Chapter 648 - 306: Starlight Church

"What’s the situation like specifically?"

Ye Mingqiu asked.

"Valois is ruled by an Emperor’s autocracy with central military power, consisting of three departments and six courts, along with seven major provinces..."

Zhen Yue answered in detail.

"Skip that."

"?"

"Right now, my task is to join a faction. I need to join a faction where there’s enough profit to gain. Just tell me which faction is the wealthiest," Ye Mingqiu said.

"Uh."

Zhen Yue hesitated for a moment, but quickly said, "The main factions are actually the Royalists, Theocrats, Noble Clans, and the Scholar Faction. There’s also the lower-class revolutionary army, but their power is too weak."

"The wealthiest is the Theocrats. They have a monopoly on seventy percent of the Empire’s high-quality starlight stone mines, which is the Empire’s economic core. Therefore, they have become the richest power."

"Great, is there any way to join?"

"Currently, no. The Starlight Church won’t easily let outsiders join. To join the Church, one must pass an assessment. Anyone joining must undergo a training period of no less than five years."

Zhen Yue paused briefly and continued, "The number of internal personnel in the Starlight Church is relatively small, but there are plenty of outer members, and countless believers of the Star God."

"Although the welfare and power within the Starlight Church are quite good, due to the high difficulty of joining, I do not recommend this faction. On the contrary..."

"It’s decided," Ye Mingqiu said.

"Eh?"

Zhen Yue tilted his head, thinking: Does the Divine Monarch have some special way to join the Church?

"Send me a copy of the relevant information."

"Alright."

....

Starlight Church

The Church centers around the "Holy Light Dome" temple with a diameter of 300 meters, surrounded by seven spired auxiliary halls arranged in a Big Dipper shape. The dome’s surface is covered with thin sheets of starlight stone that can emit light by themselves, refracting a pale golden halo day and night.

Atop the dome stands a 61.8-meter-tall statue of Xing Shi. She holds a scepter, gazing upon all beings with benevolent and compassionate eyes, with a fist-sized jewel embedded at the top of the scepter.

According to Zhen Yue’s intelligence, that item is called [Eternal Starlight], an extremely precious treasure.

"The environment is not bad," Ye Mingqiu thought.

Inside the Church, the air is filled with the sweet scent of burning starlight stone mixed with cedar. Clergy in silver robes edged with gold silently glide through the corridors. When believers prostrate themselves on the plaza to pray, the dome descends with fine golden light points.

The starlight stone is the rarest mineral in this world, possessing extremely high value. Regular powers must cherish and conserve even one piece, yet within the Starlight Church, starlight stones can be used for architecture and even for making vessels to hold spices.

The Starlight Church is indeed very wealthy.

Since Ye Mingqiu entered the world and saw the description in the faith, he had already thought about how to use the faith of the Lord of Light and Shadow, questioning whether this title could be leveraged to extract as much benefit as possible.

The answer is: it cannot be directly used.

In this world, there is already a deceased Star God. The vast majority of the powerful beings in the Endless Divine Remains World are Faith System strong, turning the faith of one such strong is a tremendously difficult task, essentially a thankless endeavor.

More importantly, in this world, there exists a top-tier force known as the Silent Council, which seems not visible on the surface, presumably a special force spontaneously formed by those who have glimpsed the truth, with personnel possibly coming from anywhere.

If he comes to contend for faith with the deceased Star God, those truth-seeing might would stop at nothing to kill him.

It’s a pity. If I had absolute power, I wouldn’t have to go through such trouble now.

Ye Mingqiu thought in his heart.

Although indeed possessing a Divinity level of power, the problem is that this world is special, composed of Divine remains. Those Faith System strong know divine remains, or even start to leverage them, using some instinctual reactions of the divine remains in their setup, rash moves without knowledge can be very risky.

Furthermore, hostility might not necessarily bring greater benefits. Ye Mingqiu’s purpose in coming to this world is exploration and profit, not to cause trouble for trouble’s sake.

So...

He must use the Star God!

Ye Mingqiu entered a temple, and soon a petite nun came to his side, displaying a warm smile, "Hello, sir, is there anything I can assist you with?"

"I want to join the Church," Ye Mingqiu said.

"Oh, I see, follow me."

The nun’s smile grew even brighter. As a nun of the Church, she’s delighted to see more people willing to join.

She led Ye Mingqiu to the front desk and took out a form, "Sir, if you wish to join the Starlight Church, you need to first fill out a membership application form, registering name and origin, providing a clean criminal record, and... no criminal record within three generations."

"...."

Ye Mingqiu fell into a brief silence, feeling this requirement was a bit like taking a civil service exam.

"Our Starlight Church’s background check is very strict, which is why everyone in our Church is good, and the environment and welfare are quite excellent. You will not regret joining."

"Additionally..."

The nun paused and continued, "Before coming here, you must have already tested your potential, right? If you don’t meet basic requirements, you won’t be able to join the Starlight Church."

Sure enough, as Zhen Yue said, the difficulty of joining the Starlight Church is very high. Ordinary Spiritualists cannot join—neither passing background checks nor talent assessments is likely.