The morning sun was shining down on the snow-capped mountains in western Romania, the reflection created an area of white light. Although ice and snow covered the landscape, the warmth of the sun in the winter was still felt.
Shen Yi stood near the window, looking at the rows of cedar and snowy land which appeared like a silvery sea, this sight brought about some affection for this white world.
Living in the south coast of China, for many years he had not been able to see snow. When he went to the capital and lived there for a few years, if he was not busy by studying, then he was pondering on revenge, or occasionally resting. Not just him,but everyone else who lived in the bustling downtown area was running about doing their business. Where would they get the time to stop and admire the landscape?
He didn’t expect the Van Helsing’s mission world to have given him a chance to look upon such a beauty of nature again during this time period. Theoretically, if he survived, he would be able to see many more fantasy world sceneries. Though it is nice, he wonders about their existence.
“Your mood is good, it seems like you have fully recovered.” Anna’s voice echoed from behind.
Shen Yi looked back. Standing in the doorway was a beautiful girl in a bright blue dress with beautiful lace with a red ribbon tied on her head. She looked a bit casual, but gave off a slightly wild feeling.
“It was thanks to your medicine.” Shen Yi answered.
Actually, it was mainly due to the Despicable Healing Arts that Shen Yi was able to fully recover from last night’s injuries, all his wounds looked much better. After becoming an adventurer, Shen Yi felt that his physical body wasn’t like an ordinary person’s anymore, his healing factor was greatly enhanced, and even without the use of Despicable Healing Arts; a night would have been enough for him to recover greatly.
“You don’t need to use this as an excuse, I know the effectiveness of my medicines. But if you don’t wish to divulge your secret, I won’t press you. Everyone has the right to keep secrets.”
“You’re a rather considerate girl.” Shen Yi laughed.
Suddenly a crisp but melodious bell rung out, Shen Yi looked out the window and saw a large number of townspeople swarming together into a flock again.
“What’s happening?”
Anna replied, “Nothing, it’s the church bell. Most of the townspeople of Transylvania are devoted believers. Today is Sunday, so they gathered to worship God..”
“What do they pray for?”
“What else, hoping that God will help them escape from the vampire’s slavery.”
“How funny, after last night, I thought they welcomed the vampires.”
“No one welcomes a ruthless ruler, but no one would dare to resist. Dracula is too strong.”
Shen Yi’s mouth let out a smile. He took his coat and walked to the door.
“Hey, where are you going?” Anna asked.
“I’m going to church.”
“You’re a believer?”
“Everyone has faith.” Shen Yi answered.
***
In the church, an old, gray-haired priest was preaching.
“Today, we are gathered here to express our devotion and gratitude to God. This church is full of holiness, far from the world’s evil influence. As we know, the evil spirits’ existence have a purpose and they try to influence our hearts with greed, hatred, jealousy, fear and many other negative emotions. God leads us like a guide, warming us like the sun, dispelling the darkness, and expelling evil spirits.”
“God is our Father, anyone who disrespects God will be abandoned in a dark and evil place with no refuge. God will punish him, he will live surrounded by evil spirits, until the day he comes to his senses. If he will not convert, God will send his holy light down upon him, cleansing all his sins.”
“Let us pray to God, the one who grants us light, air, flowers, water, peace. In the name of God, may our hearts remain pure, to never be eroded by darkness. Amen!”
“Amen!” All the faithful believers prayed together.
After the priest officially ended the sermon, the priest would often ask about the feelings of the believers. Some believers would often speak of their conversion since believing in God, their mind had been freed, acquired peace and quiet, and so on. There were also some believers who would ask the Father about a number of things that would happen.
At that moment, a towns man begged for the guidance of the Father, “Silver Werewolf died yesterday. Father, is that God’s plan?”
The priest replied, “We cannot guess the will of God, we have to follow God’s will. If God wants to punish us, we must accept it; If God wants to reward us, we must also humbly thank him. Silver Werewolf was the evil Dracula’s minion; undead creatures are an evil existence, that will be punished and destroyed by God.”
