Little Fox and Old Fox

  The warm sunlight of early spring falls gently on the earth, bringing a sense of warmth and comfort to both body and mind.

  Under this sunlight, the colorful flowers in the church garden are so beautiful that they seem to be dripping with dew. The reflection of the dew's light creates a dazzling array of colors, making one feel that beauty has reached its ultimate peak.

  Du Fan stood in front of a delicate small house in the backyard of the church, with his hands behind his back. His expression was calm and his eyes moved back and forth over the flowers covered with dew, as if there was something on them that deserved to be noticed several times.

  After a moment, the door of the hut was pushed open with a creak, and Bishop Anthony, dressed in casual clothes rather than his usual worn-out cassock, walked out of the house.

  Upon hearing the noise, Du Fan turned around and took a glance before slightly bowing his head to say: "I have seen the Archbishop."

  "Ah, spare me," Anthony seemed to be in high spirits as he walked over slowly, taking Du Fan's hand and patting it while saying, "Du Fan, Du Fan, you really won't let me have a moment of peace. I thought I had finally finished dealing with the matters at Roland Academy, but then you went and had Joshua send back that message. Are you intentionally trying to make things difficult for me?"

  Du Fan felt a wave of discomfort all over his body as Anthony patted him on the back, and goosebumps jumped up one by one. He thought to himself: This old guy can't be a... flower enthusiast, can he?

  At this thought, Du Fan only felt that the kindly old fox who was holding his hand had a smile on his face that was utterly debauched.

  However, Du Fan didn't dare to express such thoughts even if he had the courage of a giant. He quietly withdrew his hand and wiped it carelessly on his clothes before saying: "Lord Anthony, how could I, Du Fan, possibly have any intention of disobeying you? It's just that I recently learned something earth-shattering and felt that if I didn't report it to Lord Anthony in the first instance, it would be a blasphemy against my faith. That's why I couldn't help but rush here at dawn."

  "Oh, so what's the big deal after all?" Anthony seemed to have lost his initial anxiety, as if what he was about to find out would be something insignificant.

  Du Fan cursed a few sentences in his heart, but still smiled and said: "This matter, I think Lord Anthony will also have some interest, for example, a temple that has existed for thousands of years, but has never been discovered by anyone."

  Anthony seemed not to have heard clearly, suddenly narrowed his eyes and said: "Du Fan priest, what palace did you just say?"

  Du Fan smiled and said: "Shen Gong!"

  Anthony's narrowed eyes suddenly opened wide, he stared at Du Fan for a moment before saying: "Du Fan, do you know that if the Divine Palace you spoke of is real, then it will definitely become a sacred site of our Sacred Church. Such a sacred site, in the thousands of years since our church was founded, we have only found a few. Do you know that if there is even a hint of falsehood in this matter, I can accuse you of blasphemy at any time and have your soul burned forever on the execution ground."

  Du Fan sighed and said, "Lord Anthony, why do you have to scare me? Since you're willing to see me now, it means that at least 80% of what I said about the existence of this divine palace is true. You're just saying this because you're afraid I'll ask for something in return later, right? Please don't worry, Lord Anthony. Although I'm not mature, I am a follower of the Light God and it's only natural that I would do such things without asking for anything in return."

  Perhaps Dufan's words were quite in line with Anthony's intentions, he made a gesture and walked slowly in front, saying: "You might as well tell me the details of what happened."

  Du Fan said: "This... I don't dare say."

  Anthony turned back to look at Du Fan and said, "You were so eager to find me to talk about this matter, but then you said you didn't dare say it. Do you think that just because you're a member of the Green family, I, Anthony, wouldn't dare make a move on you?"

  Du Fan smiled and said, "How dare I? It's just that this matter is not to be mentioned, but if it must be said, it will surely shock the world. Moreover, it may also damage the good relationship between my Holy See and Roland Academy. So, if Lord Anthony insists on me speaking, can you promise me one thing?"

  Anthony hummed and said, "What's up?"

  Du Fan smiled slightly and said: "Please, Lord Anthony, promise me that after hearing this matter, no matter how the Sacred See handles it, it has nothing to do with me. No matter whether the Sacred See goes to that place or not, it also has nothing to do with me."

