This heretic cannot be burned, he must be hung up and whipped!

In times of crisis, the only thing we can do is take responsibility.

PS: 260 votes for the next update 4.鸸撮?柒>聊#撮依伞巴陸5k喵... Refresh every five minutes and add some pictures

PS2; In fact, the secret passage under St. Peter's Basilica in Rome is real. Bei Zhai wrote in the previous plot of this book that the secret passage that the popes have to take to be promoted actually exists in reality, and every pope does take this passage, just like Lao Fang in this chapter.

Of course, the secret passage in reality leads to the Vatican, not the Kingdom of God!

Red Tide: 1921: Against the Heavens Extra: I'm here to quit the band, what are you guys going to do? (Part 1)

This extra story has some connection with the main text, but not much ()

Thanks to @的大飞天短爷 for the inspiration in the last paragraph of the voting chapter. Beizhai will write a sequel based on your words (laughs)

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With the Warp demons temporarily expelled from the real dimension, Neos felt no euphoria of victory. He saw a deeper root of trouble. Eight hundred years of war were the result of a dual force of religious fanaticism and Warp corruption. Humanity's spirit had been clouded, its rationality suppressed. Ignorance and fear were fertile soil, ready for the Warp's resurgence at any moment!

The church's dogma still shackles the mind, and the fear of the unknown still breeds blind faith. Physical wars can be won through psychic power and technology, but spiritual wars must rely on a revolution of the self.

"If humanity does not awaken to reason and humanism, religion will forever be a breeding ground for the demons of the Warp." Neos made a decision. He was to accomplish a task far greater and more difficult than exorcising the demons – to unify the Earth and establish a human empire based on reason and guided by science.

The war to unify the Earth was brutal and swift. In the face of the might of Neos and his followers, neither the Church, the lingering old nations, nor the entrenched warlords were able to resist.

Fighter planes streaked across the sky, and armies of Thunder Warriors swept through all obstacles. In less than a decade, all human regimes on Earth were integrated into a single, vast system—the Empire of Man.

After the war, Neos did not choose to celebrate, but immediately launched his long-planned plan: a social transformation called the "Renaissance".

This was a spiritual cleansing. He ordered the disbanding of most religious organizations, the confiscation of their assets, and the censorship and archiving of all religious texts. This wasn't because Neos hated faith itself, but rather because he detested the ignorance and control it brought. He understood that the power of the demons of the Warp stemmed largely from negative emotions and disordered beliefs. To eradicate the demonic threat, the human mind must first be purified.

Under the empire's powerful executive power, schools, research institutes, and propaganda machines operated at full speed. Compulsory scientific education was rolled out across the globe, indoctrinating everyone from children to the elderly into modern scientific thought:

A way of knowing based on observation, experimentation, and logical reasoning. Science is defined as a methodology, a tool for understanding the world.

"Existence is reasonable"—this scientific perspective has allowed people to view Warp creatures in a whole new light. They are no longer curses from the gods or divine tests, but rather another form of existence in the universe, natural (or perhaps supernatural) phenomena that need to be studied and understood.

Ten years later, the face of the Earth has been transformed. Former churches and temples have mostly been converted into museums or research centers. Streets and alleys are no longer filled with preachers and religious symbols. Humanity's spiritual shackles have been broken, and the light of reason has begun to shine. While ancient religious beliefs haven't completely vanished, they have faded from mainstream consciousness, becoming the personal choices of a few.

"From now on, there will be no God in the world."

Neos said to the chief of the imperial guards beside him.

After the Renaissance, Neos chose to retire. Unlike the emperors of old, he didn't cling to power until the end. He knew he wasn't a philosopher king, and the risks of personal dictatorship would outweigh the benefits. Neos believed in humanity's potential, and the Human Empire gradually restructured into the Human Federation, a looser, more consultative system.

He retained the title of Emperor, but more as a symbol and final arbitrator, with actual executive power delegated to the parliament and ministries, and the empire transformed into a constitutional monarchy.

