The capital of the Nopton Empire, Van Kle City.

The magnificent Grand Temple of Cardinals, since the date of its completion, has experienced nearly 10,000 long years, successive popes have renovated and expanded again and again, making it the starry world, the premier temple city in the camp of human civilization.

In this unprecedentedly magnificent temple city, the glory of the Lord God of the Great War has shone for thousands of years, and every brick, tile, grass and tree here has an indescribable majesty, and the reverence for the gods has penetrated into the bone marrow of all believers here.

In a secret conference room somewhere in the main temple, two rows of heavy golden thrones encrusted with rare gems were set apart, and on each seat sat a dignified-looking cardinal, male and female. Anyone who is placed outside is a big man who calls for wind and rain, and he has great power and massive resources.

Pope Nicholas III, the contemporary emperor of the empire and the supreme ruler of the Church, sat on the throne at the top, his face so gloomy that he almost dripped water.

He looked at the first empty throne to his left, which belonged to Cardinal Archbishop and Son Loki.

Loki is his son-in-law, the legal first heir to the throne, and because he has been blessed by the will of the great god of war, he is also the best choice for the next pope.

It's just that this favorite son of his own, after being captured in the last war, has been detained in the Xingshan Empire, and the arrogant Qin Feng has never let go and sent him back, even if it is a full-scale war with the God of War Church.

At this moment, an elderly cardinal was standing on the ornate carpet, carefully reporting under the gaze of many great people:

“…… Due to the continuous attacks and destruction by unknown forces, 26 port cities, including Yarak Port and Aofan Port, have been basically destroyed, and the remaining 59 ports have been seriously damaged, and on the west coast, there are less than 20 ports that can still function normally, and all of them are limited in scale and cannot carry too many materials and soldiers to transfer ......"

"The empire has lost nearly 9,000 large sea ships, a large number of experienced sailors, more than 700,000 troops, and the total loss of various logistics materials, food and ordnance exceeds 350,000 magic crystal ......."

"In the nine provinces of Xante and Nomi in the western region of the empire, more than sixty percent of the nobles, officials and mid-level clergy were assassinated by unknown forces, and some were seriously injured although they did not die on the spot. Those killer assassins were not only numerous, but also extremely insane, even the well-guarded barracks dared to storm, and in the past month, we have lost more than 1,700 mid- and high-ranking officers......"

With the cardinal's report, the faces of all the bigwigs present became more and more unsightly. The material losses were not enough, the empire and the church were extremely strong and could afford to spend it. The key is the loss of personnel, which has caused a lot of panic among the people, and if the shameless acts of those sneak attackers are not stopped as soon as possible, the consequences will be very serious.

What's more, the holy war plan against the Xingshan Empire has almost come to a standstill under such an endless stream of sabotage, and it is an impossible luxury to gather all the required expeditionary troops and materials within the specified time.

Before the two countries officially started fighting, the God of War Church had already lost one round, the second round to be exact.

The cardinal finished his report, bowed and withdrew.

Nicholas III said in a deep voice: "What do you think about this? ”

The cardinals looked at each other, the intelligence system of the God of War Church is not an ornament, and the bigwigs also have their own special information channels, so the ins and outs of this matter are not secrets. It's just that the emperor of the Xingshan Empire is unwilling to sit still, so he uses all the chips in his hand to fight back.

Although the Church responded in a timely manner, dispatching a large number of strong men to stabilize the situation and effectively reduce the number of attacks, the price paid was also huge.

An elegant man who looked to be over forty years old slowly spoke: "In order to keep his position and empire, Qin Feng promised an extremely high price and made a deal with those evil organizations in the dark world, so he had this bottomless sabotage action against us. ”

"Therefore, for the sake of the Empire, and for the sake of our supreme faith, further measures should be taken immediately to put an end to such madness of theirs."

A gray-haired cardinal next to him bowed his head lightly and said: "His Excellency St. Peter is right, we must invest more resources and more powerful forces to counteract, so that that evil heretic can understand that the faith of the great god of war cannot be blasphemed!" ”

A cardinal with a grim face snorted coldly and said angrily, "Which organizations have received the mission commission from the Star Sequoia Empire?" What a daring man! Didn't their principals think about the consequences of daring to be hostile to the Holy See? ”

St. Peter sighed and said, "The top twenty dark organizations in the Xingmeng World are all involved, and it is mainly those alien forces that have made a move, according to the information that has not yet been confirmed, there are still signs of the activities of many alien gods behind the scenes...... Your Excellency St. John, the enemy we need to face is not just the Star Shan's Empire, which was born a few years ago. ”

“……”

St. John's momentum suddenly stalled. The name and strength of the God of War Church are quite effective outside, but the Star World is so vast, and there are not a few forces that do not take the Lord God of War in their eyes, especially those alien gods, I wish that the power of the God of War Church could be severely weakened.

