War could destroy everything. The escaping Titans thought that they would be slaughtered by the Tanggulas Empire, but the Blood Knights were summoned back and gathered at the upstream of the Redwater River, ready to cross at any time. The Holy Church's Knight Legion was responsible for cleaning up the Duchy.
The priests started to recruit believers, and more than a hundred churches were built. As long as you believed in the God of Light, you wouldn't be killed, and you could take back your lost land and farmers.
The nobles of the Titan Empire didn't hate the Holy Church as much as the people of Qin Yinren, especially the small nobles. The Agares Family had disappeared, so many small nobles started to rely on the Holy Church in exchange for freedom and wealth.
The nobles who didn't listen were captured by the Inquisition and sent to the Black Prison. They couldn't come out for the rest of their lives. Therefore, the north of the Redwater River had a short period of peace. It seemed like the war was over. It was late autumn, and winter was coming. The farmers didn't need to work, and most of them were forced to repair the broken cities.
The Holy Church made it sound good, but more than half of the nobles were killed. Otherwise, where would the Holy Church get the land to build churches and expand their assets? They left some of the nobles alive to spread the god's mercy. Once the nobles of the Titan Empire were divided, they couldn't gather together to fight against the Holy Church. The north was conquered just like that.
The Holy Church had thousands of years of experience in doing this, and it was flawless.
After occupying the north of the Redwater River, the Tanggulas Empire had another barrier in the south. It was impossible for the Cloud Empire to break through on land and threaten the Tanggulas Empire. The Tanggulas Empire only needed to defend the important cities along the coast and stop the Cloud Empire's fleet from landing. Then, they could organize their forces and break the stalemate.
The Cloud Empire's army was far weaker than the navy, and the Tanggulas Empire was worried that the Cloud Empire would attack from both sides. If that happened, even if the Cloud Empire's army wasn't as strong as the Tanggulas Iron Cavalry, the Tanggulas Empire would still be in danger.
Once that happened, the Tanggulas Empire would be fighting on three sides. At that time, who could guarantee that Scochenya wouldn't hit them when they were down? The Scochenya people were greedy. As long as there were benefits, those mercenaries would swarm over.
Therefore, the Tanggulas Empire couldn't help but invade the Titan Empire unless the Cloud Empire was willing to sign an alliance with the Tanggulas Empire. The problem was that the Vatican wanted too many things, and the Yunliu Royal Family could not back down. Just from taxes alone, the Church took almost half of the income from the Tanggulas royal family every year.
In other words, although the Tanggulas Empire had the largest land area among the four great empires, its actual income was the lowest. Because of the existence of the Vatican, the Tanggulas Empire had always had a heavy tax burden. Even so, the Tanggulas Empire was unable to extricate itself from its predicament.
The people of the Tanggulas Empire suffered the most, and the Vatican often gave alms to the poor, so they had a good reputation. How could the peasants understand these things? If not for the Vatican, the Tanggulas Empire's taxes would not be so high. Moreover, the Vatican also occupied a large amount of land. Apart from building churches, there were also the Vatican's own fields.
The Tanggulas Empire had conspired with the Vatican to conquer the world, and their first step was to invade Jialou Lan. This was because the people of Jia Loulan were extravagant and far less valiant than Qin Yin. Who would have thought that Great Emperor Qin Yin would personally lead the army and mess up the situation? The Church played along and killed Great Emperor Qin Yin. But Great Emperor Qin Yin was dead, and the Vatican also suffered heavy losses.
Because of this, the situation in Jia Loulan was balanced again, and the negotiations between the Tanggulas Empire and Yun Liu also broke down. Therefore, they immediately invaded Titan to stabilize the situation at the border.
Everything went very smoothly, until today.
Light Plains, Holy City. This was the largest church in the empire. This church was also the center of divine power, where the 32nd Pope handled official business.
The Nicole Cathedral was made up of more than a hundred buildings. At the highest point in the center was an open altar. This altar had a radius of 100 meters and was open to the air. It was the core of the entire city.
At the center of the altar, there were complex divine texts, patterns, lines, and mysterious symbols. There were a total of 24 tall pillars on the four sides of the altar. No matter the time of day, sunlight would shine through the crystals at the top of these pillars, and the condensed light would shine on the altar.
The altar was originally flat, but now there was a stone platform on it. On the stone platform, there was a book of the Vatican's Code of Codex. In front of the stone platform, an old man in a golden robe stood there with a solemn expression. Behind him was a group of bishops in red.
At the center of the altar, at the center of the symbols used for the sacrifice, was a charred human body.
