Cyprus is too far away from Italy, and Lu Xiao does not plan to compete with the Ottoman Brotherhood and the Egyptian Brotherhood.

In contrast, southeastern France shares a direct border with Italy and can be reached by land relatively smoothly.

However, before going to France, Lu Xiao planned to complete the two side quests hanging in Italy.

Although the general whereabouts of the Sword of Eden were learned from Rodrigo, more specific information still needs to be investigated by the French Brotherhood, and it may be difficult to get accurate information in a short period of time.

The side quest to collect Altaïr's Codex and Assassin tokens has rich rewards, and before heading to France, Lu Xiao plans to get these rewards to strengthen himself and pave the way for his next move.

As the Grand Master of the Templar Order, Rodrigo had also been arranging for the collection of Altaïr's Codex, and the map of the Piece of Eden hidden in the Codex was important to both Organizations.

Forced by Giovanni's threats, Rodrigo was reluctant, but eventually threatened his life and revealed the location of the Codex collected by the Templars.

Counting the 3 pages collected by Lu Xiao and the 6 pages obtained by Giovanni and others in the early days, a total of 30 pages of codex, the Brotherhood only got 9 pages.

The Templars benefited from an intelligence network throughout Italy, and they were able to collect more pages than the Assassins, 12 pages in all.

Five of the pages collected in Tuscany are stored in the Palci Mansion in San Gimignano, the territory of the Pache family.

The remaining 7 pages were found in Venice, a city of water in the north, and were kept by the local Templar Remember Barbarigo.

Due to the large number of pages found in Venice and Tuscany far greater than elsewhere in Italy, the Templars speculated that the remaining fragments of the Codex should have been scattered throughout Tuscany and Venice.

"Venice?" Giovanni looked up and recalled, "Ancestor Domenico was forced to tear down the Codex because he was attacked by pirates hired by the Templars, and it is only logical that most of them ended up in the port area. ”

With the deaths of Francesco and Vieri, and the arrest of Jacopo for rebellion, it is inevitable that the Pache family will fall into decline, and their territory of San Gimignano will be annexed by Florence.

"I'll inform Mario and ask him to take Ezio with him to San Gimignano to recover 5 pages, but Venice ......"

Lu Xiao volunteered and said: "Venice will be handed over to me, anyway, there is no definite news about the Holy Sword for the time being, I plan to take advantage of the time I am waiting for the news to find all the tokens of the Codex and the Assassin's Tomb." ”

Giovanni nodded, "Okay, I'll write to inform the local Brotherhood members and ask them to assist you as much as possible." ”

"But you have to be careful, Venice is not like Florence with the care of the Medici family, so keep an eye on everything."

……

Rodrigo's attempt to overthrow the Medici rule was shattered, and Florence was restored to peace, at least for a long time to come.

Having decided to travel to Venice to collect the remaining Assassin tokens and codexes, Lu Xiao began to prepare for the trip as soon as order returned to normalcy in Florence.

In this operation to capture Rodrigo, Lu Xiao's Hidden Blade and boot blade were seriously damaged.

The Hidden Blade has been repaired under the maintenance of the Auditore family's dedicated blacksmith, but the blade of the boot is more troublesome.

Giovanni looked at the broken boot blade with a headache, and said helplessly to Lu Xiao: "I'm sorry, we lack understanding of this weapon unique to the Eastern Brotherhood, and we don't understand how to remove the broken blade and reinstall it at all. ”

Lu Xiao nodded and said thoughtfully: "Perhaps, I know that there is a person who knows how to tinker, but I'm not sure if he is trustworthy in the eyes of the Brotherhood." ”

"Who?"

"You must know him, Leonardo da Vinci, one of the artists financed by the Auditore family."

Giovanni paused for a moment: "Leonardo? I know he's a great artist and a character worthy of the Brotherhood's trust, but ...... Are you sure he can do such an ingenious weapon tinkering? ”

Lu Xiao smiled and said, "Don't underestimate him, Leonardo is a genius, and his talent is not limited to art." ”

"Since Mr. Giovanni thinks he can be trusted, I plan to visit him in the near future and ask Leonardo to make some interesting gadgets by the way."

