Chapter 161: Tamerlane: Do you want to be king?

At the peak of the highest peak of Mount Taiyang, a magnificent church stood quietly at the top of the mountains.

The golden spire pierced through the clouds, as if the fingertips of God were touching the mortal world.

When the first ray of morning light shone over, the entire church was ignited like the fire of the sun, with glaze and gold flowing in the dawn light, dyeing everything around it a holy amber color.

This was a building that could not be described in words; it seemed to gather all the beauty in the world, making everyone who saw it feel a spiritual tremor from the bottom of their hearts.

The Starry Manor, which the Impaler Lord had spent ten years building by emptying his family's fortune, was like comparing the stones found everywhere on the ground with jade when compared to it.

The reason was none other than that this Dawn Church had been repaired by countless devout Sun Church believers over the past thousand years, exhausting their lifeblood and constantly using the techniques of the new era.

Every brick might be the epitome of a believer's life, and every exquisite mural might be the result of top painters from various eras clashing with their proudest techniques across time and space.

Furthermore... how could oppressed slaves be more dedicated than believers full of awe?

In the past thousand years, some had dared to question why the church had to spend so much effort on building the church?

If this energy had been used in other aspects, perhaps the scale of the Sun Church could have expanded by another fold.

And the Pope at that time answered like this:

"God dwells above the stars; if there is no temple shocking enough, how can mortals believe in the greatness of God and their own insignificance?"

Then he changed the subject.

"Of course, God might not care, but we must care."

A thousand years later, Tamerlane stepped into this church, facing the morning light.

As the holy land of the Sun Church, the entrance of the Dawn Church was filled with holy knights wearing armor painted with sun patterns.

Every one of them had the strength of at least the Morning Star Rank, and even holy knights of the Crescent Moon Rank were not uncommon.

Those who could be called powerhouses anywhere on the continent could only do the ordinary work of guarding the gate here; however, for the Sun Church believers, this was undoubtedly also an honor they could be proud of.

Swish!

The moment Tamerlane approached the gate, these holy knights bowed deeply to the handsome golden-haired young man in unison, showing their respect.

It was hard to imagine that a young man of not many years could win such respect from the holy knights; after all, every holy knight was a person who had experienced many battles and had a strong will, but if the young man's name was Tamerlane, then everything became reasonable.

Tamerlane Rhine, the grandson of the current Pope, awakened the identity protection of the Crescent Moon Rank under the blessings of King Rhine VIII and other big figures when he was one hundred days old.

And this was just the beginning of his honor; the three-year-old Tamerlane awakened the gift of identifying lies and truth, and as a child, he helped the Inquisition solve many difficult cases that had been pending for a long time.

He became a knight apprentice at six, Transcendent at seven, Morning Star at twelve, and was promoted to Crescent Moon at eighteen and granted the status of holy knight by his grandfather, the current Pope, at his coming-of-age ceremony, and his identity protection was promoted to Crescent Moon in front of everyone, drawing cheers from the whole hall.

And besides his strength, Tamerlane's character was praised by everyone who came into contact with him, boasting that he was a born holy knight.

Promoted to the Crescent Moon Rank at twenty, achieving the dual protection of Ice Blue—it could be said that it was a terrifying promotion speed that was difficult to achieve even for the great heroes of the Age of Gods, even if you flipped through the long river of history.

Up to this point, the name Tamerlane Rhine had spread throughout the entire Rhine Kingdom, and even the nobles of neighboring countries had heard of it.

Some time ago, when a villain was committing crimes incessantly in Sun City, it was also Tamerlane who chased the villain for thousands of miles, traveling day and night, and finally cut off the villain's head after a bitter battle.

People fearfully called him the "Son of the Sun," meaning a child favored by the Sun God.

Everyone felt that this title, which hindered divine power, was just right for Tamerlane, because if it weren't for God's favor, how could someone be so perfect, so dazzling, and so inferior-making from birth?

"Colleagues, thank you for your hard work."

A brilliant smile appeared on Tamerlane's face, and he nodded slightly to return the salute, then strode into the Dawn Church.

Unlike the pure white on the outside, the interior of the church was mainly black.

The painted dome on the top was about a hundred meters high, depicting the magnificent scene of "Genesis"; looking up for a long time would even give people a sense of dizziness.

Tap, tap, tap.

Because the interior was too empty, Tamerlane could clearly hear the echo of his footsteps every time he walked here.

"Tamerlane!"

