Chapter 220: Probing
Translated by: La0o9
Edited by: La0o9
Proofreader: Arya
A graceful woman was sitting right in the middle of the room.
She was wearing a white robe, a veil to cover her face while a holy halo floats above her head. Behind her, a pair of phantom divine wings could be seen phasing in and out of existence.
She’s one of the most powerful rulers on this world, one of the strongest Professionist, and the absolutely most mysterious existence.
The Pope of the Holy Church.
At this very moment, she was looking down at the three cards in her hand, speaking as if chanting: “He who is about to take away a valuable treasure, awaken the sleeping dead and brings about the dying future of the Holy Church”
Following her words, the three cards of fate flew up by themselves, then quickly burned to ash.
Looking at that, the Pope spoke softly: “It’s good that fate has finally been solved”
Gu Qing Shan looked down at this Holo-Brain, asking in a low voice: “How’s that thing?”
[It’s time! It’s time!] Anna’s worried voice came from the Holo-Brain.
[The machine is ready, sir] Impartial G.o.ddess responded.
“Hm? Just who are you talking to?” the Pope looked at him.
“A friend, a cab driver” Gu Qing Shan answered.
The Pope frowned: “Let us not chat for too long, introduce yourself first, young harbinger of death”
Gu Qing Shan went in, closed the door and pulled a chair to sit across from the Pope.
“h.e.l.lo, I’m the Confederate Emba.s.sy’s live-in military officer, Zhang Ren Jia”
“What did you take from the exhibition room?” the Pope asked.
“A painting of princess Anna and her father” Gu Qing Shan replied.
“Honestly is a virtue, I hope you can keep that up, in order to avoid unforgettable eternal suffering” the Pope said.
Before she was about to ask something else, Gu Qing Shan suddenly spoke up first: “I have a question that I’ve always wanted to ask you, your Eminence the Pope”
The Pope stayed silent for a bit, then laughed very lightly: “What bravery, it seems I need to show you your place”
“No, no, no, your Eminence, it’s like this”
Gu Qing Shan cleared his throat and said: “This question has always been at the back of my mind, making me ever so uncomfortable. If you’re able to answer this, then whatever you need to know, I’ll very truthfully answer you”
He continued: “I’ll tell you the plan, personnel and objective of this mission”
“Of course, I swear not to tell a single lie”
“Even if you want me to betray the Confederate and join the Holy Empire, I’ll do it without question”
“Or perhaps you’d want me to become a spy for the Holy Empire inside the Confederate? That’s fine as well, I’ll do as you order”
“But please answer this one question, this is my only request”
“How is it?”
Hearing that, the Pope rubbed her chin in thought.
All I need to do is answer a question, not only will I find out about the Confederate’s plan, I can also gain a good chess piece without any effort.
If he dares to lie, there are countless forms of torture waiting for him as a consequence anyways.
After a brief moment of thought, the Pope very easily made her choice.
“If you’re able to swear loyalty to the Holy Church from now on, answering a single question of yours is no problem, go ahead” she said.
Gu Qing Shan arranged his words for a bit, then asked: “Why have you never tried to resist the Apocalypse?”
“No matter if it’s the sea creatures, the Man Killer Fiend or even the Game of Eternal. While every other country has at least made an announcement, both the f.u.xi Emperor and the Confederate Martial Saint has personally gone onto the battlefield, leading groups of Professionists to clean up the Man Killer Fiends epidemic, but why have you done nothing?”
“Despite the Holy Empire being on the verge of collapse, the Holy Church has yet to make any actions at all after usurping the power, why is that?”
The Pope didn’t think it would be this question so she gave Gu Qing Shan an unexpected look.
“The Holy Empire isn’t your home country; why do you care about it?” she asked.
“What I care about is this world’s survival”
“Why?”
“Because once this world heads towards destruction, no living being will be able to escape the calamity and the fate of death, not you and definitely not me”
“When faced with the Apocalypse, few can change the situation, but many cannot” Gu Qing Shan continued, “and you, are one of the few that can”
The Pope found that even more unexpected, then began to half answering Gu Qing Shan, half muttering to herself: “I’ve already seen it all. When faced with a critical conjunction, mankind will always choose first to defend themselves, losing their sense of reason, killing for the sake of killing, falling into madness”
“They will build their own forces, cull the weak, seizing women, plunder resources. When met with trouble, they always push other people up first to face it. When others die, they take everything they can”
“Humans are arrogant, envious, wrathful, lazy, greedy, l.u.s.tful, gluttonous, an endless, bottomless conduit of sins, they are not worthy of my salvation”
“But you are also human” Gu Qing Shan said.
“I’ll gladly throw away this form of a lowly and sinful creature” the Pope answered.
Gu Qing Shan stayed silent.
“You’re contradicting yourself” he continued to ask: “If you hate everything so much, then why did you have to kill the king and take over the Holy Empire’s authority”
“I seem to remember only agreeing to answer one question”
“But your answer is incomplete”
“There are a few things, that a lowly worm as yourself doesn’t have the right to know” the Pope’s tone suddenly became cold, “I’ve lost interest in your allegiance, tell me who you are and your objective, don’t wait until my mood becomes even worse”
Gu Qing Shan grabbed the air.
He was holding the Earth Sword in his hand.
“Tsk, tsk, that’s not the correct answer” the Pope shook her head in regret, “it seems you need to be taught just what h.e.l.l looks like”
“I’ve already seen many h.e.l.ls” Gu Qing Shan said.
Then he disappeared in place.
“Hm?” the Pope was surprised.
A sword suddenly appeared from thin air slas.h.i.+ng at her, but was stopped just one meter away from where she stood, unable to continue any further.
Seven bronze arms also appeared from the air to block the Earth Sword.
Bang!
A dull sound was heard, the full 60,000 tons of force acted on the bronze arms, letting out small ripples in the air.
But the seven bronze arms stayed completely still.
Instantly, the Earth Sword retreated, then turned into dozens of phantoms, attacking 71 times without leaving a single s.p.a.ce to breath.
But whenever the sword was about to hit the Pope, one or more bronze arm appeared to stop it.
In the air, more and more bronze arms started to appear, easily numbered over a hundred in just a blink of an eye.
They appeared to stop Gu Qing Shan’s attacks.
When Gu Qing Shan stepped back and stop attacking, the bronze arms all disappeared.
“Great swordsmans.h.i.+p skills indeed, but regretfully weak”
The Pope sat still in place, commenting on Gu Qing Shan’s swordsmans.h.i.+p.
Suddenly, a card appeared from thin air in front of the Pope.
The card was dancing nonstop, seemingly wanting to say something.
Taking the card in hand, the Pope thought for a bit, then nodded.
She looked up at Gu Qing Shan and said: “That’s fine, since you are enveloped in nothing but sin, my Holy Apostle shall cleanse you”
“After being tortured over 300 times in different ways by Hurt, you’ll more or less understand just where you stand”
“At that time, I shall interrogate you once more”