In other words, the monarch is offline.

Of course, religious controls have not been relaxed. The newly established Human Federation Ministry of Religious Guidance (MRG) oversees all remaining religious activities. Under strict regulations, religious organizations are restricted to designated temples or meeting places, prohibited from preaching to minors, and strictly prohibited from any form of religious propaganda in schools or public places. Faith has become a strictly regulated private matter.

Interestingly, despite the decline of mainstream religions, new gods have quietly emerged in those corners that still hold on to their beliefs or are influenced by the remnants of the Warp. These gods are not Warp demons, but the product of the interweaving of human faith and Warp energy. They are more like some kind of powerful psychic aggregation, possessing the characteristics of former gods, but also bearing the mark of this new era.

One afternoon after his retirement, Neos felt a sense of unprecedented leisure. Accustomed to the endless cycle of battles and construction, this tranquility left him feeling somewhat disoriented. Then, a strange idea emerged in his mind.

"I want to form a band."

He found Jesus in the Middle East and brought the Tathagata Buddha from the East, who was deeply interested in a new era for humanity. In the Nordic wilderness, he awakened the dormant Odin and finally visited the embodiment of Taoist philosophy, the Supreme Lord Laojun. The gods, simply bored, agreed to Neos's proposal.

This is how the band "NEOCRUX" was born.

NEOCRUX – "Neo-Eon Crucible Crossroads." Neo stands for Neos, symbolizing the new era for humanity he pioneered; Crux, Latin for cross, could also represent the Crusaders.

"We are—the Crusaders of the Gods!"

Band members:

Neos – Lead singer. His singing style starts with a battle cry: “Hum-hum-hum-ah-ah-ah!”

Jesus - keyboardist. Likes DJing and playing electronic music.

Tathagata - the drummer. He doesn't use a mortal drum, but a drum kit made up of large and small wooden fish. The problem is caused by constantly beating wooden fish. The spare drumhead is covered with a thangka made of the skin of a subdimensional demon. If the demon wants to play resurrection, he will use a handheld prayer wheel to hit it.

Odin is the bassist. Although he's a bassist, he also loves electronic music. He often competes with Jesus for seats, and he loves to point at others and say, "You're not allowed to come to the concert!"

Taishang Laojun is a guitarist. His instrument is unique: a guitar modified from a traditional Chinese qin.

The band also has two special mascots:

Laojun's mount is the green bull, and there is the Haki leopard, the northern god - Tezcatlipoca. The Haki leopard doesn't care about anything and is only responsible for watching the fun. He is the band's favorite.

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A secret room beneath the Tibetan Imperial Palace of the Human Federation that even gods cannot find

For his first rehearsal, Neos chose the safest and most private place: a basement deep in the palace, which was once a military command center and was now temporarily converted into a rehearsal room.

"Everyone, tonight we are not gods, emperors, Buddhas or celestial beings," Neos said to the retired gods around him as he stood in front of the microphone. "We are just an ordinary band."

To avoid causing unnecessary shock or even fear to the mortal audience, the five gods used their divine powers to cleverly conceal their true appearances and brilliance. To the audience, they were just five ordinary-looking mortals with eccentric temperaments.

Neos gathered a small audience: a few loyal guardsmen, a few battle-hardened Thunder Warriors, and some high-ranking retainers and officials. He asked them to put aside their status and give the most honest evaluation, just as he would any new band.

In the corner of the rehearsal room, Qingniu was lying on the ground, slowly chewing a tangerine that Neos had brought from somewhere, and Beishen was sitting lazily on Qingniu's back.

The show begins.

The prelude sounded. Laojun, wearing sunglasses and headphones, began a solo on his lyre guitar. Odin held his bass guitar and simply plucked it with his hand. Lightning was released from his fingertips, crackling in the air. Neos took a deep breath.

