A Gift from the Holy Spirit

Fang Zheng naturally knew why Stone had asked that question.

In fact, on his very first day here, after he had summoned an Angel through the effects of Skyrending Sword, Stone and the Old Bishop had asked Fang Zheng whether he had received the Holy Spirit's blessing. Fang Zheng had neither admitted nor denied it. He had merely acted appropriately clueless about the matter—and in truth, this was indeed not information an ordinary person could know. Fang Zheng had only found a few clues about Holy Spirit Protection after entering the Holy Temple and digging through its records.

In the not-too-distant past, there had once been such a group of people on this continent. They had either been born with, or for some reason later gained, the protection of Holy Spirit Angels. These Holy Spirit Angels guarded their lives and passed down the Angels' knowledge and power to them.

People regarded it as—a gift from the Holy Spirit.

Within the Holy Temple, however, these people were seen as the Goddess of Order's messengers in the mortal world. They used this power to eliminate Chaos, uphold order, and strike down evil.

The Holy Spirit Knights had once been the stars of the Holy Temple. Every Holy Spirit Knight had been a beloved hero.

But the tallest tree in the forest catches the strongest wind.

Thus, the Holy Spirit Knights drew the attention of the Chaos Monsters and Cultists. The demons coveted the Angels' power, while the Cultists hoped to destroy the foundations of order. In the end, disaster struck through the combined efforts of both sides.

They incited the masses and tempted those clergy members within the Holy Temple who resented the Holy Spirit Knights' excessive authority, suppressing the Holy Spirit Knights. They even lured several young Holy Spirit Knights into corruption, turning them and their guardian Angels into lackeys of Chaos. At the same time, they used this as an excuse to investigate the Holy Spirit Knights.

At first, the Holy Spirit Knights could accept these investigations. But before long, the people of the Holy Temple grew increasingly overbearing. Perhaps seeing the once-lofty Holy Spirit Knights acting so "docile" made it difficult for them to resist pushing further. The authorities within the Holy Temple became more and more aggressive, even fabricating excuses at will to seize Holy Spirit Knights for investigation. Eventually, some even tried to torture confessions out of them, forcing them to admit they were Cultists.

As time passed, the divide between the two sides grew wider and wider. The Holy Spirit Knights had had enough of being treated as Cultists, while the authorities of the Holy Temple, emboldened by the institution's support behind them, became ever more unscrupulous. Their conflict steadily escalated, making the Highest Bishop at the time uneasy. He tried to issue orders to stop this trend from spreading and began seeking to reduce the severity of the investigations.

But what the Highest Bishop had not expected was that his order would become the final straw.

When the lower-ranking bishops learned that the Highest Bishop intended to end the investigations, they refused to let the matter rest. In order to completely suppress the Holy Spirit Knights, those bishops, blinded by desire and power, made a mad decision. They publicly accused Antonio, commander of the Holy Spirit Knight Order, of being a Cultist. They imprisoned his wife and child and tortured them for so-called "evidence" that would force Antonio to confess.

But Antonio was not someone who would surrender so easily. He immediately led his subordinates into the High Court of Judgment, trying to rescue his wife and child. Unfortunately, Antonio had arrived one step too late. When he got there, all he saw were their corpses.

Overwhelmed by grief and fury, Antonio erupted in rage. Before everyone, he declared a break with the Holy Temple and, in the name of the Holy Spirit Knight Order, declared war on the entire Holy Temple!

It was an incomparably dark era. The Holy Spirit Knights, who should have upheld order, raised their blades against the Holy Temple. The Holy Temple forces crumbled beneath their assault. They tried to stop it all, but the tide had already turned. Holy Spirit Knights were people, not saints. During the previous investigations, most of them had long been suppressing a bellyful of rage. How could they possibly just nod and accept the blame?

What was more, by then the Holy Spirit Knight Order's resentment had gone far beyond mere dissatisfaction with the investigations. They had begun to suspect that the Holy Temple had strayed from the Goddess's guidance and submitted to worldly desire and power.

At this point, it was no longer merely a clash of tempers, but a conflict of ideals. The final negotiations broke down, and Antonio led the Holy Spirit Knights in an assault on the Supreme Holy Temple, attempting to end the Holy Temple's rule once and for all.

However, before the gates of the Supreme Holy Temple, the Holy Spirit Knights finally encountered an obstacle—the Goddess's protection surrounded that supreme sanctuary, and they could not advance even a single step.

The College of Cardinals at the time had clearly lost their minds as well. Believing that, with the Goddess's protection, the Holy Spirit Knights could do nothing to them, they immediately began taunting them. They even publicly declared that the deaths of Antonio's wife and child had been the Goddess's will, and that they had merely acted according to her wishes!

