The North American Gourmet Demon Handbook

"I suddenly feel like I don't really need the money that much." Li Shanze smiled back, "Why don't we ask the villagers for help?"

Why not see how the people in this village react to the money, and see how they react when they know you have saved so much money?

208 Past Sermons

Seeing that Li Shanze was slightly angry, the old knight laughed instead.

This time, his smile was no longer meant to exert pressure.

"You really didn't come to this village for the money." His eyes were full of admiration for Li Shanze, and he asked, "What exactly did you find out? What's the problem here?"

"You've lived in this village for twenty years and you don't know what's wrong. And you ask me, someone who's only been here for less than twenty minutes? I don't even know the name of this village, or yours."

Li Shanze replied indifferently.

"You don't know my name? Really?" The old knight was a little surprised.

Li Shanze scoffed at the old knight's reaction. "Otherwise, I would have thought a former knight would have taken the initiative to introduce himself. How can he still be considered a knight if he's so disrespectful?"

"Are you really going to investigate smuggling?"

"What else? What do you think I was going there for? To buy a car?" Li Shanze was so angry that he laughed.

"Oh, God." The old knight sighed deeply, and then he relaxed completely. He no longer pretended to be calm, but his face was distorted and his teeth were bared.

It was as if the pain from his shattered knee had finally reached his face.

It turns out that you have been putting on airs all the time. Who are you on guard against?

"Sorry." The old knight waved his hand. "I thought, uh, never mind... I'd sort the money out and give it to you."

Now that the old knight had given in, Li Shanze's anger subsided a lot.

"You seem to be much more relaxed. What's going on?" Li Shanze asked curiously.

"I thought the events of twenty years ago had finally caught up with me." The old knight sighed, then remembered something.

He slapped his forehead and said, "Oh, sorry, I haven't formally introduced myself yet. I'm Ebenezer Logenfeld, from the Federal Republic of Germany."

Li Shanze noticed that Loganfield used the old term "Federal Republic of Germany".

Although the reunification of East and West Germany happened thirty or forty years ago, he still retained this habit of introducing himself, which only shows that this guy is really an old-fashioned person.

"Li Shanze, a cannibal in the eyes of Americans." Li Shanze said without any concern.

"I once served as a Grand Knight of the Holy See, but was later excommunicated by His Holiness the Pope. Now I'm hiding out in this Anabaptist, heretical town, barely surviving." Loganfield said with a wry smile, "You should already know all this."

"That's the problem. When you came to me, I thought I was finally caught up in the internal strife of the Vatican after twenty years."

Li Shanze asked curiously, "Why do you think so?"

"Your immediate superior in the FBI is the current Grand Knight of the Catholic Church. And the person who sheltered me and led me to settle in this village was another radical friend within the Vatican, Paul Fitzgerald."

"Paul was the Archbishop of Boston and President of the Supreme Court of the Holy See. He is now retired, but retains his cardinalate."

"It was because of Paul's protection that I was only excommunicated, and the conservative-controlled Inquisition was unable to send assassins to deal with me."

Loganfield told the story slowly and even though his choice of words and sentences were normal and he was talking about the bloody past, Li Shanze was a little bit unable to hold back.

When he thought that the "conservatives" in the Vatican were actually a group of people who did not believe in God and even controlled the Inquisition, Li Shanze had no choice but to put the index finger and thumb of his left hand in the shape of an eight on his nose, pretending to listen carefully and think - in fact, he was using his palm to cover the corners of his mouth that he could not control.

"The Inquisition has special heretic killers to deal with heretics like me. They can deprive heretics of their divine power, just like you did before."

Li Shanze finally got serious. Someone else had the same ability as him to nullify supernatural powers? Was that true?

"Deprivation? How did they do it?" Li Shanze couldn't help but ask.

"I don't know." The old knight shook his head slowly. "It's because the Inquisition has acquired this power that it's controlled by conservatives."

"I have always believed that this authority should not belong to the Inquisition. This is usurping the authority of the Lord! If an unbeliever's divine power were to be stripped away, the Lord would do it himself, not through the hands of mortals!"

Loganfield was very emotional, puffing his beard and glaring.

Li Shanze couldn't help but retort, "According to you, if a person commits a sin and the Lord doesn't punish him, it means he hasn't committed a sin?"

