Chapter 103: The Knowledge Church

Bishop Lawrence Martin has been extremely exhausted lately; all of a sudden, he received orders from the Archbishop to travel to the Yinbu Tu Kingdom to meet a so‑called "dragon favored by Omega."

He crossed the entire Enuoak Great Desert in just a few days; Heaven knows what sins he incurred!

The knight assigned to him by the Church was unlucky: on the first day after entering the desert, he was suffocated by a Resonant Tail Dragon hidden beneath the sand. Bishop Lawrence, forced to brandish a hammer he hadn't touched in years, unleashed Divine Spell and fought the dragon in a battle that barely saved his life.

He trudged alone through the desert, encountering Lizardfolk, Desert Ogres, masked bandits of the San Ta Lin Society, and other cursed beings who paid no mind to his priestly robes and attacked at the sight of him.

Fortunately, Lawrence, a 13th‑level priest, was no simple pawn; he recalled his adventuring experience from before he became a bishop, meticulously budgeting each Divine Spell slot, strictly observing an eight‑hour sleep schedule, and ensuring his strength remained at its peak before moving on.

With such caution, Bishop Lawrence finally emerged from the Enuoak Great Desert, his mouth still full of sand; Heaven knows how tearful he was at that moment, and he swore never to set foot in that cursed place again. Naimi Xisi was startled when he saw Bishop Lawrence—at first he thought the sand‑covered, soot‑faced old man was Lawrence's servant, but the man suddenly greeted him, claiming to be a bishop sent by the Knowledge Church.

"Uh, you've certainly been through a lot on this journey," Prince Lei En said with a forced smile, only to receive a resentful glare from Bishop Lawrence.

"It's hard to explain, hard to explain," the grimy old man sighed.

After that, he turned his gaze to Naimi Xisi; upon reaching the royal capital he hadn't even had time to wash, and hurried over to meet him, eager to see the deity that the dragon only shows its head and never its tail.

"Truly worthy of being Juan Ce Long," Bishop Lawrence said with a complex tone. As a 13th‑level priest, he sensed a powerful divine aura on the other side; despite being a newly hatched young dragon, it possessed such a high priestly rank.

Sensing a hint of envy in the bishop's tone, Naimi Xisi smiled and said, "Welcome to the Yinbu Tu Kingdom, Bishop Lawrence."

The Juan Ce Long naturally felt a certain affinity toward the members of the Knowledge Church who worship Omega.

After some small talk, the three quickly got down to business.

Prince Lei En's greatest expectation was that the Knowledge Church would intervene and back the prince's faction, but his hope was rebuffed by Lawrence.

"The Knowledge Church cannot interfere in the internal affairs of mortal nations; that is a rule set by the deities," Bishop Lawrence said with some regret.

Prince Lei En felt a pang of disappointment; he had assumed the Juan Ce Long's actions already reflected the Knowledge Church's will, after all history did record instances of churches openly backing a candidate of a nation.

But clearly, he had overestimated the Knowledge Church's resolve on this matter.

Naimi Xisi remained silent, pondering for a moment, a scheme forming in his mind.

"You say that interfering in mortal nations' internal affairs is a rule set by Omega, correct?" Naimi Xisi suddenly asked.

Bishop Lawrence looked a little bewildered, but nodded.

"What if it isn't internal affairs? What about eradicating the evil forces colluding with demons?" Naimi Xisi hinted.

This time Prince Lei En was at a loss; he couldn't see how colluding with demons related to the queen, but Bishop Lawrence's eyes lit up.

"Hmm, is the charge of colluding with demons valid? Well, it could be, it could not—evidence is too flimsy, etc., Morning Light Church!"

The murmuring Bishop Lawrence suddenly sat up, a little excited, and said, "Perhaps this could actually work!"

Then, he solemnly looked at Prince Lei En and said, "I must go to the city destroyed by demons—yes, Gobellan City—and meet with the Morning Light Church's investigation team."

Prince Lei En seemed to have a thought flash through his mind, yet remained confused; seeing his puzzlement, Naimi Xisi spoke to explain.

"The Morning Light Church has already arrived at Gobellan for investigation; the city now lies in ruins, but it was once a city whose people wholly worshiped the Dawn Lord."

"The Morning Light Church will surely take retaliatory action against the royal family, yet they cannot interfere in mortal nations' internal affairs, unless—"

"Colluding with demons! Concealing the truth of the royal family's dealings with Sai Er, hiding the fact that Mi Ci Li secretly pledged allegiance to the Red Robe Mage—what would that reveal?"

