The church is a tall spire building located deep in the town. When Sandora and I observed from the air, we noticed this house which stood out from the surrounding architectural style. However, what we didn’t expect was how peculiar the religion of this world would be: it focused solely on "sealing technology" from beginning to end. All religious activities revolved around this goal, and since ancient relics don’t appear daily, most of the time the church remains idle.

No daily prayers, no rituals occurring at fixed intervals, no need for followers to regularly listen to the teachings of the gods—unless something related to ancient knowledge happens, the Lost God Sect seems non-existent.

It’s truly the first time we’ve seen a religion with such a clear purpose, to the extent that even its spread isn’t highly valued. Usually, a sect doing this without a true god backing it up would have perished long ago, but the Lost Sect doesn’t worry about that: they have ancient technology in their hands, and the clergy are as armed as interstellar warriors. They practice elitism from top to bottom, creating an almost god-like disparity in power between them and ordinary people, which is why this church shows no sign of decline. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

Celine is the town’s only clergy, and naturally the manager of the small church. She candidly told me that this church hasn’t opened its doors for over half a year, because the ancient relics beside the town were never open before, and few adventurers would visit for business purposes. Ordinary people’s daily lives never involve "forbidden knowledge," so there’s no need for the church to open. The last opening was due to the upper parish seeking some information here—an insight into the odd style of the Lost God Sect.

Yet, despite not being open to the public, the church has volunteers who clean it daily, and Celine herself comes to manage it occasionally. Therefore, the church’s facilities are always in functional condition, and the site shows no signs of dirt or disorder. Adventurers soon gathered inside the church, while I held the Sandora Ball, squeezing into the crowd to join the fun.

This rural church’s internal structure is straightforward, with 80% of the usable area consisting of a spacious rectangular hall. But unlike typical churches, there are no seats in this hall, only a few stackable cushions near the walls for resting. The rectangular hall features a high dome, with intricately complex metal chains and decorations hanging from the roof, perhaps symbolically, and large, colored stained glass windows lining the sides, preventing the deep hall from appearing too dim.

The end of the hall is theoretically the pulpit’s location, where Celine "works." I use "theoretically" because I can’t really see it as an altar... it’s actually an alloy workbench.

This workbench is over two meters long, about one and a half meters wide, all silver-white, with a surface smooth as new, evidently the most meticulously cared-for part of the church. Considering its special nature, this must be personally managed by Celine. One side of the workbench holds many scrolls and cards stored in hardwood boxes, likely reference materials for Celine’s "work," while the other side displays numerous exquisite small tools and... some items I can’t even recognize, maybe equipment left by ancient people. Of course, more likely, it’s something manufactured by the Lost God Sect based on their materials.

Celine stood behind the workbench, already donned in a solemn black robe. Despite her face still showing signs of fatigue and slackness, she worked with a serious attitude. About a dozen adventurers were reporting the outskirts of the relic "ancient tower" to her. As she listened, she nodded slightly and occasionally asked detailed questions. The scene looked like a geological survey group reporting back, without any semblance of religious sanctity. Yet, this was indeed a religious ritual, specifically the "forbidden knowledge inquiry ritual" ordained by the God of Technology...

"Nothing compared to the religious spectacle Lilina struggled to create," Sandora murmured softly, comfortably sprawled in my arms, in a voice invisible to outsiders. "Not even as elaborate as Bingdisi’s erratic blessing ceremony. It seems the popes of the Lost God Sect never sincerely researched religion; they’re just interested in sealing away knowledge. As long as they hold onto ancient technology, they can maintain the church’s authority without intricate rituals. But a grassroots priest like Celine... seems wholeheartedly believing in the existence of the God of Technology."

Sandora wasn’t using her invisibility at that moment. With the assurance that even a "professional" like Celine could be swayed by ancient curse rhetoric, Her Majesty the Queen no longer wanted to keep things hidden. Although I still found carrying a glowing ball everywhere peculiar, Sandora apparently didn’t. With her golden appearance, she attracted plenty of eyeballs wherever we went. On the way to church, we practically drew a crowd equivalent to half a reinforced company... Sandora didn’t mind though. Her Majesty, in the most regal manner, considered the onlookers to be the masses paying tribute, leaving me feeling awkward along the way. Thankfully, once we reached the church, everyone focused on the matter at hand; a strange luminous entity wasn’t enough to make them lose decorum in the hall of the "God of Technology."

"The internal space of the ancient tower should be large, with many surrounding auxiliary buildings, some resembling old warehouses, but mostly empty inside," said an adventurer with a full beard, appearing the most seasoned among them, acting as a representative in reporting the situation. "There were no signs of unauthorized access, so the warehouses likely started empty. The tower is built upon a rocky platform..."

