Chapter 385

An order from President Sir, sparing no expense—we need this deity that matches our world's hegemon status.

Although we already have a deity, why not have more? Agni, come with me for a ride.

Don't worry about spending money; worst case we just raise taxes, make the players suffer a bit, take the blame… let the next term bear it.

Alright, I knew that ship's sacrifice last month would work; I can finally ascend to godhood and become the ruler of all under heaven, right?

This is both blowing cold wind and digging tunnels; I feel there's deep potential to tap in agriculture and industrial production—notify Bureau Chief Zhao, let's strive for it!

Amidst a flurry of orders, if this were the past, such hotly contested items would basically be gambling tables only officials could sit at; ordinary player guilds wouldn't, nor have the strength to intervene.

But now, even if we step back ten thousand steps, the fact that the evil god was coaxed by the old immortal into converting still lets Third Brother slaughter gods and destroy Buddhas on Dark X and Swiftjoy, conquering cities and seizing lands.

If anyone could let the first player deity be born on their side, they'd surely generate a huge celebrity effect!

By then, whether facing rivals, contacting officials, or seeking allies, whatever they do they'll be able to seize more initiative—saying they'd rise like a phoenix isn't an exaggeration!

Thus the private forces put their heads together and reached a very important consensus.

——We must increase our efforts!

Thus officials from each country began contacting the player guilds they were familiar with; various small countries also started to band together for mutual support, and although competition remained between them, for a time those united in heart and virtue actually increased.

Such events affected reality, moreover fostering a bunch of century‑scale reconciliations; various forces, for the sake of the otherworld's interests, temporarily set aside their worldly conflicts, greatly easing global tension.

Mother Earth: Good!

On the other hand, the evil god's church side is about to suffer badly.

Having just escaped death last night, the priests who had barely returned to their old lairs were surprised to discover that several of their outposts had been uprooted again.

Pretending nothing had happened, the noble lords who had taken a good bath and changed clothes in their own castles also discovered, 'Why is there such chaos outside the main city today?'

They deliberated for a while, and finally arrived at an extremely wise conclusion.

——We haven't even started yet, and they're already opposing us—this goes to show how correct our decision is!

"It's obvious we and the Pioneers can only keep one; this is an absolutely irreconcilable contradiction!"

"Unite and steal the Pioneers' home base!"

Meanwhile, as players and NPCs loved and fought each other, the Heavenly Horse Knight Commander who had parted with the Divine Chosen, Haikemedia, also arrived in Windshadow Territory.

Naturally, more than just him was sent by the Holy See; he just went alone for fear of startling the Divine Chosen.

Therefore, under the midday sun, over a hundred Pegasus knights landed on Fengying City's square, drawing a large crowd of onlookers.

Meanwhile, the Fengying Marquis has already made contact with the Pioneers, purchasing from them a Winchester rifle and several revolvers.

Early this morning he took a few confidants out to practice shooting; the results were excellent, and he was happily heading back when he saw his gate about to turn into a horse field.

He felt the mighty holy light undulations from them, then glanced at the little fire stick in his hand...

He hastily put away this beloved revolver, which, being mainly intended for sale to NPC nobles, had been made especially beautiful (and thus especially expensive), then led people over to ask what had happened.

"It's the Fengying Marquis! I've long heard of your great name!"

Although he is a big shot from the capital circle, the Marine Corps commander did not put on an arrogant attitude, but instead asked him about the whereabouts of Archbishop Tennis.

"She should be in the guest room now, perhaps studying something; let me take you to find her."

"Alright, thank you for your trouble."

Thus the two entered Fengying Castle, and under the guidance of the butler and servants came to the guest room on the third floor.

The archbishop was indeed here; the reason she did not go out to greet the reinforcements is that she was reading a book.

No need to guess; it is naturally the guide manual written by Ji Ming, and she has already written study notes of equal thickness.

As an elder of the Church, she naturally knows Hekumedya; this descendant of the Walnut clan was born after the fall of the Holy Tree Kingdom and is a relatively young golden elf.

The Marine Corps commander wanted to find a topic to start with, so he brought up Ji Ming, whom he had just met.