Therefore, when Qin Feng's task was issued, these alien forces were very happy to choose to accept it, after all, the remuneration he gave was indeed generous enough.

Nicholas III frowned and said: "Involving so many organizations and such a large-scale operation, the financial and material resources that need to be used are not a small amount, can Qin Feng afford such a price?" ”

Even with the church's background, it is not easy to do the same thing, Qin Feng has only been the emperor for a few days? How is it possible to come up with such a staggering amount of resources?

St. Peter replied: "There are many giant Mithril mines in the Xingshan Empire, so it is impossible for him to be short of money, but the exact location of those mines has not been figured out by our people, and it is said that only Qin Feng himself and a very small number of henchmen know. In the past few years, he has purchased tens of millions of slaves, as well as a large number of alchemy mining machinery, and more than a tenth of the slaves are unknown, so they should have been sent to mine Mithril. ”

The cardinals couldn't help but change color, needless to say how large the Mithril Mine that needed millions of slaves to continue to exploit, even the largest Mithril mines in the Nopton Empire did not use such a large number of manpower.

No wonder Qin Feng was so wealthy and dared to throw money uncontrollably, and those dark organizations still showed no sign of stopping after losing thousands of elite backbone members, but instead sent more strong people to infiltrate the Qingyan Continent and wait for an opportunity to continue committing crimes, just because the rewards were too rich.

Take people's money and eliminate disasters with others. That's what the dark organization is all about.

Nicholas III said indifferently: "It seems that Qin Feng dares to confront the Holy See, and the biggest bargaining chip is the massive Mithril resources in his hand?" If he can find a way to find the location of those giant Mithril mines, and try to snatch them or destroy them, he won't have the capital to fight us anymore, right? ”

Many cardinals nodded their heads one after another, saying that the confrontation between countries and between forces is essentially a confrontation of financial and material resources.

During World War II in the main world, when the United States finally announced its official entry into the war, all the leaders of the Allied powers invariably breathed a sigh of relief, because the family background of this North American power was too strong, and the industrial production capacity was more than enough to crush the entire Axis camp. So in their opinion, the Confederate camp is a sure win, the difference is only in the time sooner or later.

This law also applies to the Xingmeng World, and there is no problem with the thinking of the Pope and the cardinals, the problem is that they do not know Qin Feng's true secret.

"So, let our intelligence system do whatever it takes to find out what is going on in this area, and we must see the results as soon as possible." Nicholas III paused, the scepter in his hand commanded.

The cardinals had no objection to this, except for an old man with a shriveled face: "Your Majesty, the main ports of the coastal areas have been destroyed, and it will take time to repair them, and it will take at least four or five months to remobilize a sufficient number of ships, supplies and troops, and it will take at least four or five months to complete all the preparations for the holy war, you see......"

St. Peter frowned and asked: "Your Excellency St. Owen, you are in charge of the logistics and material dispatch of the Holy War Army, can you give us a definite answer, is it really enough time for four or five months?" ”

Saint Owen was silent for a moment, and said: "If there are no more large-scale attacks and sabotage, this time is indeed enough. ”

The implication is that if the actions of the dark organization are not effectively stopped, it will be difficult to say how long the Jihadist Legion will prepare.

Nicholas III immediately said: "Then let the church send a greater number of strong people to sit in the western provinces, and we must not let those damn dark organizations continue to stir up trouble!" ”

St. John Senran said: "Qin Feng dares to be so frustrated, we can also fight back and send a large number of people to the territory of the Xingshan Empire to sabotage, I don't believe that he can afford it!" ”

Not surprisingly, the proposal was unanimously adopted.

……

Nomi Province.

In the temple, Cardinal Brooks finished the evening's prayers, the white clerins of the choir withdrew, and the flames on the altar burned and danced as usual, serene and solemn.

Brooks went out in the company of a couple of beautiful priestesses, intending to go back to rest after a routine round. Although it has been very unsafe outside for a while, and many places have been attacked by infidels, as the regional temple of the province, the church sitting in the town is strong enough, so it has always been safe.

Along the spacious corridor, a row of magnificent white marble columns is carved with hymns in praise of the gods, and intricate reliefs and majestic statues of samurai can be seen everywhere.

"Huh?"

Brooks suddenly felt that something was wrong with the atmosphere, the surroundings were unusually quiet, and the temple guards on duty were all gone. When I looked up, the holy light on the top of the temple had already dimmed.

At some point, a heroic young man dressed as a legendary mage appeared in front of him, holding a beautiful girl in white with beautiful black eyes looking at him with interest.

Brooks was shocked to find that with the strength of his super powerhouse, he couldn't even see through the details of the other party, could they be a demigod-level existence?

"This is the cardinal of the Church of the God of War? It's not very good! Qin Luxue said with a little disappointment.

“……”