They were now discussing the architectural location and structure of the ancient tower. Celine continued to listen and nod, seemingly on the verge of dozing off within ten minutes, and then...

An unexpected situation finally unfolded.

An ear-piercing whine suddenly resonated from the northwestern forest, sounding as alarming as some kind of siren, echoing across the sky. Before the alarm ceased, a deep rumbling explosion-like sound followed, and accompanying these strange noises, everyone present suddenly felt a tingly and weird sensation creeping over them... the entire church erupted in uproar!

"It’s the forbidden curse! The curse of ancient civilization has leaked!" An adventurer shouted abruptly, causing an immediate loss of control on the scene. All the adventurers grabbed their weapons, and some even frantically scratched their exposed skin as they did so. "Crackle" sounds of static arose from the seams of many people’s clothes, and some female adventurers even screamed: "Resonance! It’s resonance! That tower is the Tower of Roar, attracting calamity!"

"It’s a strong electromagnetic wave environment, mixed with anomalous high-power interference waves," among the chaos, Sandora and I remained the only two absolutely calm. Her Majesty’s current form didn’t affect her perception, and Sandora quickly understood what was happening. "It seems a gigantic antenna has been activated... maybe there’s some malfunction, with the antenna’s power out of control and it’s broadcasting toward the town."

By now, the static in the air was becoming more noticeable, with some specially material metallic parts within the church starting to heat up. The uncontrolled electromagnetic waves were scouring the place. There’s no need to say; I knew it was that ancient tower causing issues!

But just when Sandora and I were about to take action, Celine suddenly slammed the workbench in front of her. Always softly spoken, she for the first time shouted loudly: "Quiet! Stay calm! There’s a protection device here!"

As Celine’s words settled, the static phenomena in the air indeed ceased worsening. Meanwhile, Sandora and I sensed a barrier appearing above the town, barely fending off the electromagnetic irradiation from the forest direction: it seems the church was aware of the relic’s situation beside the town, so there were emergency protection measures in place. Perhaps an electromagnetic shield device was hidden under the church?

"The ancient tower has been activated, it’s an emergency," Celine, after confirming the church’s protection measures had activated normally, breathed a sigh of relief. She quickly began collecting the artifacts that had just been submitted, while swiftly giving instructions, "A portion of adventurers present... you there, go notify the civilians to stay indoors, not to touch any metal objects in the house until the sky returns to blue, and be vigilant about fire hazards and abnormal smoke. The most important point... absolutely do not leave the town’s perimeter! The rest, go notify the standby adventurers, all head towards the ancient tower!"

The adventurers, despite the sudden chaos throwing them into disarray, immediately sprang into action under Celine’s leadership. Meanwhile, Celine turned to me: "Scholar, please stay in the town for now. You’re not part of the combat..."

"I’m going along," I shrugged. "I actually have quite a bit of experience dealing with relics."

"It’s not that," Celine looked somewhat conflicted, "The current condition... we might have to enter the core of the ancient tower, and may even need to access some areas of the relic off limits; you’re not an adventurer, you can’t access higher-tier forbidden knowledge."

Really, there’s a restriction like that? Only adventurers can access the core of relics?

The previous use of "Scholar" as a cover had been going smoothly. I thought the sect’s management of the ancient relics had a loophole and that anyone claiming to be a scholar could freely access forbidden knowledge. However, I didn’t expect there’s such a difference between "Scholar" and "Adventurer": only the latter are officially recognized professionals, while the former, despite the fancy title, are just civilian scientists who can only watch from the sidelines? And what happened to the protagonist’s luck buff that guarantees hitting the bullseye with just a bluffing? So I’ve been a nosy bystander for two days!

I thought about it and decided to follow them: "Actually, I also have adventurer qualifications..."

Celine was surprised immediately and then asked a very practical question: "Then why didn’t you say so earlier, and do you have your exploration certificate with you?"

My first thought was: What is an exploration certificate? Then I quickly realized: as expected, when it comes to the core domain of ancient knowledge, the sect’s management is genuinely strict. It turns out that becoming an adventurer requires credentials!

Does this mean that my previous "Scholar" identity could only explore around the relics? It’s truly been my luck that I hadn’t been exposed before, but now how do I solve this exploration certificate problem?

The Sandora Ball nudged in my arms, lazily mumbling: "I knew relying solely on Ah Jun’s smooth talk wouldn’t be enough... Celine, look into my eyes... uh, never mind, just listen to me. We don’t need exploration certificates, got it?"

"...Alright, let’s prepare to head to the relics," Celine murmured, slightly dazed from the light emitted by the Sandora Ball, while the adventurers around us seemingly ignored the unusual situation.