  Anthony hesitated for a moment, then said: "I can't agree to this. If the Holy See really wants to deal with this matter, it would be unseemly if you, the perpetrator, were not present. At most, I can promise you that no matter what you say, I won't blame you for damaging the relationship between the Holy See and Roland Academy."

  Du Fan sneered inwardly, having expected the old fox to say something like that. If he hadn't used this tactic of advancing and retreating, Anthony probably wouldn't have let him follow him to the Temple of Gods either. However, despite his inner sneer, Du Fan's face revealed a few hints of disappointment. He shook his head and said, "In that case, I hope you'll agree to something else, Lord Anthony."

  "You tell me."

  "Th-th-this..." Du Fan seemed to suddenly become shy, "I last night... accidentally... just got Elvis killed, can you please help me cover this up, Lord Anthony?"

  "Elvis is dead?" Anthony had an expression that said he already knew it was going to be like this, "How many people did you have to mobilize to get to this point?"

  Du Fan said: "This really isn't about how many people I mobilized, it's just that after I rushed into the Duke's mansion, Elvis himself followed in, unfortunately he wasn't skilled enough, and the magical traps inside the Duke's mansion were quite powerful, so with a slight carelessness...he got knocked out, and then...and then..."

  "What then?" Anthony said with a slightly irritated wave of his hand.

  Du Fan sneered in his heart, but he half-truthfully recounted the process of how he got the truth out of Elvis's mouth. As for the matter of the Temple of God, he spoke about it in great detail.

  After a long while, Anthony let out a sigh and gazed at Du Fan with an eerie look in his eyes. "You had calculated it all along, hadn't you? Even if you hadn't killed Elvis, I would have still asked you to kill him, which is why you dared to take action, right?"

  Du Fan thought to himself, what a coincidence! If it weren't for the fact that I'm not strong enough, would I need to give you such a huge benefit?

  "While thinking, Du Fan's expression was extremely sincere: 'This, of course, isn't the case. I just heard that people from Roland Academy wanted to attack the Temple of God, so I couldn't help but feel a bit indignant and killed him on impulse. I really didn't mean to.'"

  "Alright, alright, whether it's intentional or not doesn't matter anymore. Hmph, I've already received news that Bruce brought such a large group into our territory with ulterior motives. But...I didn't expect them to have the Temple of God in their sights. This time, no matter what, we won't let them succeed. Here's what we'll do: Dufan, you go back and prepare, I'll arrange for some manpower, and then you can lead a team to stop Roland Academy's actions."

  Du Fan knew that although Anthony sounded good, he wasn't 100% trustworthy. So, this so-called leadership was actually about keeping up with himself, and if what he said earlier had any inconsistencies, his life would probably be over.

  Du Fan's face revealed a righteous expression after a moment of contemplation, "For the sake of the Sacred Church, for the Radiant God, I am willing to give up everything. This time, I guarantee that no matter what, I will not let the conspiracy of those bastards from Roland Academy succeed. The divine artifact is not something that can be desecrated by these people."

  Anthony watched Dufan's behavior, nodded in satisfaction, and after a moment, he waved his hand to signal him to withdraw.

  Du Fan bowed and quickly retreated.

  Anthony, who had always been calm and collected, suddenly let out a sigh and said, "What's wrong? Is there something wrong with Du Fan?"

  A soft voice sounded: "Just now I've been paying attention to him, from entering this garden to leaving, his heartbeat didn't change at all, his breathing was stable, and even his behavior and expression were natural to the point of being a bit too much, so..."

  "So what?" Anthony frowned.

  "So, everything Du Fan just said about the Temple of God should be true. However, as for you asking me to analyze this person's outcome, I currently can't make a definitive judgment, but it's likely one of two possibilities."

  "Anything is possible," Anthony said.

  "That voice said: 'The first possibility is that he's a devout priest, even more devout than Joshua, but I haven't seen one in ten thousand; the second possibility is that he's an extremely cunning person, and if given time, you might not be his match either. Who would have thought that the Green family produced such a character? With his recent display of talent over the past few months, it seems Old Green sent him to us at just the right time.'"

  "Is it boundless sincerity, or boundless treachery?" Anthony sighed and said in a low voice, "Dufan, Dufan, how am I supposed to deal with you?"