Richie gave the trip a very straightforward code name: Operation Storm, and the operation was divided into four parts.

The first link is adaptation and observation, the second link is deterrence, the third link is showdown, and the fourth link is negotiation. This is an ideal scenario, but there are several fallbacks if the situation changes.

The so-called ideal situation is that the "progressives" of the Storm Isles, that is, the queen's faction represented by Hathaway and Menesus, can follow the trend of the times, are willing to break free from the shackles, and more actively join the cause of the Celestial Alliance.

Now in the third link, Operation Storm has also reached its most dangerous moment.

Magicians are rational, but that doesn't mean they're robots that only account for gains and losses, and each family has different tendencies on how to weigh short-term and long-term benefits.

Even if Li Qi threw out the little boy and held the magic guide metal smelt this more powerful nuclear bomb, there was no guarantee that the magician would not take the risk. The magicians of the Storm Islands have been immersed in their own world for tens of thousands of years, and have never been persecuted by anyone in this way, except by nature.

Rich was not optimistic enough to think that he could enter the negotiation process without obstacles, and he could not sit back and wait for the result, so he made corresponding arrangements after the showdown.

Artur led the technicians in his team to the Academy Island, where the court magicians were located, on the one hand, to make up for some basic magic skills that Fei Gong lacked, and on the other hand, to be ready to evacuate at any time. There is an exit from the Storm Islands on Academy Islands, and the administrators also tend to favor the nobles on the mainland.

Li Qi and the witches are too big to run to Academy Island.

He arranged two lines of communication, one provided by Zold, to teleport from Shadow City to the outskirts of Silver City, and then leave the Storm Islands to teleport to the mainland. The other is provided by Rowanna, who first goes to the mage island with whom Rovanna has a deep friendship, and teleports out of the Storm Islands.

Neither of these two lines of communication is very reliable, but they are redundant with each other, which is better than nothing.

These arrangements were prepared for the Storm Islands establishment to turn their faces, and the two families of Hathaway and Menessus were only positive in it, and the main body was still more important, and the mainland was just a negative faction, and the melon eating faction was waiting and watching.

The attitude of the establishment is still unpredictable, and the hostile stance of the Erika faction has not changed from the beginning.

Today, he took almost everyone to visit Shadow City again, which was a temptation.

To this end, he divided everyone into several roads (Tina's road was accidental) and scattered them within a few kilometers centered on himself.

The purpose of dispersing is to see how much the situation of one's own side has changed compared to before, which is indeed dangerous. But as long as it is not a legend, Li Qi doesn't think that every way even has time to support himself and the others to arrive, and the legendary Shadow City is more severely suppressed by the force, and the traces are more obvious.

If it is attacked again, it shows that the establishment does not have the patience to negotiate with them, and either connived at the Ika faction, or even did it themselves. This meant that Hathaway was no longer reliable, and he had to consider leaving the Storm Isles right away. If it is safe and sound, it shows that the establishment is not determined to refuse negotiations.

Now even the Fragrance Sect has not made another move, which shows that their minds have changed. The little boy thrown by Richie makes them realize that they still have common interests with the establishment, and their strategy should be adjusted to exacerbate their conflict with the Storm Isles and destroy the alliance between the mages and the Alliance of Order.

So how should this contradiction be intensified?

Of course, he started from his own opposition to slavery, so when Dressy reported that Moshiu was a member of the Dawning Society and wanted to make further contact, Richie confirmed that Moshiu was the head of the line stretched out by the incense faction.

Most of the incense faction didn't expect that Hathaway would have a close connection with Dawn, and they would have taken over a long time ago. And after Moshiu's thread, there must be all kinds of tricks to lure and even force himself to go against the entire Storm Islands. The celebration two days later was the best stage to put this contradiction on the table, and I am afraid that I would have already negotiated with the establishment later.

The tentative action is also a cover, and Li Qi came to Shadow City today for another purpose, to talk to the "Night Saintess" of the Dawning Society.

Richie didn't quite understand Hathaway's focus on Shadow City, but Hathaway wanted it so much that he had to do something. Early in the morning he sent Gambit to make contact with the Dawning Society, and the other party said that their Night Maiden wanted to talk to him.

There is actually a saintess of the Night Lady hidden in the Shadow City?

It's probably just a false name, otherwise it would have been discovered by a magician.

Thinking so, Li Qi was accompanied by Gambit and the others to a certain alley in the center of the city.

