Chapter 563: The Church and the Temple

Chapter 563: Chapter 563: The Church and the Temple

Skirt-Flipping Maniac: Pfft, the special forces spy just died like that?

Lazy Kitten: Yeah. It was a pretty gruesome death.

Doujin Artist: This isn’t how the story was supposed to go. I thought he was going to be some kind of minor boss. And then that’s it?

Lazy Kitten: According to the Grand Elder, he wasn’t truly loyal to the Evil Spirit Cult either. They seemed to have known about the things he’d been secretly working on for a long time.

Machete Girl: Maybe he’s one of those refined selfish people. Even joining a cult was only for his own benefit.

Fresh from her shower, with her hair already dried, Katsura Kotonoha sat in front of the vanity. She was still wearing that pink dress-like nightgown. While scrolling through the group chat, she sent a text message to her younger sister, Kotonoha Katsura.

Creak.

Just then, Jeanette pushed open her bedroom door and walked in.

Seeing the somewhat heavy look on her friend’s face, Katsura Kotonoha blinked and asked, "Was the bar closed tonight?"

After spending so much time together, she had more or less gotten used to her friend’s hobbies. Working during the day and going to bars at night never conflicted for Jeanette. No matter how busy or tired she was, she went out to have fun at the bar every night and never came home before two or three in the morning.

Given the current situation, the bar had clearly been closed.

"No, I didn’t go." Jeanette shook her head and dropped into the chair in the room.

"You didn’t go?" Katsura Kotonoha raised an eyebrow in surprise. "What happened? Did a volcano erupt on the island of Java?"

Clearly, this was completely out of character. Katsura Kotonoha had every reason to believe that something serious had happened in this little village near the rainforest.

"Ye, I get the feeling you’ve been bad-mouthing me in your head." Jeanette spoke in a low voice.

"Not at all. That’s just your imagination." Katsura Kotonoha shrugged, her tone flat. "Back to the point. What exactly happened?"

Jeanette was silent for a long while before slowly saying, "I think I saw people from the Temple in this inn."

People from the Temple?

Katsura Kotonoha’s brows drew together, and a trace of surprise appeared on her face.

Thanks to Jeanette, Katsura Kotonoha was now fairly familiar with the history of this world’s Church. So she knew exactly what the "Temple" was. Two hundred years ago, a group of people broke away from the Church and set up their own faction.

The Western part of this world had recorded strange and mysterious events since ancient times. The Church’s exorcists and battle nuns were the greatest enemies of these phenomena.

But two hundred years ago, a group of veteran exorcists broke free from the Church’s control under the leadership of a cardinal. They claimed that the Church’s traditional exorcism methods could never save the world, and that they had to find another way.

That was how the Temple organization came into being.

In fact, they weren’t wrong.

Traditional exorcism was basically the practice of using strange phenomena to destroy other strange phenomena. It was a double-edged sword: while destroying these phenomena, it also placed the exorcist in serious danger.

The Church’s records contained plenty of cases in which veteran exorcists were controlled by strange phenomena and had their minds taken over, ultimately becoming enemies of humanity.

The members of the Temple, however, used exorcism methods that were completely different from the Church’s. These former clergy members had actually developed scientific methods of exorcism, using machines and instruments of their own design to destroy strange phenomena.

Naturally, the Church hated this. They believed the Temple had completely betrayed God and the faith.

So whenever a Church member encountered someone from the "Temple," it was as if they were looking at a heretic. Once the two sides met, a fight was almost guaranteed.

Of course.

Jeanette, an oddball within the Church, did not have any real hatred for the Temple. But the two were still hostile forces that could not coexist. If the Temple members discovered that she was a battle nun, it would inevitably cause trouble.

Katsura Kotonoha had thought of that too. She let out a quiet sigh. "Do you think they came here because of the Demon God?"

"Probably not..." Jeanette froze for a moment before saying, "They shouldn’t even know the Demon God exists."

Ever since learning about the Demon God, Jeanette had looked through many of the Church’s books, but none of them contained any records about it. If even the Church had no idea, how could the Temple, which had broken away from it, possibly know?

"Maybe I’m just overthinking things, but I still think we’d better find the Demon God as soon as possible." Katsura Kotonoha took a breath. "Let’s leave tomorrow morning."

She wasn’t worried that the Temple members would steal the kill. If they really could destroy the Demon God, Katsura Kotonoha would be happy to let them do it. But if the Temple misjudged the difference in strength between themselves and their enemy, giving the Demon God a chance to take advantage of them, that would create serious trouble.

Thinking about everything that had happened in the snow-covered mountain town made Katsura Kotonoha’s scalp prickle.

Phew.

She quietly breathed out the stale air, shook her head to clear away those thoughts, and turned her attention back to the group chat.

Lazy Kitten: That evil cult woman named Hongrou obviously had something going on with the spy, but the Grand Elder broke them up. No wonder she’s feeling so conflicted.

Curly-haired Guy: How can you be sure he was breaking up a couple? Maybe it was the wife beating up the mistress.

Lin Fengjiao: You can’t rule out that possibility.

Lazy Kitten: Damn, don’t scare me like that. That Grand Elder looks at least sixty or seventy, while that woman is barely in her twenties... An old man chasing a young girl?

This is an Actor: Isn’t that perfectly normal? Why are you making such a big deal out of it?

Gerald shook his head helplessly. Were age-gap marriages between old men and young women really that rare in his previous life? Not particularly. He himself had seen plenty of them.

Skirt-Flipping Maniac: Yeah, Lolo-chan, your shock value is way too low. In the material world, if you’ve got power and money, what kind of boyfriend or girlfriend can’t you find? And besides, the other person is a cultist.

Lazy Kitten: Tch. I could never accept that. If my boyfriend were some disgusting old guy covered in wrinkles and age spots, I’d rather kill myself!

Foul-Mouthed Mask Guy: Exactly. At the very least, find someone as handsome as me.

Lazy Kitten: Ha-ha. Then I’d just destroy your body so completely that no one could ever find it!

Machete Girl: Lolo-chan is still too kind. If it were me, I’d chop Mr. Deadpool into mincemeat at most, then put him in an incinerator and keep roasting him over and over. His immortality would finally come in handy. He’d remain trapped forever between despair and pain.

Foul-Mouthed Mask Guy: Fuck, you women really are demons!

Lazy Kitten: Hahahaha! Enough messing around. I’m going to get started.

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