“Hmph, hmph, hmphahhhhh—”

The rhythm of the verse became regular. The Tathagata's wooden drum beats were dense and precise. At the same time, Jesus' voice sounded. He did not sing, but recited a passage from the Book of Revelation in Latin.

The chorus erupted. Odin's bass wall crashed down like a thick wall of thunder and lightning, and Neos began his battle cry.

Finally, after much agonizing, the final chapter arrived, and the voices reunited. Five retired veterans, each in their own unique way, sang a song called "Amenos's Little Song." The lyrics were obscure, the melody elusive, and it seemed necessary to play it backwards to glimpse its true meaning.

The last trace of the piano music faded, and the arc of electricity on Odin's fingertips also went out. The rehearsal room was deadly silent.

"Hahahahaha"

Only the green ox lying on the ground was still chewing its tangerine, and the subtle chewing sound was particularly harsh in the silence.

The audience, those battle-hardened Custodians and Thunder Warriors, who normally remained impassive in the face of Warp demons, now silently donned fully enclosed helmets, preventing anyone from seeing their twitching expressions. Officials and attendants began to whisper among themselves, then one after another hurriedly left with all sorts of outrageous excuses:

"Oh, I suddenly remembered that my genetic modification is not complete yet!" "My mechanical prosthesis needs maintenance!" "My soul mate is calling me!" Some people even claimed that their souls were disturbed by the whispers of the subspace and needed to be purified immediately!

"No, where do the whispers from the warp come from?"

Neos felt incredible and casually opened a weak warp crack on the wall of the rehearsal room. The warp demons that were usually hungry and thirsty and would swarm out at the slightest breath of reality, now screamed, twisted, and rushed back to the warp as if they saw a plague.

"Uh uh," Jesus commented.

This reaction is more devastating than the most vicious warp corrosion.

The five members of the band looked at the empty stage, at the audience fleeing in panic, at the warp rifts that even demons avoided, their faces filled with unconcealed frustration. The atmosphere was extremely depressing.

Jesus sighed, his voice a little tired. "Ni Ge—no, Old Huang, I've long felt that we're not a good match. How about we disband the band?"

Neos didn't answer immediately. He stared at the ground, as if thinking. After a moment, he looked up. "Maybe we just need to relax and change our surroundings. How about a beach vacation? Let's relax and recharge before we try again."

This proposal was unanimously agreed by several others.

------

A warm ocean breeze blew, and the azure waters gently lapped against the beach. Five gods—still looking like ordinary vacationers—sat on the beach, watching the sunset paint the sky a brilliant orange-red. The blue bull strolled leisurely nearby, while Tezcatlipoca chased seabirds along the sand.

The silence was broken. Jesus stood up from the beach, walked to Neos' side, and looked at the distant sea.

Neos thought Jesus had figured it out, and a hint of anticipation crossed his face. "Brother Jesus, have you changed your mind? Are you coming to the next performance?"

Jesus turned his head, his eyes complicated. He looked at Neos and shook his head.

“No,” Jesus said with a settled calm, “I am not here to join you.”

He paused, his voice clear and firm:

"I'm here to break up the band!"

"Huh?" X4

"I've never been happy forming a band," said Brother Ye.

"It's your freedom to play music, so please go ahead. (Showing the big hole in his hand)"

Neos: "So... what is this band? When we formed the band... everyone was bored and asked me to help them have some fun, but... I never thought...

Our band... (chokes up)... is going to be like this (chokes up)..."

Brother Jesus: “NEOCRUX is ruined?

Is it absolutely impossible to resurrect?

Am I going to end it already?

No one asked you that?

Neos, is this your final warning?

Don't have anything to do with me anymore? (The sun shines on Neos' face through the hole in Sugo's hand)

"Please... I'm retired, old, useless, no one wants me anymore. If it weren't for you, I would—"

Neos stood up from the beach, hugged Su Ge's arms with both hands, and held the holes in his hands to prevent Su Ge from leaving. Su Ge pushed Neos away, and Neos fell on the beach.

