"Nine...... Level 9 ...... Demon...... Magician?" Amon stammered as he opened his mouth wide and forgot to close it.

He heard very clearly that the old madman was talking about magicians, not magicians, and people who studied magic without the permission of the gods. This kind of person is to be punished by the temple, and he has actually obtained the power equivalent of a demigod, which is unbelievable!

The old madman stopped talking, and looked through the wall as if he were looking far away, not knowing what he was remembering. It took a long time for Amon to come back to his senses and asked cautiously, "Then are you also a 'magician'?"

"Yes, I am a magician. But my achievements are not as good as those of students, and I am only an eighth-level magician. The old madman replied in the affirmative, but did not turn his face to look at Amon.

Amon was already petrified, and looked at the old madman for a long time before he whispered, "...... your student?" At this point, he stopped talking, not knowing how to ask.

The old madman seemed to say to himself, "His name is Bell, and if he hadn't become a god, he would have died a long time ago." The last time I heard from him was thirty years ago, brought by Schrödinger. At that time, he had abducted the Holy Maiden of the Temple of Isis, and was being hunted down by a large number of magicians and warriors. He wanted to come to me, but he couldn't get out, and then there was no news. ”

Amon was like he had been cast a magic spell, and he couldn't speak. The old madman just said a few words, but it contained too much shocking information. First of all, saying that the magician might have died long ago if he had not become a god is obviously implying that mortals can become gods. And among all the oracles, it is impossible for a man to live forever like a god, let alone a magician who is cursed by the gods?

Then there was the news that Schrödinger had brought thirty years ago, so that the cat had lived for at least thirty years, and could pass messages from wizard to magician, what a magical cat it was! Amon recalled his childhood, the fat cat that was greedy and dirty, and had been in the old madman's house for as long as he could remember. But Schrödinger was so lazy that he slept in the corner all day long, and almost no one would notice it.

The most shocking thing is that the magician named Bell actually abducted the holy woman of the Temple of Isis thirty years ago. At this time, Amon still didn't fully know who the holy woman was, but he knew that it was impossible for a magician to openly show off, and that great magician Bell actually caused trouble in the temple, as if he didn't care about his identity at all.

Amon stopped talking, but the old madman withdrew his gaze and turned to look at him, and said, "You can't believe it, do you? He entered the Temple of Memphis and accepted the invitation to become the Honorary High Priest, in fact, to fulfill my wish. But even I didn't expect that he would be abducted along with the Holy Maiden and the Tears of the Gods, what a daring, even crazier than me, an old madman!"

Amun, who had been petrified, finally heard that something was wrong, "No, no, no, how is this possible, wasn't the magician rejected by the gods and hunted down by the temple?

The old madman smiled, his most common expression, with a playful sneer: "The content I just introduced to you about divine arts and physical arts is all said in the Tianshu Continent since ancient times. Both the oracle seems and the truth, but it may contain a lot of errors and lies. I taught Bell everything, hoping that he would fulfill one of my wishes, which was to find out the true secrets of the gods. ”

Amon's brain was a little difficult to use at the moment, and he couldn't think about so many complicated questions for a while, so he chased and asked, "You haven't told me yet, how can a magician who is rejected by the gods become the high priest of the Temple of Monfils?"

The sneer on the old madman's face became even more obvious: "The so-called nobles are qualified to learn divine arts and obtain the permission of the temple, and I think these statements are just lies of those priests and priests trying to monopolize divine arts. A private magician is called a magician, and it cannot be tolerated, and if you are only a low-level or mid-level magician, this is indeed the case, and you will be punished or even hunted down by the temple. But if you're lucky enough to become a great magician, things change and it's dramatic. ”

"What play?" Amon was more and more puzzled, since he was a child, he had only seen a play in praise of God at the annual festival in the town.

The old madman asked rhetorically, "Amon, would you pay a flock of sheep for hunting a wild beast, and if that beast did not provoke you at all, and was even willing to help you?"

Amon: "Of course not, I'm not a fool!"

The old madman snorted coldly and said, "The priests in the temple are not stupid! The price of destroying a great magician is too great, and the encirclement and suppression of a great magician must suffer heavy losses, and if it is not a last resort, who would be willing to make such a loss-making deal? If a great magician appears in the territory of a certain temple, as long as he does not reveal his identity and does not become an enemy of the temple, the priests are happy to pretend not to know. If he has revealed his identity and has to deal with it, he usually uses another way first. ”

Amon gradually understood a little, but still asked, "In what way?"

The old madman turned his head to look at the wall again, and looked as if he looked into the distance through the room, and told Amon about Bell's past.

