Stealthily infiltrating the Holy Terra Alliance Council was truly a difficult task.
However, for an Inquisitor who frequently used disguises, there were always some methods, it was just a matter of high or low risk.
According to the preliminary plan, they needed to disguise themselves and 'scout' around the Holy Terra Alliance Council in advance.
It must be said that the Inquisition indeed possessed many secret tools. For example, the one Luo Ji was currently using, which could completely change his appearance just by covering his face, was an essential item for disguised reconnaissance and stealth infiltration!
Then, the two of them idled around the Holy Terra Alliance Council, seemingly with nothing to do.
Due to the visit of the 'Trisolarans Leader', many citizens gathered there, inadvertently providing them with cover.
But even so, the stringent review process still left Li Ye at a loss.
That day, not far from the Holy Terra Alliance Council, in front of the Ecclesiarchy square, the two of them saw many priests and hundreds of people.
"Why are so many people gathered here?"
Luo Ji saw many people kneeling and worshiping a huge object covered with a curtain.
"It should be the Ecclesiarchy's mass," Li Ye explained, not very surprised. "Sometimes, the Ecclesiarchy establishes holy statues of the 'Emperor' in certain areas for people to kneel and pray to."
The Emperor's Holy Statue... Luo Ji seemed to recall the statue he had seen in the snow palace back then.
"Shall we go take a look?" he said.
Li Ye thought for a moment, then nodded, "Alright, we can observe it up close. Perhaps we can borrow the identity of a 'Ecclesiarchy priest' to better infiltrate the Holy Terra Alliance Council."
With that, the two of them quickly disguised themselves and squeezed through the crowd.
After a simple mass, two Ecclesiarchy priests unveiled the huge curtain covering the 'statue'.
However, at the very moment the curtain covering the statue in the square was pulled back!
"Hiss—"
Upon seeing the true face of the statue, Luo Ji's pupils suddenly constricted, and he gasped sharply!
As the curtain fell, the statue was not the 'Emperor's Holy Statue' he had imagined, but another... even more bizarre statue!
"This is the God of Wisdom!"
The Ecclesiarchy priest explained the name of this statue to the people.
But Luo Ji's entire soul felt as if it had been ripped from his body.
He stared at the eerie statue, and an indescribable dread, terror, and intense chill instantly surged within him, seeping into his body!
This... this was not some 'God of Wisdom' at all; it was clearly a Loki statue!
The 'divine image' before him was seated upon a twisted throne made of countless metal tomes, piled high. These tomes, cast from metal, had pages that seemed to be turning, with liquid, ethereal blue fire flowing within them. The uncanny craftsmanship made one feel the temperature of the bronze fire at a glance, utterly inconceivable!
The main body of the statue, seated atop the metal tomes, was a paradoxical aggregate that seemed to possess millions of faces and thousands of arms. Whenever a 'believer's' gaze fell upon the 'divine image', the gem-encrusted eyes seemed to meet their gaze.
The thousands of arms encircling the 'divine image' either held scrolls or formed mudras. Unknown runes, entwined around its arms, seemed to contain the truth of the universe, allowing every believer who knelt before It to hear the 'voice of Wisdom'.
Of course.
To outsiders, this was merely a 'divine image'. If there was anything unusual, it was simply the astonishing craftsmanship of the statue.
But in Luo Ji's eyes, it was not so!
This 'divine image' appeared to be cast from bronze, but as his gaze fixed upon it, its surface material seemed to transform into flowing iridescence.
A bone-chilling cold, enough to freeze the soul, seemed to bore into Luo Ji's body from the statue's malevolent gaze.
Coldness, abomination, malice... endless negative emotions, like invisible tentacles, tightly coiled around Luo Ji's soul. His lungs felt as if they had frozen into ice crystals, and the air became heavy and gelatinous, difficult to inhale.
A suffocating sensation surged, and Luo Ji's pupils became bloodshot.
He stared with terrified, wide-open eyes, his entire body enveloped in fear, unable to move even a single finger, and even unable to cry out for help.
In his vision, the eerie divine image seemed to transform into a 'living being'.
The bronze-cast body became writhing flesh covered with sinister runes, inch by inch, while the thousands of arms on the statue danced slowly like blooming lotuses under his pinprick pupils, a strange rhythm seemingly containing 'Wisdom' and 'mystery' that words could not express, making one's mind involuntarily sink into it.
More tentacles, entwined with cuneiform, also extended from the base of the metal tomes.
The ends of these tentacles did not hold ethereal blue candlelight, but rather what appeared to be collapsing galaxies, with bright, scorching stars being drawn into threads, woven into the trajectories of fate.
Suddenly, Luo Ji seemed to 'hear' something whispering deep within his mind.
The entire statue was shrouded in shifting mist, vaguely revealing three different visages.
