Just as the Lamanites would say, "Everything is God's will," everything that exists in this world will always have both sides of the story, as if it was deliberately arranged by someone.

The same is true of religion itself.

If there are people who support it and make it a lifelong belief, there will naturally be people who disdain it and sneer at it.

In the final analysis, there may not be anyone in this world who can truly analyze the existence of religion and belief "objectively". After all, it is really difficult to have a so-called "neutral" position other than the two sides of the opposite.

But if we were to be a little more cunning here, not to delve into the nature of religion, but to try to probe the history of religion - the history of those who believed in or opposed the existence of religion, we might be surprised to find that all this is so distinct.

At the beginning of the rise of the Lamanite Empire, the Far North of the East China Sea had a powerful kingdom inextricably linked to the later Stink pirates of the four northern islands, the undefeated snow nation of Suomir, and although it was eventually conquered and became the first monument to the Lamanite Empire, its famous general, Rosentha Gustav Kevel, made a deep impression on all the owners of this vast empire that expanded wildly to the entire East Coast in the following decade.

After conquering Suomir and conquering the province of Aurora, the proudest of the Suomis people, the great founding emperor of the Lamanite Empire, "the fearless", "the conqueror", the "man who melted the snow", and the "lion tamer" Sisario? His Majesty V. Gallokundi ordered the Seventh Legion, the most elite of his troops, to travel in a mighty fleet and transport the bones of Marshal Kivir to the far open sea for burial - simply fearing that he would be resurrected and bring about the destruction of the "eternal empire".

- Of course, from the perspective of future generations, we can already tell that it was not the lonely spirit of a marshal who died many years ago, but the influence of this black-haired, blue-eyed and tall Suomi commander on the prosperous Laman Empire and the entire world of Rigal is indeed long-lasting.

The tactics and strategies of today's knightly system and the coordinated offensive of many legions originated from the hands of this marshal, and this enemy, who was first encountered by the nascent empire on the east coast, was ridiculed as a proud prince of the kingdom who hid in the snow and did not dare to go south but defeated them in the battlefield.

"There is never the best army and weapons in this world, there are only the most suitable armies under the right conditions. ”

"As a commander, the most important thing to do is to know the right moment and send your troops to do the right thing. ”

-- Many scholars today believe that it was because of the great battle with Marshal Kivir that the later Lamanite Empire was able to learn from the painful experience and produce many famous generals. But now we take the liberty of applying this famous phrase to religion, which is inconceivable, and perhaps expected, that it can be used just as well.

No religion is born without the background of the times.

The birth and development of the White Church took place for more than a century in the twilight years of the Laman Empire.

Corruption and embezzlement abound throughout society, with abusive aristocrats and priests of traditional polytheistic beliefs abounding. On the one hand, the merchants have a large belly and a group of wives and concubines, and on the other hand, the lowly slaves are all skinny.

Scholars from a slightly better family denounced such corrupt practices, believing that they would inevitably lead to the demise of the empire. Such remarks were extended and recognized by many people, and in the midst of dissatisfaction, those who tried to correct all this promised to be sustenance with a beautiful spirit were naturally born.

The scholar Donovan Ethanhorst at the end of the Lamanite era sharply criticized religion as a "stick to draw a pie" - first intimidating you with hell and torture, and then promising you to go to heaven if you persist in doing good and discipline yourself. In his view, such behavior was "no different from a gambler who is in debt and still fantasizes about making a fortune" - but even the notoriously anti-white papacy scholar has to admit that they have succeeded.

Poor people need a kind of psychological sustenance. The Church has enshrined all kinds of suffering and inequality that they have experienced in reality, the sad and cold facts that exist every day, as punishment for "bearing original sin on your back."

The answer to strict self-discipline is the asceticism they give, and this "sinful body cannot be saved", so at least they must "sublimate their souls".

-- Escapism, some people might say. But as we said earlier, no one can maintain absolute objectivity on this issue. And any one-sided, subjective ideas are bound to be unfair.

Just like history itself, religion, a product of strong spiritual civilization, cannot be completely summed up by a single right or wrong.

Pain in reality is unacceptable.

Countless slaves, people struggling at the bottom of society, can only make a small change in their lives. And more people can only spend their lives in this desperate and cold pain. They are powerless to change this huge society, and these thin people are overwhelmed by the tremendous pressure exerted by those above them. The children of slaves will only continue to be slaves, and there will be no hope no matter how much they fight.

This is already the case in the "present life", so at least there is a trace of yearning and hope for the "next life".

The "hope" of the poor slaves, who made up the largest base, lit the torch of this faith, and when it spread, many nobles and merchants, who were afraid of their deeds and feared that they would go to hell after death and experience eternal torment, began to believe in it, and it expanded further and further until the whole nation began to believe that if they restrained their desires, they could be exchanged for eternal perishability.

We now know how this will turn out, but while the White Church's faith has not been able to save the disintegrating Lamanite Empire, it has brought peace to a part of the world.

Today, the White Holy See is spread across most of the city-states on the continent of Rigal, and when our sage and the four of them came to the most important turn of the long, winding road to the coast of Cori Conrad, they saw such an iconic building.

The material of the construction must be white.

Although the use of locally produced fired clay would have saved money, the limestone was dug from the inner side of the Soradin Heights to create a typical white church.

