Chapter 389: God and Mortals
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
As soon as Raven 12345 finished her words, the atmosphere immediately turned tense. The four ascetics did not know how to respond. Hao Ren could feel their awkwardness: as a group of devout believers, what was the appropriate response when they were in such a situation?
Hao Ren began to imagine the kind of fanatics he had seen in other stories. He felt that the most suitable scene for the situation now was for the four ascetics to immediately take out their swords and rush towards Raven 12345, shouting "Fight for our Lord!". Then they subsequently get killed by a series of lightning strikes from Raven 12345. But after thinking about it, he found that it could not be this way. Mainly because, it was not the mortals, but the goddess who said such uncomfortable words.
And based on organizational structure and induction process, this unreliable sister was more like a genuine goddess.
Apparently, the four ascetics could also think about this point, so they struggled: At this moment, did they have to care about the dignity of their goddess? Did they have to explain to the greatness and importance of their own goddess to another goddess? No matter what choice they made, it was going to be awkward anyway. They were either sorry for their beliefs, or sorry for logic.
Most important of all, all religious conflicts in the world were among mortals. The case was different when it was a conversation between a believer of God and a real goddess. The four ascetics obviously lacked the corresponding work experience...
But luckily, the four ascetics were wise enough to know that they could not use their own views to determine whether the goddess of another world was real. Also, they were mentally prepared before coming here, so they quickly calmed down and began to tell Raven 12345 about the teachings of the Disciples of Glory and the image of their goddess.
They spoke slowly and paused several times in the middle of their conversation. No matter how well-prepared the four ascetics were, they still faced a lot of unexpected bumps. They still talked to Raven 12345 like they were preaching and in the middle of their conversation, they kept being interrupted by Raven. She would say things like, "Oh, I've done this before..." or "Oh, my archbishop suggested this to me before, but I found it troublesome so I didn't do it…"
It looked like a group of young monks was preaching and a real God was squatting there, listening to them…
Hao Ren was there to witness this strange scene.
After a good two hours had gone by and Hao Ren was almost asleep, the four ascetics finally finished. They all had sweaty faces at this point. The unprecedented conversation made them very nervous. They thought their minds were strong enough, but they did not expect themselves to feel shaky like children who witnessed the revealing of a real god for the first time. Raven 12345 was not surprise. The four ascetics were truly devout, so they were bound to be suppressed in the face of a true goddess.
This was an ambiguous "symbolic" effect. No matter how true their goddess was, as long as these believers' words and actions conformed to some subtle "characteristics", they were bound to be disturbed by another true godor goddess.
What made Raven 12345 interested was that this "disturbance" was more intense than she had expected. The faith of the four mortals was even shaken when they faced her. They behaved as if they were meeting their own goddess of creation.
This phenomenon had a special significance: What the fours ascetics believed in was probably a true goddess. It was the only way they could unconsciously "recognise" other true gods.
The goddess of creation in The Plane of Dreams was most likely a true goddess, who conformed to the "GSO9001 True God Accreditation" of Xi Ling Celestials and the "Three Tests of a Godhead" of the three celestial systems.
However, the goddess may only have characteristics of a true god, but did not possess real ability. The goddess of creation had yet to show much strength after all. According to Hao Ren's report, Raven 12345 inferred that the goddess did not have the ability to create something out of nothing, or the ability to rewrite the rules of the universe. Otherwise, her way of life-sowing would have been done in a more high-end form: she could have created the biosphere directly on the planet, rather than sow some corporeal "primitive seeds".
This was a goddess who seemed muddled and did not possess any power of a true god. But at the same time, she did resemble a true god in some form. Raven 12345 squinted and found that the situation was a little tricky now. Something she had been investigating for a while seemed to coincide with this.
"It seems that your belief system is perfect, very... spot on," Raven 12345 said as she looked for more appropriate words to evaluate the Disciples of Glory. "There are some signs of blind development. Obviously, you are not directly guided by the goddess. You believe in the process of development, but the overall structure is in accordance with healthy sectarian regulations."
