When Baiyi arrived, Vice President Grant, who was in charge of the conference, stepped forward to greet him. He shook Baiyi's hand and said, "Almost everyone is here. Please, come in." He nodded to Tisdale, who had come with Baiyi, in a friendly manner, and led the two of them into the hall.
'Looks like this guy is a little nervous, huh?' Baiyi thought to himself. 'This Vice President, who cares a lot about his reputation, always talks a lot when they meet. I've never seen him act so decisively today. It looks like this is really an emergency conference.'
Baiyi walked into the conference hall. Other than the Sorcerer's Association, there were a few great sages from the Doors of Conundrum, the Craftsmen's Association, the Alchemists' Association, a Prince, and even two representatives from the Warrior's Association. 'Are these burly fellows really fit to attend a conference like this?'
The Church was the only one who did not send anyone. Logically speaking, the Church should have been notified about this, and the fact that they did not send anyone meant that they had something to do with the incident.
The group sat down at their assigned seats. Everyone else was squeezed tightly together, except for Baiyi, who had two empty chairs on either side of him. Even the people from the Doors of Conundrum did not dare to sit too close to him. Ever since he had fallen out with the Church, the pedants had deliberately drawn a line between them.
"I've done some research on this incident, and this is what I've gathered …" Vice President Grant, who was the moderator of the conference, gestured for one of his subordinates to distribute the documents to everyone present. Baiyi took the documents and flipped through them. They were all records of the strange occurrences that had occurred the night before.
Most of them were the sudden disappearance of people or items, which was relatively common. For example, an entire team of excavators in a resource-rich realm had mysteriously disappeared, and half of the goods stored in a warehouse had disappeared without a trace.
Some were more bizarre, even bizarre. For example, an expedition team member who was exploring a realm suddenly lost an arm. Another example was a noble who had purchased a private realm and was in the middle of a French salon with his lovers and maids. Suddenly, the lower half of a woman's body, which had been moving up and down his waist, disappeared. Blood gushed out and covered his entire vision. When he wiped the blood off his face, he realized that only the lower half of the luxurious manor was left. It was as if someone had slashed it with a knife.
Baiyi did a rough count. There were a total of 33 strange occurrences that had occurred the night before, involving many different forces. the number of casualties and property losses was incalculable.
However, there was some good news. For example, the Sorcerer's Association's treasury suddenly lost some of its savings, and coincidentally, it rained gold coins on a construction site in another realm. The workers thought that it was a miracle, and they happily fought over the coins. There was another case where a maid working in a noble's private manor suddenly disappeared and reappeared in an unexplored realm. Her life was on the line, and she was rescued by an expedition team.
There was also another case where a noble's private plantation was invaded by two bandits who claimed to be students from Da Vinci. One of the bandits was a Northerner, and they immediately got into a fight with the noble's private army, which resulted in more than ten casualties. The identities of the two bandits and their motives were still under investigation.
In conclusion, out of the 33 cases, less than ten of the missing people or items were recovered. Most of the cases were completely lost, and the losses were still significant.
After all, the current craze for plane development had yet to subside. This was especially so after seeing that the university organization was building academies, laboratories, training grounds, mines, and so on in various small planes. It added fuel to the fire and increased the popularity, causing more people to invest in it.
Nowadays, if a noble did not have a private manor in a small realm, they would be too embarrassed to greet guests at a banquet. If an organization did not control a few resource-rich realms, it would not be able to keep up with the times.
Such a wave of realm exploration would, of course, boost the economy of the entire country. Naturally, the royal family supported it with both hands. According to a rumor, the current emperor already had dozens of miniature realms that he used to keep his mistresses.
The Church was the only one who was not interested in this craze. Until now, they had not participated in any realm exploration activities. Instead, they waited for other realms to be developed and then built their own churches. This was proof that the Church knew better than anyone else the effects of the Angel Summoning Ritual. However, when the Church had summoned angels in the past, people had not yet controlled so many small realms, so they did not feel anything. Now, however, the Church still dared to do the same thing.
Baiyi, who understood this, stood up and prepared to speak. The noisy atmosphere in the meeting room instantly died down, and everyone remained silent as a sign of respect to the Fifth Walker.