Soon, the adventurers stationed in various parts of the town were summoned together, and under Celine’s instructions, they gathered at the town entrance, forming an impressive team. Celine herself returned home briefly, and when she reappeared in front of everyone...

She was already armed like a future female warrior ready to fight aliens.

"It’s Church Holy Armor!" an experienced adventurer exclaimed in surprise upon seeing Celine arriving with a particle rifle, "Has the situation become this serious?!"

Celine was still wearing that solemn black robe, seemingly unconcerned about any hindrance it might pose in the forest, yet underneath the robe revealed a utility belt loaded with various odd devices and spare energy blocks. She carried the particle rifle over her shoulder, a small alloy knife in her left hand, and what appeared to be a power pack strapped to her back, while her waist held a Bible—this outfit, if thrown into Hollywood, could appear in any movie genre, except for animated films!

Sandora couldn’t help but sigh: "The strange phenomena caused by the breakdown of civilization..."

"Is Alu alright at home?" While all the adventurers were busy checking equipment and preparing for battle, I couldn’t help but ask Celine about the little girl.

"She hasn’t experienced anything like this... but I trust that child will manage," Celine clicked the safety of her rifle, then looked up at the sky, "The church has set up these kinds of barriers around every relic’s residential area. As long as she doesn’t leave the town, she’ll be fine."

The sky now was a strange pink color, a result of the electromagnetic shield enveloping the entire town fiercely clashing with the microwave environment in the air. Sandora had carefully probed earlier and found that there was indeed an electromagnetic shield generator beneath the town’s church, which was quite concealed and had remained off, eluding our detection. But thinking about it, even if the Lost God Sect sealed away all ancient technology, this kind of protection device is something that must be prepared in every human town. After all, in the post-high-tech war world, there is bound to be a high-radiation environment. Survivors wanting to survive in the post-apocalyptic world must have anti-radiation protective devices.

The Lost God Sect just needed to ensure these devices weren’t directly exposed to the civilians.

Celine took out a kind of detection device from her waist, testing the electromagnetic environment outside the town, and then pointed ahead: "Let’s go!"

The single mother, who had lived a hard life, had thus transformed into a mighty high-tech battle nun, faintly reminiscent of when she and her husband embarked on adventures together back in the day.

Leaving the town, we crossed a wide wooden bridge over the river, then walked a few dozen meters forward to enter the Big Forest. However, our route was not straight but curved widely, obviously avoiding something in the middle: deadly electromagnetic waves.

A high-power antenna system could serve as a thermal weapon if tuned to the right frequency; being exposed to a microwave antenna would cost almost the same as being trapped in a microwave oven. The ancient tower in the forest was obviously some sort of communication facility, and it was now emitting intense microwave radiation and other harmful electromagnetic waves of several different frequencies. The microwaves caused the water to heat up, while other frequencies caused metal to become charged, and unusual sparks appeared in the air. The town was protected by the barrier, so it was temporarily safe, but many places outside the town showed an eerie and terrifying scene: steam was rising from the river next to the town, dead fish floated belly-up on the water’s surface, and large numbers of birds were startled out of the forest, screaming in fear and swirling around the forest like headless flies, utterly unable to leave the area. Unfortunate birds occasionally entered the invisible death zone in the sky, then fell to the ground stiffly, their brains cooked before they hit the ground.

And in another direction deep in the forest, smoke was already rising—hopefully, the upcoming forest fire wouldn’t be too large in scale... But now it’s the rainy season, so the trees had high water content, and such a catastrophic event might not occur.

To Sandora and me, these bizarre visions were nothing much at all; they only piqued our curiosity about how many antenna systems the ancient tower had gone amiss for such a complicated and chaotic electromagnetic environment to develop. But for the adventurers, it was different. Led by Celine, they avoided the danger zones directly exposed to the antennas, but everyone still felt that static tingling sensation passing over them. People silently chanted the name of the God of Technology, clutching their weapons tightly, and some adventurers even mumbled syllables like spells: they firmly believed that the evil knowledge of ancient relics was seeping out, and quite a few adventurers probably followed Celine with a mindset prepared for glorious martyrdom.

But in the end, no one fell behind: although adventurers might not match up to clergy in terms of knowledge and willpower, they are still cream of the crop—these versatile warriors who can fight, resist, tend to writing as well as fighting, aren’t about to retreat now.

The team soon ventured deep into the forest, and Celine kept fiddling with some small devices, trying to find a safe direction to approach the ancient tower, when we heard a faint cry for help coming from not far away: "Help... help me!"

"Over there!" A sharp-eyed adventurer immediately spotted a black figure lying under the bushes in the distance. (To be continued. If you like this work, please feel free to give a recommendation vote, or a monthly ticket at Qidian (qidian.com). Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users, please visit m.qidian.com for reading.)