Useless teammates were equally disastrous in any era and any place. Driven into a fury by the College of Cardinals, Antonio ultimately made a decision that shocked everyone beyond belief.

Before countless witnesses, he and his Holy Spirit chose to fall into Chaos Demon Kings. Then, with a single slash, he cleaved through the Goddess's protection and utterly wiped out the College of Cardinals.

Afterward, Antonio left behind only one sentence: "If that is the case, then this world has no meaning to exist." Then he turned and left with the Holy Spirit that had fallen alongside him.

After that, the Holy Spirit Knight Order split into two factions. One part resolutely chose corruption and followed Antonio to the Twilight Borderlands. The other Holy Spirit Knights chose to leave the Holy Temple forever and never see them again.

After the internal strife and the departure of the Holy Spirit Knights, the Holy Temple was severely weakened. At that moment, the Cultists and Chaos Demons also began stirring, launching frenzied attacks across the continent. Having lost the Holy Spirit Knights, the Holy Temple's strength declined significantly. In the end, although they still successfully drove out the demons and Cultists and once again secured the existence of order, they were left badly depleted and had yet to recover even now.

Not to mention that after that, people protected by the Holy Spirit rarely appeared on the continent. Within the Holy Temple, there was also a faint rumor that the Goddess had been disappointed by the Holy Temple's actions and had therefore stopped sending her messengers into this world. Only when the Holy Temple recognized its mistakes might it receive the Goddess's forgiveness.

That was why, the moment the Old Bishop had seen Fang Zheng's guardian Angel, he had wanted to report it to the Central Bishop Council.

Stone, however, was clearly not interested in any of that. What he was more curious about was how Fang Zheng had become so powerful after disappearing for just one night. Could that also have been due to the Holy Spirit Inheritance? After all, those events had happened many years ago. Records about the Holy Spirit Knights were extremely scarce now, either destroyed or sealed away. Ordinary people could not see them at all, and even a Grand Knight was no exception. Thus, Stone was very interested in Fang Zheng's "inheritance."

"I don't know whether this counts as some kind of inheritance."

Just as before, Fang Zheng did not confirm Stone's guess. After learning about the Holy Spirit Knights' history, he understood that this identity came with benefits, but also plenty of drawbacks. So he never acknowledged other people's speculation, only selectively revealed his own thoughts.

"After I went back last night, I kept thinking about how to improve my Sword Skill. Then I discussed it with her, and she made me have a dream..."

Faced with Stone's questions, Fang Zheng did not hide too much. He merely portrayed the system as the guardian Angel he had summoned through Skyrending Sword, then described his experiences in the Dungeon to Stone in full as if they had been a dream.

Fang Zheng chose to tell him not only to gain Stone's trust, but because he had planned this before coming here. That was why he had displayed his unusual traits without concern. Even if Stone had not asked, Fang Zheng would have found an opportunity to seek his guidance.

The reason was simple: two heads were better than one!

Fang Zheng could indeed accumulate experience through battles in that world, but wouldn't it be faster if he could receive guidance from someone experienced? Why ignore an easy path only to take the long way around?

Besides, even if he could resurrect, getting cut to death still hurt like hell!

He was not a masochist. Why would he need to get cut to death to feel good?

"There's actually a world like that..."

After listening to Fang Zheng's description, Stone could not help but marvel. He had seen more of the world, so he immediately understood how desperate the world Fang Zheng described was. A world that could only survive through burning flames, where all things would face death when those flames went out... Just imagining it, Stone could feel that world's sorrow.

Fortunately, it had only been a dream.

"Hahaha, good thing it was a dream. Otherwise, with your skills, and without being allowed to use any power, relying purely on Sword Skill against those enemies, you'd have died eighty or a hundred times already."

Hearing Stone's hearty laughter, Fang Zheng helplessly rolled his eyes, but he had nothing to say, because he really had died eighty or a hundred times already!

Possibly even more.

"Hmm... but it's not as though there's no solution at all. Judging from the way you fought before, you've already grasped the key. Your methods are just a little off..."

Still, Stone did not disappoint Fang Zheng. After thinking for only a moment, he quickly began instructing him. As a Grand Knight, Stone's experience in this regard far surpassed Fang Zheng's. Fang Zheng also listened carefully to his guidance, because this was the kind of knowledge money could not buy. The system currently had no exchange function, and even if it did, Fang Zheng did not think experience was something that could be exchanged.

And now... didn't he have a teacher precisely so he could learn from him?