"The situation is worse than I imagined, sir; the Chosen One just left here not long ago and discovered a secret base of the Evil God Church, which, thanks to his bravery and my support, has already been uprooted!"

The Church directly notified the Marine Corps commander to provide support, but did not inform the archbishop who had other duties, so the unaware Tensi raised his head in surprise.

"What? The hand of the Evil God Church has already reached the plains?"

The Marine Corps commander froze for a moment, then hurriedly explained.

"No, I met the Chosen One in Mai Xiang territory!"

"Mai Xiang?"

Tensi took out a map, glanced at it, and found that Mai Xiang territory lies to the southwest of Fengying territory; their northward march did not pass through here.

"Strange, he said he was going on foot to the Royal Capital, so why did he turn back?"

This time it was the Marine Corps commander who was surprised.

"On foot?"

"Yes."

"But when I saw him, he was clearly riding a giant wolf."

"???"

Ji Ming left Fengying territory only a day ago, yet he has already tamed a giant wolf as a mount?

Never mind, young people always have their own little secrets; those who can make it out of Sunshine City won't suffer losses in the kingdom.

Tensi then dropped the topic and asked the Marine Corps commander about what was happening on the Holy See's side.

Upon hearing that the Pope, accompanied by a group of high-ranking officials, had still not left the meeting room, she also stroked her study notes.

"This is indeed a field we have neglected for a long time, but with the development of the times it has become increasingly important; Ji Ming has helped us make up for this shortcoming."

Seeing the archbishop bring up the matter herself, the Marine Corps commander also asked a question he had long wondered about.

"Sir, I have also read that book, but I am doubtful: has the world really become this complex nowadays? I see in ancient texts that until a thousand years ago, the world was a pure and splendid one; what exactly happened in these past few centuries? People's hearts are no longer ancient!"

As a long-lived race, not every elf can have the great sage Buluowa, who self-exiled, traversing the whole planet with experience and pain to achieve self-redemption and make up for personality deficiencies.

The vast majority of them dare not accept the reality that their homeland has been destroyed and the elves are nearly extinct; they choose to live in isolation, hiding deep in the mountains and old forests, thereafter withdrawing from worldly affairs.

Elves like Hekumedya who choose to re-enter the world, still possessing an enterprising spirit and climbing upward step by step, are extremely few.

Moreover, even so, seeing Haike Meidiya's doubtful, even somewhat resistant expression, one could tell they still nostalgically clung to past glory, maintaining that dreamy yet clear foolishness.

In short, it's due to too many good days, lacking the lash of reality!

So Te Ni Si didn't waste any breath arguing with him, going on about what the current reality actually is, how dirty this place is, how chaotic that place is, but we must strive, and so on……

Instead, he directly took out a report on the southern situation compiled from what he had seen and heard along the way, and pushed it in front of him.

"Take a look, this is reality."

The Sea Corps Captain lowered his head, flipped through it, pursed his lips, flipped through again, frowned, and finally simply activated a magic quantum speed-read to go through it once.

But no matter how you look at it, the conclusion is just one word—shit?

"What am I looking at? Why does it feel like this thing shouldn't exist and should be destroyed immediately?"

He couldn't believe the document's authenticity, foolishly asking again.

"Is this... is this really the current situation in the southern part of the Hui Guang Kingdom?"

"Of course."

Asking what the Sea Corps Captain fears most in his life, the first is definitely experiencing the terror described in the book when the Holy Tree fell, so he immediately cried out in shock.

"What do we do then!?"

After noticing his loss of composure, he hurriedly lowered his voice back to the level of "born to eat this voice acting bowl of rice".

"Um, I mean, I originally thought the situation wouldn't be this complicated, but with my abilities I actually can't understand at all why all this is happening; I haven't studied this kind of knowledge, I don't know what to do!"

Te Ni Si fell silent for a moment, then wrote him a note.

"Follow this address to find it; you can find a Pioneers guild called 【Gunblade】, go learn from them, and absorb the Pioneers' wisdom."

The Sea Corps Captain still didn't get it, but he was too embarrassed to ask again, so he put the note away.

