Successive Shocking Turns
The mission to capture Lin Zhen was not easy. After the five hunting teams of the Church entered the Ancient God City, one team was responsible for intercepting at the entrance, while the other four teams entered the Second Layer.
Each team has two Stellar Realm, one of whom is a Star Ranking master. With such a lineup, killing Lin Zhen is definitely not a problem.
Two teams headed to the South Pole region, and two teams headed to the Arctic region. Upon entering, all four teams claimed they would capture Lin Zhen within half a month.
However, after a whole month, they still hadn't found a trace of Lin Zhen.
It was obvious that Lin Zhen had a special way of dodging. After a lot of searching, the Church finally discovered that Lin Zhen had once obtained a compass among the prizes of the God of War Arena.
The compass can reflect a person's Star Power and the strength of their Dantian Qi. Whenever someone approaches, their strength will be displayed on the compass according to their level of power.
Upon learning of this news, the Church reacted immediately, spending a huge sum of money to purchase five compasses and sending them to the five hunter squads.
With this, those hunting squads won't have to search the entire Second Layer of the Ancient God City for long, and Lin Zhen will surely be doomed.
********
The debate about Lin Zhen good or bad has never stopped, even in Ice City.
The number of believers in the Divine Cult is too large. There are still tens of millions of Divine Cult in Ice City. Most of these believers have been to the Sophia Church. Now, the Great God Sect Allen of the Sophia Church is personally leading a team to the Ancient God City to hunt down Lin Zhen, which has caused a great controversy in Ice City.
Many non- Divine Cult believers support Lin Zhen, but this support is not widespread.
After all, these people are not an organization, unlike the Divine Cult which is a collective with organization and discipline. Therefore, although the number of people in Ice City who support Lin Zhen is the largest, they cannot gain a significant advantage in public opinion.
When the Divine Cult was initially chasing Lin Zhen into the Ancient God City, many Divine Cult followers were still clamoring online that Lin Zhen wouldn't last more than a few days before being captured and executed by the Divine Cult. Some even devised all sorts of torture methods for Lin Zhen.
There are countless posts like this, showing the arrogance of the Divine Cult.
With the Church's unwavering propaganda, accusing Lin Zhen of countless crimes, world opinion gradually shifted in the Church's favor.
However, in the past month, the Divine Cult's pursuit of Lin Zhen has made no progress, which has given hope to many of Lin Zhen's supporters, who have criticized the Church online.
It's okay if there's no progress for a day or two, or even ten or eight days, but if there's no progress for a month, voices of doubt have begun to emerge within the Church.
Although many people dare not criticize Pope Yan Huang, they can certainly criticize the incompetent pursuit team.
But who sent those pursuit teams? Of course, it was all Yan Huang who sent them. This was actually a veiled criticism of Yan Huang.
The criticism from those who did not believe in the Divine Cult made Yan Huang gradually feel overwhelmed.
His teacher, Larix, disappeared without a trace after leaving the Church for some unknown reason. According to the report from the squad guarding the entrance, Larix never even entered the Ancient God City.
Although he firmly believed that Larix would not betray him, Yan Huang was still somewhat uneasy.
A month later, a member of the Church came to report some news to Yan Huang.
"Your Majesty, the targets have been identified, and we are ready to act at any time."
"Alright, let's act immediately. Lin Zhen's whereabouts are currently unknown, so we need to do something to put some pressure on him. If we can lure Lin Zhen out sooner, it will be very beneficial for our Divine Cult. Otherwise, the current situation is a bit passive for us."
"Yes, Your Majesty, we will act immediately."
********
In the days that followed, the Church did something that once again shocked the world.
First, led by three Golden-Robed Elder of the Church, three hundred Church personnel raided a building in Ice City.
This building belongs to the Ice City Myriad Hao Corporation, but the Myriad Hao Corporation's Li Wanfeng and Zhao Siqing couple don't usually come here. It is the private property of Li Wanfeng's father, Li Yao.
After a fierce battle, the Church's forces, despite losing seven Quasi-Star Realm experts, successfully killed Li Yao, the Myriad Hao Corporation's only Stellar Realm expert.
After killing Li Yao, they found two people inside the building.
Lin Zhen's father, Lin Liye, and mother, Li Qin, both Level Seven Warrior, were taken back to Constantinople by the Church.
Because the incident happened so suddenly, by the time the news broke, Lin Liye and his wife were already in Constantinople.
