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Chapter 16: Between the secular and the sacred, between the political and the clerical, how should he choose?

Perhaps only he knew in his heart whether he had a choice in that moment. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

Anyway, the moment he walked out of the Imperial Palace, Rogge finally felt a little relaxed. At least for now, a uneasiness that had been hanging over his heart was finally removed, though the cost was just as great. He couldn't even say if the price was worth it. Until Rogge sat in his study, the Emperor's voice still echoed in his ears over and over again.

"Rogge, I heard that the Eye of Wisdom and the Silver Cult are about to merge, is there such a thing?" Feuerbach's deep voice echoed in the dimly lit little study, like a beast roaring faintly.

"Yes, Your Majesty. Rogge replied respectfully. A chill faintly rose in his heart.

"Now behind the Eye of Wisdom and the Silver Holy Sect, there is already the same goddess, right? The original goddess of ice and snow should have been defeated by the goddess of the Eye of Wisdom, is that so?" the Emperor asked slowly.

Rogge's forehead began to ooze a fine cold sweat, he knew that his current answer was very critical, one was not good, I was afraid that he would immediately cause death. At least with the old steward Sara Winger by his side, he had no chance of assassinating the Emperor or escaping.

"Yes. Audreh, the goddess of the Eye of Wisdom, showed her might and defeated the goddess of ice and snow enshrined in the Silver Cult. She didn't know how to make the followers of the Silver Holy Cult think that she was the goddess of ice and snow. Your Majesty, that's all I know about this. The realm of the gods, after all, is not something that I can understand as a mortal. "Rogge chose to tell the truth, at least partially.

The Emperor nodded and said, "Very good." ”

Rogge felt that the sharp needle-like feeling behind his back was finally gone.

Feuerbach said: "Rogge, since you came to the Empire, you have personally experienced the battle array, expanded the territory, and made many great contributions to the Empire. I've heard that you're well versed in history, so you must know what it means for an outsider like you to be able to be given a duchy, a prince's title, and an army of 100,000 men. If I treat you like this, it's not a credit to you, right?"

"I only want to serve His Majesty, and I don't have any requirements at all. Of course...... If there is a little selfishness, it is also the hope that His Majesty's war horse can set foot on the rich southern land. ”

The Emperor was expressionless, indifferent to Rogge's declaration of loyalty, and said slowly: "After the two religions are united, the influence in the empire will exceed that of the original Silver Holy Sect, and your current power in the political arena is no match for you except Alexander and Pompey." If this situation continues to develop, what do you think will be the end?"

Rogge broke down in a cold sweat, knelt on the ground with a thud, and hurriedly said, "I have never had a bad heart for Your Majesty!"

"Get up, our Asrofik Empire is not as jealous as the southerners, you have done great things, and you have always been loyal, so you can rest assured that I will still entrust you with important tasks. It's just that this situation can't continue, and the struggle between you and Alexander and Pompey should come to an end. Between secular power and clerical power, you choose the same!"

Rogge's thoughts came to an end. He stood up and walked out of the room, looking up at the sky.

The sky, as always, hung with a thin layer of clouds like a lead curtain. But today's clouds are taller than usual, and they feel a little refreshing.

Behind the clouds, there was a high and cold day. Behind the heavens, there is an endless void. Outside the void, is it the forbidden area of the gods?

What's in the realm of the gods? Is it like the wasteland of the North, monotonous, cold, and lonely?

Rogge sighed secretly, and then shouted, "Someone!"

"What do you command?" said the fat man, and before he could finish speaking, Robesy came out of nowhere. Generally, as long as Rogge returns home and calls out, this guy will inevitably appear, and everything that the fat man tells him to do can be done properly. It seems that Robles has grown a lot over the years, and his vision is far greater than when he was the leader of the bandits.

"Prepare the car, you come with me to the Holy Cathedral once. Rogge commanded.

At this moment, the cathedral of the Silver Holy Sect has been renovated, and it looks more sacred, solemn, solemn and magnificent. At Grigory's suggestion, the statue of the goddess of ice and snow in front of the main hall had been torn down. With the efforts of fanatical believers and the assistance of countless mages, a new statue of the goddess is being built at a rapid pace. The only place where there is some contention is the face of the goddess.

Unlike the original solemn but rigid image of the ice goddess statue, the newly erected statue of the goddess appears to be lifelike. In order to show the majesty of the goddess, Gregory proposed that a dragon should be added in front of the goddess's throne to show that the goddess's majesty had overwhelmed the dragon, the most powerful creature in people's minds.

