Shendou Continent

Chapter 85
If you don't look closely, Saint Dou City looks like the capital of a province in the Ouyue Empire.

Inside the tall and thick city walls, there are also various shops, tiles, and various buildings row upon row, which also shows that Saint Dou City has achieved commercial success under the governance of the Holy See.However, among the people here, the proportion of fighters is obviously much higher than that of ordinary cities. People wearing the uniforms of the Holy See walk in the streets and alleys, which seems to be a unique scenery.In order to facilitate the control of fighters' access and control, the walls of Saint Dou City are also higher and thicker than ordinary cities.

The center of Saint Dou City is the holy temple, which is located in the center of the city. The core of the holy temple is the Pangu Temple. The Pangu Temple is divided into the inner hall and the outer hall. The outer hall is the place where the Pope and people above the metropolitan level handle the affairs of the Holy See. , the inner hall is the place where the pope and cardinals gather to discuss and negotiate major issues.The entire Pangu Hall is equivalent to the palace hall of the imperial court.On both sides are the side halls that deal with the specific affairs of the Holy See, guarded by some archbishops, and deal with the daily affairs inside the Holy City and around the Holy See.The Pangu Hall, the Side Hall, and some side halls that needed to be built for various reasons constitute the center of the Holy See Temple.On the periphery of the center, there are twelve palaces. There are twelve palaces named after the zodiac, namely, the East Four Palaces: Zizi Palace, Ugly Ox Palace, Yinhu Palace and Maotu Palace; South Four Palaces: Chenlong Palace , Si Snake Palace, Wuma Palace and Weiyang Palace; West Fourth Palace: Shenhou Palace, Yourooster Palace, Xu Dog Palace and Hai Pig Palace.It is said that after the death of the true god Pangu, the essence and blood turned into twelve parts, pointing to twelve directions, which coincided with the directions of the twelve hours of the day on the sundial disk. The Holy See worshiped the true god Pangu. To show piety, and because it absorbed the common zodiac beliefs in mainland China, this Holy See Zodiac Palace came into existence.Throughout the ages, the lords of the Zodiac Palaces have all been saints and revered cardinals, and the palaces of the zodiac signs are the palace lords' deacons.

The Pope's residence is behind the Pangu Hall, known as the Pope's Palace.But unlike the usual three palaces and six courtyards in the Imperial Palace, there are not so many palaces in the Pope's Palace. Although there is no Holy See law, there are very few women in the popes in the past, and there are generally no more than three women with titles, and they are often monogamous. Most of them are monogamous.This is related to the abstinence practice advocated by the Holy See. Although the fighters are fully mature around the age of 32, excessive intercourse will still affect their practice.But the pope has a very long lifespan, and it is normal for five generations to live under the same roof. Although their adult heirs will not all live in the Pope's Palace, there are also rooms reserved here, plus the servants of the Holy See and necessary supporting buildings, the Pope's Palace Still a bit of a scale.

Surrounding the Holy Temple and the Pope's Palace, the Temple of Heaven, the Temple of Earth and the Temple of God are built on the east, west and south sides, and the Temple of the Sun and the Temple of the Moon are built on the north sides.Outside the main entrance of the temple, Shengtian Gate, is Fighter Street, on which there are bell towers and drum towers.Just like the layout of an imperial capital, the difference is that the size is slightly smaller.Among the five altars of heaven, earth, sun, moon, and gods, the most distinctive one is the God Fighting Altar. This altar was originally built to commemorate the popes of all ages. It is a bit like the imperial temple, but later it almost included all the god fighters in the history of the mainland. Eliminate a few heinous ones.Behind the God Dou Altar is the place where Pan Gu is enshrined.

Since returning to Saint Dou City in the middle of the year, by late October, Lu Jianyi had been in charge of the affairs of the Holy See for more than three and a half months.At this time, Qian Xiangxing has served as the commander of the Holy Fighting Army. With his personal prestige and power, under his rectification, the middle and high-level members of the Fang faction were quickly cleaned up, and the entire army was firmly controlled by the Pope. flag.And Ji Feng assisted Lu Jianyi in governing Saint Dou City and the branch of the Holy See. While liquidating the Fang faction, he was also on guard against the Yellow faction.Under the joint governance of the three of them, everything in the Holy See and Saint Dou City is in order. Although there have been many changes in the high-level personnel, the middle and lower levels and the Holy See system have remained intact and orderly. People's hearts are generally stable, and Saint Dou City is still thriving.However, political struggles have always been brutal, and those with vested interests will not easily surrender. They are also looking for opportunities to fight back.

October 23 is the birthday of the true god Pan Gu, and it is also the annual awakening day.As the Saint Dou City where the temple is located, it is naturally extremely lively.Many people who desire their children to become fighters will come from all over the world, hoping to be a part of the aura of Saint Dou City, so that their children can successfully awaken their souls, and one day they will be able to glorify their families.

On this day, the Pope will naturally go to the God Fighting Altar to worship the ancestors of the past dynasties and the god fighters who have achieved fame in history, and then worship Pangu God.The pope seldom travels because of his age. On this day, in order to witness the presence of the pope, almost half of the people in the Holy City will come to watch.In order to prevent accidents, the holy fighters will open the way first and guard the holy path from the temple to the god fighting altar in the south for the pope.As a cardinal, Lu Jianyi and the others naturally wanted to sacrifice to the God Dou Altar together.The pope and his party were mighty and full of ceremonies along the way, and they were the focus of the entire Saint Dou City.At this time, Saint Dou City has entered a carnival moment, but threats often come quietly at this time.When everyone's focus is on the temple and the God Fighting Altar, it is often the time when other places are most neglected.