After capturing Lin Zhen's parents, the news was immediately announced to the whole world. Yan Huang even instructed that the news be deliberately sent to the Ancient God City, believing that as long as Lin Zhen heard about it, he would definitely be unable to resist coming out and walking into the trap.
This incident caused a huge uproar, with many martial artists standing up to criticize the Church's actions. They argued that conflicts between martial artists should not involve family members, and the Church's actions undoubtedly violated this rule.
If it were an individual who did this, they would definitely not have a good ending, but the Church is different.
The Church not only possesses formidable military power but also boasts nearly half of the world's believers. No amount of criticism can have any effect; it can only trigger a massive war of words around the world.
The situation here is not much different. Supporters of Lin Zhen and believers are constantly arguing, which has even led to several fights, and some people have even lost their lives because of it.
The day after Lin Zhen's parents were arrested, several more explosive pieces of news emerged.
The first was Yan Huang's announcement that the Divine Cult could only have one Holy Maiden. He announced the abolition of the Holy Maiden from seven countries: America United States, the European Union, the African Union, Tsarist Russia, India, and Brazil, leaving only one Holy Maiden, namely Su Mingyue.
This move is tantamount to announcing that Su Mingyue will be made Empress.
However, at almost the same time that Yan Huang announced the order, Su Mingyue, the God Sect Saintess, announced her withdrawal from the Church and relinquished her position Holy Maiden, thus severing all ties with the Church.
An Ning, the Young Miss of the An Corporation, also solemnly announced that all believers of the Divine Cult Sky Cult would be expelled from the An Corporation. The first criterion for hiring people in the An Corporation is that the person cannot be a believer of the Starry Sky God Sect.
These three pieces of news appeared almost simultaneously, immediately causing a global uproar.
As the world's largest conglomerate, the An Corporation An Corporation approximately one-fiftieth of the world's population, a remarkably high percentage. The ensuing uproar is therefore immense.
The announcement by Su Mingyue, the Holy Maiden of the Divine Cult, was a slap in the face to Yan Huang, who wanted to marry her.
The order appointing Su Mingyue as the only Holy Maiden of the Divine Cult had barely been spoken when news came that Su Mingyue was leaving the Divine Cult.
Su Mingyue's admirers are all over the world, even accounting for one-tenth of the Divine Cult. So when Su Mingyue announced her withdrawal from the Divine Cult, countless Divine Cult around the world wept.
Many people took to the streets hoping that Su Mingyue would stay, but Su Mingyue's mind was made up and she vowed never to stay in the Divine Cult again.
She said, "Brothers and sisters of the Divine Cult, please forgive Ming Yue's willfulness. In fact, I began to doubt the existence of the Starry Sky True God three years ago. When I encountered danger and almost died, my prayers had no effect. No one could know the despair I felt at that time. My pursuit and faith were so vulnerable in the face of cruel reality."
"I met Lin Zhen at that time. He saved me. He is a very individualistic person. He said that he never believed in the Starry Sky True God and that the True God would not save anyone."
"I had my doubts, but I am familiar with the history of the Divine Cult. Apart from all the unusual things that happened on the God Transformation Day, the Starry Sky True God has always been nothing more than a figment of our imagination."
"But I haven't left the Divine Cult. After all, many of our doctrines are good. But now, with the emergence of the Church, the Pope has greatly disappointed me. He declared Lin Zhen a heretic, which everyone knows. I didn't participate in their battle. Although I really want to help my beloved, I am still a member of the Divine Cult."
"Until yesterday, when he actually sent people to arrest Lin Zhen's parents, it was unacceptable. How could such a person be allowed to act as a substitute for the gods and rule over half the world's population?"
"If he really is the Holy Son, the spokesperson of the gods, then it's better not to believe in such Divine Cult. From now on, Ming Yue is no longer a member of the Divine Cult. I Xuan Ze to be with the one I love, forever."
Su Mingyue and An Ning's decision sparked a massive wave of withdrawals from the Divine Cult worldwide.
Many people who wanted to work for the An Corporation had to leave the Divine Cult. Many people who liked Su Mingyue also left the Divine Cult.
Just when things were at a stalemate, a major event occurred in Ice City.
The king of Mutated Beast that roam the Greater Khingan Mountains region, a giant Siberian Tiger called "One Against Ten Thousand" has broken through the limitations of land creatures and reached SS-Rank!
After advancing to the next level, One Against Ten Thousand led countless Quasi SS-Rank and S-level high-level Mutated Beast, as well as billions of low-level Mutated Beast, and launched a fierce attack on Ice City!