Super Righteous Player
Chapter 380 - 377 Bell Ringer (Third Update)_1

Chapter 380: Chapter 377 Bell Ringer (Third Update)_1

Unlike the previous scuffle with Nicholas that barely qualified as a "battle".

Although Bernadino was the Pope, the Paper Princess showed no mercy whatsoever when she struck him.

A large part of this was because the Bell Ringer, as the "God of Incurable Diseases and Fate", was a False God without any backing, without a thriving church, and without a True God.

Even though the Bell Ringer and the Paper Princess ascended to false godhood in the same era, they were not acquainted with each other.

Unlike the Paper Princess, who had accepted Yawen’s invitation and been sheltered and elevated to a subordinate god, the Bell Ringer, despite invitations from the Granny of Burying Bones, Lady Silence, and the Moth Mother—three True Gods—ultimately did not accept any of their olive branches.

Being invited by three True Gods had nothing to do with having a good personality or strong abilities.

It was simply because his domain was quite critical... and classified as rather vague.

The Paper Princess still remembered that the Bell Ringer’s Book of Truth was named "Theory of Grey Blood". It contained truths about diseases, decay, blood, weakness, aging, and fate among many fields and was a powerful Book of Truth.

And when the Bell Ringer finally completed his sublimation, he chose "Inevitable Death" as his core concept.

Thus, he ultimately sublimated into the "God of Incurable Diseases and Fate", the "Bell Ringer" who would toll the death knell for mortals at the end of their lives.

He was a quirky, lonely False God without many friends. He not only never actively established a church but even those who created a church for him would not receive any special favor or protection—holy imprints were hardly ever given to followers as an extra bonus, but were earned after completely purifying nightmares.

Normally, a False God would distribute holy imprints to their satisfied followers. After all, the Pseudo-god Church doesn’t have as many rules and fixed territories, so they tend to be more capricious in their actions.

For followers they are pleased with, or even mortals and Transcendents who are not their followers, they may gift some holy imprints. As long as they are pleasing to the eye, there is nothing they can’t do.

At the core, a holy imprint is essentially an authorization of power from a deity to a follower. The reason holy imprints are given after purifying nightmares is that the deity obtains some benefits from the purification and provides corresponding rewards to the clergy.

It’s like giving a certain reward to a supplier by a factory ready for secondary processing after purchasing raw materials.

Holy imprints are merely "currency".

They are not just obtainable through nightmares.

Even within the Orthodox Church, holy imprints can be acquired by completing tasks for the church.

But the Orthodox Church has rules and clear rewards and punishments. Every holy imprint given out is recorded with the Pope... Even deities can not just grant their favors at will and can only reward those within their own church. Otherwise, they would interfere with the authority and work of the Pope.

In other words—in the Orthodox Church, the deity itself does not participate in management but entrusts everything to the Pope, and even the cardinals can hardly make contact.

It is much like the relationship between celebrities and their fan groups.

And the same goes for subordinate gods.

Subordinate gods not only receive daily protection.

Their True God will directly allocate a portion of staff from the main church to help manage their followers and clergy, much like signing a contract with a big company... No need to manage any of the subsequent operations.

This is one of the reasons why the authority of the Pope of the Orthodox Church is much higher than that of the King—

—It’s the Pope and the Saints of the True God who are the true rulers of this world.

It’s completely different for wild False Gods.

False Gods personally engage in the management of their church.

Besides the Pope being a confidant who cannot easily betray them, even the cardinal bishops might defect; and there are no strict rules for selecting cardinals, it basically depends on the Pope or the False God’s own preferences.

In other words, pleasing to the eye is sufficient.

Such as the Tragedy Writer, or the Pale Princess.

And considering the need for potential relocation, the church of a False God is quite small in scale—most of the False God’s clergy (not followers) number less than three digits. From this perspective, Nicholas was somewhat of an oddity among False Gods...

And the Bell Ringer was an oddity in another sense.

But He did not become distant from His followers because He adhered to the rules...

It was because His personality was extremely quirky.

Apart from necessary social interaction, He communicated with no one—not even expecting His followers to do anything for Him.

He even took it upon Himself to maintain His own domain.

There was a legend among the common folk that when a mortal was on their deathbed, tormented by incurable diseases or about to die peacefully of old age, they would occasionally hear three solemn tolls of a funeral bell outside their door the night before they passed away. No one else but the dying could hear the sound of the bell.

This was the Bell Ringer’s mercy to those on the verge of death.

He revealed the inevitable end, giving people one last day to write their will and put their affairs in order.

That’s why on the continent of Mist, it was considered very impolite for clueless children to ring bells or toll bells in front of the elderly or sick.

As a result, the clerics of the Bell Ringer were tremendously unwelcome.

But even so, He had some fanatical followers who believed in the mantra "everyone must die someday," voluntarily crafting bronze bells with bronze handles, using Divine Arts to determine the dying, and going to their doors to ring the bell.

——Yet even with such actions, the Bell Ringer gave no rewards.

For what He believed in was the inevitability of death.

No need for any help.

No need for any proclamation.

No need for any resistance.

——Therefore, He also had no need for any followers.

He even gave Himself the moniker "Bell Ringer," which, in the context of the United Kingdoms, was actually a rather derogatory term meaning "vile and base person."

For example, petty thieves were referred to as "little rakish lads," and the term "boat cronies" described those who smuggled goods in illegal ships and kidnapped women.

The followers of the Bell Ringer were even more unwelcome than those of the Goddess of Cup—just the sight of those silent figures carrying bronze bells, wrapped in bandages, wearing black hoods entering a village signified someone was about to die.

Though the Bell Ringer was not an Evil God and had never committed any illegal acts,

He was just unlikeable.

After He rejected the invitations of three True Gods, no deity could befriend Him. In fact, several gods were angered by His strange temper.

Being the Pope of the Bell Ringer... was not necessarily a good identity.

From this perspective.

Annan didn’t believe that the one seeking the Book of the Celestial Chariot was the Bell Ringer behind Bernadino.

"—So, what is your purpose in finding me?"

Facing Bernadino, whose spiritual body had been completely annihilated by the Paper Princess and who was now bound by countless silver chains, Annan laid out all his analysis.

He stood behind the Paper Princess and calmly asked, "The Book of the Celestial Chariot is with me. What do you want to do?"

"I warn you, do not entertain the idea of targeting Annan."

Before he could answer, the Paper Princess warned, "Even the Bell Ringer can’t save you."

Yet Bernadino just revealed a peculiar smile.

He chuckled and retorted, "If you are concerned about my well-being...

"Why not just kill me here and now?"