Chapter 673 – A Problem (1/2)
Chapter 673 – A Problem
Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
All gazes were focused on the highest point of the Great Hall of Light.
Seeing the Pope with Mu Jiushi standing next to him, the crowd was filled with a deep unease.
Given the solemnity of the affair, the Pope's announcement naturally had to do with the coup of the Mausoleum of Books. Many people had even already thought of Chen Changsheng's name.
The mood was very tense and uneasy. Nobody noticed two people walking in from the side path into the hall.
Linghai Zhiwang and Daoist Siyuan, two Prefects of the Orthodoxy. On that night, they had been personally sealed by the Pope and jailed in the Dao Prison. Why had they suddenly appeared now?
In just three days, they had both greatly thinned, their faces pale and devoid of blood.
They made their way through the crowd towards the front of the great hall. Finally, people took notice of their presence and gasped.
Gradually, the cries of alarm increased.
Linghai Zhiwang and Daoist Siyuan once more stood at the very front of the Great Hall of Light.
Archbishop An Lin revealed a look of shock while Zhuang Zhihuan's eyes slightly narrowed. Only Mao Qiuyu and the archbishop known as Daoist Baishi were unmoved. They had probably known of this matter in advance.
The great hall was awash in light. Mu Jiushi stood on the high platform at the place where the light was greatest, so her sight was somewhat affected. Moreover, even someone with her background could not help but feel nervous when thinking about what the Pope was on the verge of announcing. She did not notice the cries of alarm from the crowd and its momentary unrest.
In the next moment, she would become the successor of the Orthodoxy, the future Pope.
The current Pope glanced at her, his eyes brimming with compassion and love.
She somewhat bashfully smiled, but she was actually extremely calm and also a little excited, anticipating those words.
”Archbishop of the Hall of Announcements, Mu Jiushi, has gravely violated the laws of the church, presumptuously prying at the Heavenly Dao. How should she be punished?”
Cries of shock and murmurs of discussion rolled through the Great Hall of Light like a surging wave.
The Orthodoxy will soon welcome the first female Pope; of course people will be shocked, Mu Jiushi thought, a reserved smile on her face.
Suddenly, her expression changed, her complexion turning extremely pale.
Because it was only now that she clearly heard the Pope's voice.
Gravely violating the laws of the church? Presumptuously prying at the Heavenly Dao?
Was the matter the Pope supposed to announce not conferring upon me the title of next Pope?
How could this be!
What's going on here!
Mu Jiushi was absolutely dumbfounded, suddenly turning her head to look at the Pope.
What she saw was still that elderly face, those two eyes brimming with compassion and love.
That compassion and love were not for her.
She could clearly tell.
She was furious.
”Why do you want to punish me!” she coldly said to the Pope.
She looked down at the crowd below the high platform, harshly yelling, ”Who dares to punish me?”
The crowd was silent. Those priests who were qualified to attend the Offering of Light were all important figures of the Orthodoxy. They were all well aware of the background of the mysterious Archbishop of the Hall of Announcements. They also knew just what her existence meant for the great undertaking that was the Orthodoxy's existence in the new millennium. However, their silence now did not signal their unease. It was because the Pope's question had not been aimed at them.
The halls of the Orthodoxy each had their own role. The Hall of Drifting Clouds was responsible for punishments, and the Archbishop of the Hall of Drifting Clouds was already present.
Linghai Zhiwang looked to Mu Jiushi, gloomy flames of resentment burning in his eyes. ”Thirty strikes of the staff, destroy her cultivation, and expel her from the Orthodoxy.”
This was a statutory law of the church and any person in the hall would be able to recite it. However, when they heard these three statements, they all felt a bone-piercing cold.
It had already been six hundred years since such a harsh punishment had been carried out on an archbishop of the Orthodoxy at Mu Jiushi's level.
Seeing Linghai Zhiwang's eyes, Mu Jiushi felt her body turning abnormally cold.
She knew that she could no longer remain. With a grunt, she turned and drifted out of the hall.
She believed that as long as she could leave the Great Hall of Light, Shang Xingzhou would be able to protect her. The position of Pope was now naught but froth and shadow, but there was always hope in the future.
However, just as she floated off the high platform, she realized that she had lost control over her body and heavily crashed to the floor.
Linghai Zhiwang brought several cardinals of the Hall of Drifting Clouds and expressionlessly reached her side.
……
……
Indistinct and terrifying ripples of Qi emanated from deep within the pure and holy light, as well as Mu Jiushi's furious roars. In the end, she represented the Great Western Continent, so after Linghai Zhiwang received Mao Qiuyu's suggestion, he temporarily put off the thirty strikes of the staff with the excuse that the Divine Staff was not present. But destroying her cultivation…this was still a frightening matter and required enduring an unimaginable pain and torture.
The Pope did not hear it, so everyone in the hall did not hear it. All was quiet as a sleeping ocean.
With the assistance of Mao Qiuyu and Daoist Baishi, the Pope descended from the high platform and arrived amongst the priests.
He gazed at these people that had served him for several hundred years and said, ”Three days ago, I said that I was about to die.”