Before leaving, he asked one more thing.

"Sir, I actually have another purpose for this trip: I need to contact the Death Knight you captured on behalf of the Church to confirm whether he truly used Holy Light."

Te Ni Si had already turned his gaze back to the book.

"He's currently in the Count's dungeon; he's been honest all along, won't run off—go."

"Honest? Of course he's honest!"

As the hidden fourth member of the Northward Squad, the Death Knight, or rather the deceased Little Lion, has been extremely low-key throughout the journey… yet extremely high-profile.

Saying he's low-key is because he completely didn't participate in mission progress or puzzle-solving, to the point that many might forget he's even on the team.

Saying he's high-profile is because……

When Princess Eleanor was assassinated and everyone was in chaos trying to figure out how to catch the assassin, he befriended the guards, exchanged sword lessons for meals, and ultimately one person killed a hundred servings of steak.

When everyone was negotiating cooperation and development with Duke Jueqiao, finally reaching an agreement to bury the matter, although he didn't take the initiative, he still used his inexplicable charm to successfully swindle a fine bottle of wine from the duke from the maid who brought meals.

When everyone arrived in the Wind Shadow Territory, after finally managing to eat a peaceful meal, they were ambushed again at night; he not only enjoyed a nice dinner, but also chatted with the servants to swindle a luxurious late-night snack.

In short, everyone on this journey faced countless ups and downs and dangers, but only he sat calmly in his own little prison cart or small jail.

All in all, he even gained several pounds!

Thus, when the Sea Corps Captain arrived at the dungeon to find him, just as he pushed open the door, he heard a sound.

"Sorry, miss, I have no interest in a female confidante."

Then came another line.

"Ah! Sorry, sir, I have no interest in taking on underlings."

……

"Um, I also don't need any valiant beast taming."

……

"Wuuuuu…"

The Sea Corps Captain stood there stunned, watching a large group of maids, servants, chefs, cooks, and a small poodle run out from the depths of the dungeon, wailing as they left this sorrowful place.

After dissuading so many people who came to visit him, Little Lion let out a long sigh.

"Please understand, I believe there should be something in this world more important than love and money—it is…… a very important undertaking; I promised someone I would go save…… what, sav, save, sav……"

That feeling of just walking a bit and being able to touch the edge of memory is extremely painful; Little Lion, like a stuck recorder, hummed for a moment, yet heard another set of footsteps approaching.

He habitually refused.

"Sorry, please go back, I truly have no interest in matters of the heart."

Then he saw a tall male elf clad in shining armor silently appear outside the cell.

Now it was Little Lion's turn to become excited; he sprang up and tightly gripped the bars.

"Good heavens, an elf! A golden elf! You…… you're still alive!? Does your people still exist!?"

The Sea Corps Captain was startled by this sudden lunatic, after all, no matter how well-fed the Death Knight is, his face always looks like that of a withered corpse, wrinkled and cold.

Moreover, his gaze was blazingly hot; if it weren't for the Holy Light shackles limiting his power, he might have ripped the iron door off.

Still shaken, he could only shout a rebuke, while drawing the side sword from his waist and using its sheath as a threat.

"What do you mean by this! Sit back down!"

"Oh, sorry……"

Little Lion, who was quickly becoming an apology machine, resentfully sat back onto his bed.

"I'm just a bit too excited; since you still exist, my efforts have meaning, I haven't failed……"

Although the Sea Corps Captain was a bit foolish, he wasn't truly an idiot; upon hearing that, he immediately seized on the doubtful point.

"What do you mean by your efforts? What's your relation to us Golden Elves?"

"Ah?"

The Death Knight, again falling into a muttering state, lifted his head, and after a brief confusion shook his head.

"I don't know; I'm just a bit too excited, this sentence suddenly popped into my mind, I also don't know what it means."

As a Nine Surnames descendant who is quite nostalgic for the former glory, the Sea Regiment Commander, under the influence and education of his forefathers, still understands the events of those days relatively well.

To be able to say such……

「You wouldn't be a Lingxi person, would you? 」