If there is a great magician in the territory, the smartest way is to "destroy" him, and if you can not lose or even increase your own power, then you can negotiate. Persuade and bribe him to join the temple, accept the blessings of the gods, give him the status of a nobleman, and become an honorary priest. In this way, all the troubles are solved, and you don't have to lose a lot of money and fight to the death.

The Great Divine Wizard is a transcendent existence anywhere in the Tianshu Continent. Each temple certainly wants to have more great sorcerers in charge, which is also a symbol of strength and status. Even the king secretly approves of something like this, and who doesn't want more great magicians to serve him?

And the magician has become a magician, not only does he no longer have to worry about his identity, but he can also enjoy an honorable status. Temples that can recruit great magicians enjoy huge wealth and resources, and cultivating magic here and enjoying people's reverence are much better than the status of a magician who cannot see the light, so why not do it?

So this kind of negotiation is often easy and pleasant, and both parties are happy. However, there are exceptions, and those who can study magic privately and have high-level achievements are all rare geniuses in the world, and many of them are arrogant and arrogant, and they may not accept such invitations. But as long as he is not openly hostile to the temple, the temple will promise favors or gifts in private, as long as they are at peace with each other.

It is only in openly hostile relations that the Grand Mage is hostile to the kingdom and the temple and must be eliminated. It would be an unusually tragic war of extermination, and it would even mobilize all kinds of forces to participate.

Bell was a student of the old madman Nietzsche, and when he entered the city of Meffils thirty-six years ago, he was already an eighth-level great magician. He did things very simply, went directly to the temple of Isis to reveal his identity, and demonstrated his magical achievements, much to the surprise of the saint and the three high priests who were in charge at the time. What happened next was as it sounded no further, and Bell became the Honorary High Priest of the Temple of Isis and a revered High Priest.

The Monfilus Temple claimed that Bell had been concentrating on cultivating divine arts for many years, never caring about the display of fame, until he became an eighth-level great magician, and then accepted the identity of the honorary high priest, how pious, humble, and resolute it was, which was awe-inspiring!

In the beginning, Bell only had the status of an honorary high priest and did not hold real power. But three years later, the situation changed again, and during his tenure as the honorary high priest of the Temple of Isis, he advanced to the ninth level of divine arts, becoming a being equivalent of a demigod. You must know that at that time, the Holy Maiden Shallot, who represented the highest authority of the Temple of Isis, had only eight levels of divine achievement.

Not only did Bell's status become extremely honorable in the Temple of Isis, but he also became one of the patriarchs of the Divine Council of the Eju Empire. He was qualified to participate in discussions on the supreme mysteries of theology, to instruct nobles and priests in the cultivation of theology, and to consult the archival records of the Temple of Isis and the archives of the Council of Divine Arts. - This is what Bell used to do when he entered the temple of Isis.

It was the old madman Nietzsche who taught him everything, and he wanted him to fulfill only one wish: to find out what makes a god a god, and if he knew this secret, then perhaps he could answer two questions -- can mortals also become gods, and if so, how?

It was almost more difficult than he could have imagined, and the old madman didn't expect Bell to succeed, as long as he tried his best. As far as the old madman knew, Bell was probably close to succeeding, and if he didn't answer all the questions, he at least had the key to solving the riddle, otherwise he wouldn't have been able to kidnap the Holy Maiden of the Temple of Isis.

It was the abduction of the saint that completely changed Bell's later fate. If it doesn't happen, Bell will continue to enjoy an honorable position, perhaps becoming one of the greatest magicians in the history of the Eju Empire, and perhaps he may also be able to fulfill the old madman's wish once and for all. But the world can't be reassumed, thirty years ago, Bell left the temple of Isis, taking not only the Holy Maiden Onion, but also the Tears of the Gods that Onion is in charge of.

Speaking of this, the old madman suddenly said a digression with emotion: "The insider privately said that it was Bell who kidnapped the saint, but I think that the saint was kidnapped by him voluntarily." She has the Tears of the Gods, and even if she can't defeat Bell, she won't be robbed if she is determined to fight to the death. ...... Thirty years later, right here, you mined the Tears of the Gods, and that Mary would become the new patron saint of the Temple of Isis, and they would finally have a saint again!"

Amun was taken aback again, and blurted out a question that he was most concerned about: "Mary! who is the Holy Maiden?"

The old madman poured another full glass of wine, but he was not in a hurry to drink it, and replied with the glass in his hand: "Don't be in a hurry to interrupt yet, I was about to say this......

The main god of the Eju Empire is the god of King Horus, and Pharaoh Eju claims to be the spokesman of the god Horus in the world. The kings of Eju are all located in the city of Bis in Upper Eju, and the temple of Horus in the city of Bis is the main temple of the whole Eju, which is equivalent to the highest theocracy center in the country, and the temples all over the country are also under its orders, and the chief priest of the main temple of Horus is, of course, served by Pharaoh Eju himself.

