554 The Dark Future (1/2)
”As the backbone of the Church, are you sure it's appropriate for you to say that?” asked Ye Qingxuan.
”Every high-level officer of the Church should know one thing: the faith is for the worshipers only. We don't need to fool ourselves with that.” Shi Dong smiled weirdly. ”I'm old anyway. Old men tend to have some wild thoughts.”
”You can say whatever you like,” said Ye Qingxuan. Shaking his head, he continued, ”You may continue. I'm curious about the secret of the Religious Court. What on earth is it?”
”As we are only used by the senior officers as tools, we shall not get to know too much. If you want to know that, you may need to ask the Pope.”
”I have asked him actually.”
”But he didn't tell me.” Ye Qingxuan shrugged.
”Then there is nothing we can do. If the popes don't want to tell you, no one can help you.” Shi Dong shook his head pitifully.
Shi Dong obviously knew about the truth of the King of Red as he said ”popes” instead of ”pope.” but it was normal as he was once the most powerful leader of the knights.
”The Forbidden Technologies you mentioned just now, are they all from the Church?” Ye Qingxuan asked.
”Part of them, yes,” Shi Dong answered.
Shi Dong explained, ”The other part came from Catastrophes. It was like a jigsaw puzzle. We humans have part of it, yet the rest were taken by the catastrophes. We, as tools to fight against the catastrophes, are only allowed to know this much.”
Ye Qingxuan walked behind Shi Dong, thinking along the way. For a very long time, the Sacred City had led the development of the countries with its technology which was tens of years ahead of all countries. The Church controlled the best technology. Even the Chainsaw Fraternity, who got separated from the Church, had technology far better than what anyone could think of.
The beacons for detecting Aether density and transmitting information, churches and the refuge facilities in churches, as well as the Aether balancers, they had such great achievements in all subjects.
The Church's budget on research was far below that of any research institute. Yet they got so much ahead of those other research institutes. This was puzzling.
Ye Qingxuan realized that there must be something no one had expected in it. Compared to conduct researches to improve technology, it was easier to block existing technologies. In that case, what they needed to do was reveal them gradually, and not much investment was need.
It's just that…
”How advanced is the technology controlled by the Church?”
”No idea,” said Shi Dong.
Shi Dong shook his head. ”Except the water tank, there is more technology that is not known to the world, not to mention the related files or products made available to the world. We were never allowed to know any of that.
”It's not only about weapons. Some files even have priority levels higher than the Purgatory built by Gaius; they are mostly from the catastrophes.
”Compared with the human world, the secret they held were much to terrible and massive. The world might be wiped out by those powers if someone got careless. Therefore, they were sealed.”
Then he paused and gave a mocking smile. ”After all, all this is to maintain the 'Correct' history.”
From the Catastrophes?
Frowning, Ye Qingxuan said ”What catastrophe would communicate with humans except the Three Wise Men and the Three Pillar Gods?”
”None.” Shaking his head, Shi Dong said, ”They cannot speak any language. How can they communicate with humans? What's more, if you want something, you can rob it instead of trading for it. Just like the snake of crystal.”
The Naica Nest of the Crystals. Ye Qingxuan recalled his memory of the ruin he had been to before he went to Romulus—the crystalized earth and the deep hole. That was the evidence of the fight between the humans and the catastrophes. Yet, what have men gotten from the body of the snake of crystal?
The body of the catastrophes were made of pure aether and music theories circulated all over the body. There was no flesh or blood. The death of it is caused by the collapse of the core music theory and then the body couldn't be kept long. It would collapse into pure aether and disappear for a long time. Then, it would resurface to the world. There, it was not in any way similar to a tiger's skins and bones, which could be made into leather robes and medical wines.
How did the churches get the forbidden technology from the catastrophes?
In the silence, the two walked down the wall and into the courtyard. Surrounded by walls, the courtyard was empty, without even a single tree or any grass, not to mention flowers.
There was nothing to see in the courtyard.
Shi Dong stopped at the center of the yard. He turned back and looked at Ye Qingxuan. ”Sir, please get everyone out of here,” he said in a low voice. ”This might be a good place for talking about secrets.”
Ye Qingxuan immediately understood what he said. Compared to a closed room which could be monitored or bugged, this kind of open ground was safer. There was no room to hide. And Ye Qingxuan's Wyrmrest enchantment could fend off any one who wanted to wiretap them.
Ye Qingxuan thought about it for a while. Then he nodded and looked behind him. Then everyone following him went away. Then, he deployed two layers of sound-isolator and his Wyrmrest enchantment at a diameter of two meters.
”As you wish, Mr. Shi Dong.” Ye Qingxuan said, ”You may now say what you want to tell me. And it's also the best chance now if you want to assassinate me.”
”What I'm telling you now, is what the first leader of the Witch's Hammer and Grand Inquisitor told me when he died.” Shi Dong lowered his eyes. ”It is the secret he kept for his whole life. If it is disclosed, even the Religious Court of Inquisitors would be purged ruthlessly by the Church. It's about the real body of the catastrophes.”
”The real body?” Ye Qingxuan was surprised.
”Yes. The real body.” Shi Dong said, ”Or its 'source'—the power and essence of it. That is the reason why catastrophes don't die.