Villa Pinewood is less than fifty kilometers away from the Pantheon and can be reached by airship in ten minutes. When she was going out, Zheng Wenwen noticed that in addition to her personal valets, there was also a middle-aged man who was described as silent, and three or five young people wearing very serious and serious clothes who were waiting outside to board the airship with Gu Hanhan. People, they are all headed by a man in his thirties with a nice smile. Gu Hanhan ignored the middle-aged people and the well-dressed young people, and specially introduced the leader to Zheng Wenwen, saying that this was Mr. Gale, a senior deacon from the Deacon Department of the Temple, who came to give them a tour Guided. Zheng Wenwen got on the airship and looked at the senior deacon curiously, feeling in her heart that he didn't look like a religious monk at all. Gu Hanhan greeted him very familiarly.
"Ah, Mr. Gall, you came here in person, this early in the morning," she said. "When did you arrive? Have you had breakfast?"
Gal said that everything was fine and he had had breakfast. He had just arrived at Pinewood Villa for a while, but he didn't come to see her because he heard that the lady was changing.
Gu Hanhan smiled: "I didn't expect to wake you up, Mr. Gal. I hope it didn't cause you any inconvenience. We originally wanted to visit the Pantheon Square and the Pilgrimage Platform for some sightseeing, but we didn't want to do anything It’s too troublesome. You know, I’ve always been very worried about this religious procedure, and it’s hard to handle it. If we can stop working all around, we’d better not work at all.”
"No," Gal responded. "There is no inconvenience in accompanying Miss on the tour. I originally had some matters to negotiate with the temple, so I can just do it. Miss, please don't worry, I have just met with the Chairman of the Deacon Department. No." There will be something that will alarm everyone."
Zheng Wenwen listened with great surprise. When the airship took off and Gal walked away a little, she couldn't help but stab Gu Hanhan and asked quietly: "Are you familiar with these religious monks? I remember you were the most annoying person on Earth before. Regarding religion, we even made fun of that temple religion together..."
"If you're talking about a religious monk, I can't say that I'm very familiar with him." Gu Hanhan thought for a while and decided to talk to her good friend in a serious way, which would be easier for her to accept. So she said: "I actually work as a volunteer in a charity religious order in a temple, so I have some contact with them - you know, there are social activity credits for volunteering in university courses. On Earth, you go to the neighborhood committee to do it I volunteer with service companies, and the charity volunteers at Beacon Star are basically related to various religious orders. In the religious world, there are religions everywhere, they are everywhere, and they are unavoidable."
Zheng Wenwen half understood and was a little confused. While thinking about it, she said: "Religion, it's incredible that religion has such a great influence in the modern alien world. It has been in the universe for four thousand years."
Gu Hanhan understands Zheng Wenwen's ignorance very well. After all, she is also an atheist girl who grew up on earth, and is now an atheist temple heretic. Therefore, she did not explain too much, but simply quoted a temple motto: "I am religion, and religion is me."
"I am faith, faith is me, and religion is in my heart." She said, "Maybe for humans, this galaxy is indeed too barren."
Zheng Wenwen suddenly understood this in the way of an earth girl.
"Understood," she said, "the more materially scarce a place is, the richer the spirit is, and the more pious the faith, because apart from spirit and faith, they have nothing."
Gu Hanhan was silent: Yes, besides spirit and faith, what else can she have?
…
Although aircraft are no longer allowed to pass outside the gate of the Holy Mountain and the Pantheon Altar Square, in order to allow Gu Hanhan and the others to see the entire Pantheon and the Morning Sacrifice during their sightseeing, the airship is still far away We walked around the border before landing.
On the airship, they saw that the Pantheon was located on a hill, surrounded by rolling hills, with a cliff rising from the ground behind it, and the ladder to heaven reaching into the golden sea. A majestic colonnade surrounds the altar, with a blazing holy fire on the top of the column. Outside the altar is the Pantheon Square paved with jade. There are 18 roads surrounding the hill, from the square on the top of the mountain to the bottom of the hill, all paved with jade. Just wide steps. Gal explained to them that this is called all roads leading to the church.
The airship landed near one of the roads. There was an endless stream of pilgrims on the road, and they also walked among them to climb the mountain. Only then did Gu Hanhan discover that each step of the jade steps on the road was engraved with pattern guide grooves, and ditches were dug along both sides of the steps. The bottom and sides of the ditches were also paved with jade, and the clear and cold spring water slowly flowed along the jade ditches. Slowly going down, there is spring water flowing in the guide channel of the steps, which brings a chill under your feet. They found that many pilgrims were climbing the steps barefoot, holding their shoes in their hands or hanging them behind their backs. Gal explained that the spring water in the ditch is called the Holy Spring in the scriptures of the Temple Cult. The Holy Spring merges into the Yugou River at the foot of the Sacred Mountain. The Yugou River goes all the way east, and finally merges to become the Moro River.
"This is the source and starting point of the Moro River." He said, "With the water of the holy spring, you can pray for the blessing of the God of the universe, and if you wash your feet with the water of the holy spring, you can wash away the sins of the world. This is the Holy Spirit. The origin of the morning bath in the spring.”
Gu Hanhan was very interested after hearing this and said: "I'll give it a try." Then he took off his shoes and stood barefoot on the steps. The spring water in the channel did not cover the steps. Gu Hanhan did not get his feet wet, but the steps did. Being chilled by the spring water is extremely cold. Stepping on your feet is so cool that your heart and soul are chilled. I don’t know if it can wash away the sins of the world. It is very refreshing and very comfortable. Zheng Wenwen also followed Gu Hanhan's example by taking off her shoes and hiking barefoot, taking photos along the way and having a great time.