However, Pharaoh himself usually lived in the palace to handle government affairs, and only ascended to the altar of the temple as the chief priest during major ceremonies. So there was a chief priest in the temple who made sacrifices to the god Horus and other gods on behalf of Pharaoh in ordinary times. In addition to the chief priest, there were three high priests in the main temple of Horus who were in charge of ordinary things, and their status was much higher than that of the high priests in ordinary local temples.

There are also a group of high priests in the main temple of Horus, who are the most honored group in the empire, and the council and academy of magic, which represent the highest authority in the empire's divine arts, are also located here.

Located in the fertile valley of the upper Ronnie River, Upper Eju also had an important territory in the Lower Eroi Empire, located in the lower delta of the Rhoni River. Historically, Eju was divided into two states, with the capital of Lower Eju being Monfils, and later the Pharaoh completed its unification.

The main shrine of Monfilth is the Temple of Isis, which is also the most important temple in the whole of Lower Eju, and the nominal chief priest is still Pharaoh Eju, symbolizing the rule of Lower Eju, but the person who sacrifices to the gods on behalf of Pharaoh is the Holy Maiden.

The main deity of the temple of Isis isis is, of course, the goddess Isis, the mother of Horus in mythology, the goddess of fertility worshiped by the Eju people, and the patron saint of the city of Meffilsi. It was not only the goddess Isis who enjoyed sacrifices in the temple of Isis, but also the various gods of Eju, and in the center of the temple was the idol of the goddess Isis holding the young Horus.

Isis is enshrined as the Virgin Mary in Eju, and there is a tradition since ancient times that those who make sacrifices to the goddess on behalf of their people on earth are called saints, and the full name is "the patron saint of the goddess Isis". The Tears of the Gods on her scepter are a symbol of sainthood, representing the loyalty, love, and compassion and blessing of the goddess Isis.

The saint was pure and religious, dedicating everything she had to the goddess Isis. Therefore, no adult man can touch her, only kiss the dirt under her feet as a sign of reverence.

According to records, thirty years ago, the Holy Maiden of the Temple of Isis relied on the power bestowed by the goddess to destroy an evil ninth-level great magician, and she herself was tragically lost, and the tears of the gods on the scepter were destroyed in this terrible battle. -- This is the official statement of Eju, and its authority is beyond doubt.

The evil archmage was of course Bell, and the event was known in the history of Eju as the "Wizard's Calamity". And as far as the old madman knew, the actual situation was that the honorary high priest of the Temple of Isis at that time, the ninth-level great sorcerer Bell, abducted the holy daughter and took away the tears of the gods. This is absolutely intolerable, and has offended and shaken the authority of the gods who rule the empire.

Pharaoh ordered that he must be destroyed, and wherever Bell passed, the forces of the temples of Lower Eju participated in the encirclement and suppression. Bell took refuge in all directions, and finally escaped through the desert through the border to the mountains of Assyria, Baron, and Hati and Eju.

Pharaoh Eju sent a large number of magicians and warriors across the border to chase them down, but none of them returned, and Bell and the Holy Maiden were never heard from again.

After this incident, all of Bell's records as the honorary High Priestess of the Temple of Isis and the patriarch of the Aeju Divine Council were destroyed, and no one was allowed to mention them again. In the official record, he was an evil archmage who was destroyed by the saint Neon at the expense of herself.

At this point, the old madman was silent again, and there was no sound in the room for a long time, and both the old and the young were thinking about their own thoughts.

Amon finally knew the identity of the saint and what Mary would become, and he couldn't help but feel a little gloomy. Although he knew that nothing could happen between himself and Maria, there was always an indescribable regret in his heart, and he couldn't help but think of her silently, and let out a deep sigh. Listening to this sigh alone, he did not look at all like a fourteen-year-old child.

In the end, it was Amon who broke the silence first: "You said that your student, the Great Magician Bell, is close to successfully cracking the secrets of the gods, is there any definite evidence?"

The old madman replied in a daze: "It was the last message he sent thirty years ago, which confirmed many of my speculations over the years, but I don't know how many mysteries he solved...... Divine art and physical art are deliberately separated, and key content is missing. - That should be the secret of the gods!"

**

List of characters in this chapter -

Bell: The student of the old madman, the evil ninth-level archmage in the official records of Eju, is said to have been exterminated by the patron saint of the Temple of Isis thirty years ago.

Thirty years ago, the last patron saint of the Temple of Isis, according to official records, was the one who destroyed the evil archmage Bell, and she herself died in battle.

**