Quadruple split.

Chapter 2542: Cornerstone and the Way Forward

"Do you know what you're talking about?"

Eden stared at the tall, handsome and feminine man in front of him and said in a deep voice: "Do you... know what you are doing?"

"I know what I'm doing better than anyone, Lord Eden."

Lamolock still maintained his cheerful smile, and asked in an equally cheerful tone, "As the parish head who was on an equal footing with Archbishop Moon Shadow not long ago, can you really be willing to be her running dog?"

Eden snorted disdainfully and said in a deep voice: "We are all servants of our Lord. How can there be any difference in status? Moreover, Yueying, as the Rector of the Southwest Diocese, has indeed promoted the glory of our Lord to the greatest extent over the years. Not only has he gained a huge influence across the continent, but the number of believers is also the largest in the Southwest Diocese, so..."

"So you think you're being a dog justified? Justified?"

Lamolock sneered and shook his head, saying, "What a pity! In my opinion, this is just a lame excuse made up by a coward who thinks he has burned out everything."

Eden was stunned at first, then he took a step forward, pointed at his sick, ugly and twisted head with a hideous face, and said angrily: "Coward? You say I am a coward? Lamorok, do you know what I have done for my Lord..."

"All I know is that you have destroyed the long-standing accumulation of the Northeastern Diocese, Your Excellency Eden."

Lamorok shrugged, then turned slightly to the side, covering his mouth and nose as if he would feel uncomfortable facing Eden's face, and said softly: "Of course, I don't mean to accuse you of incompetence. After all, as far as I know, your flawless plan can indeed completely suppress Sumir and activate the highest level of sacrificial ceremony after completely polluting the holy mountain, allowing our Lord to descend to the material plane. It's a pity... hehe."

Eden clenched his fists, stared at the God-favored One in front of him who was very good at angering others, and gritted his teeth and said, "If it's sarcasm, I've heard enough of it recently."

"I should have said it before, Lord Eden. I don't mean to accuse you of incompetence. In fact, this failure is no different from a natural disaster in my opinion, and you are just an unfortunate person who encountered force majeure."

Lamorlock denied the fact that he had any ill intentions in a brisk tone, and explained gently: "As a guest of the Dream Kingdom, although you are certainly not favored by the Pope, your status as an archbishop is still enough for you to access sufficiently confidential information, such as... the core topic of the Academy City Exchange Conference, those special beings called aliens. I'm sure you, the 'scholar', have already studied them thoroughly."

Eden took a deep breath, forcibly suppressed the nameless anger in his heart, and said dryly: "That's true, but so what?"

"Nothing special, just a simple general knowledge. The main reason why you failed in the Holy Mountain Sumir happened to be a conductor from another world who gained command."

Lamorlock raised his index finger and shook it gently, then pointed it at the tip of his nose and said happily: "By the way, I am also a person from another world. Although you have probably guessed it, I think it is better to be frank with you as a token of sincerity."

Eden snorted noncommittally and asked, "So?"

"So what I mean is that if there were no existence beyond common sense to disrupt the situation, you, the bishop of the Northeast Diocese, would probably have made a breakthrough and allowed the Lord's consciousness or half of his body to descend into the world. So the failure that time should not be attributed to you."

Lamolock said this in a rare serious tone, and then changed the subject, squeezing in, "But being crushed by frustration to the point of abandoning independent thinking and opinions, and even turning a blind eye to some unforgivable bad behavior... that's your fault."

Eden looked Lamorok up and down and said seriously, "The bad behavior you mentioned, are you referring to yourself?"

"How could that be? I have always been kind to others. If you don't believe me, you can go ask your young lifesaver."

Lamorlock, who was certain that Eden would not go to Tom for confirmation, spread his hands innocently and said leisurely in his persuasive and intellectual voice: "In other words, the behaviors that I would consider as bad behavior are naturally those that are particularly serious crimes, such as... I am the Grand Priest of the Southwest Diocese of the Whispering Sect, but I indulge in despicable role-playing and disregard the trust of my Lord and companions."

Instead of responding directly to the accusations that Lamorok had made against Grand Master Moon Shadow Dusksong, his greatest nemesis over the past few decades, Eden simply stared at him, waiting for the 'next chapter' he was expecting.

"hehe."

Then, Lamorelock smiled triumphantly, raised his hand and gently patted Eden on the shoulder twice, leaned close to the old man's ear, and whispered softly: "You are wholeheartedly welcome to join us, Archbishop Eden Jones."

The old man widened his eyes in astonishment: "What did you say..."

"I said, you are wholeheartedly welcome to join us."

Lamorlock opened his arms and slowly took two steps back. The corners of his mouth raised an evil smile that he rarely showed. "I see your expectation, Your Excellency. Your expectation and waiting have revealed the answer to me. It makes me know that the burning ambition in your heart has been rekindled. It makes me know that you have never been convinced by the high and mighty 'Your Majesty'. So at this moment, my explanation... is not important."

Eden clenched his fists and said angrily: "Don't fool me, you—"

The man did not continue speaking, because at the moment he clenched his fists, he suddenly noticed something strange.

A trace of power that made him ecstatic and almost scream.

"Your ambition should be rewarded, my Lord."

Lamorlock smiled happily, and then raised his chin towards the wall behind the two of them, which had mistaken him for a mirror. "I hope you like this gift."

Then, Aiden Jones turned around abruptly.

The first person he saw was a tall, smiling man wearing a silver windbreaker and a monocle. He was the favored one of the God of Whispers, an undisputed alien, a young man with terrifying military talent - Lamorok.

Standing next to Lamorlock was a man who seemed both strange and familiar to Eden.