A familiar voice came from behind; Tamerlane hadn't turned around yet, but had already spoken:

"Long time no see, Tristan."

Tamerlane turned around; standing in front of him was a holy knight with long red hair.

That holy knight's red hair was like molten copper, shining with a metallic luster in the sun, with a few loose strands hanging on his forehead, like embers still not cooled in a furnace.

His brow bones were high and sharp, yet a pair of amber eyes revealed a bit of weakness, his nose bridge was high, and his lips were as thin as paper.

A pale old scar slanted across his left cheek, which did not damage his handsomeness but added a bit of heroism.

"I heard you went to the King's City to hunt down the villain; it seems everything went smoothly now?" Tamerlane smiled.

Tristan, twenty-six years old, Crescent Moon Rank, was a Centurion of the Holy Knights like him, and also a recognized genius, but because of his overly frivolous speech and behavior, his reputation in the church was not very good.

However, for Tamerlane, the other party was indeed one of the few friends he had.

"I can only say it went smoothly; that villain swore allegiance to get the protection of a noble in the King's City, hiding him in the manor and refusing to admit it. In the end, I took my sword and scared his son twice, and he obediently told the truth."

Tristan stretched, saying carelessly.

"Uh, what was the noble's title?"

"Seems like a Hou Jue."

Tamerlane: "..."

The golden-haired young man's mouth twitched; he finally understood why his friend's reputation in the church was so bad, and even some people proposed to dismiss his position as Centurion.

Threatening a Hou Jue's son with a sword and threatening a Hou Jue—if it weren't for the protection of the Sun Church, he would have been on the wanted list of the Rhine Kingdom long ago.

"By the way, Tamerlane, this time I went to the King's City and accidentally heard a major piece of news." Tristan looked around, confirmed that there was no one around, and then said mysteriously.

"Oh, what news?" A trace of curiosity flashed in Tamerlane's blue eyes.

Eating melons was human nature; even he could not be exempt from it.

The red-haired knight pulled Tamerlane's shoulder and pulled him to his side, whispering:

"The young princess who went missing in the royal family is still alive..."

Hearing this, even the holy knight who had always been calm could not help but show a trace of thick astonishment on his face.

Because of some unknown reason, the children of the Rhine royal family seemed to be cursed, getting sick and dying, all wiped out.

Even with the protection of the royal family, it was of no avail, and... they often died before the infant honor ceremony.

And the young princess referred to about seventeen years ago, not long after the Wang Hou gave birth to a new princess, the palace was assassinated by an assassin of unknown identity.

At the critical moment, the Wang Hou could only use a prop that could perform random space teleportation to teleport the young princess, who was less than a hundred days old, away, and faced the assassin alone.

Although the assassin was finally wiped out by the knights who arrived, the Wang Hou was safe, but afterward, even if King Rhine VIII spent huge manpower and material resources to turn the entire kingdom upside down, he could not find any trace of the young princess.

Finally, he could only despairingly announce the news of the young princess's death; after all, the probability of an infant in swaddling clothes surviving after being teleported to all parts of the world was too slim.

"Is the news reliable?" Tamerlane asked immediately.

Because once this matter was true, the scope of influence would be too great!

First of all, the most critical point: if this young princess could be found, then the Rhine royal family, which had no successors, would have a new heir.

One must know that the greatest military force of the Rhine Kingdom—the red dragon "Sin of Hellfire" Ignio, which was hundreds of meters long—would only listen to members with high Rhine family blood concentration.

Therefore, many people were worried that after the current King and Wang Hou passed away, would the Sin of Hellfire, which no one could control, leave the Rhine Kingdom and become a wandering wild dragon?

Once such a terrifying result happened, the situation of the three kingdoms that had been balanced for a long time would be broken immediately.

The nobles of the other two kingdoms would shout about honor and knightly spirit while greedily plundering the land, people, and money of the Rhine Kingdom like hungry wolves gnawing on the flesh and blood of sheep...

A noble who doesn't want to be promoted to a Hou Jue is not a good noble, and a war that is destined to win with a dragon would undoubtedly bring new protection and glory.

This was an opportunity to change the fate of the entire family and leave their names in the genealogy; any noble with a normal brain would not miss it.

And if the surviving young princess could be found, and she could be recognized by the Sin of Hellfire, then it would mean that this tragic war that endangered the entire human race could be avoided.

Precisely because of this, Tamerlane would be so eager.

