Chapter 22: Divine Teachings!
August 23, 2016
Author: Zhuseng Futu
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Talon City.
This used to be one of the few great cities in the south, but as corruption became rampant, the law gradually turned into a tool for the powerful. Gradually, the city began to exude a sense of decline, slowly moving towards collapse, and more and more merchants avoided this place where everything required bribery. However, the decline of Talon City also meant the rise of other forces, belonging to the gray areas and many evil god churches.
At this moment, in an underground prison.
A group of cloaked individuals were kneeling and praying at the altar. Standing in the center of the altar was a strikingly beautiful girl dressed in revealing attire, holding a long whip in her hand. After a prayer, she suddenly struck her own body with the whip. This blow was almost with all her strength, directly leaving a bloody whip mark on the girl’s back. At this moment, the others at the altar also took out whips and similarly struck themselves before kneeling down to pray. Lavita’s followers and priests possess many techniques specialized in the long whip, just as Soren’s followers are many skilled in using curved blades; these changes are all due to the preferences of the deity.
Everything did not end quickly.
After a session of almost self-torturous whipping, the followers began the next step of the prayer ritual.
This special ritual is called “Candle Flame.”
The followers first encircled the burning candles, singing hymns and dancing in prayer. Then, guided by the priests, some beautiful maidens began to appear. They continuously burned their own bodies with the flames of the candles while allowing other followers to drip wax on themselves. The entire process lasts for some time until the high-level priest extinguishes the candle flames with holy wine upon the completion of the ritual.
The ritual reached its climax at this moment.
When the bodies of all the followers were covered in whip marks and wax, a divine radiance appeared from the altar, followed by the hazy figure of a maiden.
Then everyone began to pray passionately, with the priests loudly chanting hymns.
The entire ceremony lasted about two hours.
When everything ended, the girl at the altar gently waved her hand, releasing an aura that felt tranquil and pleasant.
At this moment, the priest also began to cast divine techniques to heal physical wounds, usually healing minor injuries, although occasionally followers would injure themselves severely to please the goddess.
The Painful Maiden – Lavita is a goddess characterized by her aggressive nature, domineering behavior, and brave fearlessness. She protects all executioners, sadists, and bullies on the continent.
The Painful Maiden is keen on creating pain (both physical and psychological).
The Church of Lavita usually holds significant power in large cities that are in decline (because the corrupt bureaucratic systems in these cities generally turn a blind eye to their corrupt and depraved actions), and all those in power within the church are typically female humans or half-elves. The church often recruits new members among the wealthy and powerful classes of the city. Her priests are relentless in creating various forms of torment or feigning love affairs with young nobles only to cruelly abandon them; they also strive to destroy all romantic relationships and friendships, then first playfully tease the victims in front of them before ridiculing them coldly.
For the followers of the Painful Maiden, superb acting skills and beautiful appearances are very useful tools.
The Painful Maiden’s faction is “Lawful Evil.”
Typically, members of this faction behave much like demons, and most have well-thought-out plans.
This is evident from the teachings of the Painful Maiden.
From the church’s rituals, the Painful Maiden does not differ greatly from other evil gods, but if you read her teachings, you will realize this goddess is indeed not simple.
The teachings of the Church of Pain are quite lengthy.
Selecting a few points, they can be summarized as follows.
“This world is filled with pain and torment; therefore, the only thing we can do is confront these inevitable sufferings and return more pain to those who cause us pain.” – “First Teaching”
“Mercy is the best companion to harm and pain, for only the contrast of mercy can deepen the agony of torment. Remember, unending cruelty and torment will only lead the victim to rise up in resistance, so occasionally (on a whim) stop the torment and give them unexpected comfort and healing, making them unclear about the goddess’s will; this way, the ignorant masses will yearn more for the Painful Maiden’s mercy.” – “Second Teaching”
“Long whips, flames, and cold are three useful tools bestowed upon believers by the goddess.” – “Sixth Teaching”
“Whenever we inflict torment and punishment, we should propagate the teachings of Lavita. Pain is a comprehensive trial; it can strengthen mental resilience and grant true joy to those who endure torment. Only those who know the goddess’s teachings can impose real punishment and ab*se.” – “Ninth Teaching”
“As long as there is a whip, there will be the goddess Lavita. Fear Lavita and desire her grace.” – “Final Teaching”.
The teachings of the Painful Maiden are quite intriguing.
Especially that one line, pain is a comprehensive trial; it can enhance mental resilience and allow those who endure torment to experience true joy.
This is truly the highest realm for masochism!
…
Modo City. Council Hall.
When Soren decided to deal with the Painful Maiden, all intelligence regarding her was secretly delivered to him by spies in Modo City. In Soren’s church, there are many Wanderers, making the efficiency of information gathering significantly better than other churches. Although messages from the Goddess of Joy are important, Soren is here to deal with the Painful Maiden, and her church still requires Soren’s church to confront her, so it was necessary to first understand the internal situation of the abusive church.
Other information was rather average.
After reviewing a lot of information, Soren became slightly interested in Lavita’s teachings.
He was very surprised!
Soren actually found a bit of positive energy in Lavita’s teachings, even if it was just beautifully stated.
However.
This bit, if converted, would have considerable use.
Viewing pain as a form of refinement!
If this point could be seized for conversion, then there would be no problem with the fusion of Vivian’s divine profession! Purely sadistic divine profession is still too low-level! Soren’s initial intention against Lavita was focused on the divine profession of “Pain” — as for other forms of torment, torture, whipping, etc., they were all things that couldn’t stand in the spotlight.
Pain, suffering, torment.
These are the truly useful divine professions; they can apply to evil divine beings and can also be adapted for good divine beings.
And Vivian and Lilian’s divine professions are a result of this trade-off!
That’s right.
Soren envisions one divine profession with two extension directions; Lilian is clearly the evil faction, while Vivian is undoubtedly of the good faction.
Taking “Pain” as the starting divine profession, both of the two can be taken into consideration.
…
[Thank you all for your continued support. This time, during the 515 Fan Festival on Qidian, I hope everyone can support the Writer’s Honor Hall and the Works Selection. There are also some red envelope gifts during the fan festival, so grab them and keep the subscriptions going!] (To Be Continued ~^~)