"The Yinbu Tu royal family secretly plotted to obtain ancient demonic power; the Regent Grand Judge covertly sent his most trusted person—his own sister—to break the seal, ultimately causing widespread devastation!"

Hearing this, Prince Lei En fully grasped the Morning Light Church's true purpose.

"Exactly, the Morning Light Church went to Gobellan not to uncover the truth but to destroy evidence! Sazaz Tan could never voluntarily reveal his dealings with the Yinbu Tu royal family!"

After all, the Yinbu Tu Kingdom is but a small nation, lacking Sai Er's massive military might; should the Morning Light Church find an excuse, they could indeed send Holy Knights to judge the royal family's crimes.

Bishop Lawrence sneered, "Those hypocritical Morning Light Church members are still so adept at twisting the rules."

Naimi Xisi chuckled lightly at that remark; within the Juan Ce Long's memory inheritance there was ample information about the Dawn Lord and his followers.

Whether it be the Dawn Lord himself or his true believers, they are extremely superficial; they care only about outward splendor, not whether the underlying logic aligns with justice.

On the Feren Continent, there are often hot‑blooded, naive Holy Knights; most are excellent recruits brainwashed by the Dawn Lord's doctrine, and such individuals are considered relatively pure followers of the Dawn.

Nevertheless, this gives the Knowledge Church an opening: as long as Bishop Lawrence subtly hints to the Morning Light Church that he wishes to side with the prince's faction, their investigation team will uncover a trove of "evidence" of the royal family colluding with demons.

Punishing demonic cultists is the duty of many benevolent deity churches, though most of the time those duties are shouldered by the quietly diligent Justice Church.

The noble blind‑eyed knight—Tir, god of Justice.

Compared with the Dawn Lord, He better embodies the totality of ordinary people's sense of justice.

His followers also adhere to Tir's doctrine, quietly dedicating themselves to the cause of justice; combating cultists is arguably one of the leading causes of death among Tir's believers.

This Yinbu Tu royal incident should originally have passed through the usual process where many benevolent deity churches remain indifferent and the Justice Church steps in to clean up.

But the Morning Light Church, as the genuine aggrieved victim, stepped forward, angrily assuming this responsibility.

The Knowledge Church could do the same. Those who collude with demons provide every church the chance to brandish a sharp blade against them; the difference is merely whether the church chooses to engage.

When no church shows interest, the Justice Church becomes the sole adversary of these cultists; Tir's followers often wield the Holy‑blessed Slash, brimming with positive energy, to intimidate the cultists' guts.

But if another church takes over, the cultists should be even more fearful, for that means the church acts out of genuine hatred to destroy the opponent, fulfilling its duty.

Bishop Lawrence, a senior priest who has lived for most of his life, enjoys extensive connections among churches; the leader of the Morning Light squad sent to investigate Gobellan happens to be an old acquaintance. After finalizing his plan, he set off at once toward Gobellan to meet the other party.

By then, the Morning Light squad had destroyed all evidence that could link Mi Ci Li to the Red Robe Mage; the feathered robe that could turn red was reduced to ash in the flames, and the Space‑Time flow at the site was completely disrupted by powerful Divine Spell, rendering any Divination magic unable to reconstruct the scene.

After Bishop Lawrence departed, Prince Lei En also relayed a piece of information to Naimi Xisi.

"I've been investigating those vampire spawn matters and have some leads,"

"My scouts have visited over a dozen villages, each harboring these creatures; I strongly suspect this is another plot by Sai Er, since those vampires are the favorite pets of Sai Er's Necromancers."

Regarding Prince Lei En's conjecture, Naimi Xisi neither confirmed nor denied it; he felt it wasn't that simple. The earlier friction between Sai Er and the Yinbu Tu Kingdom stemmed from an order by Conjuration's chief, Nie Rong, but Nie Rong is now gone, so why would Sazaz Tan go out of his way to trouble the Yinbu Tu Kingdom?

Thinking of this, Naimi Xisi grew curious about Nie Rong's fate and asked Prince Lei En about it.

Prince Lei En frowned at the question, indicating he wasn't quite sure.

"From start to finish, it was a clandestine transaction between the queen's faction and Sai Er; how could they have informed me?"

"I only noticed fighting traces toward the palace that night; Lei Oriel must have deployed troops to ambush. The capital's garrison subsequently lost three thousand soldiers, and the next day Lei Oriel publicly announced that Nie Rong had died."

