The cold glow shines on the many flowers that bloom in the small garden, giving them a hazy beauty.

Lucien walked side by side with Rhein on the garden path, and after a short silence, he asked directly, "Mr. Rhein, can you tell me where the headquarters of the Magic Council is?"

"Where do you think it's going to be?" Rhein, who had been smiling faintly, asked Lucian.

Lucien thought for a moment and replied, "I think it's in the depths of the Dark Mountains or on the other side of the Mountains, because the Church's westward expansion ended early. ”

Rhine snorted: "If you go to the Dark Mountains, you can only find those gloomy and crazy ancient magicians. Although they are powerful, many of them are high-level, and even have archmages and legendary magicians, but if the slightest disagreement with them is not to their liking, you will become their experiment, and then you will either get an uncontrollable amount of power, or your whole body will collapse and die. Moreover, the creatures of the Dark Mountains are not comparable to the beasts and low-level magical creatures of the Melzer Black Forest, and with your strength, you will not survive for more than ten days. ”

Sure enough, there are remnants of ancient magicians in the Dark Mountains.

Lucien confirmed one of his guesses: "Mr. Rhein, is the headquarters of the Continental Magic Council in some country?

"False, in a country that believes in the Cult of Southern Truth. As if remembering something funny, Rhine shook his head repeatedly, "You should have heard its name, Holm Kingdom." The specific location is the floating city of 'Alinge' near Rentat, the capital of the Kingdom of Hall. ”

"Alinge, the ancient Hilfanas language for 'sky'. Lucien first habitually read the words, and then looked at Rhine in surprise: "The Kingdom of Holm, the country where Natasha's mother comes from?"

And this country still believes in the god of truth! How could Grand Duke Vaorit visit this country back then?

"Hasn't the love of the Grand Duke of Vaorit become a story told throughout the continent? I have sung and told several different stories. "But there is not a single poem, not a single story, that can tell the story of what evil forces stand in their way." ”

Lucien asked suspiciously, "Is it the Continent Magic Council?"

Rhine smiled at the corner of his mouth. Looked at Lucian: "If you've learned about domination." It will be understood that this is a political issue of the situation on the mainland. Everything comes down to balance, the balance that the nobility needs. ”

"Balance?" Lucien asked, pretending to be puzzled, but thinking to himself, "Actually, I have a lot of textbooks on international politics, do you need to read them?"

Knowing that the headquarters of the Magic Council was not in any terrifying and sinister place, Lucien relaxed a lot.

Rhine overtook Lucien by half a body. Slowly moving forward: "When the War of Dawn entered the last two hundred years, the power and authority of the Church reached its peak, both the poor. Or the emperor, when facing the pope, he has to prostrate and kiss the tip of the shoe of the god's spokesman. During that time, the Church was able to abolish counts, marquises, and dukes at will. Even the emperor of the Holy Helz Empire. Therefore, no one dared to offend the majesty of the Church. ”

"So the division of the Church into two factions at the Supreme Synod, the North and the South, is supported by the nobility?" Lucien realized to himself, why those cardinals could get almost all the nobles of the North to follow.

Rhein turned his head and glanced at Lucian: "Very sharp." Lucien, you're right. When some cardinals plotted to overthrow the pope for some unknown reason, the nobility of their country joined the plot without hesitation. But these nobles deliberately leaked part of the information in advance. The Pope was prepared and not overthrown, and it developed into a situation of division between the North and the South. After all, for the aristocracy of the north, if this part of the cardinals overthrew the pope and took control of the church, their situation would not change substantially. ”

"And when the north and the south are divided, and the strength of the two sides is not much different. The strength of the nobles has become the most important weight on the scale, and it will no longer be taken away by life and death. Lucien followed Rhine's words and spoke.

Rhine shook his head with a light smile: "Wrong." The strength of the Northern Church is very different from that of the Southern Church, but the elven countries, dwarf countries, and countries that believe in other gods in the northwest of the Dark Mountain Range, how could the magical creatures and remnant magicians in the Dark Mountain Range watch the Northern Church be defeated. It was only after they joined the game that a strong attack from the south was formed, and the north was barely able to support it. ”

"But it's not the same as it is now, it seems to be a balance of power now, and the northern fortresses have fallen. Lucien thought for a moment, "So at that time the church was divided again?, and the Kingdom of Holm supported the Magic Council?"

