4 In hoc signo vinces

*Blink, blink.* Liu Jin is disoriented, observing his hands and his body, questioning where he is. He finds himself standing amidst a large field of green, majestic pastures that seem to have emerged directly from a Renaissance painting. These fields stretch towards the horizon without any obstacles, like an infinite sea of lush green.

However, Liu Jin's eyes are quickly drawn to something even larger and more majestic than the sea of green fields: the imposing sky above his head. Unlike the celestial blue sky he has known all his life, this one is a deep black. It's not the black of night but a complete blackness, as if representing the absence of light, without the presence of the moon or the stars that adorn the sky at dusk.

Suddenly, while gazing at the sky with a heavy heart, Liu Jin catches sight of a small altar made of white jade in the corner of his eye, exquisitely arranged as if it had been cared for with great zeal and dedication.

As this is the only other thing he can see in this vast green field, Liu Jin, after a brief consideration, decides to head towards the temple to see if there's anyone inside who could indicate to him where he is and what this place is.

Thus, as he walks towards the temple, he gradually feels a formless force pulling him more and more towards it, as if giving him small nudges and encouragements that become increasingly stronger the closer he gets to the temple.

Another thing he quickly notices is the drop in temperature, slowly transitioning from a pleasant summer heat to the chilly breezes of autumn, while a dark mist begins to rise from the ground, gradually enveloping Liu Jin's body and the entire surrounding environment.

But one thing that goes unnoticed by Liu Jin, who has his eyes and attention fixed on the temple ahead, is the change affecting his body, so he doesn't notice that the once empty black sky now displays small eyes, increasing in numbers from hundreds to thousands, and while all of them differ in size, color, and shape, they all have one thing in common: they're all looking at Liu Jin expectantly.

Soon, he finds himself directly in front of the temple, the mist now so thick and deep that darkness envelops Liu Jin, obscuring his vision so that he can't see even a meter in front of him, with the only things he can see being his own body, the temple in front of him, and his own breath, now visible in front of him due to the freezing cold that he hadn't felt since his time in Siberia.

"Is this calling me to enter and pray...?" These are the first words that come out of his mouth after having arrived in this place, of which is completely empty as he has also spent a time that he can't distinguish as seconds, minutes, or hours to get here to this temple.

He can't answer how he knows, but he is fully and completely certain that if he were to enter this temple, he would receive power, riches, glory, and any kind of thing one could desire to satisfy their worldly desires, but he also feels that he would miss something much more important.

"No... no!" He declares with conviction as he tries to turn back on his path, but the once gentle force that encouraged him to move forward now reacts to his refusal, pulling him against his will.

Or to be more precise, against the will of his spirit, as this force that draws him is immaterial, so it can't physically pull him, but this force is pulling his flesh not by brute force but by fulfilling all his worldly desires and wishes. However, the same doesn't apply to Liu Jin's spirit, which has long renounced all these desires.

Thus begins moments that could be seconds or hours, as he loses all sense of time amidst these moments. Liu Jin faces the greatest difficulty of his life as he feels as if his spirit and body are in a constant battle for control amidst the darkness that tries to engulf him, offering to relieve him of all pain with a promise that they'll stop if he enters the temple.

"No!" This is Liu Jin's response, which doesn't even need to be uttered in physical words because in essence, his entire spirit has already declared it through his actions.

Soon, as if hearing his cry for help, all the pressure and force against him vanish in less than a moment, finally allowing him to feel his body completely free and giving him the calmness and strength to open his eyes again, which were tightly shut.

He finds himself at a much greater distance from the temple than before, but for now, his attention isn't even close to the temple but focused on the black sky that was once empty but now displays a symbol greatly familiar to him.

In the sky, he sees a cross made by two Greek letters overlapped on each other, the X and P, to create a unique shape that shines with a bright and infinite light, seemingly eclipsing all the previous darkness in the sky, as well as blinding the eyes that Liu Jin only noticed now, and that are now filled with hatred as they look at him.

Quickly, Liu Jin falls to his knees on the ground as he looks at the symbol in the sky, which spreads its light throughout the world, causing the dark mist to disappear as if it had never existed, just like the infinite grass pasture on the ground, which now begins to present snowflakes due to the cold, now in an instant, catches fire that engulfs this entire world.

But this fire, no matter how fiercely it acts against the earth on which he stands, causes no harm or burns to him, giving him only the sensation of a comforting and paternal warmth.

Soon, he can hear the sounds of stone and marble crumbling and falling to the ground with force. Of course, he doesn't even need to turn his head to know that these sounds come from the temple, which is far from him at the moment and probably must be collapsing fiercely.

But his only focus right now is on the scriptures that are slowly taking shape beneath the Chi-Rho symbol, which only say one thing: "In hoc signo vinces" repeating what is written aloud.

As if furious at his words, the earth begins to tremble with great earthquakes, causing cracks in the ground, as well as the skies that fill with endless lightning as if declaring the end of the world, while roaring with anger because of the words that came out of his mouth.

But amidst this scene reminiscent of the end of the world, Liu Jin feels not even the slightest fear in his heart, as he feels a gentle touch on his shoulder that comforts him before hearing a phrase being said calmly and quietly, "You've done well, my son, you can wake up now."

*Cough* *Cough* Shortly after hearing these words, Liu Jin finds himself inside his room, lying on his bed, and that world dominated by a field of green grass with a temple is nowhere to be seen as if it had never existed.

The only sound that now enters his ears is the crowing of roosters in the morning, responsible for waking up the entire village early every day so that they can start their chores even before the sun rises.

