Chapter 379 Another Choice
Brother Lowell stayed in Westram and refused to move, not because he was not interested in other areas of Innadri Territory or Adler Territory, but because he believed that he was not a spokesperson for the Prosperity Church in any way, and he had no position to have formal and in-depth exchanges with the Undead regime as a senior priest of the Prosperity Church .
Brother Lowell valued his friendship with Young, but he valued the connection between the prosperous church and the new regime even more - the latter was more important in his mind.
Brother Lowell was deeply moved by Yang Qiu's direct statement. Yang really understood what he was worrying about.
But... this also made Brother Lowell a little embarrassed. Yang Qiu could express his opinion frankly, but he could not make corresponding promises.
After hesitating for a while, Brother Lowell decided to be a little thick-skinned and said with shame: "The Prosperity Church may not be as firm as the Gold Coin Church. Even so... Yang, will you recognize the friendship of the Prosperity Church?"
"Why not, monk." Yang Qiu put his thoughts into the projected clone and smiled at the embarrassed black-robed monk. "Even if not now, I believe that one day in the future, the Prosperity Church will recognize our undead friends like the Gold Coin Church and become our solid and reliable companions."
Brother Lowell looked at him in confusion.
I don't even have the confidence to convince those guys in the Holy Land of Prosperity who are younger but more stubborn than me, where do you get the confidence to say that?!
"Of course, good things won't fall from the sky if we just sit and wait." Yang Qiu said calmly, "In order to gain the recognition of the Prosperous Church, our undead friends and I will show our kindness without reservation, and I believe the monks will do the same. After all, we are friends who have given and gained trust, right?"
"This is exactly what I expected. I will definitely do my best." Brother Lowell said a little disappointedly, "It's just... well, let me be frank, the Prosperity Church is not as united as you are here."
After a lot of beating around the bush, the elderly intellectual finally told the truth, which made Yang Qiu laugh. "I'm sorry, Lowell, I didn't mean to force you to say something that would embarrass you. How could a sect with so many members not have dissenters? Even among our undead friends, it's very common for them to hold different views on the same thing, leading to disputes, quarrels, and confrontations."
"But there is one thing that I believe will not change." Yang Qiu raised a finger and said with a smile, "If someone is wholeheartedly considering the collective and is willing to see the collective move towards a better path, as long as they can truly understand the direction of the collective interests, they will surely persevere and move forward."
"On the contrary, those who know the collective interests but always go against them to achieve the personal interests of a certain person or a small group are bound to be the scourge of the collective. It is truly beneficial to humans to separate this rotten meat from a healthy human body. What do you think?"
Brother Lowell has been dealing with Ji Tang for a long time, so he certainly understands what "collective" and "individual" represent.
It was precisely because he could understand that he was so shocked when he heard Yang Qiu's words, which were like a sword drawing.
Yang Qiu calmly waited for Brother Lowell's reaction for a long time, then calmly said, "Don't you have confidence, Lowell? You, the oldest and most experienced senior priest in the Prosperity Church, can lead the Prosperity Church out of its predicament and toward prosperity. You don't have the confidence to do it, so you have never considered this possibility?"
Brother Lowell was so shocked by these more direct words that he almost lost his soul and looked at the other party's projection in horror.
Yang Qiu had said enough here. If he went on to say more, it would inevitably cause the other party to be disgusted. He smiled lightly and said, "When it comes to understanding the Prosperity Church, I can never compare to you. If my suggestion is not appropriate, please ignore it. As your friend, I can only promise you this. If you need me, need our undead friends, my undead and I will never refuse."
Having said this, Yang Qiu withdrew his thoughts, and the vivid projection instantly became dull.
Lowell, who was sitting opposite, stared blankly at this projection clone, which would only move when the undead stepped into the lord's mansion, for a long, long time.
"By me... let me do it?"
After a long time, Lowell finally uttered a muttering in the empty hall of the lord's mansion.
On the way back to Westham, Lowell, sitting in the carriage, lost interest in the scenery and stared at the carriage in a daze the whole time.
The biggest difficulty for the Prosperous Church is that it only has one diocese, the Principality of Shiga.
The Golden Coin God, a sect that only cares about money and talks easily, can own four countries. One can imagine how frustrated the Prosperous God must be...
The number of dioceses is not only related to the tithes collected by the church, but also to the survival of the orthodox sect.
The parish determines the number of believers, the number of believers determines the power of the righteous gods, and the power of the righteous gods determines which righteous god can protect himself when the next war between gods comes, avoid losing his divinity after defeat, and be exiled to the void .
What's worse is that the only parish of the Church of Prosperity, the Principality of Shiga, is located in the western border of the Nabaron continent. The western countries are the base camp of the Death God System, and the Goddess of Prosperity, the true god of the Life God System, has been directly monopolized by the Death God System!
Brother Lowell spent almost his entire life working for the Church of Prosperity and resisting the invasion of the Death Goddess. No one could question his faith in the Goddess of Prosperity and his feelings for the Church of Prosperity.
But as Yang said, Lowell never thought of becoming the Pope himself, leading the direction of a prosperous church and taking the responsibility for the survival of the prosperous church!
Staying in Westram to cultivate his friendship with Yang and the Undead Regime, all Lowell wanted was to let the Holy Land of Prosperity see the possibility of the Undead Regime, seize the opportunity to take advantage of the rise of the Undead Regime, and allow the Church of Prosperity to have room for outward development, rather than being trapped under the siege of the Death God System.
