Super Righteous Player
Chapter 670 - 211: The Scholars of The Holy Nation_1

Chapter 670: Chapter 211: The Scholars of The Holy Nation_1

She felt oppressed, and even somewhat fearful.

Fear came from the unknown.

To know that in The Holy Nation... the status of a Priest was quite exalted.

Because here, there was no such thing as "traditional nobility."

The power in The Holy Nation was not inherited based on "family," but rather, shifted repeatedly among different sects.

Perhaps today the "industrial" jurisdiction of this region was controlled by the Bishop of the Goddess of Cup, next year it might be reassigned to the followers of Deucalion, and the year after that, it might change hands to Mr. Radiance.

Every year, the Hall of Purity would review and redistribute authorities.

Under the gaze of the seven gods, the Archbishops would report their "work" to the Pope and the True God. Through the summaries and discussions of the seven gods, they would fine-tune the work direction for the coming year.

Thereafter, the Archbishops would promote the Bishops who had a good performance in church work and award those who made remarkable achievements—the award naturally being the Holy Light Imprint.

The Pope, Archbishop, Cardinal, Archbishop, Bishop, Chief Priest, Assistant Priest, Scholar—within The Holy Nation, all Priests of any faith or sect had a very strict and highly systematic path to promotion.

Graduating from a church school would result in becoming a Scholar, and outstanding graduates could become Assistant Priests directly. However, those who started working in the church immediately would need three consecutive years of recommendations from a Chief Priest to become Scholars.

Once they became Scholars, it meant they entered the large group known as "Priests." Yet being a Scholar was merely the "Scholar" phase... Once accustomed to the special requirements of each sect and well-read in the sect’s scriptures, they could be promoted to Assistant Priests by the Chief Priest, starting to formally learn Divine Arts and purify nightmares.

Only those who had achieved enough merit—referring to Chief Priests and Assistant Priests who purified nightmares—could be promoted to Bishops. After that, in addition to purifying nightmares, their "administrative ability" as a Bishop would be taken into account to advance to Archbishop.

For an Archbishop to become a Cardinal, they had to look back at the depth of nightmare purification. At least one hundred unused Holy Light Imprints and mastery over at least two high-ranking Divine Arts were required to advance to Cardinal.

Cardinals, in addition to obtaining the personnel appointment rights of "Archbishop," were also elected from among themselves by the Archbishops.

Under the special governance of The Holy Nation, in theory, any Priest could become the Pope... so the social status of a Priest was clearly higher than that of a non-Priest.

...Of course, this had also been studied in depth by Longjing Tea.

That did not mean that The Holy Nation’s promotions were cleaner or fairer than other countries. Although they were a bit more honest under the watch of the gods, people could not be absolutely honest.

People pursue fairness on the one hand and unfairness on the other—whether they seek fairness or unfairness depends on whether they find themselves above or below the line.

According to the studies by Longjing Tea, the inheritance of power in The Holy Nation indeed had not formed a pattern based on bloodlines and kinship.

But instead, they had formed another pattern similar to the "school factions" in Japan.

—Although in theory, anyone could become a Cardinal, any Priest could have the chance to become an Archbishop, step into the Hall of Purity, and even ascend to the rank of the Pope, supported by the seven gods with absolute power.

But that was just in theory.

Priests who graduated from different church schools and were taught by different Bishops developed different levels of personal abilities and initial networking resources.

"Mentors" teaching in church schools could range from ordinary Bishops to Cardinals. Students taught by a Cardinal who managed to secure a Bishop’s position could easily be arranged convenient and promotion-friendly duties by their former teachers.

In contrast, if a Cardinal took an unfavorable view of a certain Bishop... then unless they still managed to achieve merits in poorer jobs that were unlikely to yield merits, it was virtually impossible for them to be promoted to Archbishop.

This meant that, at the "Archbishop" level, there was a vast chasm for promotion, ranging from "one year" to "a lifetime."

Since Bishops held the power of the church schools, the formation of cliques between teachers and students was inevitable—graduates from church schools could naturally work there later on. This further formed "organizations."

When Bishops in a region busy with politics received support from their colleagues and superiors, their work naturally became easier.

Thus, different church schools would have distinctive tendencies depending on the governing region of the "Cardinal" within the school, personal inclinations, as well as the types of work performed by the Archbishops.

Once a Cardinal was appointed, unless a very serious mistake was made, they would not leave their post.

This meant that if they lived long enough... it was even possible that over half of the Cardinals within a church could be interconnected through teacher-student relationships.

In such a case, it would be even more impossible for others to compete for the position of Pope.

It must be someone of considerable status to be able to borrow a "Pleasure Class" airship from the Pope and even dispatch several priests — among them, a high-ranking priest who was directly affiliated with the Pope’s faction.

Her mentor was a Cardinal known as "Flame Crown," and the mentor of "Flame Crown" was the current Pope of the Goddess of Cup Church.

The brunette lady was no fool.

She could tell that the person borrowing the airship... must be of much higher status than she initially imagined.

Could they possibly be the Pope of another True God behind the scenes?

But as the Pope of the Goddess of Cup, to whom does her aged holiness need to ingratiate herself...

...could it be the Pope of the mysterious lady?

It wasn’t impossible. After all, both Wizards and Ritualists were under the mysterious lady’s domain...

So thinking, the brunette and beautiful lady’s smile grew warmer and more heartfelt as she looked towards the four individuals.

——But setting these aspects aside.

Even looking at just their team composition, it was incredibly impressive.

A Sword Saint, a Great Wizard, a Beast Summoner, a Wind Dancer...

These were four silver-tier Transcendents, and each was alarmingly young.

Why could she tell that these people were genuine youths and not strong individuals in disguise?

Because she could see that half of them were still virgins...

And looking at this bizarre job mix... why were there two rare elf-heritage professions?

The brunette assistant priest momentarily felt as if she had been transported back to the mythological era of the Third Age.

"Just to confirm, you’re planning to travel to the Dirge Principality, right?"

The enchanting lady confidently adjusted her crowning glory — the wonderfully naturally curly, pristine brunette hair, voluminous without seeming dry: "Allow me to be your tour guide."

However, their response was far beyond her expectations:

"—Yes, but we are not going for leisure."

The large cat in the Beast Summoner’s arms spoke like a human: "We might need to make an emergency landing, so be prepared."

"...Emergency, emergency landing? Directly into the Mist?"

She was somewhat taken aback.

Were they planning to dig up the graves of the Duke of Bones... or what other significant dealings were they embarking on?