Painting 112: The First Sanctuary of Faith

“While you were in class...” San San squinted her eyes. “Once we finish our retreat and recovery, I believe Bishop Anthony’s team sent to take over the Faith District will have arrived. Someone will inform him that promises aren’t to be made lightly—they must be fulfilled.”

The Celestial Emperor jumped up. “No wonder I felt your time-space regression was unreasonably slow. So you were stalling, waiting for someone?!”

San San looked at him as if he hadn’t quite hit rock bottom. “Time-space regression isn’t about reversing time itself; it’s not that difficult. The key is to complete the connection between the past, present, and future. Of course I’m stalling. If you hadn’t interfered, by the time those taking over the Faith District arrive, I would have just finished the soul reversal. But it’s good to have faults—your exposing our manipulation of time-space actually highlights our innocence.”

The Celestial Emperor lamented, “You never consult me.”

“The Lord of Danxia is ruthless to himself and even more so to others. Against someone like him, Uncle Cain alone isn’t enough of a deterrent. As for Uncle Sena, he’s intelligent, but his strength can only intimidate us minors. Grandpa Anthony has brought people this time who will stay temporarily as my clerics. Once my own team is trained, they will return.”

San San saw the Celestial Emperor squatting like a big dog, looking up at her with hopeful eyes, and couldn’t help but feel a pang of softness. She patted his head.

“Don’t worry about these trivial matters. Becoming the strongest in the galaxy as soon as possible will be a huge help to me. When you have time and the Faith District is secured, it will be time to form a management team. The people brought from the Galactic Belt in recent decades have mainly been studying or doing image design. We’ll need to recruit externally. Xiao Jin has already released an announcement. When we return, you’ll be the interviewer for the Knights, selecting those with potential.”

The Celestial Emperor immediately perked up. “Leave it to me! I’ll choose a group of future elites for you!”

Bishop Anthony sent ten people: three at the Primordial level or above, one each at the early, middle, and high intermediate levels, and seven at the peak Profound level, all clerics.

The Lord of Danxia hadn’t expected the temple’s people to arrive so quickly. Having once been a senior member of the temple himself, he knew the first step of the Faith District acceptance process was that clergy had to submit an application first. Only now did he realize San San Hongye wasn’t as defenseless as she appeared.

When San San emerged from her retreat, both sides had already finalized the contract. The Primordial peak high cleric leading the team handed the contract to San San. “Your Highness, Lochi has been reinstated as a cleric and will join your team until you step down as the Holy Maiden. As Lochi’s superior and the owner of the primordial spiritual artifact of creation laws, you have the right to use him freely, including restructuring the Danxia Painted Realm derived from him.”

San San took the contract and scanned it, but there was no signature. Instead, she looked at the Lord of Danxia, Lochi. “Are you sure you won’t regret this? Even without signing, I would revive the Danxia Goddess. And in her current state, you could find others to revive her without me.”

Lochi’s gaze was complex. With his left hand, he cradled a translucent jade-like skull; his right hand rested on the pearly-white cranium, his ring finger probing into the eye socket, fingertips touching the vibrant spiritual light within as he nodded toward San San.

“Greetings, Your Highness. I look forward to working with you.”

After some thought, San San said, “This is my first time as a clergy member, so I admittedly lack faith power. I accept the contract. However, since the Danxia Painted Realm is here, and you are its world’s will, it’s best you remain stationed here.”

After speaking, she pressed the star power imprint to finalize the contract. Watching it dissolve into light, she felt a thread of contract power enter her. Turning to the chief cleric, she thanked him. “Thank you for your assistance. I will continue to trouble you with the establishment and management of the Danxia Painted Realm Faith District.”

A green-skinned middle-aged cleric with aquatic features and fish-fin-shaped ears said, “No need for thanks. According to the temporary transfer order personally signed by Lord Anthony, counting from fifteen days ago, the ten of us are your exclusive clerics for the next hundred years. I am Yang Dong, specializing in laws, rules, and contracts.”

One by one, the ten introduced themselves, each skilled in different fields: protection, Faith District management, finance, education, appraisal, data analysis, universal knowledge, and law-based mechanics.

This ensemble was the ideal configuration for a Holy Son or Holy Maiden. Bishop Anthony had shown favoritism in his selections—most were elites from the same industry, with seventy percent coming from the previous chief Holy Maiden’s team. However, none were strikingly powerful at the cosmic level.

Even this team alone would make most titled Holy Maidens envious, including a few elite Holy Maidens. For example, the Hundred Flowers Holy Maiden, who had lost Sena’s logistical support and was decisively defeated in their last confrontation, now even lost the coveted logistics to this team.

San San had long received communications from Xiao Jin, aware of these people’s talents. However, her own strength was still too weak to offer them much benefit, so she could only show respect in her attitude.

Everything else was understandable, but the profession of Law-based Mechanic was somewhat unfamiliar to San San. Mech pilots, warship captains, starship commanders, and planetary fortress operators were all called mechanics, but Law-based Mechanics operated on a whole different level. Their machines embodied laws. San San had once coveted a device capable of recording faith media by copying laws—it was one such creation.

Noticing her confusion, the Law-based Mechanic explained, “Opening a Faith District requires vast amounts of faith media. Relying solely on Your Highness’s efforts would be exhausting. My primordial ability is replication. The laws within your faith map haven’t reached the primordial realm yet, so I can custom-build copying devices to help gather faith power.”

With their arrival, the framework for San San’s apprenticeship as Holy Maiden was established. Each brought along familiar partners and organizations, so until the new recruits were in place and the Galactic civilization’s people matured, they could still accomplish tasks.

The restructuring of the Danxia Painted Realm slowly progressed with Lochi’s cooperation. First came the promotion of San San’s status, then the removal of the gene locks, gradually overturning distorted customs.

The soul-imprisoning nature of Danxia Sea had yet to be lifted, but from now on, no new souls would gather. After death, Danxia people would return to their origin. They would realize reviving someone was no longer so easy and came at a greater cost. After learning this lesson, they would come to respect life.

Of course, lifting the reproductive gene locks alone wouldn’t immediately change the social structure. To prevent severe imbalance, the birth pool’s function of guiding infant souls remained, but now required strong will and sincere prayer. Insincere people could no longer animate infant images.

Finally, the realm would open to external interstellar civilizations, allowing the Danxia Painted Realm to grow through exposure.

None of these changes could be accomplished overnight.

The promotion of San San and the lifting of the gene locks began in succession, causing a seismic shift in Danxia people’s lives.

After the Painting Battle competition ended, a teenage girl astonishingly triumphed over all contenders. Even those with discerning eyes could see she was on a different level from the others—convincing and undeniable. Yet soon after, the Sacred Mountain experienced a sudden upheaval and was closed off. All residents were forced down the mountain, except for San San Hongye, who remained. Rumor had it she was invited to tea by the Lord of the Sacred Palace. This left people uneasy and confused.

P.S.: Please support the first vote, sisters. Don’t forget to cast your ballots after reading! (To be continued.)