The Holy Church had to use living people for their rituals. This living person was an elite of the Holy Church. After the baptism of the gods, his strength immediately increased by two levels, and he was qualified to become a Cardinal Bishop. This time, the gods were enraged, and they burned this believer with a bright future into coal.
Beside the Pope, a middle-aged man in a yellow robe picked up the book and flipped to the back. His lips trembled as he read line by line, and he was speechless for a while.
"Sharjah, what happened?" The Pope was in a bad mood as he looked at the person who was burned to death.
In the battle with Emperor Qin Yin, the Pope lost the most forces, and the seven God Messengers retained the most strength. The God Messengers already had the intention to leave the Pope. Faka was too ambitious. If he succeeded, the Holy Church would be divided for the first time since its establishment.
This Red Deacon was carefully selected by the Pope, and his strength was equivalent to a level 7 human Magic Shooter. After the baptism of the godly light, he would immediately become a level 9 master. However, the gods were enraged, and this elite was killed in the godly light in less than a second.
The cardinals were silent. Ditheo claimed that he was severely injured and didn't have much time left, but in reality, his injuries weren't severe enough to kill him. The few disloyal people were killed by the Pope, and the cardinals didn't dare to do anything else.
Sharjah was the Pope, and he was the Chamberlain of the Pope. He didn't have a lot of power, but if the Pope died accidentally and didn't appoint a successor, he would be the temporary Pope. At the same time, as the Pope, he had a very important godly item – the Ring of Gods.
It was said that the God of Light created the Ring of Gods by killing many gods in the Godly World. This godly item was even more powerful than the three godly items of the Pope. However, the Ring of Gods could only unleash its full power with the God of Light, and humans couldn't control it.
Sharjah closed the book and said, "Sir, the gods … sent an oracle."
"What?"
The cardinals weren't the only ones shocked. Even the Pope was shocked. Generally speaking, the God of Light would only send down an oracle after a special ceremony. Furthermore, there had never been a time when the oracle was directly written down and published in the law book.
"There are many believers of the gods on the Radiant Continent."
Sharjah's words made everyone feel numb. The Vatican had been hunting and killing heretics for the past few years. The lifespan of humans was limited. After two to three hundred years of killing, even if the believers weren't caught, they would have died. The Vatican had spies all over the continent, searching for heretics. It could be said that there hadn't been a real heretic for more than five hundred years, except for black mages.
However, the demons that black mages believed in were not real gods, and they couldn't use faith to spread their teachings. This time, the gods were enraged because the heretics were real believers of the gods.
The God's power in Salin's body came from the Tree of Life and didn't contain faith, so it was hard to detect. When the black-robed bishop returned to Tanggulas, he didn't report it to the Pope, but wanted to settle it within the jurisdiction of the Inquisition.
And the God's power that Ismail emitted was the real power of faith. He frequently used the Elemental Spear and the Eye of Hades in the Purgatory space that the God of Light had personally refined. Even if the God of Light couldn't descend to the Myers Continent, it was impossible for him not to detect it.
His two powerful believers were killed by Ismail. For many years, no one had challenged his authority on the Myers Continent. If this was done by an ordinary person, the gods wouldn't care at all. But this was done by another god's believer, and the God of Light was furious.
The worst thing was that Nelis was using the power contained in the Divine Crystal to erase the mark of the gods in the 12 Movements of Purgatory bit by bit, making the God of Light think that the believers of the gods were challenging his dignity.
This was like going to someone's house, killing the servants, and then changing the title deed to take away the house.
"The Holy War must be brought forward. All those who refuse the gifts of the gods must be killed." Sharjah's voice was bitter because he knew that on the Myers Continent, the Vatican didn't have this ability. But this was the will of God, and it couldn't be disobeyed.
Pope Dinicio was silent for a full five minutes before saying to Sharjah, "Then, where's Faka?"
"Lord Faka isn't in the Holy City. He's been gone for a few months."
"Call the chief judge over …" Dinicio sighed deeply. Although the Vatican had already launched a war, the scale of the war was well controlled. The Holy War was different. Once the Holy War was launched, the Vatican would immediately use all its power to launch an all-out attack on the enemy.
Ismail had no idea that killing two adjudicators would cause such a big problem. He wasn't the only one who was going to die. Countless living beings on this continent were going to die soon.
Sharjah bowed and retreated. The Pope looked back at the dozens of red-robed bishops and said coldly, "What are you waiting for? Arrange for me to see His Majesty. At this time tomorrow, ask him to come here."
"Yes, Your Holiness." The red-robed bishops left in a panic. What happened today was too shocking. How many years had it been? The gods had never been so angry. These red-robed bishops were more or less afraid because their usual actions were not in line with the teachings of the Holy Church. They didn't know if the gods saw everything.
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