"The bolt embedded in the wall should have been shot from a strengthened heavy crossbow, right? This kind of crossbow is a controlled product. I'm afraid there are only one or two in the whole Golden Tower City. Why did someone come to you with this? "
Liv was silent for a while and sighed deeply.
"… It's a long story!"
Because she had confirmed that he was a reliable friend, she no longer hid it and told him the whole story.
About five years ago, the Church of the God of Aristocracy sent a very powerful senior priest to strengthen their power in the Golden Tower City.
The God of Aristocracy was an active member of the Human God System. Although the level of the god was not high, the goddess, who had become a god more than two hundred years ago, had been actively promoting faith. On the one hand, their church strengthened cooperation with adventurers. On the other hand, they used the advantageous position of the aristocracy to exclude the church organizations of other gods. They had an advantage in many places.
However, the God of Aristocracy also had opponents. In the Human God System alone, there was a god who had a very bad relationship with them — the God of Knights and Pioneers.
In terms of divine power and power, the God of Knights was an old strong man in the Human God System. He had become a god for tens of thousands of years. He was even older than the current God King of the Human God System. He symbolized the development and protection of human military organizations. In ancient times, he was even the God King of the Human God System. Later, the reason why his power declined was because of the continuous development of human society and the continuous emergence of new gods, which divided his priesthood and domain and thinned out his faith.
But even so, he was still much stronger than the God of Aristocracy.
But the strength of the gods could not directly determine the victory of their church in the human world. Knights were suppressed by the aristocracy because of their congenital disadvantage, so the Church of the God of Knights was also at a disadvantage, almost becoming a vassal of the Church of the God of Aristocracy. Only in some pioneering territories, with wandering knights and church knights as the main force, could they not be suppressed.
The preaching of the Church of the God of Aristocracy often began by invading and annexing the faith of the Church of the God of Knights. In the Golden Tower City, there was no exception.
In the face of the aggressive Church of the God of Aristocracy, Knight Parne, as the most prestigious knight in the Golden Tower City and not loyal to any monarch, naturally became the mainstay of the Church of the God of Knight's resistance against the invasion. As the leader of the secular forces of the Church of Knights, he had thwarted the plots of the Church of the God of Aristocracy time and again and firmly held the position of faith. No matter what tricks the new High Priest of the God of Aristocracy played, he was never able to gain a big advantage.
This went on for three years, until an "accident" occurred.
About two years ago, a wealthy businessman who had been doing business here for many years decided to make a big deal. He prepared a large number of magic materials from magical beasts and planned to go to the Kingdom of the Blue Moon in the east of the continent by sea to trade with Garth City, which was rich in fragrant leaves (an edible medium and low-grade spice).
The trade of spices and magic materials had always been the most profitable, but of course, it was also the most dangerous. This kind of business mostly required one to travel far into the ocean. Storms, terrifying sea beasts, and an endless stream of pirates could all lead to the tragic outcome of the ship being destroyed and the lives lost. In order to ensure the safety of the transaction, the merchant had sent out invitations to almost all the more reliable adventurers in the Golden Tower City. In the end, more than a dozen masters, including Knight Parne, decided to do this business together. Under the suggestion of the merchant, they also took out almost all their savings, bought magic materials, and set off together.
Normally, with so many masters in charge, and the merchant had specially invited several experienced old captains, the safety of the fleet should be relatively high. However, no one knew why, when the fleet bypassed the Great Wild Horn of the Iron Cliff Mountains along the southeast coast, they encountered a terrible monster, Timsar, the "Dark Tide".
Timsar, the "Dark Tide" was the most terrible and dangerous sea monster in the southeast sea. It could be called the nightmare of the sea. Almost no fleet that encountered it could survive.
It was said that in ancient times, there had been a powerful demigod named Sarament, the "Living Tsunami". It was the incarnation of storms and giant waves, and one of the most terrible overlords on the sea. But it failed when it tried to become a god. The horror and resentment accumulated over countless years tore the demigod's body, splitting it into two, becoming Heimsarah, the "Angry Tide" and Timsar, the "Dark Tide".
Heimsarah, the "Angry Tide", was a violent but rational demigod. It liked to wander in the coastal waters. Whenever people saw a sudden storm, accompanied by huge waves sweeping those deserted beaches and islands, they knew it was coming. At this time, people often sent sacrifices to it and prayed for its blessing. This kind of prayer generally had only a one-third chance of being answered, but as long as Heimsarah responded to people's prayers, it would temporarily stop wandering to protect the sea from dangerous monsters and storms. About a year or two later, it would float away in a storm, and no one knew where it went.