Of course, the selfishness it contains in it is well known to passers-by. But things often don't turn out as expected. When designing the sketches, Mora took Gregory's advice, but she actually asked the designer to design the dragon statue in the image of Silver Dragonstone.

This hit Gregory's vital point. No matter how much the divine dragon threatened to lure, Mora would not budge. Gregory himself has a special status, and there are very few people who know about its existence, and even if he wants to go to the designer to revise the sketch himself, no one will listen to it.

Mora's style is extremely rigorous, and he usually either prays or cultivates. And as a sorcerer of Fengyue, her own strength has also increased dramatically with the improvement of Fengyue's divine power. As a result, it was very difficult for Gregory the Stealthy to approach her in secret, and even if he succeeded a few times once in a while, he did not catch anything that could threaten her.

In desperation, Gregory finally found Mora in private, pleaded bitterly, and after paying a terrible price, finally got the opportunity to stand in front of the goddess for a long time, and be worshiped by the believers.

How could Gregory be willing to suffer a big loss here in Mora for no reason? The wise divine dragon is now thinking about how to find an opportunity to sue her in front of the two goddesses, and in one fell swoop to regain the disadvantage.

Just when Gregory was hiding somewhere and calculating the time of his revenge, Rog's carriage had stopped at the gate of the main hall of the Silver Saint. He stepped out of the carriage, took a deep breath of cold and fresh air, and wordlessly looked up at the unfinished statue of the goddess, which was dozens of meters high, before walking towards the main hall of the Great Temple of Ice and Snow after a moment.

The courtyard is full of busy craftsmen, technicians and mages, and rituals. Layers of scaffolding are built not only around the Ice Goddess Statue, but also around the Ice and Snow Temple. The walls of the ornate Ice and Snow Temple, where the gods of the Ice and Snow Goddess were originally carved with many of these carvings, have now been removed and replaced with statues in praise of Audrech.

The hall also looked messy. The original altar in the main hall has been demolished, and the new altar has not yet been completed, only the figure of a magic circle has been laid out. Dozens of craftsmen, under the command of several mages, are carefully casting the smelted mercury into the grooves carved into the surface of the lapaz.

There were also many heavily armed Ice Palace warriors in the hall, their blazing eyes swept over the busy craftsmen, watching out for anyone who might disrupt the renovation of the main hall. Relations within the Silver Cult are now very tense and sensitive, and Mora is completely relying on an iron fist and bloody suppression of opposing voices. But the revolt within the church was almost constant.

These Ice Palace warriors all knew Rogge, and after saluting, they immediately made way for Rogge. Rog made his way through the crowd and strode towards the prayer room at the back of the temple, where Mora was usually left alone except for some major ceremonies or meetings.

Rogge asked Robesy to wait outside, and he pushed the door open into the prayer room, and closed the heavy ice-iron door with his backhand.

The prayer room is the holiest place in the entire Ice Temple, and no one is allowed to enter it except Mora and Rog.

Mora's long hair was scattered like a waterfall on the sides of his face and shoulders, and he looked very moving. She knelt in front of the small altar and was praying reverently. Hearing the door knock behind her, she stood up and turned around, staring at Rogge with watery eyes.

Although she looked weak and moving at the moment, the fat man knew that these were all illusions. At this moment, her strength is growing stronger with the growth of the goddess's divine power, and the natural charm is still amazingly powerful. What's more, in the name of the goddess, this saint has become more and more bloody and ruthless, and she is not a figure to be underestimated at all.

Rogge asked, "Mora, what's going on with you here?"

"It didn't go well. Mora took a piece of parchment from the side of the altar, handed it to Rogge, and said, "I have arrested a dozen groups of dissenting people, but there will always be new ones who will stand up against the unity of the two religions. This is the next list of people expected to be sent to heretical prisons. You see, it's only been a week since the last arrest, and there are more than a hundred more people on the list. ”

Looking at the long list, the fat man frowned and said, "Mora, have you checked the background of these people?" and I heard that your heresy prison is not a good place to stay in, and there are often dead people in it, right?"

"Heresy does not need to be merciful. Mora said coldly.

