Chapter 653 — Breaking Ground
Blade of Dawn · Page 1 of 4
Faced with an ancient Defier of mysterious background and unknown aims who controlled the Yaoxiao Church, Kamael—himself of Defier origin—advised Gao Yang to exercise caution and keep his distance. Yet Wright, High Pontiff of the Southern Church and a forceful advocate of the new Yaochen doctrine, believed the woman could be worked with. This was a situation Gao Yang had not anticipated.
He looked at Wright. "Give me your reasoning."
"Speaking practically, we cannot simply leave the Northern Church to its own devices," Wright said earnestly. "Matters of faith can easily escalate into bitter conflict—the clashes between the Yaochen Church and other sects during its expansion over the past two years are proof enough, and that problem is right in front of us. Let us set aside for the moment what Princess Virodai's aims might be; the fact is she currently holds the Platinum Scepter, and the fact is the Northern Pope and the entire episcopal college have fallen. On those grounds alone she has value as a partner—she can help us stabilize the situation. Otherwise the turmoil in the Northern Church could very well become a catastrophe."
"Value alone?"
"...No, there is a second point," Wright continued. "If her identity is genuine, then whatever her aims, at least she truly is someone who has 'defied the gods.' On this road of forsaking the divine, those of like mind are few, so even a temporary fellow traveler is exceedingly precious."
After a brief pause, he went on: "We must convey a correct understanding of faith to the world, and that process may be inseparable from violence, but we cannot rely on violence. The world is vast, and faith springs from within; in the end we must turn the majority into friends, not into mortal enemies. So we must distinguish who can be drawn to our side and who cannot—and in my view, Princess Virodai, or Ophelia Norton, is someone who can be drawn over, or at least someone worth drawing over at this stage."
Gao Yang glanced at Wright twice, rather surprised.
Distinguish the primary from the secondary in a conflict, distinguish the nature of opposing groups, distinguish who must be struck down and who can be won over... He had indeed spoken of these principles to those around him, and Wright had clearly mastered them, applying them with effortless fluency.
It seemed that since taking the seat of High Pontiff, this "pastor" had truly grown a great deal. Now that the target of his preaching had shifted from scattered individuals to entire communities, his way of looking at things had changed beyond all recognition.
Gao Yang fell into thought.
He well understood the latent dangers of this "inhuman being" Virodai, or Ophelia. Bringing a person shrouded in so many mysteries into his cause would inevitably entail certain risks, yet her value was equally plain; the work of receiving and reforming the Northern Church was a matter of urgent necessity. Between benefit and risk, he needed a balancing point.
At last, he gave a slight nod. "Perhaps we can enter into a limited cooperation with her."
Gao Yang could not, in such a short time and on such limited intelligence, bring himself to trust a Defier wrapped in mystery; but neither could he simply refuse her outright when intelligence was so scarce. After weighing the matter repeatedly, he decided to reach a limited cooperation with Ophelia Norton—provided that the Defier was willing to cooperate, willing to operate under a certain degree of surveillance, and willing to share some knowledge and information.
After all, Gao Yang himself was full of curiosity about Ophelia. He was deeply curious about what this ancient Defier had been doing in the Yaochen Church all these years, curious how much of that vast Defier plot remained unknown to Kamael—and a source of intelligence so rare was right there in the Yaoxiao Church... He truly did not want to let it slip by.
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