The front was a wise old man with a feathered crown, the left side was a screaming blue daemon bird, and the right side surprisingly presented his own reflection!
Observe, listen, and then... comprehend!
Luo Ji felt his thoughts, his mind, and even his soul being dissected by this terrifying, eerie statue.
And the 'whispers' that flooded his mind were mostly obscure knowledge that he could not fully comprehend, or that humans could simply not know. But among them, there was one 'whisper' that he seemed to understand.
"Luo Ji, what's wrong?"
Suddenly, he felt a loss of balance and 'fell' sharply.
His 'sanity', on the verge of collapsing, was awakened just in time. He looked around in astonishment, realizing that the kneeling believers around him were staring at them, the two 'outsiders', with a strange gaze.
"Quick, let's go!"
The gazes of these believers made Li Ye deeply uneasy.
He hurriedly grabbed Luo Ji's arm, lowered his head, and squeezed out of the crowd, wanting to leave.
Luo Ji was pulled and dragged by Li Ye, stumbling and staggering out of the crowd.
But, as if possessed, he glanced back.
He saw that the 'eerie' statue standing in the square, its gem-encrusted 'eyes', glowed with a strange, ethereal blue light.
And those devout and fanatical 'believers' were still staring at him with that indescribable, chillingly eerie gaze, their eyes fixed firmly on him, and the chanted hymns, like echoes from the depths of a valley, were deeply etched into the depths of his mind.
"Longing to know, thirsty for knowledge, only the holy Tzeentch, not to be confined by thought. Longing to know, thirsty for knowledge, only the holy Tzeentch, not to be confined by thought. Longing to know, thirsty for knowledge, only the holy Tzeentch, not to be confined by thought"
Finally, Luo Ji felt his brain about to split open, screamed, and fainted.
Before he fainted, as if bewitched, he repeatedly uttered a single, identical word. He uttered a name.
Li Ye, who was helping Luo Ji, leaned closer and heard a name—Tzeentch!
It wasn't until Li Ye helped Luo Ji far away from the square that he awoke from his dazed, speechless state.
Seeing no one around, Li Ye finally felt somewhat relieved. He helped the weak Luo Ji sit on a long bench and asked with concern, "How are you? Are you alright?"
"I—what happened to me?" Luo Ji's eyes held a hint of confusion, as if he had completely forgotten what had just occurred.
"You don't remember?" Li Ye's brows furrowed. As an Inquisitor, his intuition told him that Luo Ji's current mental state was very worrying.
Moreover, tomorrow was the crucial point of the plan. If Luo Ji had any problems, everything would be ruined!
"I—"
Luo Ji only felt like there were countless Mementos in his mind, and he had no impression of anything that had just happened.
Seeing that he was still in a daze, Li Ye frowned and described in full the series of strange reactions Luo Ji had exhibited since seeing the peculiar statue.
"And then, I helped you leave—" Li Ye pushed up the frames of his glasses. In the depths of his calm gaze, there was worry and doubt. "Oh, and you kept repeating a name."
"Repeating a—name?" Luo Ji seemed even more confused. How could he not remember repeating any name?
"Yes, I'm sure of it." Li Ye nodded, a hint of unease in his tone, and a strange panic in his heart. "Tzeentch—although I don't know what this name truly represents, it gives me a very bad feeling."
Tzeentch? Tzeentch!
At the mention of the name, the previously confused Luo Ji's face instantly turned pale, his pupils constricted to pinpricks, and he seemed to have an adverse reaction, suddenly jumping up from the bench. He grabbed Li Ye's shoulders tightly, his voice filled with tension and fear.
"What did you say? I—I kept repeating that name? Are—are you sure?!"
His extreme reaction greatly surprised Li Ye.
Moreover, his shoulder was being squeezed painfully, but Li Ye did not cry out. He only frowned slightly, raised a hand to press on the emotional Luo Ji's shoulder, and with a calm gaze, indicated for him to calm down.
"Don't rush, speak slowly."
Perhaps Li Ye's calmness was infectious, as Luo Ji gradually settled down.
But upon closer inspection, his eyes were hollow, his pupils unfocused, seemingly still immersed in the shock brought by the name "Tzeentch."
Li Ye knew that in this state, urging him was useless, so he could only wait patiently.
And in fact, that was exactly the case.
Luo Ji seemed to lose all strength, squatting down, curling into a ball with his head in his hands, fingers deeply embedded in his hair.
Tzeentch—this name made him lose his original calmness and rationality. His mind was completely blank, as if it had crashed.
In this world, perhaps besides Emrys, he was probably the only one who truly understood the meaning of "Tzeentch." Even Zhuang Yan, he feared, did not understand it as deeply and thoroughly as he did!
Because, when he awakened, he had personally witnessed with his own eyes the four terrifying entities suspended in the highest heaven, in a realm called the Warp!
He knew how terrifying the Chaos Gods were.