The lanes of Shadow City are very unique, and standing at the bottom of the lanes, you will feel like you are in a "line of sky". But that line of sky is fake, and the hundred-meter-high "rock walls" on both sides are messy buildings built like creepers, clinging to the base of the magic tower.

The buildings are interlaced with lines of unknown purpose, and the oddly shaped windows are hung with a mess of utensils, making people think that this is a punk world of the Cyber or Steam Age.

Li Qi and the others entered the depths of the alley according to the instructions, and were about to go up the spiral ladder when they were stopped by an old woman.

The old woman, who was probably only in her early thirties, looked at them with cloudy pupils, stared at Li Qi and said, "The holy woman is on the highest floor, and you can only go up alone." ”

Looking at the surrounding environment, Li Qi confirmed that there was not much risk, and it was too easy to cause large-scale chaos if he wanted to do any tricks here. Since Hathaway hasn't turned her face against herself, this trust is still necessary.

Turning up the spiral ladder layer by layer, Li Qi was dizzy. When you reach the highest floor, you have to walk through a passage similar to the tube building in the seventies and eighties of the earth world. The passage is filled with a very familiar breath of life, but it is obviously different from the memory.

Elderly residents were generally drying clothes and quilts in the aisles, chatting weakly, mixed with a continuous cough of pain. The shabby and unkempt children ran and frolicked, turning over and over the railing a hundred meters above the ground, and Li Qi was thrilling to watch.

Everyone, including the kids, ignored Richie as if he were transparent.

I feel like I'm Neo, and I'm about to see the Prophet......

Coming to a wooden door, Li Qi knocked on the door, and a hoarse female voice sounded inside: "Please come in." ”

Even if it is a saint, she should be very old.

The room in the door is spacious and clean. The walls, ceilings, and even the furniture were all patchwork together with various materials, and Li Qi even recognized the chitin of several insects and monsters.

A woman dressed in ordinary clothes was looking at him calmly, and to his slight surprise, it was a middle-aged woman who looked to be in her early thirties. There are a pair of gray eyes that are somewhat close to herself, Theresia and Catherine, and the snow-white hair color should not be her true color, but a sign of old age.

In addition to her gray hair, the woman also had visible wrinkles on her forehead and at the corners of her eyes, but this did not detract from her beauty, but added a touch of vicissitudes of beauty.

Age was only part of the accident, and Richie felt something familiar to the woman. It has nothing to do with physiognomy, but a certain temperament, which can even be traced back to the association of the soul.

It's a pity that Little Red Riding Hood is not online, otherwise she should have found out.

The woman did not greet him, but went straight to the point: "My name is Gwentoline, and they must have told you that it was the Holy Maiden of the Night who wanted to see you......"

Isn't it?

The woman said: "I am not a saint now, although I used to be, but my connection with Miss Night is very weak, and I am not a real saint." The only divine grace I get is probably to live longer. ”

"You can also see that I am a commoner, I am fifty years old, born in the Shadow City......"

Li Qi nodded awe-inspiringly, this former saint woman had indeed received divine grace. The civilians of Shadow City will be much older than her by the age of thirty.

Since she is a former saint, what about the current saint?

Gwyntoline did not continue to talk about the topic of "saints", and continued: "Although I am not a saint anymore, I still have some influence in the Dawn Society, and I can do what I can for everyone. ”

"Your Excellency the Duke has come here to learn about the faith of the Crimson Lady. I wonder if Lady Crimson has a more specific divine will regarding the emancipation of slaves, and how does His Excellency the Duke plan to practice such a divine will?"

Richie asked, "What about after you know?"

Gwentoline looked at him, "To answer your question, we have to start with the origins of the Dawning Society, and I hope you will be patient. ”

"As long as it weren't for the chronicle, I should have that time," said Richie, sitting on the couch made of giant scallops, gesturing to please.

"In the First Age, the collapse of the Magic Empire and the Magician's departure to the Storm Islands was a hint from the Night Lady. ”

As soon as the former saint spoke, she shocked Richie, the relationship between the Storm Islands and the Night Lady is so deep!?

