Sophia had only reached the Ninth Layer of Mortal Transcendence three months ago, but her intuition was strong enough for her to realize that further advancement would be difficult.
Feng Jun performed a divination and found the matter both amusing and exasperating. Because Sophia's Daoist temple frequently displayed miracles before the public, the number of her followers in Alansmu Town had kept rising, while the church's congregation had steadily dwindled.
The worst part was that many followers of the Papal Court had lost quite a few believers because the Daoist temple in Alansmu Town had such thriving incense faith. They believed the town's church had failed in its duties. They still believed in the Papal Court, but no longer believed in that church.
As a result, the Faith Sophia could gather had shrunk drastically. Some devout churchgoers even considered the Daoist temple heretical and developed a strong sense of rejection. That emotion offset the Faith coming from the church.
Sophia herself had developed quite a few followers, but many of them had come for the Daoist Order and the Origin Scripture, not because they devoutly believed in "Temple Master Sophia." This also prevented her from harvesting Faith effectively.
Taking everything into account, it was already quite remarkable that Sophia had cultivated so quickly to the Ninth Layer of Mortal Transcendence. Besides, to most Papal Court envoys and knights, the Ninth Layer of Mortal Transcendence was already an unattainable height.
The apostate Keane was famous indeed, but his actual cultivation was only Mid Transcendence. When Feng Jun dealt with him, he encountered a bit of unexpected resistance because Feng Mountain Lord did not fully understand how fallen ones fought, not because Keane was particularly powerful.
—Well, Mid Transcendence had originally been very formidable. Before Feng Jun appeared, Keane had visited Xia