"Absolutely true; the royal family found a golden-level divination compass and used it to confirm the survival of the young princess, and divined that the young princess's location is in the East," Tristan lowered his voice.

A golden compass?!

Tamerlane's expression gradually became solemn.

A divination compass was an extremely rare treasure that could divine the location of the things you wanted to pursue.

Its creator was a mystery, and the production process had long been lost, only some isolated pieces passed down from the Age of Gods.

Among them, divination compasses were divided into three levels: bronze, silver, and gold; the higher the level, the lower the error rate of divination.

A golden-level divination compass could already achieve an error rate close to zero, which meant that the news about the survival of the young princess was indeed true.

"The royal family has already sent the Hand of the Kingdom with the golden compass to the East to find the young princess. This news is currently kept strictly confidential, and only the royal family's iron-clad confidants know about it. I was also hiding in the Hou Jue's study to collect news about the villain when I accidentally heard him mention it."

Tristan explained.

"Have you reported it to the bishops of the Curia?"

Tamerlane ignored the friend's extremely bad eavesdropping behavior as a holy knight and asked again.

The Curia was the highest decision-making body of the church, listening only to the Pope, and was responsible for handling all affairs of the church.

"I reported it as soon as I came back yesterday. The bishops held a meeting for a whole day, and then I just got a full thousand merit points as a reward. I felt for the first time that those annoying old guys were so kind!"

Speaking of this, Tristan's face was full of excitement, and he even had to force himself to cover his mouth so as not to laugh out loud in the solemn hall.

Merit points could be used to exchange for treasures in the Blazing Sun Treasury; a holy knight without a position who worked diligently for the church for a lifetime could often only save a hundred merit points without the appearance of opportunities.

And Tristan had received merit points that an ordinary holy knight could only save in ten lifetimes just from a piece of news he heard by accident; no wonder he was so happy.

"Congratulations, Tristan. I am very grateful to you for telling me such precious news, but eavesdropping is something you shouldn't do in the future," Tamerlane advised sincerely.

As a friend, he felt he had an obligation to guide Tristan in the right direction.

"Don't worry, this was an accident; I definitely won't do it next time," Tristan said dismissively.

He felt that with his noble character, if it weren't for chasing the villain this time, how could he have done the eavesdropping?

There couldn't be a next time!

"By the way, Tamerlane, will this news make you a little disappointed?" Tristan's eyeballs turned, and he whispered almost with his mouth against Tamerlane's ear.

"Why should I be disappointed?" Tamerlane's expression was stunned.

"Think about it; if the young princess is dead, wouldn't you, who has the Rhine bloodline, have the status of an heir? After the royal family passes away, with your grandfather and godfather, our Sun Church will fully support you in ascending the throne. By then, wouldn't you become the new king of the Rhine Kingdom?"

"From then on, Rhine will combine politics and religion, and then thanks to you, we holy knights can also have territories and noble protection..."

Tristan kept talking, completely unaware that his friend's expression was becoming increasingly serious.

"How about it? If you have any ideas, considering you are my friend, I can go to the East secretly right now and try to kidnap her before the Kingdom's Hand finds the young princess, so that she will never appear on the land of the Rhine Kingdom..."

Before the red-haired holy knight finished speaking, he saw a finger getting bigger and bigger in his field of vision.

Boom!

Tamerlane's fingertip tapped lightly on the red-haired knight's forehead, but it sounded like a bowstring exploding, and the wind rose.

The next moment, Tristan didn't even have time to scream, and his whole body flew backward like a kite with a broken string, crashing heavily into the church wall behind him.

"Tristan, let the joke end here. I don't want to hear such a boring joke from your mouth again."

Tamerlane said calmly; his originally gentle blue eyes were now clearly sharp, and a layer of frost seemed to have condensed between his brows, making people feel awe.

He is angry?!

Tamerlane is actually angry!

"Okay, I'm sorry, it's my fault."

Sitting on the floor, with a crimson finger mark on his forehead, looking like he had been branded with a branding iron, Tristan surrendered in seconds.

He was in a lot of pain all over, but he could perceive that he hadn't suffered any injuries, just as if he were stuck at the boundary between pain and injury.

Seeing this, Tamerlane didn't say anything else, just turned and left silently, leaving the red-haired knight behind who was still uneasy.

At the same time, a piece of information appeared in his mind.

Gift of Force Control: You can perfectly master every bit of your strength, being able to lift a weak infant as well as snap steel and lift mountain rocks.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 162 =====