"If the violation is of laws made by mortals such as murder and theft, then it will naturally be handed over to the mortal kingdom for judgment. But to judge a person who does not believe, only the Lord has the qualification to do so." The old knight shook his head and said slowly.

Li Shanze nodded. What the old knight said made sense.

For these believers, the job of destroying one's heart should indeed be left to God - provided that God really exists.

In a sense, this means rendering to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's.

Then Li Shanze shook his head again.

But since God does not exist, this theory has problems.

Regardless of whether a person is pious or not, God cannot hold him accountable anyway, so this person can be regarded as pious, a believer, and a righteous person. As long as he can pass this test on his own, he can do whatever he wants with his eyes closed.

Just like Li Shanze’s previous life, the preferential treatment given to women is because people do not hate their mothers, so they will give preferential treatment to a potential mother and treat women as mothers.

This creates an arbitrage opportunity, where one does not fulfill one's motherly obligations but enjoys one's motherly rights.

This unreasonable a priori assumption is like the believers' assumption that God exists. It has no factual basis and is completely untenable.

No wonder after the Reformation, Protestantism became more and more chaotic and disorderly.

Li Shanze understood to some extent why those conservatives who did not believe in God were able to seize the power of the Inquisition in the end.

Since the Lord is unwilling to take care of these chaotic lunatics, then someone must take care of them, right? Besides, this might not be a test from the Lord for His shepherds.

Of course, this logic doesn't make sense to fanatics like old knight Loganfield.

Li Shanze had no intention of arguing with an old-fashioned person who even thought he was from West Germany, so he changed the subject.

"You were so friendly when we first met, but when I told you my FBI identity and Kate's name, you immediately turned hostile and killed me. Was it because you mistook me for one of those heretic executioners from the Inquisition?" Li Shanze asked.

"Yes, that's right. After all, Paul just retired last year, and then the current knight's men came to him. I can't help but think too much about it." The old knight said frankly.

Li Shanze felt that Paul Fitzgerald was also a bit weird.

It's not surprising that Loganfield was hidden in a village of Anabaptist heretics. I'm afraid the Catholic Church doesn't have much influence in such a place.

But what if these heretics are related to wizards?

Archbishop Emeritus Paul Fitzgerald's attitude towards wizards seems to be completely different from that of the old knight Loganfield.

In contrast, is this retired archbishop really a radical who advocates faith in Catholicism?

This place was so unusual that even the old knight noticed something was wrong.

"Wait, didn't you say that this is heaven on earth and it's inhabited by devout people? Then how did you realize something was wrong, and when did you start to realize it?" Li Shanze continued to ask.

"It's hard to say, it's just a hunch." The old knight shook his head. "I think it was a revelation from the Lord."

"When I came here, I thought it was full of evil heretics, but after interacting with them, I found that they were simple and kind, no different from ordinary Catholics."

"In my sermon, I mentioned the temptation to view infant baptism as a sign of cleansing from original sin and membership in the church, and none of these nominal 'Anabaptists' objected. Instead, they enthusiastically applauded."

"Shouldn't they advocate baptizing only those who confess their faith and oppose infant baptism? Otherwise, why are they called Anabaptists? But why didn't they refute my sermons, but instead applauded enthusiastically? I have always been puzzled."

"However, during the sermon, the Holy Light that had dimmed after I was punished with excommunication actually became bright again!"

"I therefore concluded that bringing these lost heretics back to the right faith was the trial given to me by the Lord."

"Everything went so smoothly that I didn't notice anything for a long time."

Li Shanze frowned, knowing that the matter was coming to a head: "So when did you notice the abnormality?"

Author's words: Thanks to the original soundtrack chicken for the reward and the ticket for urging more updates.

Thanks to Pipiji for the monthly ticket

Thanks to book friends 3688408655 and Xiaopingguo112633 for their recommendation votes

209 The Moment of Enlightenment

"Ah, that was not long ago," the old knight replied, raising his eyebrows.

"Not long ago?"

"Yes, not long ago, last year, I think it was the Budweiser year, on All Saints' Day in the Budweiser year."

Li Shanze became more and more confused as he listened: "Wait, All Saints' Day? What is that?"

"Oh, sorry, I forgot you are not a Christian. I am used to communicating with people using the Catholic calendar." The old knight waved his hand to apologize.

