A month later.

Although the Church of Light listed this winter field training accident as top secret, the huge number of field training personnel who died in the accident was too large to cover it up, and the accident in the northern forest was secretly rumored in the upper echelons of the empire.

Large numbers of arbiters and crusaders of Light have gathered in the Far North taiga forest, and Relo has become a well-known figure in the Church of Light.

In this way, Xia Yu and the remaining ninety-four field trainees, after cooperating with the logistics and supply troops to point out the ins and outs of the taiga, were secretly escorted back to the headquarters of the Church of Light, accepted the investigation records for several days, signed a confidentiality agreement, and restored their freedom.

In Al's room, the uncle and nephew sat staring at each other, and the files on the desk were scattered and silent.

"...... Jill "

Slightly puzzled, Ai Wenwei was asking about the winter field training, and when Xia Yu talked about Jill, he couldn't help but murmur bitterly, and his right hand propped up his lowered head, with an undisguised look of pain.

"Uncle?"

After a long time, Al said slowly: "According to the weapon ornaments you brought back, the Church inquired about the file and found that one hundred and seventy-seven years ago, before the previous Pope held a winter field training, there was indeed a team of Holy Light Knights who mysteriously disappeared in the taiga. ”

After a pause, Ai Wen took a sip of warm tea, hiding his previous gaffe.

His eyes narrowed slightly, and Evan seemed to be using his imagination to restore the scene at that time.

"At that time, the St. Kiedon Empire was far less powerful than it is now, controlling thirty-eight city-states, and the Church of Light was far less powerful than it is today. According to the dossier, it was at that time that a group of more than twenty elite Holy Light Knights who pursued the heretics never returned after they went deep into the Northern Wing Forest. ”

Controlling his tone full of regret, Al sighed, "You also know that even the best business travelers need two years to make a trip to that taiga, and there is only a half chance of coming back, and even after returning, the number of attrition is often more than a third, so those missing knights of the Holy Light have always been a mystery. ”

Xia Yu lowered his head in contemplation, but out of the corner of his eye, he was doing his best to spy on the various case files and letters on the desk.

The St. Chiedon Empire, after hundreds of years of infiltration by the Church of Light, has completely become a **** country, and the power class is divided into two parts: the church and the noble leader.

Noble part.

Responsible for the construction of the empire's territory and the part of taxation, because most of the nobles have gradually become corrupt and degenerate, and the power under their control is becoming weaker and weaker, so in the case of the Church of Light becoming more and more powerful, in addition to suppressing the commoners and maintaining their rich and depraved lives, it is no longer powerful, and the once famous Iron Cavalry has now completely reduced to the guardian city guard, dispensable.

Even members of the royal family, under the authority of the Pope, are addressed as believers of God and become symbolic characters.

In contrast, the Church of Light is the true ruler of the St. Kiedun Empire.

The Church of Light is like a spider web all over the St. Chiedon Empire, even remote villages and towns have churches and priests, the church faith is deeply rooted in the hearts of every civilian, coupled with the perfect administrative system and the strong deterrent power of the Bright Crusade and the Holy Light Knights, not only completely control the thirty-eight cities of the St. Chiedon Empire, but also spread the tentacles to the principality city-states around St. Chiedon, competing with the Tsarist Empire.

It can be said that the roots of the power of this country are firmly in the hands of the Pope and his cardinal lords and bishops of the church!

They make the laws of the country, the way the people live, and determine the foreign policy of the country, and if the devil wants to create contradictions at the level of faith and war, he must get close to these figures in the center of power, and do everything in his power to influence their judgment of war, or at least enter this circle, and influence their will.

Fortunately, through Al and Santami, Xia Yu finally got such an opportunity.

"Uncle, what exactly are those parasites, and those tree people, are there many such terrible creatures in this world?"

Xia Yu asked in a low voice.

"En......"

Al groaned, and after a moment, stood up, pointing to the map on the wall by candlelight.

"In the eyes of ordinary people, these should be our world, right?"