"I'll do anything!"

Jesus said, "Nios, how confident are you in saying this?

You are just a retired old man. Do you think you can bear the life of another god? Because of you, no one believes in us anymore. What will happen to our future? Only God knows!

"Willing to do anything"... Religion will eventually disappear, but what about us? Are you willing to loosen the restrictions on current religions? Don't you trust human rationality and scientific thinking? Then let people decide for themselves whether to believe in us. And you're still saying you're willing to do anything... such heavy words?

Don't say things you can't do easily?

You're the kind of person who only thinks about yourself?"

To be continued

PS: @Great Feitian Short Master, I wrote a heaven-defying extra chapter, no need to thank Beizhai (laugh)

PS2: The extra chapter will be updated this weekend, and the main chapter will be updated tomorrow.

Red Tide: 1921: Against the Heavens Extra: I'm here to quit the band, what are you guys going to do? (Medium) (4k)

Jesus revealed his deep inner pain and resentment towards Neos' policies.

He understood the necessity of Neos eradicating religious ignorance. He also knew that the threat of the Warp demons was far from over, and that humanity's blind obedience could bring disaster. He saw clearly that Neos, for the sake of humanity's future, had "wiped out" almost all the gods, leaving them no room for survival.

The faiths represented by Odin and Tathagata were already facing extinction, and it was Neos' unification of the Earth that gave the remaining believers a respite, allowing them to continue existing. Laojun, on the other hand, is even more detached. For him, "transcendence and ascension to heaven" is his ultimate destination, and the amount of faith he possesses has no bearing on the essence of his existence.

He doesn't care, as long as people can live a better life.

But he, Jesus, was different. After eight hundred years of distortion, his faith had become deeply entwined with distortion, violence, and exclusivity, forming a complex and contradictory complex. He knew full well that he embodied too many complex, opposing, conflicting, and chaotic concepts, all of which could become openings for the Warp to exploit.

Neos's tough suppression cleansed many surface evils, but it was still too difficult to completely transform tens of millions of believers who once believed in Christianity in just over a decade.

The world is changing rapidly. In just over twenty years, humanity has undergone a drastic transformation. These earth-shaking changes, both ideologically and practically, have left many people behind the times. Just as the witch hunts that intensified in the reformed regions of the late Middle Ages (see the Miscellaneous Volume, Witches, for details), the spontaneous resistance of the people to social upheaval cannot be met by laws and guns. Many conservatives are resistant to Neos's Renaissance.

The growth of these dark emotions inevitably had an impact on Brother Jesus.

These complex emotions surged in his heart, causing his eyes to gradually turn red, and the originally holy and gentle aura began to dissipate bit by bit, replaced by a suppressed, gray spiritual energy fluctuation.

Buddha Tathagata and Laojun, who were standing aside, looked at each other. They felt the power in Jesus that was getting out of control. It was not the possession of the devil in the subspace, but the self-tearing caused by the distortion of faith.

As a seasoned veteran, Odin didn't quite understand these complex emotions, but he could tell at a glance that something was amiss with Jesus. It was a bit like the signs his old rival had experienced before being corrupted by Chaos, only less exaggerated. He winked at Laojun and Tathagata, and then—

"duang!"

Odin picked up his short-handled hammer that was transformed from Beth into one flashing with lightning, and without saying a word, he hit the back of the head of the emotional Jesus!

Brother Jesus' body stiffened instantly, the red light in his eyes quickly faded, and then he fell straight down on the beach with his hands and feet, stirring up even more dust, and a layer of white foam appeared at the corners of his mouth.

"Well, it's quiet now." Odin put away his hammer as if nothing had happened.

"Straight," Neos commented.

Tathagata walked forward, checked Jesus' breath, and felt the top of his head with his fingers, confirming that he was just temporarily fainting and not in danger of life.