"Lady Night has given this kind of advice to many magicians, and only a few have followed them. During the Magic Empire era, the Night Lady was recognized as an evil god by magicians, and the church and clergy were also hunted down. ”

"The group of mages who came to the Storm Islands were tasked with watching over and studying a Saintess of the Night. Don't be surprised, the magicians of that time, like the arcanists of today, believed that gods were merely natural beings, that personality and will were false, and that gods and divine powers were the objects of their study. ”

"They believed the oracle delivered by the Holy Maiden and reached the Storm Islands before the main plane collapsed. In gratitude to the Night Lady, they embraced the faith of the Night Lady, and the church presided over by the Holy Maiden was the original origin of the Dawning Society. ”

"However, the relationship between the magicians and the Night Lady Church quickly deteriorated, and I still don't know why the Night Lady didn't use the power of the gods to convert these magicians into devout believers. In short, after the death of that holy woman, the church gradually withered and became a faith buried in the hearts of very few people. ”

"From then on, until the end of the Third Age, the Dawn was gone. ”

"By the Fourth Age, the Storm Islands had completed the law of the second-dimensional mask, ushered in great development, and the rapid accumulation of wealth led to a sharp differentiation in the mage society. ”

"The major families took their clans to open up their own territories, leaving behind a large number of helpless civilians in Silver City. The High Council disdained to care for them, confined them to the Sanctuary, forming the City of Shadows. ”

"The Night Lady's faith was reborn in the Shadow City, probably because she felt that the people of the Shadow City were weak and closed, and the magicians let it go until now. ”

Gwentoline sighed, "I have never heard the oracle of the lady clearly, but judging from this history, and the lady's attitude towards the Dawn, the lady has compassion for the suffering and comfort the believers in the dark. However, it does not directly give the believer strength, nor does it show the believer the direction, but hopes that the believer will make his own choice. ”

She looked at Li Qi's gaze with some expectation and some uneasiness: "Your Excellency, your arrival is a choice. ”

Li Qi frowned, "Looks like you're scared of this choice?"

"That's why you are here", Gwen Toline did not deny.

Li Qi smiled slightly: "Then how can you believe that I am telling the truth?"

Gwen Tolin said inscrutablely, "I naturally know if it's the truth." ”

If you can detect a spell of lies, or do it with the help of an artifact wizard, you are not a civilian.

Li Qi closed his eyes and used the detection ability of the death talent to confirm it again.

There was no one else in the room, no equipment that emitted divine power or magical fluctuations, and Gwentoline was indeed a civilian.

He spread his hands and said, "Then what good will I have? Will the Dawning Society have friendships? But we should know to each other that there are people on the Dawn Society, and I can completely pass through them, not that the Dawn will get what I want." What's more, I've already promised someone to do something with you, and I don't think we need to know more. ”

Gwen Torin's smile remained unfathomable, "You will indeed gain the friendship of the Dawning Society, the friendship of the true Dawning Society. ”

The real light will ......

Feelings will now be just a cover-up?

It's such a shadow city, and there are so many doorways, should I say that there are many shallow kings......

On second thought, this kind of complicated relationship is normal, and the magician and the dawn will use each other.

Dawning will win some support from the top, but will certainly not want to be a puppet of the top. Hathaway had told him the same, but at the time he thought it was just a lie.

Then he secretly stirred up, where is the shallow water, it is a deep pit at all! It has a direct relationship with the Night Lady!

Li Qi wanted to retreat and fool the former saint, but another idea came to him.

Why not go deeper? Maybe there's one more card to play in the upcoming fourth phase.

As for the Night Lady, she has already dealt with him, and she has sabotaged His plans, and she has not seen Him take revenge.

I heard that his old man is still asleep, so he should be fine...... Right?

After weighing it, he decided to tell the truth: "Well, my lord is not an evil god, and of course he will not hide his divine will. ”

"With regard to slavery, I have stated many times in the past that we consider slavery to be evil. Mortals have dignity and humility, but this is only identity, outside of identity, everyone is equal, and people should love each other. ”

"Therefore, we oppose the complete control of one person's life, liberty, destiny, and even soul by all means, including but not limited to slave decrees, soul contracts, etc. ”

"We are opposed not only to slaves in the legal sense, but also to slaves in the substantive sense. We must not only set slaves free, but also eliminate the crime of slavery once and for all. ”

Li Qi was not afraid to expose the slave part of the Crimson Faith, which was the original foundation of the Crimson Faith. Although it was already quite radical and revolutionary in this era, it was still a radical improvement of the existing order, not a complete subversion.

"Sure enough, it really smells of Ismat and Rond," says Gwentorin.

She let out a long sigh and added, "That's what makes me uneasy. ”