Hao Ren looked at Big Beardy, feeling surprised. Things did not seem to be going as expected—the pagan who believed in the goddess of creation, which the Disciples of Glory put their faith in had proposed to see the big boss. Was it going to be a religious or diplomatic issue?
In fact, Hao Ren had also considered the right time to bring the four ascetics to see Raven 12345. After all, this was the "rule" of his house: when new members joined, they had to report to God.
However due to the special status of the four ascetics, he never dared to mention it. Mainly because, he was not sure what role Raven 12345, a licensed goddess would have in the minds of the ascetics, who believed in the goddess of creation. And as a goddess herself, could Raven 12345 tolerate a group of mortal believers? Of course, he did not need to worry about the second question. Hao Ren had never seen anyone more open-minded than Raven 12345 in his life. The goddess was so broad-minded that Hao Ren wondered if she had any feelings at all…
"Is there a problem?" Big Beardy looked at Hao Ren calmly and said, "Oh, I understand. We can't go and meet the goddess as we like."
"That's not the problem," Hao Ren said as he looked at the "pagans" and felt the pressure. He did not expect to face such a scenario in his life. "A person going to McDonald's in a KFC uniform would easily lead to a criminal case these days. Do you think it's okay to meet another goddess? Let me declare that, although I have no intention of offending your beliefs, the goddess above me is a licensed one."
Big Beardy's face finally twitched, but then he smiled and said, "It's okay. Our belief in the goddess will not waver because of other things. We are just curious about what the goddess you mentioned looks like, and wonder what she thinks of us."
Hao Ren had no choice but to nod and say, "Okay, all of you are clever, so you should know when to keep quiet. Try not to talk about the question of faith and issues of 'real god or false god' later."
The four ascetics continued to nod and said, "Of course, we are aware of that."
They were wise enough to know that it would be awkward to bring up issues on real gods and false gods. So, they kept their mouths shut and allowed the Data Terminal to activate the teleportation portal to goddess' house.
In a flash of white light, Hao Ren felt that he had accomplished an unprecedented feat: taking a group of pagans to see God, and this sentence was a statement.
The white light dissipated and Raven 12345's gorgeous houses appeared before them. Hao Ren did not come for quite some time, the familiar fountain and garden made him feel like home. And the four ascetics looked at the surroundings in amazement as they opened their eyes. One of the usual amusements of such religious people should be to imagine How God's house looked like, but there were few people who have a chance to see it. And now they were here. They could not help but keep looking around.
After looking around, the young ascetic muttered a little doubtfully, "It feels different from what I imagined…"
"Well, not as magnificent as I imagined," echoed another young nun, "although this space looks really magical and the architecture is gorgeous, as heaven ... it feels a little bit small."
Hao Ren smiled and explained to them, "This place is actually just her temporary office. It is said that the headquarters is in a place called City of Shadows, much bigger and wider than this place."
"Oh, that's understandable," Big beardy said, but still puzzled and pointed to the big house, "but what's that hole for?"
Hao Ren looked up and was sweating immediately: The house crashed by shuttle had been repaired. But now there was another big hole in the roof. A great cloud of black smoke billowed out of the big hole. Only God knew what that Goddess did again...
Hao Ren was about to explain the situation to them and the door of the house suddenly open automatically. A blue energy creature came out. Hao Ren listened to the creature jabbering and got that: Raven 12345 already knew their arrival and wanted the arcane servant to take them to see her.
"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."