"Move! My divine power is exhausted. I can't summon [Vortex] again anytime soon. We have to get out of Ashen Dawn's territory!"
The pope whose features had twisted into a vortex urged them on in a low voice. The others from the Nine Great Divine Churches were also panicking, fleeing at a desperate sprint, clearly still caught in the terror of seeing the divine projections shattered.
"That damned blasphemer! When the true gods descend, he will suffer divine punishment!"
They cursed as they ran, unaware that Qin Mingshen was eating candy and had not pursued them.
"No, we can't keep running like this. We mustn't return to our respective churches. Qin Mingshen could easily pick us off one by one!" the pope of the Flesh Prison Cult said grimly, blood seeping from his forehead.
"Then what should we do?" someone asked.
The Flesh Prison Cult's pope turned his gloomy gaze eastward, a cold gleam rising in his eyes. "Go to the Federation Government! Since Qin Mingshen has blasphemed against the gods, we shall help Du Jingzhe eliminate him!"
"But the Federation Government has been cracking down on the churches all this time. If we go there so rashly, I'm afraid..."
"Hmph!" The Flesh Prison Cult's pope snorted. "That was then, this is now. The Qilin Marshal has defected, and Du Jingzhe can't hold things together alone. While fighting Ashen Dawn, how would he dare go to war with the Nine Great Divine Churches as well?
Now he's the one who needs to beg for our help."
The next day.
East Continent Federation headquarters.
In a quiet manor hidden among lush, wooded mountains.
Dressed in black robes and reeking of blood, the pope of the Flesh Prison Cult entered the manor alone.
At the entrance, a barefoot man with white