A pillar of holy light rose to the sky.

From within the Sanctuary of Corruption, the Pope, 3 Cardinals, 6 Holy Maidens, 12 Archbishops, and 36 Holy Casters as well as 50 Holy Knights had gathered under the same roof.

“Are we clear?” the Pope asked.

“Yes sir. In the rural land behind the Sanctuary, many unfamiliar places had suddenly manifested, in which there were ample resources, numerous people, as well as vast unclaimed lands” a Diviner reported.

One of the Cardinals knelt on the ground and excitedly said: “Your Grace, according to the Corruption Codex, such a situation is extremely rare, but it is also the perfect opportunity to convert people to our faith, this is the chance for all of us to earn more contributions!”

“That’s indeed the case, we all thought that it was only a legend, who could predict that it would actually occur” another Cardinal commented, full of emotions.

Everyone was immersed in this discussion, all of them eager about its prospects.

A sense of unspoken fervor and excitement had overtaken the room.

——–the fact that such a miracle had occurred was proof that everything written in the Codex was true.

Additionally, the prospect of conquering an unknown land, as well as its people, and collecting its riches was always something to be excited about.

The Pope brandished the scepter in his hand and declared with a dignified expression: “Declare a Divine Mandate, gather the troops, we shall march on to take over and spread the will of Corruption upon the new land!”

“Yes sir!” everyone responded in unison.

“I will delegate the specific arrangements. The 3 Cardinals will each take command of a legion; the Holy Casters and Holy Knights will return to your posts; summon the Holy Armies of Punishment, Redemption, and Disciplinary; I will personally lead the charge into the new lands!” the Pope declared.

All the followers cheered in joy.

The entire war machine of the Church of Corruption was swiftly mobilized.

In merely 2 hours, the Church’s legions had all been assembled and began their march under the Pope’s lead across the rural land, heading towards the newly manifested unknown lands.

The closer they approached the unknown lands, the slower the Church’s army marched.

Everyone was high-strung with caution.

The scouting groups rendezvous with the main army and reported:

“Report—– there is a village ahead of us, relatively small, and loosely guarded”

“There is a circus and a group of strangely-dressed people, apparently conducting some sort of celebration”

The Pope’s tense expression became relaxed.

He looked towards the village in the distance and saw the bright lights from inside, occasionally even seeing fireworks exploding in the sky.

The wind carried the faint sound of cheers, enjoyment, and even applause from the distance.

——-sure enough, they were conducting some sort of celebration.

“Does the village have any protectors?” the Pope asked.

“They do not—— actually, there is an old man. He seems to be a normal villager, but I heard everyone coming in and out of the village call him ‘Gatekeeper’, perhaps he was originally a guard or something of similar nature” the scout reported.

The bigshots of the Church gradually calmed down.

It’s only a village.

They’re completely unguarded and are even in the middle of some celebration.

Look at our army.

Strict discipline, armed to the teeth, and morale higher than ever before.

—–it’s going to be very simple to conquer this village.

We might even be able to find out the forces in power as well as the structure of the countries in this unknown land from them.

“Send my orders, all troops march forth!”

The Pope loudly declared.

“Yes sir!” the commanders all responded in unison.

The entire Church army charged towards the village——-

The iron heels of the war horses gradually became faster.

In just a few breaths’ worth of time, the vanguard troops had already reached the entrance to the village.

As the scouts reported, the one standing guard at the village entrance wasn’t any sort of militia or soldier, but merely an old man.

The old man was wearing slippers with a fan made of straw in his hand, currently lying on a reclining chair.

He was happily smoking a pipe, seemingly about to fall asleep.

Suddenly, he opened his eyes and looked outside the village.

“Why are there so many people here?” the old man muttered as his expression changed.

He leapt to his feet and narrowed his eyes to silently observe the Church’s army.

Uniforms of the Church of Corruption——-

Sharp weapons and shining armors——-

A large army with overflowing morale——

There were also the Pope, Cardinals, and Holy Knights who donned different garments, their hands wielding things like a glowing scepter and swords.

He then silently sensed the presence they gave off——-

The old man suddenly realized what was going on!

He took a deep breath and turned around, calling at the top of his lungs towards the village: “An unexpected surprise! An especially pleasant surprise!”

“——-The people of the mainland’s Cosplay Federation have arrived. Everyone, come out and welcome them!!!”

The entire village went silent from the shout.

Followed by intense cheers that felt like they shook the sky.

Numerous villagers rushed towards the entrance of the village, including the performers of the circus who were originally putting on a show.

“Whoa, it’s true!”

A young girl said with her eyes glowing brightly as she looked at the strict and orderly army of the Church.

A young boy standing next to her commented: “Look, the theme they’re going for this time is ‘the beings of Huang Quan’, it’s the same style of dress”

The young girl’s mother hugged her from behind and pointed at the Pope: “Look, that must be their leader, he looks the ugliest”

Everyone laughed in response.

The Pope’s expression went red with rage and ordered: “All troops, draw your weapons”

Shing!

The uniform sound of weapons being unsheathed resounded across the rural land.

The army emanated nothing but killing intent.

But this only drew even more applause from the villagers.

A clown from the circus clapped his hands while commenting earnestly: “That’s the real Cosplay Federation for you, their clothes were made to the strictest quality, their expressions and acting is also very genuine”

The teddy bear mascot next to him took off their headpiece, to reveal a muscular man inside.

The man praised: “Performers from the big city sure are different from small-time circuses like us, I really should learn a thing or two from them as the ringmaster”

The Pope really couldn’t take it anymore.

——-comparing me to a circus, what unbridled heresy!