"Let them be; none of them are worth anything, better if they all die," Prince Lei En sneered. To him, Lei Oriel, the traitor who sold away territory, was detestable, but Nie Rong, who sought to summon demons, was even more loathsome; he wished the two sides would clash, preferably both suffering defeat. — After the meeting, Naimi Xisi left the prince's manor; since arriving in the capital he had been studying spells and had never properly toured this bustling human city of Yinbu Tu.

"Boss, boss, there are so many humans here!"

The silver‑haired youth walked down the street; his angelic, handsome face attracted many onlookers, but when they saw a Hu Meng perched on his shoulder, its eyes rolling gleefully, they couldn't help bursting into laughter.

After all, they still haven't seen a talking Hu Meng.

Naimi Xisi tugged at the corner of his mouth; every time he lets it out, it's really noisy!

The Hu Meng's lifespan is short, so before the previous hibernation, he already made a familiar contract with it, turning the Hu Meng completely into a familiar life.

Familiars are exclusive to mages and sorcerers; mages often can choose weak animals or even monsters, make a contract with them, and turn them into familiars that share life and death with themselves.

Mages cannot make familiar contracts with powerful monsters, and each different familiar grants the mage different abilities.

For example, choosing a bat as a familiar greatly enhances the spellcaster's hearing; choosing a cat makes the spellcaster's body more agile; choosing a snake makes the spellcaster better at deceiving people, and so on.

Naimi Xisi had never chosen a familiar before, because he had already decided to make the Hu Meng his familiar; once it became a familiar, as a magic-condensed lifeform, the Hu Meng turned into an immortal energy being, and unless Naimi Xisi dies, it will live forever.

And Naimi Xisi is very confident, he will live until the ends of the earth and the end of time.

So he is very curious: what will a Hu Meng that has lived long enough become in the future? The god of Hu Meng in ancient Greece? The grumbling Naimi Xisi in his heart, after making the contract, started to regret it, because the Hu Meng is really noisy; every time it nags in his heart to let it out for a joyride, and when Naimi Xisi releases it from the familiar's pouch, he also has to endure its constant dragon farts.

Although he also enjoys it, that's it.

However, after the Hu Meng became a familiar, it's not completely useless; although as a Hu Meng, the ability it gives Naimi Xisi is one that the Juan Ce Long swore never to use—farting.

But as a familiar, the Hu Meng also has the general functions of familiars.

First, familiars are indestructible and highly malleable energy beings; this means familiars are the best companions for transformation-school mages, because they can use transmutation to turn the familiar into any sized powerful monster.

Usually, transmutation requires considering the creature's size; small creatures cannot become overly huge monsters, but familiars don't need to consider this, because they are magic-condensed life.

Powerful transformation-school mages often arm their familiars to the teeth, then send themselves transformed into a 【four-armed ape】, with the familiar bearing 【Bear's Strength】, to fight the bandits trying to rob them.

This leads to the familiar's second feature—spell linkage.

The 【Bear's Strength】 such enhancement spell can be cast on others, but many spells only affect the caster themselves.

But familiars are an exception.

For mages, all enhancement spells they use on themselves appear with the same effect on their familiar, because fundamentally they have become one.

And the familiar's third function is also very powerful—spell transmission through contact.

Many spells' casting distance requires the spellcaster to touch the target closely, for example, the 【Vampire's Touch】 third-circle necromancy spell; the spellcaster's hand will emanate a faint green light and drain the life force of whatever it touches.

Also, the priest's 【Turn Undead】 likewise requires contact with the undead's body surface.

This is very dangerous for spellcasters, after all, close combat is one of the scenarios they most need to avoid, so contact spells are quite useless.

But the appearance of familiars broke this situation.

A familiar can be regarded as the spellcaster's two hands, using its body to touch the enemy and trigger the spell effect.

Imagine a familiar transformed into an adult red dragon, its whole body equipped with various strong buffs, fighting the enemy; each of its strikes also carries the spellcaster's released 【Vampire's Touch】 such powerful spell.

For mages who possess transformation-school spells, the familiar is the best meat shield, bar none!

Sorry, I attended a wedding yesterday and got blackout drunk. I woke up today at noon, went to the vehicle management office in the afternoon, then was busy all afternoon, after eating I came back and frantically typed, only now finishing. Tomorrow I'll resume six thousand words (end of chapter).