543 It's Easy to Invite a God, But Hard to Send One Away (2)
"Grand Priest Pascal has fainted! Quickly escort His Eminence to the Room of Healing!" a High Priest directed the nearby regular priests on the fourth floor.
"Yes, Your Excellency!" the regular priests complied.
Meanwhile, hundreds of regular priests conjured a light magic barrier to block the frenzied commoners from flooding the temple with their incited greed.
However, even they found it difficult to hold the line for long, There were simply too many people trying to rush into the main temple. Their light-attribute mana wouldn't hold out against the hundreds of thousands who wanted to break in when they were only in the hundreds.
"We need more people over here! Call more people over, please, Your Excellency!" a regular priest pleaded for reinforcement.
However, High Priest Setheiman was seething with too much anger to notice. He didn't expect the false Sun God would turn the main temple into such a huge mess.
Even so, he wasn't the only High Priest in the Sun God Temple.
"Clear the main hall The templars are here!" another High Priest declared, leading the temple knights over to reinforce the entrance.
"This is great! High Priest Zenas has brought the templars over!" many priests immediately rejoiced.
The temple knights were the main fighting force of the Sun God Temple. Even though they held lower positions and authority than official priests, their strengths were not inferior to the empire's holy knights.
As such, when the temple knights reached the entrance and drew their swords, the frenzied commoners quickly backed away in fear.
The mountain of gold coins excited them but didn't completely blind their rationality. They didn't want to die for some gold coins. They still understood the word fear.
Very quickly, some order was restored to the temple's entrance.
However, the main hall was still full of chaos. The people outside couldn't come in, but the people already inside were practically swimming in the mountains of gold coins that formed around the shattered pillars.
Some forgot to leave after grabbing as many gold coins as possible; they just lay in the mountains of gold coins and spread their arms and feet like they were trying to mark all the gold coins with their bodies.
The sight and feel of gold coins filled them with happiness.
However, such happiness wouldn't last.
"Round them up and kick them out! But do not hurt them excessively!" High Priest Zenas barked to another group of temple knights, revealing a disgusted expression when he glanced at the commoners playing in the temple's gold coins
It was like the cleanliness of the temple's possessions was being smeared with filth.
"W-what do you all want? Leave me alone! These are my gold coins! The Sun God said I could have them-Nooo!"
Countless cries resounded in the main hall as the temple knights forcefully grabbed the joyful commoners and removed them from the temple one by one.
Meanwhile, Vaan continued moving to his next gold pillar to smash, hellbent on destroying them all.
What was the point of hoarding so many gold coins if it wasn't used to develop the temple, people, or even the empire?
Such an unhealthy amount of hoarding would only slow down the empire's growth and cause the people to suffer.
However, that seemed to be exactly what the Sun God Temple wanted!
They wanted the people to suffer, forcing them to turn to the Sun God Temple for hope in their miracles and divine blessings!
Vaan was appalled.
Such backward thinking disgusted him. Many people could still benefit if the Sun God Temple had at least used their wealth to expand their temple and improve their light-attribute mana refineries.
However, the fact that they did not do that only proved that the Sun God Temple's upper echelons were incompetent, lacking in talented people, and extremely selfish.
If they could not improve, no one else could improve either - that was what Vaan understood of the Sun God Temple.
Boom!
With another powerful kick, another reinforced stone pillar of gold crumbled apart and unloaded the mountain's worth of gold coins hidden within.
Each golden stone pillar was reinforced with magic and special materials. Their defensive strength was at least Peak-level Rank Four. As such, they were never meant to break and expose the Sun God Temple's secret stash of gold coins.
However, what the Sun God Temple regarded as sturdy pillars were as fragile as glass in front of Van's kicks.
"Your Divinity, please stop! Don't force our hand!" a Senior Priest cried, preparing to retaliate with an attack spell. I don't want to attack-!"
Pak!
The Senior Priest was suddenly slapped ruthlessly by another Senior Priest beside him.
"Senior Rufus, are you out of your mind? That's the Sun God you are talking to! Please watch your words and attitude!" the Senior Priest snapped furiously at the foolish Senior Rufus, who dared to raise a hand against the Sun God.
At that moment, Vaan had neither attacked the temple's priests directly nor been attacked by them. He had only shoved them aside to reach the stone pillars, and the injured ones were those who got caught in the falling debris.
Nevertheless, many priests wanted to use more forceful means to stop Vaan from destroying the temple.
However, they had more awareness and less foolishness than Senior Priest Rufus.
Vaan was currently the empire's publicly acknowledged Sun God. If the Sun God Temple attacked him, it would not only prove that they didn't acknowledge him; they would also be against him.
Once word got out, the Sun God Temple would immediately lose many of their visiting believers. That also meant even less donation.
In other words, the Sun God Temple's profits would plummet.
They had to find a way to appease the false Sun God and stop him from causing any more damage to the temple that was supposedly built in his name.
"Your Divinity, please stay your hand! This is your temple!" another Grand Priest pleaded haggardly with dismay, rushing over at his quickest speed.
"Okay, l stay my hand."
Vaan's straightforward promise was like music to the Grand Priest's ears. The Grand Priest heaved a sigh of relief.
However, his expression immediately froze i the next moment
Boom!
Another enhanced stone pillar was smashed by Vaan's kick, prompting the Grand Priest to look up in disbelief, which later twisted into rage.
F#&%@#%$!
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