Great! I'm surrounded by villains!
Chapter 191 - 111: The Impure

Chapter 191: Chapter 111: The Impure

Regarding the recent rumors and gossip, Duan Mingyuan felt it was necessary to clarify a few things.

Although he had forcibly read others’ abilities and memories, he had never extracted a disc from someone’s head, and there was absolutely no need for panic.

"I just studied the Ashen Church followers’ description of the Scorching Sun Energy, and I couldn’t believe there was such a miraculous form of energy in the world."

How to become a ship repairer had been troubling the Third Prince lately, even though he had offered a high reward to retrieve the flagship of the Cosmic Relations Coordination Department, he had no clue how to repair such a massive object.

No one on Blue Star had ever been involved in the making of a spacecraft, what they were facing was an uncharted domain, and even if they could repair the ship, he didn’t know how much energy would be needed to send such a behemoth into the sky, even for the Third Prince, this would be a hefty expense.

His visit to the inspector’s flagship was not only inspired by the allure of the nun’s robe, but he also came with the mentality of learning and drawing lessons.

Then, he discovered this incredible source of energy.

On Blue Star, to maintain normal city operation, they needed to mine a lot of different forms of energy, and if some domain hit a bottleneck, people would hope for the emergence of a new source of energy, yet the Ashen Consortium never worried about this problem, they only needed one type of energy.

It had been so for thousands of years now.

Scorching Sun Energy could not only allow this flagship to navigate through space, everything people needed for living including food, clothing, housing, and transportation could be satisfied with this single source of energy, hence it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to describe Scorching Sun Energy as a universal energy.

The way to generate this kind of energy was even more unheard of — everyone aboard this flagship was a "battery" providing fuel, but unlike those enslaved and oppressed races, every person on the flagship could become a master of Scorching Sun Energy, as demonstrated in their daily seminars.

Today’s seminar was focused on using this energy source for the spread of faith.

The priest presiding over this seminar was called Hei Misa by the believers, and due to her radical propositions, opinions about her among the followers were mixed.

As they spoke, Hei Misa entered the room with great haste.

Her devilish figure accentuated by the black vinyl nun’s robe, and the meticulously made-up face with its stern makeup made it difficult for anyone to look away after just one glance.

Once Hei Misa had taken her place, Duan Mingyuan couldn’t help but reevaluate the Third Prince’s reasons for attending this seminar.

"Mingyuan Teacher, the world isn’t just black and white."

The Third Prince took the initiative to defend himself, "I believe one can earnestly participate in the seminar and appreciate beauty simultaneously."

Duan Mingyuan remained noncommittal.

Previously, while he worked in the study, Jiuyue would occasionally burst into the room with enthusiasm, sit on his lap, wrap her tail around his waist, clasp her hands around his neck, and experiment with some knowledge she gained from romance novels or girl’s comics.

Yes, you can indeed work while appreciating beauty.

You might even accept the treats fed to you by a beauty herself.

"Hei Misa advocates for the expansion of the Church, spreading the Sun King’s decrees to every corner of the universe."

The Third Prince whispered in Duan Mingyuan’s ear.

The woman was beautiful, but her proposals were hardly agreeable, as zealous believers always bring innumerable troubles.

Blue Star had always been tightly controlled by both the Huagang Consortium and Mandala Consortium; the Ashen Church had no opportunity to meddle with this planet, and the Third Prince wasn’t sure if this was luck or misfortune.

The ruling methods of the Ashen Consortium seemed gentle but often resulted in complete assimilation of a planet.

Just now, a believer told him with a tone of pride that the Ashen Church had established churches on one-fifth of the planets, nearly half of which had already been transformed into religious civilizations.

In the midst of their conversation, Hei Misa’s gaze locked onto Duan Mingyuan.

After a brief moment of being startled, she made no effort to hide the disgust in her eyes.

"I truly don’t understand why the inspector allowed you to come aboard."

This was not a murmur, her voice wasn’t soft and carried directly to Duan Mingyuan’s ears.

The atmosphere in the council hall was deadly silent; the believers didn’t utter a word. Such remarks might sound harsh to some, yet many followers sincerely agreed with Hei Misa’s ideas.

"Right, I heard she’s also an advocate for ’Bloodline’ purity,"

whispered the Third Prince into Duan Mingyuan’s ear.

People always misunderstood him—he didn’t only think about uniforms and beauty. The moment he boarded the flagship, he had already planned to gather intelligence.

He had mixed feelings about Hei Misa.

It wasn’t a regret for her looks and attire, but rather he clearly disliked dealing with such extremists, yet he could not avoid "putting himself in danger."

Because he suspected that the Scorching Sun Energy Radiators on the inspector’s flagship were invented by Hei Misa, and that it was the exposure to this device that had turned the Second Prince and his supporters into devotees of the Sun King overnight.

Even if he couldn’t sabotage the device to cripple it, he still had to at least investigate the principle behind it, to mitigate its radiation’s impact on Blue Star.

God knows what the Imperial Court would turn into during the three days of their absence due to the radiation.

Though Cai Die was helping to keep an eye on things, he couldn’t stop worrying.

Now, he and the Elder Princess were invited to the flagship, along with Duan Mingyuan and Jiuyue, which indirectly caused the Second Prince to return to a position of absolute power.

But for now, he must help Duan Mingyuan overcome this crisis.

"’Bloodline’ purity?"

Duan Mingyuan was somewhat puzzled; he found it difficult to understand why a doctrine such as "Bloodline" theory—with its implications of inheritance—would emerge within the church.

"The Ashen Church is widespread across the universe. Almost every civilization has people who become followers of the Sun King. Amongst these people, there are inevitably those like you with innate special abilities. Hei Misa considers the source of each type of strength as a different faith. Therefore, such individuals become ’The Impure’ in her eyes,"

the Third Prince remarked, feeling relieved that Ship Repairing was just beginning, and he hadn’t yet become a target of Hei Misa. "She believes that followers of the Sun King should be as pure and flawless as a blank sheet of paper."

"I see,"

realized Duan Mingyuan.

Discrimination truly was ubiquitous, even in the Ashen Church, which claimed to be all-encompassing.

Fortunately, he never planned to become a believer; otherwise, such treatment would have undoubtedly cast an indelible psychological shadow on a newcomer to the faith.

"You should have said so earlier."

Duan Mingyuan stood up. There were many other ongoing symposiums on this flagship. Since the priest who hosted this meeting didn’t want him in the council hall, he wouldn’t hang around unnecessarily. He instructed the Third Prince, "Once your meeting is over, just lend me the minutes to look through."

However, Hei Misa blocked his path first; the smile on her face was malevolent.

Upon seeing Duan Mingyuan, she had an excellent idea, "I never expected ’The Impure’ to attend the symposium I am hosting. Perfect, today’s discussion just needs an impure individual as a reference."

’The Impure’ was the derogatory term coined by Hei Misa and her supporters.

"No, thank you."

Duan Mingyuan glanced at the time on his phone, "There’s a discussion on ’Scorching Sun Energy Cars’ next door. I can still make it if I go now."

"No, you cannot leave,"

said Hei Misa firmly, "This is the Priest’s command."