The almost paranoid demands of detail on the White Church's beliefs are an important reason for the hostility of many unbelievers and even the categorization of churches—but we are not going to dwell too much on these things at the moment.

There was another light rain this morning, and dark clouds in the sky can often be seen in recent days. Maybe the next storm will come soon.

The rain-washed sky looks very clear, and the moss and grass and trees on the roadside add a sprawling vitality to the abandoned church.

The group of four was cloaked, and the rain gear soaked in tung oil was everywhere from Maximilian to Corry Conrad - and they stopped here because of Ammonica.

The blonde girl had clearly shown her intention to get closer from the moment she saw the silhouette in the rain from a distance, and she would stare intently at almost every short distance she took, so that she didn't pay attention to avoid the puddles on the road, and she couldn't escape the attention of the people around her. And as if there really was a god secretly manipulating all this, when they came to the vicinity of the ruined church, the drizzle stopped.

"If you want to go in and have a look, go inside. The person who spoke was Henry, and Joshua didn't know much about the situation because of his eyesight, but he knew Ammonica's personality well, and when it came to other things, he could more or less guess it.

"Well, go ahead. He nodded in the general direction, and Amonica took off her hood, then looked back at Mira as if she were begging Miss Loan to go in with her.

"But I ...... I don't believe in the White Church. Mira was a little embarrassed, but then she thought about it, and out of concern for Amonica, she took a step forward.

Joshua ...... "I'm sorry, I can't really take this a liking to. The red-haired swordsman's answer seemed to be expected by Amonica, the blonde girl sighed, and Henry on the side spoke at the right time: "Let's just guard the horses and supplies outside here, you two can go in, be careful." ”

The sage said this, and the two girls nodded together, and did not take off their cloaks for fear that it would rain later, and walked straight in.

The bushes and weeds that spread everywhere hindered their movements, and Mira first drew the long sword at her waist, but the length of a sword and a half was not very convenient for opening the way, so she switched to using the small sword that Henry had originally given her, and chopped through the weeds full of water droplets, opening the way for the two to the church.

Tall church, not too far from the road.

After the rain had passed, the clouds had begun to disperse, and the light shone brightly, and Mira could clearly see that there were some decaying and dilapidated wooden frames that looked like they had once been dwellings, and that some of the stone and clay structures could still be seen with blackened fire - Mira did not need to be a sage to judge that this was clearly the result of a conflict between the clergy and some people in the past, and the vines that climbed around him on most of the walls clearly proved that it had not been abandoned for a year or two.

"Click-" Amonica walked over first, the church door had long since been damaged, and judging by the feces on the ground, most of the high-rise tower structure had become the home of bats, but even the filth could not hide its former magnificence.

The dark clouds cleared and the sun once again showed its power to cast the blazing sunlight, and the patchwork of stained glass still reflected a beautiful light even though it was covered with a layer of dust on the outside—the dust on the floor of the dry church inside the church was cast in the air, and together with this wonderful light, it formed the most typical scene of the white church branch on the West Coast.

The two branches of faith that eventually evolved from the Lamanite Empire, and the Jetina sect that is still left on the side of the Patrosi Empire, were primitive and pure asceticism - and this branch of defeat and flight had more "tricks".

Presumably, in the heyday of this church, the priests would have dressed in rich clothes, the sun would shine in as it is now, but the dust around them would be replaced by precious incense, and the cardinals would proclaim the glory of the gods in the ancient language from the pulpit—all in order to create a "heavenly kingdom on earth" that would be awe-inspiring and worshipping to the faithful.

The books from Sivalier allowed Mira to imagine all of this in her mind - but more than all of them, she was more concerned about missing the sign of the gods and walking directly to Emonica on her left.

"What is?" asked the mottled female statues, vaguely in prayer—the brief histories of the West Valijes that Henry had bought for her had only summarized a few things, and were not detailed enough to discern the explanations of all the religious symbols.

"Holy Maiden...... It's a saint. Amonica looked back, wondering why her emotions weren't very high, and she continued, "We all walk on the earth as equal people. If you can really make up your mind to do good and uphold justice, then it will never be too late to begin atonement. ”

These are her words to the enemy generals who tried to commit suicide after the defeat of the war. Amonica tilted her head at Mira, smiled slightly, and said, "It's really worthy of a saint, this kind of calm spirit is really admirable......"

"It's just...... Are we really all equal......" Amonica muttered quietly. "Huh?" said Mira, who didn't hear clearly, and asked. "No, it's nothing, let's almost go, I just want to see the Holy Maiden, I used to be in the village, and when I was in a bad mood, I would always run to the church. ”

"I don't know why, as long as I look at her, I know it's just a stone statue, but I always feel at ease. ”

"How......" Amonica smiled a little embarrassedly, "It's like, 'Everything is going to be fine.'" ”

"Let's go, let's go, I still want to see the sea soon~" She turned her head as if to hide her shyness, Mira looked at the back of the blonde girl with some amusement, she took a step to follow, but stopped again.

The pale yellow sunlight shone on her through the stained glass window, and the white-haired ponytail girl looked back at the moss-covered female statue and frowned slightly.

The font on the floor of the "mulberry ......" is not very clear, and the writing is clearly Lamani, and Mila recognizes them, because Sivalier has evolved from Laman.

"Sanga?"

"Strange name...... "The white-haired girl shook her head with a frown, shook off a trace of strange feelings in her mind, and then strode after Amonica. (To be continued.) )