Chapter 129: Undercurrents surging! The Slo family!

"Such a big matter, of course, must be reported, but not now."

Bishop Bowman paced back and forth in the room, calculating constantly in his head.

As a bishop of the eastern region, Bishop Bowman was actually already a standard big shot, considered middle-to-upper level of the church, but he was still far from reaching the core layer of the church.

He had always wanted to enter the core layer of the church, become a true top-tier big shot, and even enter the vision of the gods.

The suddenly appearing potatoes and sweet potatoes had given him hope.

Having been a bishop for decades, from a street bishop to a city bishop, and then to a regional bishop, Bishop Bowman understood the power of potatoes too well.

If this thing were obtained by the church, and the church controlled the breeding, the church's influence would further increase, and the people's faith in the gods would also further improve.

He, Bishop Bowman, would also rise to prominence because of this; maybe he would obtain the reward of the gods and become one of the top figures in the church, who knows!

But the appearance of the divine power mark shattered all his hope!

It's just that Bishop Bowman didn't give up so easily.

As a bishop of a human kingdom, in Bishop Bowman's view, orcs were all uncivilized, barbaric people who could only rely on their naturally strong bodies to gain some advantages on the battlefield.

This was also the understanding of orcs by most people in the Duke Duke Xiling Kingdom.

Therefore, when people in the Duke Duke Xiling Kingdom mentioned the orc kingdom east of the mist, their attitude was generally like this:

Those orcs should thank the Misty Mountains, otherwise they would have conquered them long ago!

Even though the divine power mark prevented the church from performing secondary breeding of potatoes, Bishop Bowman was still somewhat unwilling.

That was his opportunity to soar into the sky!

It's just that even their god didn't seem to have any good way to deal with the divine power mark, let alone him.

But Bishop Bowman was just unwilling!

This unwillingness made him strongly want to stir up some trouble.

"If I could obtain some detailed intelligence about that Kingdom of Flames, that should also be a great achievement!"

Bishop Bowman thought.

The Duke Duke Xiling Kingdom had always had ideas about the orc kingdom.

Who made the Duke Duke Xiling Kingdom surrounded by two countries with strength equivalent to its own? If they wanted to expand, they could only expand to the east.

But decades ago, an entire army was lost in the Misty Mountains, with only a few strong individuals successfully leaving, which had made the Duke Duke Xiling Kingdom afraid to take a second action for decades.

But the thoughts of the high-level officials of the Duke Duke Xiling Kingdom about the orc kingdom had actually never been extinguished!

Bishop Bowman thought for a moment and asked the temple knight under his command: "The supply of rice in the eastern cities is controlled by the Slo family, right?"

The temple knight said: "Yes, Bishop, the Slo family has monopolized all the rice supply in the east!"

Bishop Bowman said: "The Slo family is powerful and is the largest family in the eastern region. His family even has a genius mage who is said to have become a magus at just over thirty years old. The divine beans from the orc kingdom entering the market will inevitably bring some impact on his family's rice business."

Speaking of this, his tone changed: "However, Count Slo is as rich as a country, and they have many ways to make money. Now the amount of divine beans is actually not much, so it might not attract the attention of the Slo family. You go personally and tell the old count of the Slo family about our investigation results. The old count has always been interested in the orc kingdom to the east; decades ago, during that expedition, the old count had armed a five-thousand-man army to participate!"

The temple knight said: "Yes, my lord!"

The system of the Duke Duke Xiling Kingdom was very similar to the Western Middle Ages before Lin Yan traveled through time.

Noble territories of all sizes were spread throughout the Duke Duke Xiling Kingdom.

Of course, the royal family was the largest noble and occupied the most land.

And the land occupied by the church was actually not small, on par with the royal family.

The royal family and the church together occupied nearly half of the land in the Duke Duke Xiling Kingdom, and the rest was divided up by nobles of all sizes.

Commoners naturally received land from these nobles to farm and then paid a certain tax.

By the way, mages and knights were actually already considered the noble class; as long as they registered, they could all receive a certain amount of land.

The existence of the church made nobles afraid to collect taxes that were too heavy, nor could they collect taxes that were too low, because the church had to be the lowest; generally, the tax collected by nobles was one-fourth.

And on the church's land, commoners could receive land with even lower taxes; the tax on church land was generally one-fifth to one-sixth.

