Chapter 15

Chapter 15

CHAPTER 15 – THE SHRINE IS DOOMED

Originally posted on RBKTR Translations.

Author: The One Who Tells Stories Under the Bridge (天桥底下说书的).

Translated by: Yujuan

Among those of the Haotian Shrine, Su Ge rarely managed the everyday affairs, as he blindly sought for a sign from his god; Ji Mo’s philosophy was to keep away from others to save his own skin; and while Brilliant Moon was called the Elven King, he was a character whose crown and subordinates had been practically gifted to him – he did not have the gift of administration, so all the Shrine’s affairs, no matter big or small, had always been managed by the Rising Sun Priest, Chang Hui.

The war between Celestials had lasted for a very long time in this world. At present, the first to emerge among the five continents’ rulers had been Ye Junhou, thirty-five years ago, and it was also him who had utterly annihilated the country of the land’s natives, starting off a new occupation of Celestials contending for world domination. Three years after Ye Junhou had established his Demonic Continent, Su Ge suddenly entered the fray, using his tremendous strength to defend the crumbling Xuri City[1]. The lord of Xuri City who had led the resistance against Ye Junhou at the time was today’s Rising Sun Priest, Chang Hui.

Chang Hui and Su Ge spent two years seizing territory from Ye Junhou’s hands to create today’s Godly Continent, leveling the land which used to be Xuri City to build the Shrine. The next thirty years was spent with Su Ge acting as the Godly Continent’s mascot and Chang Hui being the true governor of all influences; such was their mode of cooperation. Even though Ji Mo and Brilliant Moon became White Robed Priests later on, the real power was firmly held in Chang Hui’s hands.

The Shrine was the domain Chang Hui had single-handedly established— here, there was no one to contend for power with, and he was an ambitious man whose goal was to become a powerful minister. It was exactly because of this that his actions of giving up everything he had built to join hands with his former enemy Ye Junhou was completely incomprehensible to Ji Mo.

Such a situation was completely out-of-character for him, and besides, Qing Ye was an orphan Chang Hui had personally brought to the Shrine. Why had he singled out a powerless and non-influential divine attendant? Had he been forced to sign a blood contract with Ye Junhou and was unable to defy him? But with Chang Hui’s wit, he couldn’t possibly vanish without leaving a single word of caution…

Ever since the White Tower had been destroyed, the Shrine had been unable to find traces of Chang Hui. Along with his departure was the disappearance of several elite personnel in the Shrine, and to be able to achieve such a large-scale evacuation within a single night, this must have been meticulously planned. Ji Mo didn’t think he had been forced to defect.

Just as he was lost in deep thought, he suddenly caught a glimpse of Ye Mingjun, who had been taking advantage of Ji Mo’s absent-mindedness to twirl his hair between his fingers. He couldn’t help but ask, “Does Xianjun have any thoughts upon this matter?”

He was completely clutching at straws here, but surprisingly, the immortal took a moment to consider the question before giving him an miraculous answer, “Perhaps he fell in love with a beauty from an enemy country?”

Tell me, as the protagonist of a pretentious male-oriented novel, what sort of romantic conventions do you have filling up your head?

Digging his fingernails into the papers in his hands, Ji Mo did his best to retain his kind and gentle smile, “Would Xianjun care to tell me how he came to this conjecture?”

And yet, he was answered by Ye Mingjun’s simple and earnest look, “That’s how it always plays out in movies.”

“Xianjun, I will lend you a few books at another time.”

Shooting the deeply corrupted Ye Mingjun a look of pity, Ji Mo was firmly convinced that this guy definitely needed the spiritual edification of Marxism and Maoism.

“Rather than discussing these questions, why don’t you guys hurry up and read those documents?! They’re asking how many taels are needed for Jiangyin City’s reconstruction, how would I know how much money is needed for rebuilding a city? Does the Rising Sun Priest handle this kind of thing too?”

Seeing them carry out their friendly day-to-day exchange, Brilliant Moon, who was almost buried under all the paperwork, finally couldn’t hold back from letting out a cry for justice. After saying that, he took a look at the pile of emergency documents next to him that were close to toppling, his face instantly turning ashen, “If you push all the paperwork on me, I’ll be the next to defect!”

News of the White Tower’s destruction had already swept across the entire Godly Continent, and there was a continuous stream of documents coming from the branch offices asking for news. In the past, all the high-level priests in charge of handling the paperwork had had a close relationship with Chang Hui, how could Ji Mo possibly let them handle these confidential letters? In the end, he was forced to put himself and Brilliant Moon on the spot, as well as press-gang a passing Ye Mingjun into personally attending to these documents.

After spending several consecutive days reading through these greeting letters filled with official jargon that were actually attempts at snooping for information, Ji Mo’s head ached; he would rather read the godly BE novel Monarch’s Descent Into The Wastelands another ten times than deal with these public affairs. Unfortunately, there was no other way around it, and he could only feign indifference as he replied, “A couple cities are always destroyed whenever the Demonic Continent strikes anyway, it’s only been a decade since we achieved stability, just tell them to deal with it like how they did in the past.”

Never expecting to be given such an answer, Brilliant Moon widened his eyes, then took a look at the paperwork Ji Mo had just marked. Most of them had the simple responses of ‘handle affairs as usual’, ‘act according to circumstances’, ‘let us pray, god bless you’ written on them, and as someone who had thought so hard his brain almost exploded, his breath was instantly taken away, “Are you sure you’re allowed do this?”

Then, he received the Morning Star Priest’s kind and genial smile, “What gave you the impression that I could deal with all of this?”

