Urban Seduction: Housewives Club

Such bold words were somewhat unexpected for Eric. He hadn't expected the "lady" in front of him to speak such "astonishing" language.

Seeing Leotis's unchanged expression beside him, Eric understood that either Leotis was accustomed to this or was pretending not to know his sister.

Either way, Eric felt like rolling his eyes.

Meyer's face instantly turned red when he heard this, and he quickly glanced at Eric before saying, "Oh, Olivia, what nonsense are you talking about?"

"What nonsense?" Ophelia was completely unaware of her mistake and said indignantly, "I just wanted to introduce Eric to the church..."

"No need, no need!" Afraid that she might say something more "outrageous," Meyer hurriedly interrupted, "Eric already has faith, he won't join the church..."

"You are a believer?" Ophelia was very surprised.

"Yes!"

"What faith?"

"It's just a small religion with only a few million believers. You probably haven't heard of it!"

"How do you know I wouldn't know..."

Ophelia said somewhat discontentedly, "You should know that besides being a guardian knight of Christianity, I also hold an important position in the Danish National Religious Affairs Bureau.

I know all the registered religions recognized by governments around the world. If your religion has millions of believers, even if it's an underground cult, I would have heard of it..."

Eric frowned slightly, restrained his emotions for Meyer's sake, and asked instead of answering, "Have you heard of Sakya?"

"Sakya?" Ophelia thought for a moment and asked, "Is it the Buddhist sect that recently caused a stir with the emergence of a 'great supernatural' living Buddha?"

"That's right."

Ophelia's interest, which had waned due to Eric already having a sect, suddenly rose again. "Did you attend the enthronement ceremony of the new living Buddha in Tibet last time?"

"I was right there." Eric felt that, according to his situation at the time, he couldn't use the word "attend" to describe it. As the protagonist of the event, he should use the phrase Ophelia had just used—held!

As a civil servant dealing with religious affairs, Ophelia was quite interested in the enthronement ceremony of Sakya.

Although many mainstream media were banned from broadcasting the news because of the "extraordinary powers" Eric had displayed at the time, Ophelia had still seen several videos of the living Buddha's enthronement ceremony online.

Because Eric had used the "Blur Technique" at the time, making all the image data blurry and unrecognizable, Ophelia, who was face to face with the "real protagonist," unexpectedly asked with a gossiping look, "I heard that the new enthroned living Buddha is a very beautiful young man. Is that true?"

Eric nodded silently.

"I see..." A hint of excitement flashed in Ophelia's eyes. "Your living Buddha is really beautiful? How does he compare to you?"

Faced with Ophelia's eyes, which seemed to be undressing him, Eric smiled helplessly and said, "He's about the same..."

"Oh," Ophelia said to herself, "Even if he's only seventy percent as good-looking as you, he's still quite attractive..."

Eric smiled wryly. Just as he glanced at Meyer, who was covering her mouth and laughing, he couldn't help but glare at her.

"Alright, stop making eyes at each other in front of me! Holding back a bit won't kill you..." Ophelia's words not only made Meyer's just calmed face blush again, but also made her replace Meyer as the target of Eric's glare.

Unaware of the exchange between Eric and Meyer, Ophelia, after getting her answer, sighed leisurely and said, "Such a large-scale 'Blessing Spell,' even our senior priests in Christianity must use holy relics to perform it, and they also need more than ten minutes of prayer! But the new living Buddha in the video casually released such a large-scale restoration spell similar to our 'Blessing Spell.' That's not simple! No wonder the elders of the Council are planning to ally with Sakya..."

Meyer was aware that Eric belonged to Sakya and couldn't help but look at Ophelia and ask, "Olivia, why do you suddenly want to ally with Sakya?"

Although Meyer found it strange how she suddenly became interested in these matters, Ophelia just glanced at her and directly replied, "It's no secret, telling you won't make a difference."

After pausing for a moment and organizing her words, Ophelia continued, "In the past twenty years, our influence in Christianity has declined significantly, to the point where we are unable to lift our heads in front of the Vatican. However, in terms of believers, there are less than four hundred million Christians worldwide, while Catholics exceed eight hundred million..."

"Isn't it said that there are nearly two billion Catholics?" Eric was puzzled.

With a cold snort, Ophelia disdainfully said, "The Vatican has always considered itself the supreme spokesperson of God on earth, regarding us as its subordinate organization. So, the so-called numbers of believers they publish include the numbers of all the sects and denominations that believe in God like us..." Read new chapters at My Virtual Library Empire

I see! This is a bit like the statistics of Buddhists. There's only one total number, but there's no breakdown of how many belong to Zen Buddhism or Pure Land Buddhism...

Seeing that Eric understood, Ophelia continued, "I'll tell you something that won't make you laugh. Thirty years ago, our Christianity was evenly matched with Catholicism. However, since Constantine, who was good at creating sensational events and disguises, ascended to the papacy over twenty years ago, the situation has changed drastically. If our Council of Elders is a power structure, it's more like a 'priest hall' that guides believers in their practice. We are opponents of the bishops who also serve as part-time 'politicians' in Catholicism, so the loss of believers is inevitable! And the number of believers is a key factor in determining the voice of a religion! Therefore, we Christians must seek allies to strengthen our momentum..."

Eric was confused by Ophelia's explanation. "Sakya is just a Buddhist sect with a million followers. How can allying with them enhance your momentum?"

"Are you from Mars?" Ophelia looked at Eric contemptuously, pursed her lips, and said, "Don't you know how widely spread the videos of the enthronement ceremony were online? With such 'miraculous' footage, do you think Sakya's followers would only number in the mere millions? Even now, as far as I know, the registered followers of Sakya have exceeded three million, reclaiming the title of 'the number one Tibetan sect'..."

Having not been in contact with Sakya for over two months, he didn't expect them to achieve such remarkable results! Yes, they should be appropriately acknowledged, encouraged, and rewarded to boost morale and maintain their development momentum...

After exchanging a congratulatory glance with Eric, Meyer turned to Ophelia and asked, "If we go to the Yelin Church, will it cause you any trouble?"

Just as Ophelia was about to assure them, Leotis, who had almost been forgotten, interrupted, "Miss Meyer, do you and Mr. Eric have any 'misunderstandings' with the Vatican?"

After glancing at Eric, Meyer hesitated slightly and said, "We killed several people from the Holy See..." Because it was a major issue, Meyer didn't want to disclose the details, but also didn't want to deceive her good friend, so she used a somewhat vague answer.

"What kind of people were they..."

"Why are you asking so many questions?"

Just as Meyer was feeling embarrassed, Ophelia, who had replaced her as the "worshiping" sister, rebuked her brother, "What does it matter to you who Meyer killed? We only have grievances with the Catholics, not the Vatican! Even if the Pope of the Vatican, Constantine, was killed by them, we don't have to be afraid of anything! You should know that, in Northern Europe, it's our Christian world..."

Meyer and Eric looked at each other. Although Eric didn't kill the Pope, he did kill a bishop and archbishop of a diocese, a loss that even the Vatican couldn't afford!

Misinterpreting Meyer's expression, Ophelia, who was anxious for her friend, ignored Leotis's warning look and patted her chest, promising, "Meyer, Eric, we Christians can shelter you. You can rest assured and stay at my place..."

"Thank you, Olivia..." Meyer sincerely thanked her.