Path of Light.

Chapter 15 15. The Blessing Ceremony
In the harsh sunlight,

Roy ran on the cobbled street.

Pedestrians on the road all turned their eyes to Roy, and Roy only left behind a figure exuding infinite vitality.

You have to cross a few side streets to enter the lower city.

Roy, who rushed into the narrow streets of the lower city, did not notice a thin elf hiding in the alley next to him. His hair was oily and his eyes were bloodshot. He watched the passers-by on the street vigilantly. Looks like a homeless bum.

There was also a dagger stuck between the belt and belly, staring at Roy's back.

After a while, he retreated into the narrow alley.

……

Compared with the bustling Upper Town, the buildings here are older and the streets appear narrower.

Even the gutters on both sides of the street have become one, and in some places even the stone slabs covering the gutters have disappeared, and it can be clearly seen from the outside that there is dirt hanging inside.

Especially on rainy days, the accumulated rainwater in the upper urban area washed down the slopes, and the smelly sludge in the underground drains would wash up all over the streets.

The buildings here are very crowded, and clothes of various colors are drying on the roof of each house.

This is the living area of ​​the commoner elves, and the environment here is worse than that of Brown Street by the port.

Brown Street is regarded as the edge of Castleton City, close to the port pier, at least the buildings there are not as crowded as this one.

There are also poor elves, and there are not a few of them.

Many young elves leave their homeland after graduating from the academy.

It took nearly an hour to run from the Spirit Academy to the Temple of Liberty.

Roy's legs were so tired that he felt that the air in his lungs had turned salty.

When he arrived at the entrance of the temple, Roy saw that the big iron gate was open, and some believers walked into the yard from outside.

Roy followed the flow of people into the courtyard of the temple.

Apprentice Priest Abbott was standing at the gate of the main hall when he saw Roy and said quickly:

"Roy, Priest Reed said that if you come, go to the back study to find him."

"understood!"

Roy responded loudly.

Around a row of cypress trees on the side, Roy walked into his lounge.

Opening the closet, he took off his sweat-stained clothes and hung them on the hanger. He wiped the sweat off his body a little, and after a while, he put on the robes of the trainee priest.

Then Roy went to the study to see Priest Reed.

'tuk tuk tuk'

Roy stood at the door and knocked, and a voice came from inside: "Please come in!"

Pushing open the door and walking into the study room, Priest Reed was flipping through a thick book in front of the round table, and there was a stack of letters on the round table.

Seeing Roy walk in, he nodded to him:
"Roy, you go to the main hall to help Priest Osidor first, he may not be able to handle it alone, and come to me after the work over there is over!"

There was also a very strange map in front of Priest Reed. Roy looked at the map, and more than 90.00% of the unruly parchment was blank, only the bottom left of the parchment was blank. Some simple symbols of mountains and rivers are drawn in the area where the angle is not too large, and a red dotted line becomes extremely eye-catching in the middle of these lines.

And the book that Priest Reed read was also an atlas, and he couldn't understand what he was doing.

Roy saluted High Priest Reed, said 'Got it' and left.

……

After crossing the threshold of the gate of the main hall, Roy found that the believers of the Statue of Liberty who came to pray in the temple actually crowded the entire temple. Everyone sat on the bench, clasped their hands and recited prayers devoutly.

The sound of this recitation in the hall was surprisingly consistent.

This gave Roy the illusion of walking into the campus and hearing the sound of reading in the campus.

Priest Andison stood on the high platform with his palms folded, his expression serious, and his eyes closed, reciting prayers devoutly.

The believers in the audience are also praying with him.

Some believers came in from the outside one after another, looking for vacant seats to sit down and join in the prayer process.

The sound of prayer has a tranquilizing effect, but it's a pity that Roy hasn't even memorized the simplest sentence.

It's almost the same as reading from a book, but then you can't read with your eyes closed.

Roy felt that he needed to practice more when he found time, at least to make himself look more professional.

The temple also formed a choir, but this time they did not see the members of the choir, nor did they hear them sing.

Roy didn't take the middle path, but walked softly along the edge of the hall to the room with the holy water pool on the side.

Apprentice Priest Abbot stood under the high platform, closest to Priest Andison, and recited the prayers with the crowd.

Roy didn't see Jasper.

I heard that every time you pray, there will be a lot of holy light in the temple, but Roy found that apart from Priest Andison's body filled with a dazzling ball of holy light, there is only a very weak part of the apprentice priest Abbot's body. The group, other believers were not bathed in the Holy Light at all.

These believers are praying, but nothing seems to be working...