The Pope chanted an incantation and shouted: “O’ Lord, grant me the power to level this village”

To be able to level an entire village including its inhabitant meant that this was a spell of great power, not something that a single person could complete by themselves.

All of his Cardinals, Archbishops, Holy Maidens, and Holy Knights chanted the incantation in unison to help the Pope complete this spell of extreme difficulty.

A few moments later

Divine Punishment, [Earthquake]!

Rumble rumble rumble———

The ground began to tremble.

At first, the villagers’ expressions changed, feeling a bit nervous, but they quickly calmed down.

“Papa, it was only a Quake spell of this degree!” a young boy called out.

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“That’s right, so are you ready?” his father smiled and asked.

“I’m ready” the young boy replied.

Next to the young boy—–

“I really respect them” the circus’ clown clenched his hands and said with excitement.

“You’re right, I also respect them to no end” a man in an elephant mascot costume next to him also couldn’t help but clap his hand profusely.

“Let our circus also contribute to their performance” the muscular man in the teddy bear costume commented.

“Then——-”

The people of the circus exchanged glances.

The teddy bear mascot man shouted: “I’ll control the quake”

He silently chanted an incantation while rapidly moving his feet in a special dance.

Miraculously, as he danced, the quaking on the ground began to become rhythmic and started following the beat.

Boom bada boom.

Bada bish bada!

Boom bang boom~

The clown called out: “Ringmaster, I’ll be the accompanying music”

He took out over a dozen types of different instruments and placed them in the air while chanting an incantation.

Immediately, those instruments started to follow the rhythm of the earth to perform a wild dance.

The elephant costume man jumped forward onto the empty ground in front of the village and waved to the villagers.

“Come on everyone, let’s dance!”

The man called out loudly.

He then began to perform a strange dance following the music and earthquake.

The children were the first to loosen their restraints and ran onto the ‘stage’ with cheers.

Followed by the adults.

And then the elderly as well.

Boom boom bang~ boom boom bang~

Boom boom boom boom shiiiiiiil———

The festivities have reached an absolute high point!

…

On the other hand.

The Church’s army.

The Pope: “…”

The Cardinals: “…”

The Holy Knights: “…”

No—–

The Pope declared: “Divine Punishment——- meteor from the sky!”

All the followers of the Church pooled their power together to support the Pope’s prayer incantation.

The spell was complete!

A single giant meteor was rapidly descending from the sky above.

The Pope heaved a sigh of relief, barely hanging onto his scepter to make sure he didn’t fall from using up all of his strength.

This is the [Falling Meteor] spell!

—–all of you will die!

The Pope gritted his teeth and thought to himself.

Sure enough, someone noticed it with the revelling crowd.

“Big sis look, a shooting star!” a young boy exclaimed.

“Ahaha, we just learnt that in class yesterday, I’ll make one too” a young girl next to him chuckled and said.

She put her hands together into a pose and began to chant the incantation.

A magnificent meteor shower was immediately summoned in the sky.

“Big sis is so skilled” the young boy cheered.

The young girl was also surprised and muttered to herself: “A few days ago, his excellency the Divine Wizard announced across the entire world that everyone will soon become explosively stronger, no wonder I managed to summon over 30 meteors…”

Under the meteor shower, everyone danced to the music, enjoyed the Cosplay Federation’s performance, and had an exceptionally good day.

The Pope was already stunned.

He saw very clearly how a single young girl summoned that meteor shower just now.

In the end, all the meteors were blown away by a muscular man in a teddy bear costume with a single breath, which then turned into glittering fireworks that remained in the sky, almost like numerous floating lanterns.

The Church’s army was so nervous they didn’t dare act recklessly.

Blowing meteors away with one’s breath was so unimaginable that they couldn’t even fathom how such a feat could even be possible.

Bloody hell——

Bloody hell, what kind of world is this?

Everyone unanimously arrived at the same thought.

While the Pope was still stunned, the old man who was guarding in front of the village earlier suddenly appeared in front of him.

The old man appeared very serious.

“What an exceptional performance! I’d like to thank you for your heartfelt acting on behalf of our entire village” the old man said earnestly.

The Pope opened his mouth wide, unable to utter a single word.

The old man then took out a bag of coins, ignored the Pope’s reluctance, and shoved it into his hand.

“Take it, consider it the gratitude of us village folks”

Gratitude…

The Pope looked down at the bag of coins, unable to contain himself any further.

“Village elder, I have a question” the Pope said.

“Go ahead” the old man smiled.

“Your village… who’s the strongest person here?” the Pope cautiously asked.

“Ahahaha, that’s a bit embarrassing to answer, we only have one God in our village, take a look—— he’s that teddy bear over there” the old man pointed to the dancing crowd.

“—–He’s a God of Holy Light, but he became unemployed recently, so he came back to the village to start a circus”

The Pope turned his gaze towards the teddy bear.

Only to see that the teddy bear was still dancing while controlling the earthquake.

—–in reality, the earthquake was already over from a while ago, but under the teddy bear’s precise control, the earth has turned into a dance floor.

Such incredible power!

This requires an inconceivable level of understanding regarding the Laws of Reality

“Unemployed?” the Pope blankly muttered.

“That’s right, everyone is a God nowadays, so being a low-level God doesn’t make it any easier to find a job”

The old man appeared worried and patted the Pope’s shoulder: “Your Cosplay Federation is from a big city, so you should know the same struggles he faces —— after our harvest festival is over, maybe you can have a drink and console him for a bit”

The Pope fell into a long silence.

For some reason—–

He felt like something deep in his heart was shattering.