"Boom!" Thunder exploded as flesh and blood flew everywhere.
In Seven Treasures' original plan, his purple-gold alms bowl had been empty. Swinging down with the hollow bowl and controlling his strength carefully, at most he intended to crack the black-haired bald man's head and force him to use sorcery in panic, exposing his true identity.
That way, through the monster's identity, he could prove to the public that its words were blasphemy and slander.
But once he activated the "Golden Body of the Holy Mother," the immense power immediately spiraled beyond control. Divine power surged madly into his arms.
Even his mind changed unconsciously. The advanced divine spell "Sword of the Warrior" activated on its own, and countless experiences of wielding war hammers flooded into his head. It was as though a warrior spirit possessed him, allowing him to unleash a hammer strike perfected to the finest detail.
Like a giant smashing a watermelon.
Though it was clearly a hollow golden bowl hammer, its force crashed down like a mountain collapsing. In an instant, it shattered the bald man's skull, then in the next moment slammed into his black-haired belly swollen like a woman ten months pregnant.
Pop!
It sounded like a grenade exploding inside his stomach. Black-haired shell fragments, minced flesh, white bones, green organs, and steaming brown excrement splattered seven or eight meters away.
Centered around Seven Treasures' hammer, a ring of blood mist even spread outward.
Terrifying as a demon!
The enormous plaza instantly fell silent, as though everyone there had suddenly died. Countless people stared blankly with wide eyes and open mouths, unable to make a sound.
Only the intestines and organs splashed across people's faces slowly slid to the ground with wet slapping sounds.
"Gulp." The dwarf recovered first and swallowed hard before muttering, "Was that really necessary? You hit way too hard. Might as well have used a blade, or just slapped him into a stick figure with a divine palm."
"What happened?" The stunned Master Seven Treasures looked like someone waking from a nightmare. Staring at the bloodstained long-handled purple-gold bowl, he shouted, "Holy Mother have mercy, I really only used a little strength—"
"Gods above! His stomach exploded open. That's way too brutal!"
"I heard he's the High Septon of the Seven Gods. Westerosi even call him 'Merciful' Matthew. Are they joking?"
"No nickname is ever given without reason. He himself constantly preaches the Holy Mother's path of mercy.
"Maybe his mercy only seems merciful compared to the even more savage barbarians of the Sunset Lands? At least he gave a warning before killing. At least he knows how to be hypocritical."
"The hypocrisy is real enough, but mercy? Forget it. Killing someone in the street can't possibly count as mercy."
"Ah! Lord Sea God is dead!"
As the crowd argued noisily, the blue-robed priests who had come with the bald fat man suddenly clutched their heads and wailed.
"Sea God?" The surrounding people were startled again. Looking closely, they recoiled in horror. The black-haired belly of the bald man was not flesh at all, but a layer of hard thick shell.
Armor? Or—
"Avenge His Majesty!" one elderly blue-robed priest roared venomously at Seven Treasures.
The moment he finished shouting, his facial features shriveled like a punctured leather ball, rapidly collapsing into the appearance of a hideous decaying skull. Meanwhile, his belly absorbed the vitality from his head and swelled like a woman heavily pregnant.
Seven Treasures knew the man was using blood sorcery. He wanted to strike back, but hesitated.
Shhk!
He no longer needed to hesitate. In the next instant, a flash of black light streaked through the air, and the old priest's head flew skyward. Filthy mud-like liquid sprayed from his neck cavity, splashing seven or eight meters high before raining down everywhere.
Wherever the "mud" landed, whether on plaza stones, people's heads, faces, or clothes, sizzling sounds erupted like concentrated sulfuric acid corroding flesh.
"Aaagh!"
"It hurts! What is this stuff?!"
"Help! My eyes, my face! Aaah!"
The surrounding crowd descended into chaos. Master Seven Treasures shouted things like "Arya, stop!" and "You sinful disciple, mercy!" but his voice was drowned in the uproar.
Only after a thirty-man city guard squad arrived much later was order finally restored.
Every priest wearing blue robes with white wave patterns lay dead, their throats slit or hearts pierced cleanly with a single sword strike. Bright red blood stained a huge section of the gray plaza crimson, turning it into something like a slaughterhouse.
"General, the chief god of the Ocean God Church led his followers here to cause trouble. This is a religious conflict and has nothing to do with city security."
Varys walked over, grabbed the commander's hand, and quietly slipped a two-thousand gold-honor Iron Bank note into it.
"Well… twenty-four people died. That makes things difficult for me." The commander clenched the banknote tightly, looking troubled.
The dwarf shouted, "What's so difficult about it? The Dragon Queen's scripture-preaching team was attacked in broad daylight. Are we not allowed to defend ourselves?
"Does Pentos have any law left or not? Or do you want the Dragon Queen to personally come here and demand justice?"
"They weren't carrying weapons. Calling it an assassination attempt in broad daylight is hard to justify," the commander said awkwardly.
"This is an evil god!" Varys pointed at the Sea God's corpse. "General, everyone, look carefully. That big-bellied bald thing wasn't human at all."
"Ahh! T-That looks like a giant black snail?" someone cried out.
"It really does. Why does he have a snail shell for a belly?"
"A snail spirit?" The dwarf stepped forward and prodded the corpse pile with his foot, frowning. "Looks like a person with a snail shell growing on him. Very strange."
"Was it really a god… a deity?!" The commander and guards turned pale, their voices trembling.
"Master Seven Treasures already said it was a demon. Killing people is against the law, but exterminating monsters and evil spirits is serving the nation and the people." Varys smiled.
Then he looked at the red-and-white chunks of flesh, licked his lips, and muttered, "I wonder if this kind of snail can be used to make snail noodles. I've eaten them a few times in the fish market district. They actually taste pretty good."
