believes in the Holy Light, and after he lost the ability to resist, I continued to beat him. After that, my Holy Light power rapidly declined."
Gao Yang's expression turned serious. He stared into Wright's eyes: "Tell me exactly what happened."
Wright did not conceal anything. He recounted plainly what had happened in the small village north of Stonehold Fortress. He did not gloss over the anger and violence with which he had taught those two soldiers and that priest a lesson, nor did he hide his contempt and disgust for them. But after finishing the account, he still let out a long sigh: "I do not regret what I did, but I did indeed violate the teachings of the Holy Light. I should have had a better way to handle it, but I was still blinded by anger."
Gao Yang frowned: "And after that?"
Wright spread his hands: "After that I started back, and on the road I rescued more than a dozen people... and also taught more than a dozen people a lesson."
Gao Yang thought to himself that this priest had apparently been blinded by anger quite a few times... or perhaps he had simply given up and stopped caring?