……

Priest Ocedo is responsible for managing the holy water pool in the room on the west side of the temple, and there are also some believers waiting in line in the room here.

When Roy walked in, he saw Priest Ocedo standing alone in front of the stone platform. On the stone platform was a deep silver plate with some clear water in it.

Kneeling in front of Priest Ocedo was an elf believer with a gray face. Priest Ocedo reached into the silver plate with one hand and poured water on the believer's forehead.

Seeing Roy walking in from the outside, he quickly motioned for him to help.

Priest Theodore made Roy responsible for scooping out the holy water in the holy water pool with a silver spoon and distributing it to the believers who had finished baptism.

There are indeed some particles of holy light floating in the water in the holy water pool.

If you look at it carefully, you can see those golden light clusters floating on the water like fish scales.

The water in the holy pool was clearly the well water he and Jasper brought up from the well yesterday morning, and the holy light contained in it was constantly dissipating, and Priest Theodore who was beside him needed constant blessings with divine magic.

Roy stood aside, holding a silver spoon, and gave the holy water to these believers spoon by spoon.

After completing these rituals, Priest Theodore's face was as white as paper, and he waited for all the believers to leave the temple before returning to the room to rest.

Seeing the happy faces of the believers when they left holding the holy water, Roy felt that these believers were more devout than him.

After the devotees left, the temple hall and baptistery were in a mess.

Roy took out the scorpion and was busy cleaning, and it didn't take long for the trainee priest Abbot to join in.

"It didn't need to be so troublesome before, the Holy Grail can fill the water with the power of blessing." Abt said with some sighs.

Roy stopped, not expecting the stolen Holy Grail to have such a function.

Abt sighed, moved the stool away, and said, "It's not possible now, all the blessed holy water needs to be blessed by Priest Theodore himself, and I don't know if the Holy Grail can be retrieved."

"Why did Priest Theodore add sacred power to the water?"

Roy couldn't understand.

"Why do you think these elves became believers in the Temple of Liberty?" Abt asked Roy, and without waiting for Roy to answer, he justified himself: "Of course the priests in the temple can help them heal their diseases , drive away the haze mood, and give everyone a good hope."

"Holy water is the welfare after everyone gathers and prays!"

"Isn't it better to drink the sap of life?" Roy asked.

Abt exclaimed a little indignantly:

"Of course it would be better to drink the sap of life, but don't you know that all the trees of life are in the hands of the Moon God Temple, and here only the silver moon elves can receive the sap of life, other elves do not have this benefit, a glass of it on the black market The diluted life sap is sold for five baekiles."

Roy froze in place, he had never thought about the value of life sap.

In the past, Ms. Belinda brought it back and placed it on the dining table casually. Sometimes Roy would forget to drink it in time...

Roy thought, if it wasn't for raising him and letting him live in an environment where he would not be discriminated against by other elves, maybe Belinda would have a quite comfortable life in Uptown.

Abt here has changed the subject, probably because he thinks that Roy is also a trainee priest, so he vomited bitterly to Roy and said:
"I don't know what's going on, but now I spend several times more time praying every day than before, and the power of the Holy Light I got is not half of what it was before. The goddess seems to be getting farther and farther away from us. Roy, how do you feel recently? Sample?"

"Me?" Roy was slightly taken aback, and then said to Abbott:

"I've only just felt the power of the Holy Light, and I haven't been able to recite those holy prayers yet..."

"Oh, then you have to work hard."

After finishing speaking, Abt raised his chin slightly, and that sense of superiority was immediately written on his face.

Carrying the scorpion, he turned around and walked to the other side of the hall. When walking, he would even stand on tiptoes and sprint upwards. It seemed that he had found the source of happiness from Roy...

……

After finishing cleaning up the main hall, Roy went back to the study to see Priest Reed.

Priest Reed had already put away most of the blank parchment, and there was only a geographical atlas left on the round table. Seeing Roy return, he pointed to the chair opposite the round table and motioned him to sit down, and said yes As the old saying goes:

"A magician gathers magic power through meditation, and we gather holy light through prayer."

Priest Reed paused, looked at Roy and said:

"So if you have time, you have to pray. If you work harder, you will gain something. If you get together, you will get more!"

Hearing that Priest Reed was always emphasizing prayers repeatedly, Roy asked Priest Reed:
"Teacher, do we pray to gather the Holy Light?"

Priest Reed covered Roy's mouth, and said in a quick and severe tone:

"As the priests of the Statue of Liberty, we must never have such thoughts. Prayer is to appraise our beliefs, and God's feedback is what makes us have powerful divine power."

(End of this chapter)