"King's Landing has snail noodles too? I thought only Dragonstone and Slaver's Bay had them," the dwarf said curiously.
"King's Landing lacks grain, but the Blackwater River has plenty of snails."
The dwarf laughed. "If we cut off a piece of snail meat and send it back to Dragonstone along with that crocodile hide from before… make snail noodles from the meat and handbags and boots from the crocodile god's skin… maybe it'll please the Dragon Queen."
"What a terrible idea!" Varys shook his head repeatedly before saying to the guards, "You've all seen it. We were slaying demons and exterminating evil."
"Well…" The commander still hesitated.
"Enough. Everyone leave." At that moment, Prince Jacob, the dark-skinned prince from next door, walked over surrounded by eunuch servants.
"Conflicts among gods have nothing to do with Pentos. We will not interfere."
"A lot of people died," the commander said. He was not one of the trade prince's men.
"They were using blood sorcery. Look around. Innocent believers were horribly injured. Look at that one, his face melted away. And that one, his head dissolved into a puddle." Wrinkling his nose, Varys pointed at the screaming victims nearby.
"Help me! Save me! I don't want to die!"
"Holy Mother have mercy! Master Seven Treasures, save me!"
Once the unlucky victims realized someone was finally paying attention to them, they immediately cried for help even louder.
The commander sighed and left with Varys' gold note.
Master Seven Treasures first used holy flames to burn the Sea God and his priests' corpses into ashes before beginning to use holy healing arts to remove the evil sorcery from the wounded and treat their injuries.
"I hope no one misunderstands. I had no intention of killing. I only acted personally because I recognized it as an evil god. Even then, I used the least lethal weapon available," he explained to the surrounding crowd.
Everyone thought silently:
—You recognized at a glance that it was a snail demon with a thick shell, so you used the most armor-piercing weapon possible, the 'Golden Melon Hammer.' Brilliant. Truly brilliant.
Outwardly, however, they all nodded in agreement.
"It was clearly an evil god, so how could it fail to survive even one strike? My purple-gold bowl is hollow, after all. There really wasn't much force behind it.
"Sigh. Everyone here isn't a believer of the Seven Gods, so the healing spell's effectiveness is too weak."
Seven Treasures healed one injured person every three seconds. As he walked toward the next patient, he sighed regretfully.
Everyone thought again:
—You even unleashed something called 'Great Mighty Heavenly Dragon.' We may not know what that is, but with your body swelling into a golden giant like a god descending to earth, you call that 'not much force'? And you heal someone whose face was melting in just a few seconds, yet say the healing spell is weak?
The smiles on people's faces were beginning to crack.
This master really was absurdly hypocritical.
Still, hypocritical or not, his abilities were genuinely powerful!
He could summon the Great Mighty Heavenly Dragon and spread holy light over everyone alike. Maybe the Seven Gods really were a good choice.
"Master, I wish to convert to the Holy Mother. Please bless me!"
"Master Seven Treasures, I also wish to join—"
Once one person started, a massive crowd immediately surged forward.
Seven Treasures looked around and froze. The excited believers formed a dense black mass, numbering at least two thousand people.
"This…" He felt both delighted and confused.
I violated the Holy Mother's path of mercy by publicly killing a god. Arya slaughtered even more people and threw mercy into the Narrow Sea. So why are there even more believers now?
"Master, how did you immediately recognize that thing wasn't human?" After the sermon ended and they returned to the sanctuary where the statues of the Seven Gods had just been erected, the dwarf could not help asking.
"It's what I told you before. The 'Fiery Golden Eyes' bestowed by the Holy Mother. No evil spirit or demon can hide its true form before them."
The dwarf felt both envious and annoyed.
"That damned Sea God this afternoon wasn't much stronger than an ordinary man. You should've let me fight him. I can use 'Divine Descent' too, but you had to steal my kill."
"Killing people in public would damage the church's image." Seven Treasures sounded somewhat uncertain as he spoke.
Sure enough, the dwarf immediately refuted him.
"You killed an evil god, and the believers became even more enthusiastic. Power is easy to display, but virtue is difficult to uphold."
Seven Treasures gazed at the benevolent smiling statue of the Holy Mother in the candlelight and sank into deep thought.
After a long while, he shook his head firmly.
"The purpose of spreading believers is not simply to gather followers, but to help more people understand and practice the teachings of the Seven Gods.
"If faith is spread by violating the Holy Mother's path of mercy, then that is completely putting the cart before the horse and reversing cause and effect."
The moment he spoke those words, he suddenly felt refreshed and clear-minded, as though all distracting thoughts that had just arisen in his spirit were swept away in an instant.
"No wonder the Holy Mother cut flesh from herself to feed the eagle. So this is how difficult the path of the Holy Mother's mercy truly is!
"Without the fearless heart willing to sacrifice oneself, without the perseverance to endure all suffering and failure, one has no right to preach mercy to the world!"
Seven Treasures' understanding of the Holy Mother's merciful path rose to an entirely new level. His soul even began to ascend, and true divine mercy rapidly grew within him.
Far away in Westeros, the Dragon Queen was shocked once again. After just harvesting another wave of divinity and spiritual essence, the Holy Mother divine office shared between her and Drogon suddenly began evolving.
The Holy Mother divine office came from the faith bestowed upon her. It was not something she cultivated herself. Yet Matthew had comprehended true divine mercy and was now transforming that divinity into a divine office of its own. As it merged with the Holy Mother divine office, it triggered...
Daenerys heard singing!!
The Song of Mercy!
"Seven Gods above, Matthew has comprehended the Law of Mercy. This is a brand-new law within the universe. The world itself is singing for me?!" Daenerys was utterly dumbfounded.
(End of Chapter)
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