At two o'clock in the afternoon, the pope had just returned to the temple amidst the cheers of the crowd, ready to preside over the festive banquet on the Day of Awakening.The banquet invited the main envoys and officials stationed in Saint Dou City from various countries, as well as representatives of mainland sects, dignitaries and business houses who came to congratulate, including Wuyunmen’s congratulatory representative—the elder Xiong Jinghui and his assistants. The cardinals of the city and the heads of the directly affiliated institutions will be seated together.If there are god fighters and saint fighters who roam in the Saint Dou City from the mainland, they will also be invited to the banquet.However, before the festive feast started, the Pope received a report of a fire in the west of the city. It is said that the fire was very large and burned down many contiguous houses and tiles, with unknown casualties.

After hearing the report, the pope's heart sank. Although the ceremony could not be stopped, he was already in a bad mood, so he immediately called a nearby archbishop named Lu Yanfeng to lead someone to check it out.After Lu Jianyi got the news, he also asked the archbishop named Ximen Hui to accompany him.

At this time, in the west of the city, a teahouse and a restaurant outside the two folk courtyards of Osmanthus Fragrance and Hehuachitou were surrounded by fire, and a storyteller had already collapsed at the entrance of the teahouse.Under the raging fire, there were cries, shouts, and wailing sounds one after another.The people outside were pouring water to put out the fire, and the people inside were also trying to save themselves, and some powerful fighters had rushed into the courtyard to save people.

When the Pope's envoy arrived, the fighters of the Holy See Patrol Battalion responsible for the security of the Holy City were already there and were organizing rescue.The wounded were rescued one by one, but many more were trapped in the courtyard.Lu Yanfeng took a quick look around the perimeter of the two courtyards, and then rushed into the burning osmanthus workshop with his advanced Void Realm cultivation base. Although the four men under his command only had Transformation Realm cultivation bases, they also rushed in.Generally speaking, when they reach the Void Realm cultivation base, the general fire will do little damage to them, let alone the senior Void Realm, so most of the people trapped in the courtyard are ordinary people and some junior fighters.Perhaps the envoy wanted to extinguish the fire with his own strength, and made a contribution to the awakening sun; perhaps he just wanted to check on the trapped wounded and perform a duty of the Holy See management.But he went and never came back.

Seeing that the envoy of the Pope entered and failed to come out, the people patrolling the city camp also panicked. The commander of the fire department who was in charge of fighting the fire sent someone to report to the commander who was still attending the festive banquet in the temple, and then led them into the sea of ​​flames.Ximen Hui, who was sent by Lu Jian, also rushed in.

Here, the festive banquet continued as usual in a friendly and peaceful atmosphere. The Pope, Lu Jianyi and other high-ranking officials of the Holy See remained calm, only concerned about the fire in their hearts. However, what they waited for was not only the report of the fire situation, but also the disappearance of Lu Yanfeng. news.

When the Pope received the news, the festive banquet had just ended, and everyone was getting up and exiting in an orderly manner.Then the Pope urgently summoned Lu Jianyi and Shen Yifei, the commanding officer of the City Patrol Battalion, to discuss, and ordered the City Patrol Battalion to immediately block the scene and continue to put out the fire and rescue the injured; he ordered Lu Jianyi to organize personnel to immediately find out the cause of the fire and the truth about Lu Yanfeng's disappearance, and at the same time deal with the aftermath as soon as possible. .

The two got orders from the Pope and immediately went down to make arrangements.But there are still activities on today's Awakening Day, and Lu Jianyi still has to participate, but the Pope has an order, and he has to arrange to implement it immediately.And it can be seen that the pope is very unhappy about today's events, and he is obviously blaming him for negligence.He called Ximen Hui who was following Lu Yanfeng, and quickly understood the situation: it turned out that Lu Yanfeng hadn't come out for half an hour after he went in, but those who followed Lu Yanfeng all came out one by one.When asked about Lu Yanfeng, the people who followed said they hadn't seen him.The burnt people in the courtyard were carried out one by one, but Lu Yanfeng was not seen.Because the people from Xunchengying sent additional manpower to speed up the fire fighting, when they came back to report the news, the fire had been brought under control, but Lu Yanfeng was still missing.It is estimated that he can only be found after the open fire is completely extinguished.

Lu Jian thought quickly in his mind, it is normal to accidentally catch fire in Saint Dou City, but this time the fire in the west of the city was not small, involving dozens of private houses and teahouses in two courtyards, which is rare in recent years.What's even more strange is that the time of the fire happened to be an important awakening day!This timing is very sensitive, is it just a coincidence?It is even more strange that Lu Yanfeng, who was accompanying the Pope, rushed into the flames and disappeared.You know, so many of his subordinates in the realm of transformation have withdrawn safely, how could he, an archbishop with a senior virtual realm cultivation base, still not be able to come out?It doesn't make sense.

Without time to investigate further, Lu Jianyi immediately organized three groups of troops: one group cooperated with the patrolling battalion to search and rescue, the focus was to find Lu Yanfeng, it would be best if he could find a living person, if not, he had to investigate the details; The focus of the investigation is to investigate the abnormality before the fire; there is also a group to do the aftermath work, and each group is in charge of an archbishop of the Holy See.

In this way, amid the lively celebrations on Awakening Day and the wailing of the fire scene in the west of the city, the aftermath and investigation of the strange fire began.

(End of this chapter)