Chapter 359: The Time He Passed
The seasons changed without waiting for anyone, yet Aldrian remained in the Shrine of the Beginning. Time passed unnoticed by him, and he seemed unaware of how long he had been there. His body still stood, though he no longer floated as he had when he first began cultivating in this place.
Angelica and Pope Claudius had long since stopped prostrating before Aldrian. Now, they simply gazed at him in wonder.
"What could he be seeing within himself? It has already been more than a year, yet he hasn’t moved at all," Pope Claudius said to Angelica, who stood beside him.
"I don’t know," Angelica replied, her eyes fixed on Aldrian’s figure. "But thanks to the young master, our church has experienced an unprecedented rise in both holy energy and purity. Today’s church is unlike anything before—I almost feel like it’s surreal. He truly is the prophesied one who will change our church forever."
After a brief silence, Angelica asked,
"Father, what about the traitor? Has he been found?"
Pope Claudius’s face darkened at the mention of the topic.
"That bas—that traitor is still nowhere to be found. Like a slippery rat, we managed to track some of his traces, but we lost him entirely at the teleportation station near the border of the Vindas Empire. I should have captured him back then—if I had, we wouldn’t be dealing with this mess now," he said through gritted teeth.
A year ago, not long after the golden pillar of light shone over the entire Heavenly City, all beings had prostrated before it—except for a few. However, once the pillar disappeared and people began questioning what had happened, they rushed to the source of the light. It was then that the pope noticed someone missing from the church’s ranks—Cardinal Carsius.
After Pope Claudius explained the golden pillar’s appearance to the church members and calmed them down, he finally sensed that something was wrong. When he looked for Cardinal Carsius, the man had already disappeared. Worse still, he had taken several high-grade artifacts from the secret vault, fueling the pope’s rage.
Enraged, Pope Claudius ordered a search for Cardinal Carsius, causing an uproar among the higher-ups of the church. He then publicly announced the cardinal’s suspicious activities, declaring that Carsius was suspected of having ties to the devils.