“But if Count Dracula comes to looking for revenge?”
The priest replied, “We must face whatever comes, God… has already seen it.”
“If God had plans for you, are you able to see it? Are you able to understand it?” Outside the church, a loud voice broke the peaceful atmosphere. The believers looked back and saw Shen Yi standing in the church’s doorway.
One by one the believers stood up, someone shouted, “That stranger killed Silver Werewolf, he brought disaster to the town, but he dares to come here.”
“Quiet! In this sacred place, no shouting is allowed!” The priest exclaimed.
Everyone quieted down.
Shen Yi smiled, went towards the priest and said, “Father, can you allow me to say a few words?”
The priest looked at Shen Yi and nodded, “Everyone has the right to express their views, God is generous, even if you’re a heinous person, you cannot be deprived of your right of speech. However if you blaspheme against God, you will be disciplined strictly.”
He moved to the side, Shen Yi was now officially on stage. He looked around the church full of townspeople and said, “Before I begin, I would like to tell a little story.”
“There was once a believer, and his devotion granted him God’s mercy. After his death, he was allowed to go to Heaven, after which God personally summoned him and asked, ‘What reward do you want?’ He answered, ‘I want my son to become a great man.’ God agreed to his request. After the son of that believer knew about God’s reward, he didn’t work anymore. He abandoned the countryside, abandoned farming, waited for the day where God would arrange for him to become a Duke. He waited a very long time, but he firmly believed that the merciful God would fulfill his promises, and so he waited determinedly. Day after day, year after year, he became more and more poor, more skinny and miserable. Eventually, he was forced to live in a broken yard, becoming a beggar. During a freezing winter day, because he had no clothes, and no food, he died a miserable death.”
“After his death, he went to see God, and asked why he did not fulfill his promise.”
God said, “I had never forgotten the promise I made with your father, but you wanted to be a Duke, if you were to become an official of the lowest level in the civil service, you’d still have a meteoric rise. But you didn’t do anything, I ask you, how can I make you a Duke? I could only change the conditions, to let you become a great general. But again, when I let the troops send a recruitment letter to you, you threw it away without giving it so much as a glance. If you went to the battlefield, I can guarantee that you would never have been hurt by the sword of the enemy, and you would have many brilliant exploits. But still, if you don’t go, I can’t do anything. So I changed the conditions again, I hoped you could become a businessman. As long as you go into business, your business would prosper forever, no matter what you do, customers would gather at your door, but you did nothing. There was no other way, so I can put some gold in the stone yard where you lived. With just a bit of clean-up, you could have found the presence of the gold coins. Yet you still did nothing… No matter what I gave you, you had to discover it, pursue it, or at least tried obtain it. It wasn’t that I did not fulfill my promise, but when I gave you a reward, you didn’t understand it’s value, you treated it as nothing…”
Shen Yi recited the story with a dull tone, as his eyes contained a strange and joyful look.
He looked at the church of believers, and paused for a moment before he continued to say, “Unfortunately, in my opinion, the people in this town of Transylvania, are like the stupid and lazy child over there, they await for God’s rescue every day. But when the messenger of God came to save them, they did not cherish and love him, but treated their savior with hostility as if he were the enemy.”
“What are you talking about?!”, the crowd exclaimed while getting up from their chairs…
It was the burly man, Gasken, who was secretly in love with Anna.
“You heard what I said.” Shen Yi loudly spoke, “As you can see, the same day the father sent his messenger to save you from the time of distress, your attitude was fearful and was afraid of offending the devil. What is happening in this town? You are suffering from the oppression of the vampire, but don’t dare to accept help from the outside world. But instead is trying to catch the person who actually killed the Alpha Werewolf; trying to give him to Count Dracula to quell his anger. It was on this day, God gave his help and this is the way you treat his gift?! You pray every day, pray for light come to expel the darkness. But when light truly comes, you choose to abandon the light and embrace darkness! So, what do you think you are? ”
Shen Yi roared up, “A group of pretend-believers! A flock of selfish, lazy, incompetent, timid people! You desecrated God’s gift, ignoring the glory of God, embracing the forces of darkness, kneeling down in front of evil, then you come to pray for the Father’s forgiveness!? Are you even worth forgiving!? ”
“You bastard!” Gasken shouted, grinded his teeth and his face flushed, his fist clenched.
