Great! I'm surrounded by villains!
Chapter 193 - 113: What Would Darth Vader Do?

Chapter 193: Chapter 113: What Would Darth Vader Do?

Mr. Das-Vida, a renowned cosmic philosopher, once said, "A true strong individual does not belittle others but helps them stand taller."

And so Duan Mingyuan put it into practice.

However, he had not anticipated that simply by demonstrating to Hei Misa the conversion between different energies, she would become so excited that she knelt on the ground. This made the atmosphere in the council hall somewhat awkward. If he had a choice, he would have preferred to see her arrogant.

Upon further study, Hei Misa’s term "The Impure" could be explained with academic knowledge. The principle behind it was actually quite simple—those she referred to as The Impure were believers who possessed different energies before joining the Ashen Church. Hence, before generating Scorching Sun Power, they had to go through an extra step: converting their own energy into Scorching Sun Power.

If one was not skilled enough in energy conversion, it would consume a great deal of effort in this process, resulting in a counterproductive situation.

Duan Mingyuan also understood that the believers’ fear of him stemmed not from his appearance and temperament but rather from the opposition of the two different energies. Their perception of the existence of energy far exceeded that of ordinary people, causing the sudden appearance of a Life Energy source aboard the ship to be particularly glaring in their eyes.

Thus, the misunderstanding was resolved.

He could not help but be impressed, once more, by the importance of academic research.

Through a practical example, Hei Misa had proven that a lack of knowledge could often lead to blind hostility and the overlooking of the essence of the problem, which was her amateurish aspect.

The brief journey through the Star River lasted ten minutes, and when the two returned to reality from amidst the stars, the council hall was shrouded in silence.

The arrival of an unexpected visitor caused the believers to move aside.

A voluminous black cloak covered her body, and she wore a gold mask devoid of expression on her face. Only from her dangling dark golden hair could one infer that she seemed to be a woman.

Hei Misa, as if awakening from a dream, abruptly let go of Duan Mingyuan’s legs, which she had been clutching tightly.

She had thought Duan Mingyuan, who was guided by a Priest’s power, was lucky. Yet, when that Sun appeared before her, Hei Misa felt she was the happiest person in the world. She had never been so close to the eternal Sun; such proximity was as if the Sun King himself had condescended to appear before her.

For a believer, there was nothing happier in this world than this.

The blush on Hei Misa’s cheeks had not yet faded, and she noticed the woman behind her but had no intention of changing her kneeling posture.

"Inspector, why have you come?"

The woman in the black cloak did not speak but nodded slightly toward her.

She had sensed a strong fluctuation of Scorching Sun Power on this flagship and had immediately come over.

As soon as she entered the council hall, she saw the scene of Hei Misa prostrated in worship.

Hei Misa was a devout believer but also proud and arrogant, maintaining an attitude that was neither servile nor overbearing even toward the Inspector. This was perhaps because she knew that she would eventually reach that position herself.

It was hard for her to imagine what Hei Misa had seen while exercising the power of the Priest that caused her to kneel in worship in front of everyone.

"Don’t be too harsh on her. After all, she is merely a lay Priest," said Duan Mingyuan, attempting to smooth things over. However, in his opinion, a Priest who knew nothing about the conversion of energies and hence harbored incorrect discriminatory beliefs was indeed quite amateurish.

As for this act of worship, he could only accept it begrudgingly.

The Third Prince had just said his demeanor resembled that of a father figure. So by the logic of hierarchy, if a father is a god’s parent, and a Priest is a follower appointed by the god, there indeed exists a difference in seniority between them.

However, since he had accepted the gesture of reverence, he, perceived as a father figure, should also make a gesture in return.

"Concerning the academic issue of energy conversion, I could write a scholarly paper."

The intricacies of this cannot be explained in just a few words.

Having left that remark behind, the enlightened Duan Mingyuan then departed the meeting hall, heading straight back to his room.

For the followers of the Sun King, this was undoubtedly a historic day.

After nightfall, a research paper entitled "Approaching the ’Impure,’ Revealing the Secrets Behind Them" rapidly spread among the faithful.

The title alone was enough to make a visual impact.

The term "The Impure" had always been a controversial label within the faithful, a term that could cause one-sixth of the believers to become enraged; yet, despite the never-ending overt and covert struggle between the "Purebloods" and "The Impure," no one had ever dared to use such a nakedly derogatory term in the title of a symposium.

Not even Hei Misa, who coined the derogatory term "The Impure," would do such a thing.

As all believers braced themselves for an impending rhythm storm, preparing to take sides and hurl insults, they discovered upon clicking that the research paper was vastly different from what they had envisioned. It offered another perspective, explaining the differences between "The Impure" and the average believer through a scientific lens.

The author of the paper asserted that all differences have underlying principles, but people often fail to see the essence through the phenomena due to limitations in their cognitive level.

Furthermore, the author did not advocate for hate speech or discrimination, as that would greatly hinder the quest to understand the true nature of the issue.

In the eyes of the opponents of Hei Misa, this was almost a direct criticism of Hei Misa’s face.

This was precisely the voice that had long been missing within the church; to many, faith and scientific exploration were not at odds, yet Hei Misa and her followers persistently trotted out theories from extreme religious fanatics centuries ago.

Faced with such well-reasoned rebuttals, Hei Misa and her followers must certainly have been furious, right?

Typically, the ones who got heated over symposium papers were "The Impure," but even they could not counter the phenomena raised by Hei Misa.

With this thought, the faithful eagerly sought to learn about Hei Misa’s state upon seeing the paper.

Less than half an hour later, another piece of explosive news set the faithful abuzz—Hei Misa herself had shared the paper on her social media account, even publicly agreeing with the views in the paper, and had even briefly apologized for her past discriminatory remarks.

!?

This was everyone’s initial reaction.

They’d rather believe that some cosmic hacker had hijacked Hei Misa’s account than that she would apologize for her comments in a public setting.

It was said that complaints about her filled the headquarters’ mailbox daily, and she had been summoned for internal investigation several times, yet even in such circumstances, the obstinate Hei Misa had never backed down.

She even published three papers mocking "The Impure" after the internal investigations had concluded.

Just who was this person named "Old Duan" who had appeared on the forum?

The faithful dug deep into this account that had been registered only for one day, yet they could only find that Old Duan had published this single research paper.

In another room of the flagship, Hei Misa held her phone, seemingly unaffected by the mockery and insults on the internet. With just a closing of her eyes, she would involuntarily envision the scenes she witnessed while roaming the Star River, but out of selfishness, she told no one about it.

Not even to the Inspector.

Duan Mingyuan was indeed the embodiment of the Sun King.

She believed this without a doubt.