Golden Ear Branch Hall and the Paths

Elsewhere, about a day after leaving Martial Soul City, Qian Mo finally remembered what he had forgotten.

"Ah, I was so focused on whatever schemes were at play that I forgot to tell Little Xue I was leaving."

Qian Mo thought with an awkward smile inside the carriage.

But now that things had come to this, Qian Mo could only apologize in his heart and decide to send her a letter once he reached a city where he could mail one.

As for anything beyond that, Qian Mo did not think much about it.

After all, Qian Renxue was still so young. Qian Mo had not lost his mind enough to use her as a pawn.

The carriage continued its stop-and-go journey, and after roughly a month, it finally arrived at Golden Ear City, which Qian Xunji had arranged for him.

Golden Ear City sounded rather grand, but it was actually only one level above Notting City, where Tang San attended school. It was a medium-sized city.

Its strongest residents were at the Soul Emperor level, and it had facilities such as Golden Ear Intermediate Spirit Master Academy and a Spirit Sub-Hall. It was an utterly ordinary city on the Douluo Continent.

The branch halls established by the Martial Soul Hall in cities were divided into four ranks.

The highest rank was the Holy Spirit Hall, which existed only in the capitals of the two great empires.

Below that were Main Spirit Halls, which only large cities like Soto City could possess.

Then came Spirit Sub-Halls in medium-sized cities, followed by ordinary Spirit Branch Halls found even in the most commonplace cities like Notting City.

However, in branch halls like Notting City's Spirit Branch Hall, the hall masters varied widely in cultivation, and their actual posts were merely that of stewards.

But in standardized Martial Soul Halls like Spirit Sub-Halls, one needed to be at least a Black-robed Cardinal to serve as hall master.

And Black-robed Cardinals were, at minimum, Soul Emperors.

Thus, by rights, Qian Mo's status did not qualify him to touch a post like this.

But as the saying went, where there were policies from above, there were countermeasures below.

What was more, the one arranging this scheme for Qian Mo was the Martial Soul Hall's highest-ranking public authority.

So although Qian Mo was merely a Grand Soul Master, he entered the position smoothly, without any clichéd local bully drama occurring.

Still, you could know a person's face but not their heart.

Thus, while familiarizing himself with his duties and the place where he would live in the future, Qian Mo casually revealed his identity as a member of the Angel Clan.

At once, the few veiled gazes tinged with malice that had been watching him from the shadows completely vanished.

Qian Mo smiled in satisfaction and silently remarked that when you were out in the world, background really was what mattered.

Otherwise, quite a few troubles would probably have arisen.

Over the following days, Qian Mo relied on his abundant knowledge to guide others in cultivation. Combined with his identity as a healing-type Soul Master, he gradually became fully integrated into this Spirit Sub-Hall.

And tomorrow, after familiarizing himself with his duties, Qian Mo would officially assume the post of Priest.

A Priest was, in essence, a father.

However, due to the unique nature of this world, Priests on the Douluo Continent were not the heads of Spirit Branch Halls. The main person in charge was still the bishop hall master with the strongest combat power, who also oversaw daily affairs.

Priests were more often responsible for presiding over various ceremonies, hearing others' confessions, offering counsel for redemption, and spreading faith in the Angel God.

So, generally speaking, Priests were special civilian staff within the Martial Soul Hall.

Furthermore, Priests held a special status within the Martial Soul Hall.

Should a bishop encounter trouble, a Priest possessed the authority to temporarily take over all branch hall affairs. Therefore, no matter how weak a Priest was, he would still be the second-in-command of the local Martial Soul Hall, namely the deputy hall master.

Qian Mo had also been rather surprised when he first learned from books that the Martial Soul Hall had a position called Priest.

But on second thought, it made sense.

In a world where becoming a god through faith was the central principle, would it not be stranger if there were no clergy to spread that faith?

Still, Qian Mo felt little excitement about officially taking office for the first time tomorrow.

He even felt that fate was rather wondrous.

Before Sunday became the head of the Oak Family, he had also held a similar position as a Chordmaster. It was there that he began his pursuit of life's meaning and ultimately embarked upon the path of the Lord of the Seven-Day Rest.

Inside a room with no one else around, Qian Mo lightly waved his right hand, and the Template Card representing Sunday floated before him.

"But I am not Sunday. I would not dream up an absurd system like the Seven-Day Rest just because of the suffering in this world."

Qian Mo muttered blandly before turning his gaze toward the Template Card.

The card was still the same size, but its former riot of colors had vanished. In its place was Sunday in his Lordly form, with three pairs of ear-feathers growing from his back and compassion for all living beings in his eyes.

At Qian Mo's thought, the Template Card began extending threads of different colors.

These threads represented the Paths Sunday had followed.

Unlike in the game, the Paths followed by Sunday on the Template Card Qian Mo obtained did not consist solely of the Harmony-Order Path. There were also Abundance and Trailblaze, along with several other Paths he had followed to a slight degree.

But when Qian Mo first discovered this, he found it only natural after thinking it over.

If the template was measured by reality, how could Sunday possibly have walked the Path of Order alone?

After all, the Paths represented incarnations of philosophy.

Aeons themselves!

And philosophy, as those who understood it knew, was something exceedingly abstract.

Take the most obvious example.

The Aeon of Abundance, Yaoshi, represented selfless healing and altruism, yet among Their Emanators was Shuhu, an Emanator of Abundance who madly devoured other living beings.

And Shuhu, who had caused such a horrific tragedy, did so because he believed he should lead all living beings to eternal life and free them from suffering.

On the surface, he was simply a murderous lunatic.

But in terms of the Path's concept, there was nothing wrong with what he did. It merely looked sanity-shattering.

Qian Mo lightly touched those threads.

At once, memories streamed into his mind, recounting how Sunday had once followed his Paths and how he had reached their pinnacle.

In the end, Qian Mo's hand stopped over a golden thread, the shortest among them.

A vast number of memories immediately surfaced in Qian Mo's mind, showing scenes of him meditating and cultivating day after day.

At the same time, a piece of information appeared.

[Permanence: 28.37]

Just as the note on the Template Card had said when Qian Mo first obtained it.

This Template Card merely told Qian Mo how to grow into someone like Sunday as quickly as possible. It did not forcibly impose Sunday's abilities upon him.

Thus, after a long period of exploration, even an ordinary person knew that his own cultivation state would overlap with Sunday's in the form of golden threads, thereby telling him when he had gone astray.

And this information was precisely the result of Qian Mo's own cultivation.

At the same time, Qian Mo confirmed his guess. This universe truly was connected to Honkai: Star Rail.

Because the power of this Permanence Path was the power Qian Mo had obtained through the Soul Master System.

In other words, the Martial Soul System.

Or rather, all supernatural powers in this world were connected to the Undying Aeon Long, who had long been said to have fallen.

However, Qian Mo chose to leave his speculations at that and did not investigate further.

After all, even the geniuses of Honkai: Star Rail could not figure such matters out. Asking Qian Mo to study them would be rather overestimating himself, and Qian Mo still possessed that much self-awareness.