Chapter 897: The So-Called Gods, The Legend of Kelifu

"What?!"

Xia Duo could hardly hide his shocked expression; this was completely different from the surprise he had just feigned—this was genuine shock. He stared intently at Yatewude, "Say that again!"

"My lord, I have already received a response from Nature!" Yatewude also knew the gravity of this matter and repeated it solemnly.

It was actually true!

Xia Duo did not doubt that Yatewude would lie to him about such a thing, but this progress truly exceeded his expectations. He had originally thought he would have to wait several years; he had not expected results so soon.

Of course, receiving a response from Nature did not equate to possessing Natural Holy Power, but this was clearly one of the prerequisites for obtaining holy power, and the most important one at that.

In Netheril, the status of clergy was not as high as Xia Duo had initially assumed; they existed merely as a special class of spellcasters attached to a lord, restricted from the very source of their doctrine.

The clergy here specifically referred to the priests of the Lord of Radiance.

As for the priests of other gods.

In reality, among the so-called gods, there were only five whose true existence could be confirmed—the Lord of Radiance (Sun God), the Lord of Death (Death God), the Magic Goddess, the Moon Goddess, and the chief god of the Elves.

Among them, the priests of the Magic Goddess were basically all Mages or Arcanists; there were very few who only mastered holy power, and they were generally not treated differently.

As for the Moon Goddess, aside from the fact that Xia Duo clearly knew the Great Arcanist Saville had been exiled by Divine Punishment for provoking the Moon Goddess, there were no further Divine Miracles, and even her priests existed only in legend; very few people had ever seen one.

The only Temple or shrine was a Moon Monastery on Sulunfeng in the north, which was basically inaccessible and rarely had any news leaked from it.

However, the Moon Goddess Selune was indeed a confirmed True God.

As for the Lord of Death, through his experiences in the 【Projection Plane: Birth of Radiance】 and some legends of the Main Plane, Xia Duo had roughly guessed that some changes might have occurred at the beginning of the founding of Netheril.

The Death Priests, who had originally occupied a position of absolute leadership, had inexplicably declined for some reason, one could even say they had fallen into the dust overnight.

Nowadays, most Death Priests could only reside within the Temple of the Lord of Radiance, their presence extremely low, let alone wielding power or influencing politics.

And the Elf chief god had little faith among humans; as for priests, there were probably only that group of treacherous human Druids.

Therefore, in Netheril, when speaking of clergy or priests, in the vast majority of cases, one was referring to the priests of the Lord of Radiance.

And because of the limitations of their doctrine, even though the priests of the Lord of Radiance possessed enormous influence among the lower classes, it was very difficult for them to influence the upper ruling class.

They basically existed as dependents.

The only path to a counterattack was probably to become a Mage, and the most famous among them was the Great Arcanist Kelifu.

Being able to grow from a marginalized minor priest into one of the fifteen most powerful people in Netheril today, Kelifu was simply a legend.

The Leisen Territory, which Xia Duo had originally planned to visit to find a way to downgrade after the King-Slaying Star disappeared, had a very close relationship with the Great Arcanist Kelifu.

The reason the Lord of Leisen continued to serve as a lord after losing his magic power was mainly because his son was an Arcanist and also a student of Kelifu.

The son did not want to take over, and at the same time had a powerful teacher, so the father naturally had no choice but to continue enduring it, while others could only watch.

Xia Duo had also learned quite a lot about Kelifu's deeds while inquiring about the situation in the Leisen Territory; to be honest, he was truly shocked.

It was as if Laidun, his subordinate, had suddenly started learning magic and grown all the way to become a Great Arcanist; it was truly incredible.

Truth be told, in the future after magic became popularized, it was not impossible for Laidun to become a Great Arcanist, but Kelifu had achieved this in an era where magic was relatively backward; the difficulty was completely different.

Even in Kelifu's era, the magical atmosphere of Netheril was not as conservative as it was now, and ordinary people could come into contact with 【Nether Scroll】s, but the difficulty was still not small.

The fact that there were only fifteen Great Arcanists in Netheril on the surface was enough to illustrate his legend.

Of course, a Great Arcanist who had grown up from a priest could not change the overall environment of Netheril; the reality that priests were in a subordinate position remained unshakable.

And based on this reality, many secrets regarding holy power were actually not secrets, especially for the lord class.

When Xia Duo asked Bishop Anbulier of the Savile Territory to help lift the Petrification state of Jiabasi and his son, he had once consulted him on questions such as the origin and characteristics of holy power.

And Bishop Anbulier naturally would not refuse the husband of the lord he served, even if it involved the foundation of his power, and Laidun, who was by Xia Duo's side, was even more forthcoming with everything he knew.

Information provided by those who had just achieved holy power, like Laidun, was even easier for ordinary people to understand, not to mention the relevant records in the Tower of Time.

Therefore, Xia Duo was relatively familiar with the process of obtaining holy power, and the greatest difficulty in this lay in obtaining a response from the source of holy power.

For the priests of the Lord of Radiance, the source of holy power was naturally the Lord of Radiance; before receiving a response from the Lord of Radiance, no matter how hard one tried, it was impossible to possess holy power.

Of course, as long as one regulated oneself according to specific doctrines and philosophies, the Lord of Radiance would certainly respond, and once holy power was perceived, unless one abandoned their Faith, the holy power would exist forever.

But the Elf chief god was different; even though Yatewude had not abandoned his Faith at the time, just because he was unwilling to go to Cormanthor to pay homage under sensitive circumstances between the two countries, his holy power had automatically dissipated.

This level of interference in the Mortal Plane was simply the act of an evil god.

From this perspective, the Lord of Radiance appeared particularly likable; even Xia Duo would recite a few lines of the "Sacred Proverbs of the Lord of Radiance" from time to time.

And now, the Natural Druid under the New Natural Philosophy that he wanted to develop, which was different from the Elf Druid doctrine, was, as the name implied, directly using Nature as the source to perceive holy power.

The greatest difficulty here was that 【Nature】 was not a specific existence, but a collection of all things, or simply a kind of cognition, a kind of philosophy.

Whether one could directly perceive holy power from Nature, Xia Duo was actually not sure in his heart.

Even though in the game background before his transmigration, there were clerics and Druids who did not need to believe in gods, in this real magical world—

Questions such as what the essence of holy power was, what the Principles of its generation were, and what kind of existence the gods were, were all still a big question mark.

Just relying on a few lines of background description from the game before his transmigration was not enough to make Xia Duo firmly believe in the existence of Natural Druids, but he was indeed filled with such anticipation.