But he did not rush to beat Shen Yi, because he heard someone stand up and roar loudly against Shen Yi, “A foreigner like you can’t be the messenger of God! The day the gift of God comes, we will naturally know!”
The who had just spoken was Norson. He turned back toward the town people and shouted, “Kill this bastard!.”
Bang!
The sound of a gunshot. Norson wailed, clutched his thigh and fell. On the podium, Shen Yi’s gun let out a little smoke. Everyone was shocked by the gunshot.
The priest cried, “How can you soil this a sacred place with blood and violence?!”
Shen Yi glared back at the priest, “In the Bible it states: ‘Where people are loyal to the God and swore to keep up the commandments, testimonies, statutes, and the book in which are written the achievements, violators will be subject to severe punishment.’ Satan obtained God’s permission to give disaster to violators; Moses and Aaron in accordance with the will of God, brought Ten Plagues to Egypt, who were going against God’s will, even though he is bound by evils. God is merciful, but also strict. God can bring light, but if a place has been infected by evil, then it should be cleansed!”
Shen Yi had a deep understanding of the Bible, and his remarks actually caused the priest to have nothing to respond with.
Norson clutched his leg while screaming, “I have not been infected by evil! I am the most loyal believer of God!!”
Shen Yi sneered, “Norson Rall, born in 1865 in a merchant family. You do not believe in God, your real faith is money and status, you aspire to become a true noble. But on the other hand, Count Dracula is the true ruler of this land. So you willfully provided him information in exchange for your own safety. The thing you want most is to marry Anna Valerious so you can become a real noble. But you are also worried that you would be bound by the oath of the ancestors of the Valerious family, so you can never go to heaven after death. You are a thoroughly selfish existence. How strange, a selfish and despicable man like you, what makes you think that God would accommodate people like you in heaven?”
“You…”, Shen Yi’s words clearly surprised Norson. These were truths which only he knew and had buried deep within his mind. So how could that stranger know?
Shen Yi’s gun slowly pointed towards the town people in the church, “Don’t be surprised. God told me about all of you. This man’s dirty mind makes people sick. He cheated and deceived all the people in this town. In the name of the God, this shot before was just my punishment for him.”
“You are just pretending to be God’s messenger. You used a mortal weapon in a sacred place, you should be punished!” Gasken shouted.
Maybe because of his love for Anna, Gasken always had a bad impression about Shen Yi.
“Gasken Powell, an orphan, after you came to Transylvania you were adopted by an old carpenter, who had settled here. Everybody knows that you have a strong physique and a cruel character. You are also a good drinker, but few people know that you are a descendant of the Vikings. On the outside you are the pub’s waiter who likes to fight and is pushy, but you are actually a true warrior. Unfortunately, you did not take up a warrior’s honor and responsibility, letting yourself get buried in this town, not caring about the townspeople’s humiliation.” Shen Yi said, while all eyes looked at Gasken with surprise.
The young man’s face became terrified, “You… how do you know all of that?”
“As I said, God knows everything.” Shen Yi answered.
“Is he really the messenger of God?” Townspeople asked each other.
Looking at the wound on Norson’s thigh, Shen Yi suddenly walked over and pressed his hand on Norson’s injured leg.
Despicable Healing Arts activated.
Norson’s injured leg actually started to heal.
“Oh my God, this is a miracle!” People exclaimed, as they watched Shen Yi with eyes full of reverence.
Shen Yi slowly said, “This is the God’s grace.”
Everyone bowed at the same time towards Shen Yi.