novelraw Chapter 2: The Priest
Chapter 2: The Priest
"Father 5"
"In other words, if we can use something to deceive everyone, even if that thing has no connection to us, this Wish Force will still be ours?"
Bai Yang asked.
"Yes, Your Grace! But by doing this, we can only obtain half of the Wish Force, while the other half will remain in that object!" Alvin said.
He was a Divine Spark Spirit, but in a sense, he was also an extension of Bai Yang.
He would grow as the Divine Spark grew, and would perish as the Divine Spark perished. It was precisely because of this that Bai Yang trusted him, because he was absolutely loyal.
"Since that's the case..." Bai Yang looked at the church before him and smiled slightly.
"We don't need to think about the haunted house anymore. Even if such deception could obtain Wish Force, I don't think it would be much!" Bai Yang changed his thinking, as he had come up with a bolder idea.
His Divine Spark still contained 100 points of Wish Force.
Wish Force was a very miraculous power. If he could accumulate 10,000 points, the Divine Spark would upgrade and refine it into "Divine Power."This was the most fundamental source of all faith deity powers, and also the reason why those deities fought among themselves.
Competing for followers and competing for faith were what deities needed to do.
The more followers they had and the more devout they were, the more powerful their strength would become.
And now, as the God of Lies, these 100 points of Wish Force were probably only enough for him to project a huge image in the sky, and then it would be gone.
Bai Yang couldn't possibly do such a thing. Perhaps he could do it in the future, but right now he couldn't afford it.
If he really used up all this Wish Force, he would disappear from this world together with Alvin.
So he could only accomplish big things with small investments.
Coincidentally, this small church was a perfect place for him to showcase his plan!
"Your Grace, are you planning to play a ghost here?" Alvin asked curiously.
"No, it's not just ghosts that can obtain Wish Force - deities can too!" Bai Yang said with a smile. "Now, let's make contact with this priest!"
The power of lies, besides deception, also included detecting people's hearts.
After all, if you don't even know what the other person is thinking, how can you deceive them?
Now that he could detect these people's psychology, he naturally discovered how to make these people believe his "lies."
Bai Yang thought with some frustration that if he had understood this Divine Spark's power when he first arrived in this world, perhaps...
he wouldn't have suffered such a big loss in western San Diego, and wouldn't have fled so disheveled to this place!
Angus Bennett was the only priest and monk in Vespucci Town.
And this "only" status would likely continue for a long time.
Twenty years ago, when he took on this responsibility from the old priest, Angus had already anticipated this.
But he was happy to bear this responsibility, because he was a very standard small-town priest - his entire life had remained here.
He watched the townspeople grow up, watched them grow old, performed baptisms for them, helped them with prayers, and presided over their funerals.
For Father Angus, the town was almost everything to him.
The only time he had traveled far was when he went with the old priest to the diocese in Los Angeles for assessment - aside from that, he had never left town.
He had sincere faith in the Lord, so he strictly adhered to religious doctrines, taught people to be good, and provided necessary redemption for the lost souls in the town.
Compared to those malicious priests, he seemed like a true "apostle" in the real sense, guarding this small place.
He even found contentment in his circumstances.
Originally, he thought his life would follow the same uneventful path as the old priest, eventually finding his own successor, having himself buried in this town, and ending his peaceful life.
But recently, Father Angus, who always seemed cheerful no matter what, had some troubles.
Because the children who went to school in San Diego had returned, and after learning some so-called scientific knowledge, they began to challenge this poor priest.
They would use statements like "God created humans, but why do humans look so much like monkeys" or "Does God like LGBT" to make Angus struggle to respond.
Angus didn't quite understand - God only created men and women, but now there were so many genders.
This was too different from what he learned in the Catholic school seminary.
He couldn't explain it, nor could he get angry with the children - that wasn't his style, so he could only laugh cheerfully.
Because of this, after today's worship and mass ended, Angus closed the church, knelt before the Jesus statue, and began his prayer.
"Lord! What should I do to guide them onto the right path?"