But why had the Ecclesiarchy, which should have been the spiritual and soulful pillar of humanity, used to resist the influence of the Warp, become a church dedicated to "Tzeentch"?!
Blatantly changing the "Emperor's" holy image into a "Tzeentch" statue—when exactly was the Ecclesiarchy influenced and corrupted?
The thought made Luo Ji feel suffocated.
Did Emrys know?
Or did he know, but was powerless to do anything?
Confused and cluttered thoughts—the Emperor, Tzeentch, the Warp, the Ecclesiarchy, ETO, and countless other ideas filled his mind, as if some invisible hand was pushing him forward step by step.
Li Ye lit a cigarette and waited patiently for him, without any intention of rushing him.
At the same time, Luo Ji was also thinking.
The appearance of "Tzeentch" made him suddenly realize that Emrys' method of isolating the Warp seemed not to be absolute, and not as safe as he had imagined. This influence was like pervasive mercury, slowly seeping into human society and the collective.
And now, even the Ecclesiarchy had fallen.
Who else could humanity rely on?
Emrys?
No—he had already endured two hundred years of solitude for humanity, sitting on the mechanical throne.
Then—where was humanity's future?
At this moment, Luo Ji seemed to have truly adopted Emrys' identity, examining the entire future of humanity from a higher perspective, rather than as a single individual.
When Heaven is about to confer a great responsibility upon a great man—he used to think this was nonsense, but only now did he finally understand a bit of it.
Could he do it?
Luo Ji didn't know, but he knew—he had to do something, he absolutely couldn't just watch humanity step into a dark and terrifying future like this.
"Have you calmed down?" Seeing Luo Ji's eyes regain focus, Li Ye slowly squatted down, pressing his shoulders, as if this could offer some small comfort. "Now, can you tell me what you saw, and what this name—represents?"
"Do you—believe that 'gods' exist in this world?" Luo Ji asked him a seemingly unrelated question.
"That depends on how you define 'god'."
Li Ye said lightly, "If it's 'god' in the religious sense, I don't think it exists. But if it's some kind of—being beyond human comprehension, possessing absolute powerful abilities, capable of defining rules, I believe it exists. But such beings absolutely cannot be called 'gods'."
"I'm not discussing the definition of a god with you." Luo Ji waved his hand, his eyes sharp. "Then what do you think of the Emperor?"
"The Emperor is not a god."
Li Ye, an Inquisitor, spoke the most blasphemous words. He took a puff of his cigarette, exhaled a smoke ring, and said, "In fact, I don't understand why humans insist on creating such a religious deity, but existence is reasonable."
"If those words got out, you'd probably be the first to be executed by white phosphorus." Luo Ji stared at him strangely, then sighed. "What if I told you that the Emperor isn't a 'god' that was created, but a truly existing being, just as you said, a being beyond human comprehension with powerful abilities?"
Li Ye fell silent, the cigarette burning between his fingers. His brows were tightly furrowed, and a hint of confusion appeared in his eyes, but quickly turned to worry.
"If it's really as you say, what is the meaning of the Emperor's existence? Simply as a worshipped god? Or collecting human faith, some kind of spiritual power?"
"To—protect the purity of our minds and souls." Luo Ji sighed lightly and said, "In fact, beyond our real world, there exists a world of spirit, emotion, mind, and soul. You can think of it as a mirror image of the real world. Like our world, in that world, there are also some extremely dangerous and terrifying beings."
"Like what religions call—Hell?" Li Ye thought of a very similar description.
"You could understand it that way, but they are real. And in that world, there are four—very dangerous, very terrifying entities. They symbolize certain human qualities, and also represent some rules and order. According to human definition, they can be called 'gods'!"
"The statue in the square?" Li Ye was very perceptive, immediately grasping the key point.
"Exactly." Luo Ji nodded. "That statue is a—forgive me, I can't say it directly. That statue is one of them. He symbolizes trickery and conspiracy. Originally, the Emperor's existence was like a defense line, which could prevent humanity from being polluted by these terrible entities—yes, polluted. But now this defense line has failed."
"Failed?" Li Ye seemed to have connected something, his face suddenly turned extremely horrified. He forcefully extinguished his cigarette butt and said bitterly, "No wonder! If it's really as you say—we're in big trouble!"
Luo Ji was startled. He had never seen Li Ye so flustered before, and instinctively felt a sense of unease.
"What happened?"
"Tomorrow is 'Ascension Day'!" Li Ye's eyes were bloodshot, showing a rare loss of composure, his tone fierce and ruthless.
"According to custom, the Grand Archbishop of the Ecclesiarchy will, on this day, spread the 'Emperor's Gospel' to humanity worldwide. If the Ecclesiarchy has really been 'polluted', then what 'gospel' will he spread to all humanity on tomorrow's 'Ascension Day'?"
At this moment, Luo Ji was horrified!