Rhine was slightly surprised: "Being able to think of this, Lucian, you are really good at learning and thinking." Yes, after seeing that the status and identity of the northern nobles have been greatly improved, the southern nobles also have ideas about their own situation, most of them choose to negotiate with the church, while a small number of them have embarked on the road of secretly cultivating magical power, using their strength to fight against the power of the church in their own kingdom, and they themselves balance in the middle to fight for the right to speak. ”

"This small group is the nobles of the four kingdoms on the other side of the Storm Strait, but they made a mistake, that is, they did not expect that an archmage named Douglas would actually make changes to the ancient magic system at this time, from simply imitating magical creatures to studying the laws of nature. Under the leadership of Douglas, the strength of the Magic Council has grown exponentially, and powerful magicians and legendary magicians have appeared in a steady stream. After integrating several hidden magical organizations more than a hundred years ago, the Continental Magic Council had swelled into the second most powerful force in the entire world. ”

"This is a change that the nobles of the four kingdoms, such as Holm, did not expect at all when they began to support them. ”

Lucien heard the familiar name: "Mr. Douglas? Lucien didn't ask if Glass was still alive, because a powerful magician like him must have countless ways to prolong his life, and it is not a problem to live for thousands of years, such as the "Lich Transformation Ritual" recorded in Lucian's "Book of Stars and Elements" can be performed after becoming a high-level magician, and once successful, the lifespan will be extended to at least fifteen hundred years.

"Mr. Douglas is one of the top ten powerhouses in this world. The first Grand Arcanist. Speaker of the Continental Magical Council, founder of the Arcane journal. Even Rhine, a man who was extremely mysterious, spoke of Douglas with a faint sense of awe, "so it was a situation in which the forces of several sides were balanced and the aristocracy benefited from it." Hehe, in the Kingdom of Holm, the mage is already a semi-public identity. Although a considerable part of the church's strength was concentrated there, it was also suppressed badly, if it were not for the help of the nobility. It has long been uprooted by the Magic Council. ”

Lucien roughly understood the current situation: "That's why the church allows nobles of this rank like Archduke Vaorit to visit the Kingdom of Holm, it seems that it hopes to completely pull over the power of the nobles of the Kingdom of Holm. Hehe, Archduke Vaorit 'done' well. ”

"The Grand Duke himself did not expect this. The aristocracy of the western and southern countries of the continent and the Holy Helz Empire were known as the most extreme and conservative pro-church, and you can imagine the sensation of the marriage at the time. Although most of the nobles of the Kingdom of Holm understood the situation on the mainland, they would definitely choose to be loyal to their lord. It is not that they have a noble character, but because if the nobles cannot unite according to the most basic rules of allegiance to the lord. It has long been dismantled and swallowed by the two huge forces of the Magic Council and the Church, how can they make a dangerous balance. Rhine smiled slightly sarcastically.

Then he made a gesture to press down: "Okay, there is no need to know about complicated things with your strength, what you need to think about now is how to get to the Holm Kingdom." The Storm Strait has always been cordoned off by the Church, only allowed by allowed nobles and merchants to enter, and the checks are extremely strict. Of course, you can also cross the zone of confrontation between the North and the South. It then crossed the Shahran Empire to the Northlands, and from the Northlands to the north of the Kingdom of Holm. The only problem is that the zone of confrontation between the church is stricter than the blockade of the Storm Strait, and even the nobles and big merchants cannot pass through. ”

"The Magic Council should have its own path, right?" Lucien thought of the gentleman from the Magic Council headquarters.

Lucien didn't dare to use Natasha for this kind of thing, even though her grandfather was the king of the Kingdom of Holm. Because it was the power of the Magic Council that stood in the way of her parents back then, and she was a devout believer in the Cult of God, telling her the identity of her magic apprentice, coupled with her previous deception, was likely to be killed outright.

Rhine nodded: "There is a liaison person of the Magic Council in the pearl of the sea 'Stulk', but I don't know who Lu Dao is, you need to find it yourself, and even so, it is very dangerous to steal through the blockade, so I said that you can only go after you become an official magician and have a good self-protection strength." Of course, if you can become a mid-level mage and learn how to fly, you don't have to worry about that. The sea is so wide that the Church can block the ships but cannot completely block the sky. ”

"Become an official magician...... Lucien wondered if the Church continued to observe him, but he would definitely not use his identity as a "professor" to contact people in the magic circle again. Therefore, to become an official magician as soon as possible, the best way is to go to the ruins, and rely on yourself to understand the time difference between the magic mystery lock of the "Great Cross Shelf" and enter first, but will that be a trap for the church?

Rhine put his hands behind his back: "You can become a high-level magic apprentice in two days at most, and with your talent, as long as you have the cooperation of ordinary silver moon elixir, you will have a great hope of becoming an official magician." So, weigh the danger for yourself, and the most I'll tell you is that the church has been having a hard time staffing lately. ”

"Really?" Lucien looked at Rhine in slight surprise, as if he knew something. If what he said was true, then he should really take some risk to try it at the ruins, "By the way, Mr. Rhine, I don't know who you are?"

Rhine laughed: "I'm just an observer, someone who likes to observe interesting things. Of course, it is not ruled out that it will be done in person, as long as it is interesting enough. ”

After answering Lucien vaguely, Rhine gave him a meaningful look, then quickened his pace and melted straight into the darkness.

Lucien stood in place and watched Rhine's back disappear, his heart was calm, and after knowing the news of the headquarters of the Magic Council, the whole person suddenly felt a lot more relaxed, as if the boulder that had been pressing on his heart for a long time had been removed.

In this indescribable lightness, Lucien suddenly felt his soul swell a little and began to attack that boundary. (To be continued.) )