The tax on royal land was about the same as the church's, and in addition, the nobles had to pay a certain amount of money to the royal family every year!

Small nobles had big nobles above them, and big nobles had even bigger nobles above them; this was the composition of the Duke Duke Xiling Kingdom!

In the event of war, if it was small-scale, the armies of the royal family and the church could solve it.

If it was a large-scale war, they would start conscripting soldiers from the territories of the small nobles.

They were conscripted layer by layer, and these soldiers were also armed by the nobles.

Even in peacetime, nobles kept a large number of private soldiers, as long as you could afford to raise them!

The Slo family was the largest noble in the eastern region, and the family's standing private army exceeded five thousand people.

If it was wartime, the Slo family could arm an army of over ten thousand people from their vast territory.

Here, armed naturally refers to fully armed.

The armor, weapons, boots, and the salary needed for a warrior were not small amounts; they all needed to be supported by bright gold coins.

The Slo family could support such a huge army, and their wealth was already quite terrifying.

If they were not fully armed, but simply armed, the number of troops the Slo family could conscript would be even greater!

In the huge castle of the Slo family, there was a hall decorated exceptionally exquisitely.

"A letter from Bishop Bowman?"

A butler in gorgeous clothes took the letter from the temple knight and brought it to an old man sitting in front of the fireplace roasting fire, reading it in a low voice.

The butler read the long letter for nearly half an hour.

This old man was the old count of the Slo family.

After listening, the old count asked in an aged voice: "Send someone to verify, let that temple knight go back!"

The butler said: "Yes!"

About two days later, a large amount of intelligence was collected by the old count.

In front of the fireplace burning with magic fire, the old count was playing with a gold coin of the Kingdom of Flames, listening to the butler's report with a calm gaze.

Beside the old count, there was another man. This man was wearing a mage robe and looked like he was only in his twenties, but his actual age had reached over thirty.

He was the most outstanding mage of the Slo family, a young magus!

For a magus, being in his thirties was indeed considered young.

And the number of magi in the Duke Duke Xiling Kingdom was not many, not exceeding thirty, and nearly half of these magi belonged to the royal family and the church!

"This Kingdom of Flames, its background is probably not small."

After listening to the report, the old count looked at the flame pattern on the gold coin and finally spoke.

The magus beside him said:

"Aunt, their gold coins have natural magic protection, and what's more magical is that these magic protections can be combined very well, which means the more gold coins you carry, the better the magic protection you can get. If someone could stand in a whole cart of gold coins, I'm afraid even a fifth-rank mage's magic could be well defended against. If there were more gold coins..."

"Can even your magic be defended against?"

The old count interrupted.

That magus said: "If the quantity is large enough, it's not impossible, but it can only defend once, but this is still astonishing. The most astonishing thing is this combination method of magic protection, which is simply unheard of!"

The old count said: "Oliver, you haven't worshipped any god yet, right?"

The magus named Oliver said: "Yes, Aunt."

The old count said: "You have traveled to many countries; in the territories of other kingdoms, have you ever seen such gold coins? And these divine beans?"

Oliver shook his head: "No."

The old count stood up, his eyes flashing with shock: "This is the key. The god of this Kingdom of Flames is probably a new god with subversive divine power. If we let the Kingdom of Flames develop, the Duke Duke Xiling Kingdom will be in danger!"

"Oliver, send people to surround Sir Hawk's territory. If Sir Hawk wants to talk about the law, then tell him he has violated the Unfair Competition Law. I want to force the people behind this Kingdom of Flames to come out and see who they are!"

Oliver hesitated for a moment and said: "Aunt, I heard that a forbidden spell mage appeared in the Misty Mountains. If the Kingdom of Flames is strong, it threatens the entire Duke Duke Xiling Kingdom. Why should we take the lead? That Bishop Bowman's purpose is probably not simple."

The old count laughed: "Oliver, you are still too young. Bishop Bowman does want to use us as a knife, but this time, we have to be used by him once. Our family is too prosperous; in the entire eastern region, our family occupies one-third of the land. If the Kingdom of Flames attacks one day, our family will be the first to suffer."

Speaking of this, the old count stared at Oliver, and although he was not a magus, he made Oliver's scalp tingle.

The old count spoke: "Believe it or not, if the Kingdom of Flames attacks, before our family's army is routed and our wealth is burned, no big noble will offer us a helping hand, and even the royal army will not move!"