On the map, the thirty-eight cities of the St. Chiedon Empire, accounting for about 15 percent of the main area, belong to the most fertile places on the sea, and there are two more cities on two large islands.

The Tsarist Empire, on the other hand, occupies about 30 percent of the area, which is larger than the St. Catenon Empire, but it is very barren, and most of it is monsoon steppe or desert oasis.

As for the area of the several principality city-states between the two countries, they only account for about five percent of the total area.

All the remaining areas of the map are occupied by the desert between the two countries, the Tianshan Plateau behind the Tsarist Empire, the endless coniferous forests north of St. Chiedon, and the vast endless sea.

"Well, yes, but I've also heard that both in the northern taiga and on the other side of the Tien Shan Plateau, there are strong civilizations, but they can't communicate on a large scale due to natural geography. ”

Xia Yu said instinctively.

Although through Lei Luo's memories and through the memories of the bewitching devils in other worlds, Xia Yu knew that each world was very, very vast, to a specific extent, but there was still no relative concept.

Al nodded and said calmly: "That's right, on the other side of the Tianshan Plateau, further north of the taiga, there are indeed other civilizations, but what you don't know is that if the map can be drawn more vastly, the area of the Tianshan Plateau alone will already exceed the combined size of the Tsar Empire and the St. Chiedun Empire! And this endless taiga, I'm afraid it will be more than ten times more than ......."

Rao was a little mentally prepared, Xia Yu was still shocked and speechless by Al's explanation, but Al hadn't finished speaking.

"What people don't know is that our so-called world center, according to some prehistoric civilizations, is likely to be just a continental island of this world!"

Prehistoric civilizations.

Xia Yu keenly grasped the key words and said strangely: "What is prehistoric civilization?"

Al thought for a moment and muttered, "It was in the ancient times before the God of Light shone on this world, at that time, human beings were probably just ordinary members of the countless species in the jungles and plains, and this world was ruled by some mysterious and powerful creatures. They are far more powerful than the current human race, flying over mountains, crossing oceans, and even establishing underground realms to communicate with other dimensional worlds, and we have no way of knowing how powerful they are. It is only known that these creatures seem to have suffered heavy damage in a very short period of time, and only then were they gradually replaced by us humans and became the rulers of this world. ”

"Ah, this must be the blessing of the God of Light!"

Xia Yu made a gesture of piety, praying in horror and gratitude.

Ai Wen smiled and said lightly: "But those ancient rulers are not really extinct, in fact they still exist in this world, the dragons slaughtered by the warriors, the tree people who attacked you, this is the legendary evil creatures are their descendants, the enemies of our humans!"

There seems to be only so much that Evan knows about that history, and he can't provide more clues.

"It's not early, you can rest here, I'll have someone prepare hot water for you." ”

Saying that, Ai Wen was about to recruit someone over, Xia Yu hurriedly said: "No, I'd better go back, uncle, you should also know that I am a family man now." ”

"Hehehehehe. ”

Al smiled, patted Lei Luo on the shoulder and said, "I see, Vivien is good, it is worth your life to guard, I actually don't want you to strive for progress through marriage." Kindness...... Also, according to my informant, a nun named Ria has made some small moves to Vivien, and I have inquired about her past with you, which has been secretly disposed of. ”

Ai Wen said casually, as if he was just talking about an insignificant matter, and Xia Yu's face changed slightly.

To tell the truth, the bewitching devil had made another plan deep down, using Yali to solve Vivian's poisonous soul, and then collecting Yali's soul to release the shackles of this poisonous thing around him, but he didn't expect that his uncle would help him dispose of Yali.

It can be seen from this that if the bewitching devil plans to meet secretly in the imperial capital, the difficulty factor of trying to summon the gate of the devil's world!

"Got it. ”

Xia Yu didn't say anything, and was about to turn around and leave, when Ai Wen said in a deep voice: "Come back in three days to accept the Adjudicator's Ceremony and the Pope's blessing, take these gold coins." ”

With a "snap", after taking a small bag of gold coins, Xia Yu nodded and left Aiwen's room.