Was the Shrine really alright, having the two of them manage its affairs?

With such a mournful thought surfacing in his mind, Brilliant Moon still wasn’t giving up, glancing down at the documents placed before Ye Mingjun. While the immortal had yet to desist from his harassment of Ji Mo, the picture scroll he had brought along with him was using its tassels to curl around a quill, conscientiously helping him write an official reply to these documents. From the length and writing on these documents, it appeared far more dependable than the two White Robed Priests. However, Brilliant Moon quickly realized a problem with it, “Um, this guest over here, why can’t I read what’s written on paper?”

Hearing him ask that, the immortal spared the documents a glance, then explained pleasantly, “Oh, the Diorama of Civilization is an ancient treasure, so it can only write in oracle bone script.”

Just how old is this piece of antique? Also, why are you making a painting do your work like it’s a given? Doesn’t your conscience hurt, using the System like this?!

His words caused Ji Mo to place his quill on the stacks of paper once more. He tried taking a deep breath before asking with gritted teeth, “Didn’t you say that you transferred a modern Romance System into it?”

“But the System only uses an input method.”

That makes quite a lot of sense, I’m actually lost for words.

After expressionlessly accepting this fact, Ji Mo continued his casual management of affairs, “Tell the branch offices this is a sign from God, they will understand on their own accord.”

While Ji Mo was saying this in an exceedingly composed tone, this did not stop Brilliant Moon from deeply sensing just how irresponsible his own associate was. With the words ‘the Shrine is doomed’ written all over his sorrowful expression, he looked over to a certain Shrine’s spiritual leader, who was languidly seated by the window brewing tea, “High Priest, what should we do?”

To those of the Shrine, the High Priest was a mascot who star-gazed in the White Tower when they were not at war; to them, his existence ensured the Shrine’s security, so the thought of making him deal with mundane affairs no matter how busy they got never once crossed anyone’s mind. Of course, the reason why Ji Mo kept his silence was that he was extremely clear of the fact that Su Ge’s understanding of politics did not compare to even Ye Mingjun’s.

As anticipated, when faced with Brilliant Moon’s question, the High Priest took a small sip of his tea before replying, “Let those who know how to handle these affairs handle them.”

“High Priest, the Celestials adept in government administration were all fostered by Chang Hui. Most of them have gone with him.”

This chapter is scrapped from readlightnovel.org

With regard to his idle suggestion, all Ji Mo did was rationally point out the facts. Yet, Su Ge quickly responded with a far more terrifying answer, “The Godly Continent has no one, but the other continents do. So, let’s just merge with the Demonic Continent.”

At any rate, we’re certainly unwilling and incapable of handling these matters, so let’s just hand the job over to those who wish for it. Fine, this was an exceedingly logical reasoning.

Looking silently at Brilliant Moon, who was so startled by this alarming proposal he had fallen out of his seat, Ji Mo was unsurprised. He understood Su Ge’s character very well, and knew that the High Priest remained at the Shrine solely because he did not wish to lay his eyes on war. He did not have the slightest interest in wielding power himself.

Su Ge’s only goal in life was to search for traces of God across the world. This held true even in the novel, where he had passed through numerous countries in his westbound journey, and the positions he had given up, from state preceptors, ministers, to kings, were just too many to count. If Chang Hui hadn’t been exploiting his benevolence to make him stay all these years, their High Priest would’ve turned into a pigeon and flown away[2] a long time ago. Now that Chang Hui was gone, the High Priest collectively known as Supigeon[3] by his readers was eagerly flapping his wings, preparing to leave!

While he understood, Ji Mo did not intend on stopping him. The one who had let him see the world once more was Su Ge, not the Shrine. If Su Ge decided to break away from the Shrine’s fetters, he would then assist this person in setting forth on a new journey, this was his only way of repaying what he owed.

But why had he chosen the Demonic Continent, the one continent they had a long-lasting enmity with? With how things were at present, the Immortal Continent or Buddhist Continent were clearly more suited for the Godly Continent’s vision.

Frowning in bafflement, Ji Mo looked at the High Priest seated by the window. Su Ge was already more than a hundred years old, but his features were stuck in the youthful appearance of when he had first encountered traces of his god. While his looks did not stand out, his temperament, deposited by years of experience, caused him to be identifiable with just one look.

Su Ge’s attitude was too unruffled, as if Chang Hui’s betrayal and the White Tower’s explosion had been within his expectations, as if he had always known that this would happen.

As the steam generated by the collision of boiling water hitting the tea leaves drifted past the man’s forehead, Ji Mo seemed to comprehend something. He asked abruptly, “High Priest, do you know something about why Chang Hui defected?”

Su Ge: I wish to head on an impromptu road trip!

Ye Mingjun: 666[4], I also wish to experience an impromptu love affair.

Ji Mo: Hehe, I wish to stew you both in a pot, how about we name this dish ‘Pearl Pigeon’?

Brilliant Moon *terrified*: probably-the-only-normal-one-in-this-group-chat.jpg

TL Notes

[1]

Xuri City – Xuri (旭日) means ‘Rising Sun’, which is where Chang Hui got his title from.

[2]

‘Turned into a pigeon and flown away’ – There is a saying in Mandarin called ‘放鸽子’ (lit. releasing the pigeons) which means standing someone up, something Su Ge does a lot.

[3]

‘Supigeon’ – The ‘Ge’ in Su Ge’s name sounds like pigeon (鸽子, gēzi), with a different character.

[4]

‘666’ – 6 abbreviates the character 溜; 666 is an internet slang/gaming terminology used to describe something terrific, awesome.