" The Pale God is dead, the new emperor is weak and incompetent. We, the faithful, should unite to inherit His Majesty's will and demonstrate the might of our Pale Church!"
Bishop Marcus, returning empty-handed from the Pale Holy See, hysterically proclaimed his grand ambitions.
In essence, however, he was a true speculator.
He initially joined the Pale Church because of its Pale Church and the invincible Pale God, and he liked to use this power to his advantage. Although it was impossible to bully others under Norton's rule, he could still be quite effective in small, everyday matters.
Now that the Pale God is dead, he is free from all constraints. As the saying goes, "A golden carp is no ordinary fish; it will transform into a dragon once it encounters wind and clouds."
As a greedy, ruthless, and daring opportunist, Bishop Marcus instantly saw through the hidden benefits.
On Lesser Abraham Star, a base teeming with disgruntled fanatics and opportunists, the place was now packed with people.
A skilled orator was standing on the stage, giving a frenzied speech, proclaiming the past glory of the Pale Church and the past divine power of the Pale God, in order to brainwash the already extremely fanatical believers below.
"For Your Majesty!"
"Defend the orthodoxy of the Pale Church, defend His Holiness!"
Loud shouts came one after another from the front stage like a tide. Everyone standing there listening to the speech was an extreme fanatic, without exception.
The real opportunists had long been trying to climb to higher positions. At this moment, they were gathering in the back, holding a meeting with several truly influential and radical superstitious individuals, preparing to put this group on the dinner table.
In some tiny monastery, a somewhat well-known priest, looking frantic, was pounding his fist on the table, making a loud buzzing sound.
"Look at these damned bastards! His Majesty granted them eternal life and immense power, and how have they repaid His Majesty? They have gone to great lengths to slander His Majesty online, committed heinous acts in real life, seized power, and even used the guise of reform to smear His Majesty's past actions. This is a blatant attempt to smear His Majesty, the greatest stain on His Majesty's holiness!"
We should emulate the Holy Lord Church in the past, enslaving these inhuman barbarians and oppressing and exploiting them for all eternity!
I believe that when the sword of slaughter hangs over their heads, these despicable two-legged sheep will only proclaim the holiness of Your Majesty!
This priest was the most devout follower of the Pale God, but his thinking was somewhat skewed, somewhat like Xi'er's. He believed that only those within the Pale Church were noble and followers of God, while the rest were lowly slaves and disgusting maggots.
He had submitted proposals to higher authorities several times, suggesting that the Pale Church enslave all unbelievers in His Majesty and make them serve as followers of God. However, all of them were rejected.
"I agree! We should launch a holy war, unite all Church believers, overthrow the rule of the Human Federation, and restore the Pale Church to its supreme position!"
As the priest spoke, the people around him began to express their opinions.
Now, apart from a large number of speculators, the only people sitting here are extreme believers. Extreme believers are extreme to begin with, and with the speculators adding fuel to the fire, the tone of the entire meeting is set in no time.
Marcus was extremely satisfied with the righteous indignation and murderous intent of the crowd, whether they were faking it or not. He tapped the table to quiet the conference room.
He then stood up, looked around, and made a face full of grief and indignation.
"Ladies and gentlemen, it seems we all share the same thought. As I said before, His Majesty is dead, but His Majesty is immortal! For the past three thousand years, both the boundless glory bestowed by His Majesty and the mercy and generosity of my Pale Church have given mankind a glory that has never been reached before!"
This is the achievement of my Lord, and the toil of my Pale Church.
We have served our country and its people so diligently, yet now that Your Majesty has just died, the Human Federation has immediately seized power. This is utterly ungrateful and rebellious!
God insults his believers, he shall die!
Your Majesty has suffered such humiliation; we should unite as one and kill all those who dare to blaspheme against God.
However, the new emperor is now weak and has actually bowed down to the Human Federation Government. This is truly a disgrace to His Majesty's trust and a betrayal of all the believers of my Holy Church!
Such a puppet elder is the greatest insult to Your Majesty and the greatest harm to my Pale Church!
I propose that we unite to establish College of Cardinals Outside the Church, to replace the three puppets of the Pale Church in the name of orthodoxy.
We should, in the name of orthodoxy, launch Crusade Holy War to cleanse our Holy Church of its humiliation and to demonstrate Your Majesty's might!
Marcus's speech was so passionate and inspiring that the crowd of extremist believers below were completely captivated and even trembling with excitement.
Although they were wild and extreme, they also understood the significance of establishing College of Cardinals Outside the Church to obtain orthodoxy.
This means they will replace those three puppets and become His Majesty's closest subordinates!
"Good, that's how it should be!"
"We should establish College of Cardinals Crusade Holy War to uphold the orthodoxy of the Orthodox Church!"
A group of extremist believers, spurred on, left the meeting room in high spirits, leaving behind a large group of opportunists, each with their own agenda.
At this point, the identities of those who didn't immediately go out to work were clear; the rest were all opportunists.
Only then did Marcus shed his passionate facade, calmly looking down at the large group of speculators below, his forehead veins throbbing.
"Gentlemen, I believe we all share the same goal, which means we are currently on the same side."
No one responded, but no one objected either.
Their interests are indeed largely aligned; they are all intelligent people who know what they want, and their presence here already demonstrates their willingness to cooperate.
Marcus was not surprised at all and continued, "I must say, it's good that Your Majesty died. If Your Majesty hadn't died, we would have always been suppressed by him, and our lives would have been filled with such little achievements. But now that Your Majesty is dead, our opportunity has arrived."
I think everyone sitting here now shares almost the same thoughts as me.
So I'll just say it directly.
We should emulate the Old Faith and New Faith systems of the Holy Lord Church, use the College of Cardinals to steal the orthodoxy of the Church, and launch Crusade Holy War to make the Human Federation fear our destructive power.
Thus, we gained leverage in terms of force and prestige to negotiate with the Church and the Human Federation.
Based on this, I believe the Human Federation Government would be more than happy to reach a deal with us: to split the Church into New Faith and Old Faith in order to establish a basis for peace.
In this way, the Human Federation can both suppress and control the Church by splitting Church, and also gain the fighting power of our New Faith group.
Despite the division of faith and combat power, and the disintegration of the Pale Church, we can rise to the top and become the new Pope or even a high-ranking archbishop!
Doesn't this align with His Majesty's actions in founding New Faith to divide the Holy Lord Church?
Haha, gentlemen, it seems we are the truly devout believers, after all, we learned all these practices from His Majesty!