After three days, the prayer ceremony held by the Grand Priest and the people to worship God finally came to an end, and the crowd slowly began to disperse.
During these three days, the Grand Priest had gathered enough faith power, far more than he had expected, and the divine energy within the Temple had grown stronger.
The defensive barrier around the Temple had doubled in strength, and both his and the other priests’ combat abilities had greatly increased. He was deeply satisfied, and before the people left, he told them that God was pleased and would surely protect them from the Evil.
Hearing those words, the people naturally felt relieved and safe, gradually returning to their daily lives. Just knowing that their God would protect them was enough for them.
Peace and stability returned to the city once again, at least on the surface. It was enough to let the people breathe a little easier for a while.
However, that peace didn’t last long. Suddenly, new rumors began to spread among the citizens, rumors so insane that many people refused to believe them and called them blasphemous.
But unlike the previous time, when rumors spread in two separate waves that grew stronger each time, this time it happened in one massive wave that swept through almost the entire city.
Rumors about the Grand Priest and the Temple being frauds!
For many, those words were deeply offensive and blasphemous. Some people even tried to find the source of these rumors, to see which foolish idiot had the courage to spread such words against the Grand Priest.
But no one found anything, and eventually, they had to give up. They thought the rumors would fade away there, but who could have expected that instead, more and more people would actually start doubting?
Conversations among neighbors, friends, and families slowly began to shift toward these rumors. The more they talked and recalled the past, the more they started to feel like something really wasn’t right.
Still, the rumors weren’t strong enough, and there was no solid proof behind them. They weren’t enough to truly shake people’s faith,;but they did make some begin to doubt a little.
"This isn’t enough to shake their faith," Drael said as he stood high in the sky, glancing at the man beside him.
"I know, but there’s no need to rush. If we move too fast, everything will look fake," Daniel replied calmly, nodding.
From above, his gaze fell upon the city as he used his spiritual senses to observe everything, trying to measure just how much effect the rumors had caused.
Fortunately, he wasn’t disappointed. Those baseless rumors really had managed to plant seeds of doubt in some people’s hearts, though that was also because he had used some of his own skills to make sure of it.
But it still wasn’t enough. To truly shake the faith of these people, he needed the main part of the plan to happen, the suicide of Morvain.
"So when does the main part start?" Drael asked curiously, eager to see how this would unfold.
"Soon," Daniel replied. He gave the city one last look before both of them vanished from sight.
As he had guessed, the rumors would soon reach the Grand Priest, and when they did, he would surely become furious and start searching for whoever was responsible for spreading them.
Of course, he wouldn’t be able to find anything linking it to Daniel or Morvain. They had erased every trace and replaced it with false leads.
Once the Grand Priest became enraged, it would be time to move to the next phase of the plan.
Just as Daniel predicted, the next day the news reached the Grand Priest. The moment he heard the rumors, a suffocating aura spread throughout the Temple, making all the other priests collapse to their knees in terror, unable to speak.
Fortunately, his aura didn’t go beyond the Temple’s walls, otherwise, the citizens would have immediately noticed that something was wrong.
At that moment, inside the main hall of the Temple, the Grand Priest stood with an ugly, furious expression on his face. No one could tell what he was thinking, but his face clearly showed deep displeasure.
"Who dares spread those rumors?" he asked in a cold, serious tone, his eyes sweeping over the priests and making their hearts tremble in fear.
He wasn’t angry about the rumors themselves, he didn’t care about them. He knew his people’s faith couldn’t be shaken by such ridiculous lies.
What truly angered him was that there were people bold enough to scheme against him and spread such blasphemous words.
If this wasn’t a sign of rebellion and betrayal, then what was?
The only ones who knew about the events of that year and about the Evil were these useless priests. The only ones capable of plotting something like this against him were them.
He had never expected that one among these fools would actually have the courage to betray him.
"Sir, we didn’t do anything!"
"We swear to God it wasn’t us! It must have been someone else who spread those rumors!"
"Please, give us time and we’ll find whoever did it for you!"
"You think I’m a fool?" the Grand Priest roared. "You’re the only ones who know about that event!"
For once, the man who usually spoke calmly completely lost control. His voice carried killing intent, and the priests were utterly terrified, cold sweat ran down their faces as they bowed their heads low, too afraid to say another word.
Seeing this, the Grand Priest slowly began to calm down. He turned toward the headless statue behind him, his expression unreadable, though a faint sense of sorrow mixed with rage flickered in his eyes.
"Go," he finally said in a heavy tone without turning around. "Find out who was responsible for spreading those rumors, no matter what it takes."
"And make sure to suppress the rumors as much as possible. Don’t let them spread any further."
The priests immediately nodded and rushed out of the hall. None of them wanted to stay near the Grand Priest any longer, they feared that if they did, they might actually die.
After they left, the Grand Priest sighed. As he gazed at the statue, a mix of emotions filled his eyes, anger, hatred, frustration... and perhaps longing.
"For the first time in years, the situation in this city is slipping out of my control," he murmured bitterly.
Time passed slowly. After the priests intervened, especially Morvain, who personally stepped forward to publicly deny the rumors and call them lies, the situation began to settle down. The rumors gradually weakened, and people slowly started to forget.
Morvain even announced that all of it was part of the Evil’s scheme, to create division and internal conflict among the people so he could destroy the Temple.
Those who had started to doubt soon dismissed the idea and stopped caring. After all, it was just a ridiculous rumor without any evidence.
However, it didn’t take long before something else happened, something that once again drew everyone’s attention back to those rumors.
An event that made the people start to truly believe those rumors