"I already know the reason, so there's no need for you to guess blindly. It's like this …" Baiyi repeated what the War God had explained to him, using the same method that the War God had used to demonstrate. The only difference was that he did not mention the fact that the ritual could not be forcefully interrupted.
Baiyi's goal was simple. He wanted the nobles, whose interests were at stake, to band together and exert pressure on the Church, forcing them to stop the summoning ritual. Although the War God had said that the ritual could not be interrupted, it was still possible for the nobles to stop it on their own accord. Even if they did not stop the ritual, the Church would not dare to summon an entire legion of angels in one go under the pressure of society, right? If only two or three of them came, wouldn't that be a free meal for Baiyi? This was another way to weaken the enemy.
The reason Baiyi did not tell the nobles that the ritual could not be interrupted was because he hoped that they would be more forceful and resolute in pressuring the nobles.
Baiyi did not hold much hope that the nobles would be able to use force against the Church. After all, the nobles and the Church had some form of mutual benefit, so it was more than enough for them to scold the Church on his behalf. Besides, the nobles' combat prowess was not something that he could rely on.
Perhaps it was because the Church had always maintained a good image, but after Baiyi's explanation, the nobles did not seem to believe him.
"How is that possible? I don't believe that the Church would do something that would harm the entire world! "The Prince was the first to refute Baiyi's statement.
Baiyi looked down at the document in his hand and retorted, "Your sons have disappeared, and yet you still want to clean up the mess for them?"
"I have 18 sons!" the prince replied with a hint of pride.
A representative from the Sorcerer's Association stood up and said, "The Church has conducted angel summoning rituals before, but there has never been such a large-scale incident!"
"That's because we didn't control that many realms in the past!" Baiyi replied.
"Master Hope, I don't mean to be disrespectful, nor do I doubt your judgment, but I am very curious as to how you came to know about this. Can you explain it to me?" A Great Sage from the Doors of Conundrum asked politely, perhaps out of respect for Baiyi's status.
"See if anyone from the Church is here?" Baiyi asked.
"Uh … That's not very convincing. Maybe they're here because … "The Great Sage hesitated, glancing at Baiyi. Everyone knew what he was trying to say. If the Great Demon Hope was present at the meeting, the Church's emissary would be killed on the spot.
"Let's get to the point. Since they conducted a summoning ritual of this scale and caused such an effect, they must have purchased a lot of magical materials related to the Realms. These materials are all controlled by the Sorcerer's Association, and they have clear records of their purchases. Can't we just check it out?" Baiyi said, turning to Vice President Grant.
"Please wait a moment." The Vice President nodded solemnly and instructed his subordinates to carry out the task.
After a while, a subordinate came back with a few records. He flipped through a few pages and handed them to the Vice President. The Vice President took them and looked at them carefully. His expression became more and more serious.
It was obvious that Baiyi was right. He had expected this to happen.
After all, even the cleverest housewife could not cook a meal without rice. If the Church wanted to build a Dimensional Passage of this scale, they could not just rely on faith alone. They would need to use Dimensional Formations and other magical items, so they would need to procure the necessary materials from the Sorcerer's Association. Although Baiyi did not know what kind of Dimensional Formations they were going to build, or what they would need, he knew that there were only so many Dimensional Formations, so there was no way around it.
"Since a year ago, the Church has been continuously purchasing various dimensional materials from the Association. Their excuse is to build a series of their own dimensional teleportation arrays so that it would be convenient to set up churches in other planes." Vice President Grant looked at the shocking numbers on the record book and continued, "But this amount … Isn't it a little too much …"
"Using these materials will cause these consequences?" A representative from the Warrior's Association asked, waving the materials in his hand.
"Yes. If we build too many dimensional teleportation arrays, and if we don't have professional guidance, it will cause all sorts of accidents. This is one of the reasons why the Association lists dimensional materials as controlled items. With the Church's purchasing volume, we wouldn't sell it to other organizations, but they are the Church after all … "Vice President Grant frowned and answered honestly.
At that moment, the whole place fell silent. Apart from Baiyi, everyone had a constipated expression on their faces.
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