Big Beardy had a peculiar reverence for Raven 12345 under the inexplicable disturbance of his soul. Nonetheless, this awe did not control his mind, so he still retorted, "No, please forgive my rudeness, dear goddess, but I don't think you're right. We have always been taught by the goddess of creation. We can hear her voice, and her messages are clearer as well as more direct than other false gods. The Disciples of Glory have been developing under her teachings for 3,000 of years, and she has been guiding us directly."
Raven 12345 raised her eyebrow and said, "Oh? You think you can receive clear messages from the goddess? It seems that your understanding of it is wrong."
The four ascetics immediately looked at each other. Raven 12345 snapped her fingers and they immediately heard an unusually respectful, but slightly agitated voice of an old man in the air. "Oh Lord, are you calling your servant?"
Raven 12345 was talking to a believer in a distant galaxy. "Umm, Wilton, you're studying artificial souls, right?"
"Yes, My Lord. We are trying to decipher the mysteries of the soul. Are we doing something wrong?"
"No, you are all very motivated. That's good. I just want to encourage you and let you know that your project is on the right track."
Raven 12345 disconnected the call and shrugged. Before the stunned individuals she said, "See, this is a god's message."
Even Hao Ren was surprised. His lips twitched as he looked at the goddess. He then asked, "Umm… Shouldn't messages from a god be vague, weird and incomprehensible? So that people can't get the meaning even after they've pondered for months? How could it be so… simple and direct?"
Big Beardy nodded immediately. He obviously agreed with Hao Ren in this regard.
"No. Do you know how many people would lose their life this way?" said Raven 12345. "Do you know how much influence a god's message can create? Under no circumstances can the future of a civilisation be pinned on a vague word. I'd rather make everything clear. Of course, for most civilisations, I would choose not to take care of them. I'll only teach them a lesson when they meet real trouble and tell them clearly why they were beaten."
Raven 12345 looked serious when she said, "Our boss told me before that a true god would not give mortals a bunch of inexplicable punishments, and then let them guess what they did wrong in fear. That's not the way to raise kids, that's how you tease cats. As a god, you have to be really responsible and make things clear. And I agree with that."
Big Beardy looked at this "heretical goddess" who gave him a sense of awe. He was reluctant to accept her weird "divine rule". However, there was some truth to what she said, and this clear explanation was very friendly to those with obsessive-compulsive disorder. Most of the time, people with OCD could not be high priests because they could not stand the problem of missing words and grammatical confusion when trying to communicate with God...
"To sum it up, I think your goddess should be in a very strange state," Raven12345 said, ignoring Big Beardy's complicated expression. "I'm willing to admit that she is a goddess, but she is now clearly in a... poor state. Even if she is an ordinary super life form, she should have the ability to have a clear conversation with you, but you say that you can only hear some vague voices?"
"Yes," Big Beardy nodded and said.
"Only someone who's senseless and obsessed with the theocratic game would deliberately engage in such a mystifying trick. And no matter how senseless she is, she can't possibly continue this joke for 3,000 years. If she has a normal mind, she would have had a few normal conversations with the four of you during the past 3,000 years. But the situation now is that you can only hear some obscure murmurs, which means that she's very weak. This even shows that she has already..."
Raven 12345 suddenly stopped talking. She smiled and looked into their eyes as she said, "I have some investigations under way, but that's part of the secrets of the gods. Anyway, thank you for your explanation. It has helped with my investigation. You can rest assured that I have good faith in your goddess. And if possible, I will help her."
Raven's words were somewhat baffling, but Big Beardy was convinced for no reason. The four of them nodded respectfully.
Raven 12345 then turned to look at Hao Ren and said, "Now I finally have time to talk about your work report... You've done a great job this time, just in time for the annual bonus too. I've got some extra rewards for you."
Hao Ren was thrilled right away!