Liu Jin quickly begins to diligently do his chores, such as his morning prayers and tidying up the carpentry for a day of hard work.

But even amidst these chores, his mind is completely preoccupied with the dream he had last night, and although he tries to remain calm and not jump to conclusions, it's quite obvious to him that the dream was both a test and a command for him.

"So, have you finally woken up, excited for another day of work, little brother?" He sees the boy who enters the carpentry with a sleepy look.

"Come on, no laziness. You're already learning from me. You'll get used to it completely in no time." It's not like the boy isn't used to waking up early because that's the time almost everyone in the village wakes up, but he's just exaggerating his sleepiness due to the laziness of working, and Liu Jin knows that.

After seeing the boy nod his head while undoing some of his pretense of sleep, Liu Jin pats his head before speaking, "So from now on, don't even try to fool me, you little rascal... well, besides that, I'll need you to finish tidying up the carpentry since I'll be taking Mrs. Wo's products to her."

After saying this, Liu Jin doesn't waste much time before organizing a set of high-quality household utensils made of wood and placing them in a bag before leaving his house and heading towards Mrs. Wo's house.

"Ah, Jin'er, how are you? Is the family all well and healthy, I hope?" A man of common appearance who carries a dozen bottles filled with milk greets him with a smile on his face.

"Good morning, Mr. Li, I'm well... and you seem great as always. Are you going to sell the milk to Mrs. Bai?" Liu Jin speaks with the man, who is a dairy farmer and makes his living by selling milk, mainly to a lady who makes high-quality cheeses to sell at the village fair.

"A good part of it, yes. And this bag you're carrying, are you taking gifts to Mrs. Wo? When I spoke to her earlier, she couldn't stop praising you." Mr. Li speaks.

"Well, yes, I'm taking this to her... and I appreciate her compliments... well, anyway, I need to hurry, so excuse me for ending this conversation quickly." So after Mr. Li said he understood and that he also needed to go his way, Liu Jin continues his walk until he reaches Mrs. Wo's house.

Soon he knocks on the door, which is opened by an old woman of just under 70 years with all white hair and not a single black strand on her head, as well as a face wrinkled by age, who wears an apron over her patched dress typically worn by mortal women of low financial status.

"Ah, young Jin'er, it's so good to see you here. Come in, I have some tea already made as I was expecting your arrival." He just smiles as he follows Mrs. Wo's words without thinking too much about the old lady who is younger than him treating him as a young man because in this world he is one.

"Well, Mrs. Wo, as I promised, I made new high-quality utensils for you." This was a promise he made a few days ago when he saw that the old lady, who was one of the people he helped by giving food, had household utensils in precarious conditions but didn't buy new ones due to lack of financial condition.

"Oh, my young man... you're truly a messenger of God... I don't even know how to thank you." Liu Jin smiles, listening to the old lady's words.

"I'm just a humble servant compared to our Lord, Mrs. Wo. I'm just doing my duty; there's nothing to thank for." He speaks calmly as he looks at a cross hanging on the wall of the house of this lady who is one of the people he converted in the meantime in this world.

Yes, one of the several people because since he came to this world, he hasn't been secretive about his belief and about his God. In fact, he has been quite the opposite since he believes that there shouldn't be a person in his village of just over three hundred people who hasn't heard of God, either from him or from people who heard from him.

Of course, this doesn't mean that all of them are now Christians just for hearing about God. With the number of people who actually believe being few, with him being able to count them as less than fifteen, and of those, two are him, his brother, for his mother, he doesn't count his mother since she is still a bit skeptical about his faith, and he believes she still partially believes in other gods.

And this belief in other gods is the reason why he considers the Christians in the village to be just fifteen since if he were to count the people who believe in the existence of his God it would be almost all the members of the village, especially when many misinterpret his God as being a god of carpenters or something similar.

But this is an inevitable thing to happen in this village that follows pagan customs of polytheism and beliefs in spirits, besides believing in various gods that only in this village he counted as reaching over four dozens of different gods that are of popular knowledge.

Of course, like any kind of polytheistic paganism, they also have their main gods, which are ten for this village, and from what he heard from travelers for most of this region, they are the same, but even within these ten, the people of the village give main focus to the god of death and slaughter and the god of life and mercy.

Even his family had a statue of the god of death, which had three heads and eight arms, sitting in a lotus position, as well as the god of life, which looked like a Buddhist monk sitting in a lotus position as well, and of course, his family no longer has these statues since he threw them away when he had the opportunity.

In fact, he received many requests over the years to make wooden statues of these various gods but refused them all, and now he even refuses to make crosses for people he doesn't fully trust since some time ago some young men who wanted to become carpenters asked for crosses from him, which he innocently accepted and did the work for them even for free.

But then they found out that these young men made altars for the crosses in their carpentry workshops and prayed to them as if they were praying to the carpenter god while still continuing to pray to other gods, which led Liu Jin to scold them vehemently when he found out about it, as well as now no longer making crosses for young men who seem enthusiastic about carpentry.

"Alright, Mrs. Wo, I would love to spend more time talking with you, but I have to go back home since I'm full of work, and that lazy brother of mine won't do anything unless I'm telling him to." Hearing his words, Mrs. Wo expresses her understanding of his circumstances before promising to pay him back somehow in the future as he leaves the house.

So in a short time after walking through the narrow roads of the small village and meeting several villagers, Liu Jin finally arrives home, and after entering the carpentry workshop right next to it, he sees his brother sitting in the chair doing nothing.

"Hey, you little rascal, stop sitting there and come help me with the work." He speaks as he scolds the boy a bit while starting to do his work on a shelf.