Timsar, the "Dark Tide", was the opposite. It was a terrible monster that only knew destruction and killing, and there was no way to communicate with it. Every time it appeared, there would be a huge shadow that traversed the bottom of the sea. Wherever it passed, the surface of the sea would be shrouded in decaying fog and cold waves. Countless ghosts and undead creatures in the water surrounded it, madly attacking all living creatures on the surface of the sea, and finally dragging them into the abyss of death. It came and went without a trace, and its actions were without warning. Whenever people noticed that the sky suddenly darkened and the sea under their feet became dark, it was often too late to escape its clutches.
The fleet where Knight Parne was on encountered this terrible monster. They fought with all their might, but in the end, only one ship escaped. The remaining ships, including the flagship of the fleet (the merchant was on the flagship at the time) and the ship where Knight Parne was on, all failed to escape and were buried at the bottom of the sea. The high priest of the Church of the God of Aristocracy was also on the fleet at that time. It was said that he, who always liked to plot behind the scenes, also fought bravely at that time, but he was unable to save his own life.
About a year ago, the ship that had luckily escaped returned to the Commonwealth of Mifata, and the sea trade route was established. In the future, sea merchants would be able to reap huge profits from this trade route, but those who had died while exploring the trade route would never come back.
When the bad news reached the Golden Tower City, at least a quarter of the families in the city fell into grief. But before everyone could recover from their grief, the Church of the God of Aristocracy suddenly appeared and took out many pre-signed contracts to collect debts from each family.
According to the contracts, all the adventurers, including Knight Parne, participated in this voyage in the form of "shares." If they made money, they could receive dividends according to the shares; if they lost money, of course, they would lose money according to the shares.
To be honest, there was nothing wrong with this contract, but it was not until this time that everyone was shocked to find that the merchant had borrowed a large sum of money from the Church of the God of Aristocracy. The amount was astonishing!
According to the original contract, Knight Parne and the others had a lot of shares, so the money they needed to pay was naturally a lot. How could the families, who had lost everything because of the shipwreck, come up with such a large sum of money? They were suddenly in trouble.
The Church of the God of Aristocracy was not a kind person. They immediately came to the door to press for debts. The families of two families of adventurers were forced to commit suicide, and many of the rest were forced to sign contracts, sell their faith and labor, and become subordinates of the Church of the God of Aristocracy.
The crossbow bolt in the corner of Knight Parne's house was left by the creditor to threaten Liv when she had a conflict with the creditor.
Fortunately, some families, including Knight Parne, still had some connections. At that time, a high priest came forward to persuade them, and the Church of the God of Aristocracy reluctantly agreed to extend the time limit for a period of time, but with interest.
In order to pay off the debt, Liv became an adventurer and formed an adventurer group with the children of the families who were also burdened with huge debts. They worked hard to hunt dangerous monsters and earn money to pay off the debt. However, at this time, the Church of the God of Aristocracy used commercial means to greatly reduce the purchase price of the monster materials in the city. Often, they risked their lives to fight for a day, but the income was not enough to pay off the interest!
In this case, the boys and girls were, of course, increasingly anxious, and the Church of the God of Aristocracy came to the door from time to time to press for debts like a ghost, reminding them that the number of debts was increasing, but the date of repayment was decreasing.
"So … when we came just now, you thought we were from the Church of the God of Aristocracy?" Ray asked.
Liv nodded and said angrily, "Those guys are really hateful!"
"Didn't anyone else come to visit?" Ray asked again.
Liv shook her head and said with some frustration, "No. Father's friends either died on that voyage, or they were forced by the power of the Noble Maids (another name for the God of Aristocracy) to cut off contact with us. Now, we young people help each other and encourage each other … but I can't see any hope. "
"Sister, don't be sad. We have money now!" Little Nice saw that her sister was depressed again, and hurriedly grabbed a few gems and sent them to her. "Look, look, so many gems! We can definitely pay off the debt! "
Even though she was a little girl, she was also a woman. Although she couldn't estimate the price of these gems, a woman's nature told her that these gems were worth a lot of money, and it was completely enough to pay off the debt.
Looking at her sister's concerned and happy face, Liv couldn't help but smile.
"Yes, thanks to Mr. Satan, we don't have to worry about the debt," she said. "But when I think of the situation of my friends, it's hard for me to be happy …"
She didn't mean to borrow money. To pay off everyone's debt, it would require an astonishing amount of money. Even if Mr. Ray and Miss Steele were willing to borrow money, they couldn't bring such a huge sum of money with them when they came from afar.
Ray muttered to himself and frowned slightly.
"This matter … I always feel that something is wrong …"
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