Yang Qiu broke the window paper and proposed the possibility of "another option", which made Brother Lowell, who thought he had planned thoroughly enough, see a brighter world in front of him.
This seems... to be the better option.
A voice in Brother Lowell's heart kept shouting this.
As Young said, he didn’t understand the Prosperity Church as well as Brother Lowell did.
Likewise, no one understood his situation better than Brother Lowell.
As the longest-lived and most senior black-robed ascetic in the Prosperous Church, why was Brother Lowell excluded from the Holy Land and could only serve in the Holy Priest Cavalry Regiment?
The reason is simple - his qualifications are too deep and his reputation is too high.
Even the Pope himself had to respectfully address Lowell by his last name, rather than his first name.
Be it the Pope or the priests of the Holy Land, who would be willing to see such a person of such a high status looming over them, restricting their hands and feet in doing anything?
Praise him highly and send him far away. Don't come back to the Holy Land unless there is something wrong. Don't come back even more if there is something wrong. Just deal with the trouble outside - this is the greatest expectation of the Prosperous Holy Land for Lowell.
Lowell himself knew very well what was going on. His character would not allow him to lose face and compete for power and profit with others, so he really complied with the expectations of others.
But if I have to say that I'm unwilling, there's still a little bit of reluctance deep down in my heart.
And now, Yang's suggestion seemed to encourage the unwillingness in Lowell's heart, and it roared even harder in his heart.
"If I...if I were to make the decision, what would happen?"
Lowell could feel his mind boiling, rehearsing all sorts of possibilities, and it was hard to calm down.
Lowell returned to Westham in a daze, returned the carriage to the coachman, stood for a while on the crowded Martin Street, and then walked towards the town hall.
"Brother Lowell? Are you back so soon? I thought you would stay in the city for two days."
Ji Tang saw Luo Weier coming to the door, smiled and stood up to greet him: "Tomorrow is the Winter Festival. The city is much more lively than here, right?"
"It's indeed more lively than the town, but I'm more accustomed to the atmosphere of Westham." Brother Lowell thanked him and sat down on the chair that Ji Tang pulled out.
He had a lot of questions in mind when he came here, but when he actually met the undead mayor, Brother Lowell suddenly didn't know how to start and fell silent for a while.
Ji Tang knew that this monk would not come to the town hall to disturb him if he had nothing to do, so he put aside his official duties for the time being and took the initiative to break the silence: "Monk, you seem to have encountered something troubling you?"
Rowell hesitated for a while and said, "Mayor Ji Tang, how do you undead... decide who will hold the top position?"
"Of course it depends on ability." Ji Tang didn't expect that this ascetic monk who often thinks about a lot of things would ask such a simple question. He said with a smile, "Those who have the ability to do great things should do great things. If you don't have the ability, then do what you can. Anyway, the purpose is to solve the problem, so it doesn't matter who comes."
"How can it be the same?" Brother Lowell had heard similar words a long time ago, but he could not accept this point of view. "You undead will also compete for the mayor, right? Obviously everyone wants to be in a high position, even the undead are no exception."
Ji Tang scratched his head with a headache… In fact, the only position allowed for players to compete for is the insignificant mayor of Exile Town. Other important towns, such as Westram, Everlook, Kane, and Newtown, will not be left to players to mess with. They will only be selected from the national team - this truth cannot be told to this native who knows only a little about the undead.
"You're right. It's true that everyone strives to move up and compete for a high position." After thinking for a while, Ji Tang said seriously, "But there are differences among people who are bent on climbing up. Some people want to gain higher power so that they can do things more conveniently, some people want to gain higher power to satisfy their own selfish desires, and some people want to gain power to prove their talents and show off their superiority, and they also want to use power to satisfy their own selfish desires."
"Generally speaking, we will try our best to screen out the second type of people from the candidate range, and carefully and conservatively appoint the third type of people. For the first type of people who seem to be very pure, we must be more cautious and carefully identify whether what this person wants to accomplish is beneficial or harmful to everyone."
"If it is the former, this person does have the ability to compete for a high position, and what he wants to accomplish is also beneficial to everyone, then there is no doubt that this person deserves to be in a high position."
After explaining this as much as possible, Ji Tang smiled and said, "However, temporary talent does not mean lifelong talent, and temporary moral integrity does not mean lifelong moral integrity. Putting the right person in a high position at the right time is only the first step. When it is not appropriate, we can also smoothly remove the unsuitable person. This is called having a beginning and an end."
"We Chinese...we the undead have established our own undead organization, various rules and regulations, and assessment and selection criteria. We also constantly reflect on ourselves and update and improve our rules and regulations as promptly as possible to ensure that they are not outdated. This is to ensure that this selection and appointment system that guarantees the best people will be in power can operate healthily, so that power always serves everyone, not just a few individuals."
Brother Lowell had only heard half of what was said when he hurriedly took the pen and paper from Ji Tang's desk and began to take notes.
He was no longer bothered by whether competing for the position of Pope was inconsistent with his life creed. After Ji Tang's introduction, Brother Lowell felt that his concern was just hypocritical - compared to the shame of competing for the position of Pope and whether it made him look like he was chasing fame and fortune, it was countless times more important to find a way to establish an internal organization that could ensure the healthy and orderly operation of the prosperous holy land during his lifetime!