Then he continued to explain, "It's November 1st, celebrating all saints who have achieved perfect holiness, embodying the 'Communion of Saints.' The ritual for All Saints' Day is quite simple, consisting of the reading of Revelation 7:2-14 during Mass—"

"What happened on November 1 last year?" Li Shanze interrupted the old knight's habitual preaching. He was impatient to listen to those boring things.

"Ah." The old knight, not annoyed by the interruption, "I went to Philadelphia as usual that day, to the Seventh Old Dock on the Delaware River, to consecrate smuggled goods. I happened to see a young man with gold dentures performing the sacrament in a small room."

Li Shanze remembered that he had indeed seen a leader-like figure wearing gold dentures in that old shipyard, and his nickname was even Gold Teeth.

Although he doesn't look young, he can indeed be considered a young man in front of the old knight.

The image of Jin Ya appeared in Li Shanze's mind.

He could never imagine that this kind of gangster with a flowered shirt, gold teeth and a sloppy look could be a devout Catholic.

"Young people took their mobile phones, lit white candles symbolizing the illumination of the saints, and then recited the Book of Revelation along with their phones - a clear All Saints' Day ritual."

"Especially nowadays, outside of this village, you don't see many young people using candles. I was very happy at that time."

The old knight spoke with a tone that lamented the changing times.

No, no, no, it’s just that the purpose of candles has changed. It’s not that young people don’t use candles anymore. You have completely misunderstood, old man.

Li Shanze was distracted in his mind.

"Then I went up to chat with him for a few minutes, but was surprised to discover that he was actually just following the instructions of the person on his phone. In his words, the host!" The old knight scratched his head. "He was strictly following the host's instructions to conduct the All Saints' Day ceremony."

"I'm so happy. I feel like the church is keeping up with the times. I want to know the name of that church member."

"Then the young man handed me the phone, and on the screen it said 'Virtual Saint Vivian'."

Hearing the name of the virtual saint Vivian, Li Shanze raised his eyebrows.

When the old knight Loganfeld mentioned the word "anchor", Li Shanze already had a premonition.

So when the name "Virtual Saint Vivian" really came out of the old knight's mouth, Li Shanze was not very surprised.

However, Li Shanze was still very curious.

"How did you sense from this virtual saint that something was wrong with your condition?"

"Before last year's All Saints' Day, I always believed that these holy powers were blessings from the Lord. But I only took one look at that 'virtual saint Vivian' and realized something was wrong." The old knight's voice was faint, as if it came from the distant past.

"First of all, I don't think she is virtual. She must exist somewhere physically. This is the first impression she gave me." The old knight made a straightforward judgment.

Li Shanze nodded. The old knight's judgment was reasonable.

If a physical body exists within this space, and people can enter it through some means, can this space truly be called a virtual space? Is Vivian, who exists in this space, truly that virtual?

"Secondly, even though she's called a saint, she definitely doesn't look like that. She possesses all the methods that heretics use to steal the Lord's authority!"

"In my decades of fighting heresy, in the library of the Sistine Chapel, I have seen too many of these heretics' methods to be wrong."

"I recognized immediately that she was not a fellow Christian, but a tool created by the heretics to steal the Lord's authority."

"But she actually succeeded in stealing it so easily." The old knight's words were full of emotion and indignation.

"As an expert in this field, I can easily tell that the divine graces she can invoke are actually no different from the divine graces I can invoke."

"I'm particularly angry about this, angry that they seem to have actually succeeded in stealing the Lord's authority."

"When I came to my senses, I had already blown the phone to pieces with my gun."

"After I forced myself to calm down, I suddenly remembered what His Holiness Benedict XVI said when he was convicting me of monasticism."

"His Holiness the Pope said to me, 'Anger comes from lack of self-confidence. Is your anger towards conservatives also due to your doubts about the Lord in your heart?'"

"I had always disagreed with this statement, until last year on All Saints' Day, when I suddenly realized in my rage that His Holiness the Pope was right."

"I am so angry at this heretic who has stolen the Lord's authority because I realize that the source of my charisma is the same as hers."

Having said this, the old knight closed his eyes in pain.

"The conservatives are right about at least one thing: rather than calling it 'divine grace,' it's better to call it 'willpower.'"

"This power does not come from the blessing of God, but is gathered from the believers."

A fanatic could actually think of this. Li Shanze couldn't help but cheer for the old knight.