The man had short flaxen hair of a slightly dull color and a beard of the same color. His body under the robe was strong and powerful, and his light eyes were firm and wise.

Thirty-two-year-old Aiden Jones looked into 'himself's' eyes, as if in a dream.

He is not the high-spirited old man in the Whispering City on the Holy Mountain of Sumir.

It is not a monster that has almost lost its human form after going through so much suffering.

But it has long been buried deep in memory. It is the ambitious and middle-aged Edden Jones who has just witnessed the power of whispers and vowed to dedicate everything to the true God he has never met.

"Unfortunately, this is not true." Lamorok in the mirror shrugged and spread his hands, saying, "Although I feel extremely sorry about this, you are essentially still an old man in his twilight years, almost at the end of his life, but you should understand that this falsehood..."

"This falsehood is also the truth for me, for you, and for the world."

Eden looked down at his solid, powerful, rough hands and murmured, "Although this truth may be regarded as absurd and evil by the vulgar, it is the most essential truth in the world. It is the gospel that we, the voters, must spread. It is the only salvation... and way out for this world."

Lamorlock in the mirror trembled slightly, and after a long while he suppressed the laughter that had almost burst out of his mouth. He slowly changed the subject and said, "I don't intend to say much about your doctrine, but as an archbishop, you should know that this 'gift' is not without price. Your pain, your aging, your weakness, and your fatigue will all be fed back to you in another form to achieve a sufficiently 'strict' balance."

"Of course I know."

Eden rubbed his cheek and asked impatiently, "So, how long do I have?"

"I do not know."

Lamoloc gave a blunt and meaningless answer, and then added: "But the ratio is about one to five."

Eden grinned, "Year?"

"of course."

Lamorlock also laughed and added: "But you will lose the 'future' and become the 'real' firewood. This is what the one who blessed you asked me to convey."

"It's my great pleasure."

Eden knelt on one knee, closed his eyes and paid the highest respect to a certain existence.

The next moment, a hand patted him gently on the shoulder, and then quickly left.

Eden knew very well that it was Lamorok's hand, but he could vaguely feel that the hand did not belong to the God-favored One with a bad temper.

So, when he stood up again, Edin Jones, who had lost his future, had the 'present'.

"You should be in awe of this partiality, Lamoloc."

Turning his head to look at Lamorlock, who had returned to the sand table at some point, or who had been standing there from the beginning, Eden waved goodbye to the gray brick that had unknowingly realized that it was a wall instead of a mirror, and said lightly: "Also... even though we both know that it is not 'your' gift, it is not unreasonable, I should still thank you."

Lamorlock nodded indifferently and asked casually, "Do you want more reasons for defecting?"

"It doesn't matter anymore. After all, Yueying will never acknowledge the fact that I was blessed by my Lord himself."

Eden shook his head and said, "But I really want to hear how you plan to convince me."

"I wasn't prepared because I knew very well that if you just did that, your hesitation would be enough to break the relationship between Eden Jones and Moon Shadow Dusk Song apart."

Lamorlock smiled and said happily, "This is the favorite method of the man who buried your Northeastern Diocese under the ice and snow of Sumire. Although it seems a bit disgusting now, I have learned it well."

Eden frowned and said truthfully, "I don't understand what you're talking about."

"This is normal. After all, in order to help you untie the knot in your heart, I slightly manipulated the 'blessing' just now to make you forget that regrettable defeat."

Lamolock looked contentedly at the sand table covered with countless black lines, and said without raising his head, "After all, I am the one who is going to destroy you, so He will not mind this little detail."

Eden: “…”

"Although someone's methods are interesting, they don't suit my style. So, it won't be a problem for me to simply share with you my observations in the Theocracy."

Lamorok waved his hand to calm the sandbox that was surging with ominous power, and said to Eden who looked quite curious: "It's actually not difficult to explain. If you think about it carefully, you will realize that although Yueying Musong successfully usurped the Dream Kingdom and even replaced some unlucky guy who knows who to become the Pope, and completely brought our land to the north under the control of the Whispering Sect, and managed this hollowed-out country very well, but..."

Eden narrowed his eyes and leaned forward slightly, "But what?"

"But the one that has always been thriving is the Dream Kingdom."

Lamolock raised a finger and shook it gently: "Do you understand? It's the 'Dreamland Theocracy', not the 'Whispering Sect'."

Eden hesitated for a moment, then shook his head and said bluntly: "I don't see what's wrong with this. After all, Yueying is first and foremost an archbishop and rector of the Southwest Diocese like me. The so-called Pope of the Dream Sect is just an identity he reveals to the outside world. Moreover, the current Dream Sect is essentially..."

"That's not important, Mr. Eden, that's not important at all."

Lamorlock interrupted him, smiling slightly, "Please don't be blinded by appearances. If you can see through the phenomena to the essence, you will find a very simple truth: the best interests of the Dream Kingdom are never the same as the best interests of the Whispering Sect. Archbishop Moon Shadow... hehe, or rather, His Majesty Moon Shadow, often inadvertently tends to favor the former."

"You mean, Yueying actually carried..."

"As a pathetic chess piece, she did not betray our supreme Lord. However, perhaps because she was too immersed in the role, or perhaps because of too many interpretations, she has become no longer pure. It is foreseeable that with the passage of time, this flaw will become more and more obvious, especially when the Southwest Diocese is the only dominant one... I am very worried that she will get lost at the critical moment."

"so what?"

"So as my Lord's favored one, I naturally have to take on the responsibility of rectifying the chaos and ensuring that you, the cornerstone of the Theocracy, walk on the 'correct' path~"

Chapter 2533: End