Old Saint King had come back from the dead, and the news spread through the Empire's capital at an astonishing speed. With certain people fanning the flames, the rumor soon split into two versions.
The first version claimed that Old Saint King had received the Goddess's favor, allowing him to return from the dead.
The second claimed that Old Saint King had coveted eternal life, blasphemed against the gods, and used an evil method to drag the Goddess into the mortal world.
Of the two rumors, most commoners believed the first. After all, they had all witnessed the location where the Goddess's phantom had descended—it had appeared at the Moon Goddess Monastery.
However, the Goddess had not manifested a miracle at the monastery. Instead, she had crossed half the capital and arrived above Lurenfei Palace.
Faith had been shaken. The Moon Goddess favored the Saint King, not Her representative in the mortal world, the Moon Goddess.
The direct consequence was that of the several thousand believers who often came to the monastery to pray for blessings, fewer than two-thirds arrived the next morning.
Worse still, the cathedral's main entrance was tightly shut, barring all believers from entering. Nearly a hundred Moon Apostles stood before the doors.
This shook the believers even further. The Moon Goddess Monastery's decision to close the grand hall was practically cutting off its own escape route.
In truth, the Moon Goddess did not want this either. But the Immortal Crystal Goddess Statue had been stolen again. Even after she had set up countless mechanisms and had dozens of Moon Apostles watching the statue throughout the night, it had still been stolen.
The Moon Apostles present had all given the same account: the statue had suddenly vanished, disappearing into thin air just like that.
When the Moon