Chapter 388 (2/2)
“Let’s go,” Hao Ren beckoned to the four ascetics and said, “Meet the Goddess here.”
Led by the arcane servant, they passed through a long corridor and an empty little sitting-room and came to a gorgeous round hall that Hao Ren had never seen before. This magnificent round hall was resplendent, decorated with exquisite murals and the mysterious relief that filled them with a sense of awe. Raven 12345 stood on a pedestal in the center of the round hall, posing to a crystal barrier.
Before Hao Ren spoke, Raven 12345 waved her hand at her back, signaling him to be quiet for a while.
Hao Ren looked puzzled at Raven’s strange behavior. He had never seen the Goddess being so serious. She was standing on the pedestal with awe and majesty, her whole body was exuding a sense of inexplicable holiness, plus she was surrounded by mysterious radiance, this moment, Raven 12345 actually looked like a Goddess. Hao Ren immediately felt that his Goddess might be absent from work again. The lady in front of him was probably Raven 23333…
But halfway through his mind, the Holy Goddess on the platform proved her identity by actual action. She suddenly jumped down, stretching her body and yelling, “Aiyo… it’s so tiring. Yo, Hao Ren, you brought some visitors? Have you told them there’s no lunch here?”
Hao Ren, “…”
Big Beardy looked at this scene with open-mouthed, pointing to Raven 12345 and lost for words. After a while, the young ascetic asked, “This…”
“This is our Goddess, don’t look at me, I don’t know why. It’s an arrangement by the organization.” Hao Ren dropped his head, but he was familiar with Raven 12345’s style and was soon adjusted himself. He looked up at the Goddess and asked, “What were you doing just now? I thought you’re about to go up to heaven.”
“The Vallelaena Civilisation Sphere is celebrating the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Church of Divine Truth–I am their Goddess, so just show my face to say some words to wish them Happy New Year or something,” Raven was saying these surreal things casually, “that is a bunch of very amusing fellow, although very close to me, their culture make me speechless… Forget it.”
Hao Ren was surprised. He never thought that a goddess like Raven 12345 would be a serious Goddess in the eyes of mortals. “Aren’t you uninterested in being the God? And I remember you said you didn’t preach at all.”
“I don’t preach doesn’t mean that people don’t believe,” Raven 12345 said, “More than 100 years ago I helped them solve a little problem, and in a few years they developed a church of tens of billions of people. And they really figured out a prayer service that could talk directly to me. It’s like the phone number is leaked. I can’t avoid or stop it.”
Hao Ren was stunned. He did not know how to evaluate this kind of thing: this was clearly beyond a normal human’s perception of the world. As a human being, it was difficult for him to understand how the Gods felt when listening to prayers. Raven 12345 patiently explained, “In fact, praying is like harassing messages. In most cases, a mortal prayer is like a complaint phone call, to tell you that his life is bad and what he wants recently. People put two pieces of meat on the table and lit two incense, then want you to help solve their problems like quarreling among family members, declining business, wife refused to come back home, kids refused to go to school and things like that. People thought that the immortals are always free, just sit at the reception and answer the phone all day. That’s why I’m not willing to preach. Of course, the Vallelaena is a little bit better. Most of the time, they sing to me when they’re praying, even though the song hasn’t changed for 100 years…”
The four ascetics were standing like stone carvings. Hao Ren estimated that the impact of this meeting was enough to make them stunned until lunch. He poked Big Beardy’s arm and said, “Hey.”
The four masters recovered from the surprise. The young nun muttered, “That’s the way the Gods look at ‘praying’.”
Hao Ren hastened to correct them and said, “You don’t take this as a reference!”
“I’ve read your report.” Raven 12345 said and looked at Hao Ren, “What you found is very valuable. There are a lot of things that I didn’t have time to investigate. It seems that it is the right decision to give this task to you. But we’ll talk about it later. First, let’s look at these…”
Then, Raven turned to look at Big Beardy and the other three ascetics:
“The Goddess you believe in is a very interesting existence. I’m investigating her identity. Tell me something about her.”