I didn't notice it at first, but after climbing a hundred levels barefoot, the ice from the spring gradually seeped into the seams of my bones without even realizing it. By the time they realized it, they were already shivering from the cold, and Zheng Wenwen's lips were even a little blue and white. The valets quickly fetched shoes for them to wear, and then took out the shawls prepared in advance and wrapped them around them.
Gu Hanhan is a master who has disrespected ghosts and gods for a long time and always likes to make fun of the God of the Universe. Therefore, he laughed while putting on his shoes: "This God of the Universe is too narrow-minded. He must be a sinister guy. He claims to wash away the sins of the world. In fact, they are secretly committing murder and want to freeze you to death——"
However, she didn't realize that she was on a sacred mountain, which immediately attracted the glares of the surrounding pilgrims. If she hadn't had so many followers, they might have come up to beat her. But Gu Hanhan had no choice but to shut up and laughed at himself: "Maybe my sins are too deep and I can't wash them away..."
After climbing for twenty minutes, we finally reached the Pantheon Square at the top of the mountain out of breath. There is a holy spring flowing in the square, and thirty-six water channels radiate from the central altar to the surroundings. With the altar as the center of the circle, there are nine circular water channels connecting the water channels from the inside to the outside. The sacred fire pillars surrounding the altar are arranged from low to high, spiraling from the inside to the surroundings. The lowest one in the center is only about one meter high, while the outermost sacred fire pillar stands almost reaching into the sky.
There were more people in the square than on the road. They were rubbing shoulders and row upon row. There were devout believers who knelt down by the waterway of the holy spring and prayed silently. There were people walking around, and there were tourists like Zheng Wenwen who came for sightseeing. , carrying a backpack and holding a ring to take pictures everywhere. It was not as majestic and solemn as the last time when Gu Hanhan saw 1.5 million people paying tribute, but it was more lively and earthly. There were many patients with severe genetic diseases in the crowd, but they all wrapped themselves in thick cloaks and knelt silently by the spring to pray. Some were lying down or prone without showing their ugly appearance, mingling with hundreds of thousands of pilgrims. In the crowd, he was neither noticed nor noticed.
Wherever springs meet, a donation box shaped like a star is set up in the air. Many pilgrims line up to throw gold or silver coins with a crown of thorns pattern into the narrow opening on the surface. There are also tourists hanging in there. Throw in a coin or two to buy the forgiveness and protection of the God of the Universe and enjoy yourself. As standard tourists, Gu Hanhan and Zheng Wenwen must of course invest money to indulge their addiction to praying to gods and Buddhas - what if there is a spirit? However, after learning that the donation box of the temple did not accept any cash or coins, and that the gold and silver coins specially used for dedication and prayer had to be exchanged in advance at the temple church or the holy relics department and taken to the mountain, they were all very disappointed. . But this was not a problem for Mr. Garr. He stretched out his hand, and the low-level attendant who accompanied him immediately handed over a heavy money bag. When he opened it, he found a bag full of gold coins. The golden light shone, and they were all brand new and had never been used. The two girls became happy again, grabbed their money bags and went to line up happily.
Gu Hanhan was playing with the white suede money bag. The workmanship and decoration were almost artistic. The bottom was stamped with the water-shaped stamp of the Temple Deacon Division, so he asked: "Is this made by the Deacon Division?"
Gal nodded and replied: "The indulgence coupons are cast and issued by the Temple Deacon Department. When I went there last night, I thought that the lady might need it, so I brought a bag with me."
"You said it's called a immunity ticket?" Gu Hanhan smiled, then inserted the gold coin into the narrow slit.
After dropping off the donation box, it was almost time for the morning sacrifice. From a distance, I saw a group of priests walking to the altar. The leader, a priest in white, knelt down in the center of the altar, with his right hand on his chest. While reciting the Song of Dawn, he pressed his left hand against the central low pillar. Following his movement, the red holy fire on the short pillar instantly turned into ice blue, and then in line with the rhythm of the song of dawn, from the inside to the outside, from low to high, the holy fire on the top of the pillar gradually turned blue, matching the morning light. Become one. As the last note of the Dawn Song paused, the highest sacred fire also disappeared into the sky, and a red sun suddenly emerged from the top of the pillar and rose into the sky.
"O God of the universe, grant me the dawn, grant me the gospel."
The priests praised loudly together, and the raging spring water spurted out from the center of the altar, rushing down the water channel, and then overflowing the water tank. The vast water covered the entire square, covering the ankles of the pilgrims, and then flowed along the water channel. It flows down the mountain along aqueducts and ditches. The pilgrims knelt down one after another, and while praying, they picked up a handful of spring water and poured it on their heads.
In the cold water vapor, the breath of patients with genetic diseases hit his face, and all kinds of broken, ugly, and sinful genes were overwhelming, rushing towards Gu Hanhan, endless, endless, boundless, everywhere. All. Gu Hanhan almost suffocated. She couldn't breathe, was dizzy, her vision was dark, her mind was blank, her temples hurt suddenly, her energy field was churning and restless, contraction and expansion alternated with each other and became more intense, almost exploding.
"Miss—" The followers gathered around her, and the middle-aged man who had been silently picking her up hugged her.