He didn't doubt his faith, but only felt that he wasn't devout enough, so he had never received revelation.
Therefore, he prayed as usual, then slowly raised his head and got up to clean the church.
This was his daily routine - he needed to tidy up everything in the church and prepare for tomorrow's opening.
He had done this for twenty years, every single day.
But today, something seemed different in the church.
"Did I forget to turn off the lights?" Angus suddenly noticed that even though the heavy wooden door had been closed and the windows around showed that night had fallen, there was still light in the church.
A faint white light was flickering above his head.
Curiously, he followed the light and found the source of this light on the large statue in front of him.
"These children..." Angus laughed helplessly. He could see a white light flashing on the chest of the Jesus statue.
He instinctively thought it might be the children's prank.
This was quite common in the town - the children always liked to do this. They would place small light bulbs on the Bible, sprinkle fluorescent powder on the cross.
Such pranks always made the rigid Father Angus change his expression.
However, the Lord should not be blasphemed, so Angus chose to climb onto the platform to remove this prank light bulb, whoever it belonged to.
"Was it little Joseph, or little Bruce?" He silently guessed which child had caused the trouble, thinking he would tell their parents tomorrow.
If it were other pranks, that would be fine, but children who played pranks on the Jesus statue needed to be punished!
But when he reached the light source, this priest truly changed his expression!
Because he saw that the glowing thing wasn't the light bulb he thought it was, nor was it some fluorescent powder applied to it, but the cross on Jesus's chest!
This was a cross carved on the chest of the Jesus statue, emitting white light about a finger's width away from the statue.
These white lights formed a brand new cross, floating in front of Angus Bennett, emitting a soft glow.
"Almighty Lord!" Angus immediately began to pray, looking at this cross with surprise and ecstasy, his fingers trembling slightly as he reached out to touch it.
Then, this cross slowly rose before his eyes, and along with it rose the silver cross necklace on his chest.
The next second, the white glowing cross gently merged into his necklace, making him feel a special warmth...
This middle-aged priest thus gently fell asleep, sleeping at the feet of this statue.
And the person in the room stood up slowly at this moment.
Bai Yang looked at the sleeping Father Angus, waved his hand, the white light dissipated, and everything around returned to normal.
Yes, everything just now, including the "warmth" that Father Angus felt, were actually "lies."
In fact, nothing had happened here.
The only thing that happened was Angus himself being put to sleep by Wish Force.
"Your Grace, the entire process consumed 0.5 points of Wish Force. In this dark environment, such light is very noticeable!" Alvin's voice came to Bai Yang's ear.
Bai Yang nodded with satisfaction, "Good! Did we obtain Wish Force?"
"We did! Obtained ten points of Wish Force, five points entered the Divine Spark, and five points entered the priest's necklace!" Alvin sounded very surprised. "This is a very devout believer. If he can stabilize, he can provide at least five points of Wish Force every day!"
Bai Yang wore a smile on his face, "Of course he's devout. In this country, finding a priest with such pure spirit and faith isn't easy!"
"You seem to have new ideas?" Alvin asked curiously. "What kind of instructions are you going to input into his dreams?"
Bai Yang smiled, "Not just his dreams, but many people's dreams can receive inputs!"
"How can one person's Wish Force be enough? I want to make this entire Vespucci Town the source of my Wish Force!"
As he spoke, he waved his hand.
Alvin immediately disappeared and began to flutter and dance over every house in the central area of this town.
This was also Bai Yang's method - using Wish Force in reality consumed too much.
The hundred points of Wish Force in his hand couldn't even support him creating a large fantasy here.
But in the illusory world, such as in dreams, even just a little guidance could achieve effects that even a hundred or a thousand points of Wish Force couldn't accomplish in the real world.
And in this continent where theology was prevalent and various mysterious powers and legends were constantly heard, dreams were actually a very good method.
It saved Wish Force and could make these people initially perceive danger!
"In this country, what could be more solemn and mysterious than the Church!" Bai Yang looked at the shadow of the church and slowly disappeared into the darkness.