……

The Assassin Brotherhood kept its promise and basically drained Rodrigo of the information he knew, and at Mario's behest, Rodrigo was safely released by the Florentine Brotherhood.

Some of the more radical Assassins were critical of Mario and Giovanni's decision, believing that it was time to get rid of Rodrigo and deal a major blow to the Templars' power throughout Europe.

Moderates believed that killing Rodrigo would ignite the enmity between the Templars and the Assassins, provoke endless revenge, and might even offend the Catholic Church altogether.

Both sides had their own reasons, and neither could convince the other, but it was Mario Auditore da Firenze, the leader of the Italian Brotherhood of Assassins, who made the final decision.

Mario may seem reckless, but he is actually a man of the thick and thin, and after weighing the pros and cons, he decides to take his brother Giovanni's advice and release Rodrigo.

Standing outside the southern gates of Florence, Rodrigo looked back at the city that had humiliated him with a somewhat complicated look, and his mentality had changed a little during this capture.

The Knights Templar, mired in internal turmoil, received the news of Rodrigo's release and immediately arranged for the elite to come and pick him up.

Rodrigo was escorted by a large number of Templars from Florence and headed south to Rome, the headquarters of the Holy See.

At the same time, Uberto, Jacob, and others were convicted of treason and hanged in the square in front of the church of Santa Maria del Fiore, and the crisis in Florence was finally officially resolved.

The fate of the members of the Auditore family also changed in an important way during this upheaval.

After conquering San Gimignano with the help of the Florentine army, Mario and Ezio were able to obtain the Codex pages stored in Pacci's mansion, and Ezio and Petruccio brought the undeciphered pages back to Florence.

After this turmoil that shook the foundations of Florence, Federico, who had always been a child, became a lot more mature and stable.

Although he still likes to make innocuous jokes on a daily basis, his dedication and concentration to the work of the Assassins has significantly improved.

In view of this, Giovanni decided to make his eldest son completely independent, and installed him in the goodwill envoys sent to Siena by the Medici family, protecting Giuliano Medici, the main member of the legation.

Claudia has been in a bit depressed recently, because Claudia, who has received a traditional education since childhood, refused to have a relationship with her fiancé Ducchio before marriage, and Ducchio, who couldn't control the lower half of her body, cheated before marriage, and was coincidentally bumped into by Federico.

The black-bellied Federico did not expose Ducchio on the spot, but forced his anger to arrange for his entourage to go home and call his sister and parents, and the whole family watched the hungry Ducchio flirt with a fat ugly girl.

Needless to say, the furious Giovanni ignored gentlemanly etiquette, grabbed Ducchio and beat him fatly, and announced the termination of Claudia's marriage to him on the spot.

Upon his return to Florence, Ezio learned of the news shortly after, and an enraged Ezio rolled up his sleeves and tried to rush out to teach Ducchio a lesson he would never forget, but Claudia stopped him in a frustrated mood.

"That humanoid planter has nothing to do with me anymore, don't make me think of him again."

After Giovanni's decipherment, the encrypted contents of the 5 pages were finally presented to the Brotherhood.

The pages contain a number of images, including Codex 25, a portrait of Altaïr's wife, Maria Thorpe...... I have to say that Altaïr's painting skills are quite good.

In addition, Codex 15 is the source of Rodrigo's knowledge of the whereabouts of another golden apple, which depicts a complete map of the island of Cyprus.

Codex 16 and Codex 18 are purely textual accounts of Altaïr's suspicions about the future presented by the Golden Apple, as well as his arguments and insights with his fellow Assassins.

The final page, Codex 22, is the most important of the harvested pages, in which Altaïr depicts an incomplete map of the world, which marks the whereabouts of several Pieces of Eden.

Although the American continent was missing, it was amazing enough that Altaïr could draw this map, given his time.

Asia, Europe, Africa, and even Oceania were all included, which was supposed to be a fragment of Altaïr's knowledge from the golden apple.

Lu Xiao and Giovanni discussed it with interest, "I'm really looking forward to what the full world map will look like when I get the pages together, and this is just the tip of the glacier recorded in Altaïr's Eden Apple." ”

"How many artifacts from the First Civilization are still preserved in this world, I really hope that I can find them all one day."

'To accomplish the task...... But considering the cost of time, this is just a good wish after all. ’