The fat man sighed and said, "The secular world is very complicated, and it is not simply divided into black and white according to whether you believe or not. What you are doing now is very inconsiderate, and you must know that an iron fist is not the only way to achieve your goals. Well, let Robeskey help you with this. Go back and give him the list and let him see who can move, who can't, and who can win it over. How are the Ice Mage Regiment and the New Ice Temple Samurai organized?"

Mora turned around and took out two thin booklets, handed them to Rogge, and said, "The Ice and Snow Mage Group has preliminarily selected fifty-one people, but the magic level of some of them still needs to be carefully tested, and the final official selection should be around forty people. At present, there are only more than 400 warriors in the Ice Temple, and they are only roughly in shape, and they have to continue to recruit. ”

Rogge opened the two booklets and looked at them, one of which detailed the background and magic level of each Ice Mage, while the other was the selection conditions of the Ice Temple Samurai and the draft rules and regulations of the Samurai Order. He flipped through them casually and set them aside.

Mora hung up a large plain canvas and gently blew a breath of ice into it, so that rows of delicate and chilling fonts began to appear on the empty canvas.

Mora turned around and said to Rogge, "This is the structure diagram I just drew up after the comprehensive reorganization of the Silver Saint Sect, do you see if there is anything you are not satisfied with?"

Rogge was extremely serious this time, he looked at the canvas several times, then nodded, looked at Mora, and was about to say something, when the corner of his eye suddenly glanced at several magic books neatly stacked on the altar. Rogge walked over, took the books, and looked through them one by one.

The books are plain and elegant on the outside, but the decoration is very ordinary. Most of the content is about how to strengthen the belief in the ice goddess Audrech in order to reach the stage of blind faith in the shortest possible time, and then there is a short section about how to sense Audrech's presence when faith is sufficient, and how to correctly understand her power. At the end of the book, there are several powerful spells that are not part of the magic system, as is Morana's Freezing Breath, which can slow down and damage enemies in a large area.

The fat man carefully read these books from beginning to end. Mora, like an ice sculpture, stood quietly beside him, waiting for him to finish. Finally, Rogge turned the last page of these books. He was now completely sure that these books were a complete set of texts for the training of Audrech sorcerers.

He looked up at Mora.

Mora smiled faintly and said, "That's right, I wrote these books, and the above methods have proven to be very effective. Now, in the Silver Holy Sect, including me, there are already four goddess magicians. If there are mages who have enough mana, but aren't particularly religious in their faith, I'll also consider using my charm to help them through the final hurdles. The divine power of the goddess is immense, and I believe that there are more and more magicians in the Holy Church. ”

Rogge listened and was silent for a long time, and finally sighed softly.

Mora Yingying stepped forward, looked at Rogge, and asked softly, "Lord Rogge, what are you worried about?"

Rogge smiled a little tiredly and said, "Nothing. Mora, you are really very good, I didn't expect your magic to reach this point, let alone that you could put together a system for training magicians. I don't think it's impossible for a new archmage to emerge in the Silver Sacred Sect in the future. Perhaps the brilliance of our magic will surpass the most glorious days of the Holy Cult. But Mora, there's a lot to improve in your plan. For example, in the past, the Silver Saint Sect selected candidates for ice and snow mages almost solely based on the nobility of their status and family wealth, but as a result, a considerable number of talented civilian children were locked out of the gate of the ice and snow mage group. And your selection of mage candidates based on faith alone is also problematic, as it is not only faith and magic that constitute the value of an ice mage. Noble bloodlines and abundant financial resources are also rare resources. ”

Mora frowned slightly, and said, "What am I doing with these people who are not sincere in their beliefs? The Silver Holy Sect should be a holy place for the devout followers of the goddess, if a believer does not even have the minimum conditions for faith, this will not help expand the glory of the goddess and strengthen the foundation of the holy religion at all." ”

Rogge stood up, smiled, and said, "Mora, even if these people don't have devout beliefs, they may play a far greater role in expanding the influence of the Holy Sect than many honest people combined. But I know you don't understand these things, and your goddess doesn't understand them either. But it doesn't matter, my main focus will be on the church side in the future. I believe that it will not be long before the new Holy Sect will surpass the most glorious era of the Silver Holy Sect in the past. Come here, we first need to make some changes to the structure of the new religion that you have designed. The original structure was too simple, and the number of levels above and below was too small to fit the needs of a large church like ours. You see, when there are enough tiers, it is possible to give a promotion to a meritorious clergyman in a relatively short period of time. The power of this kind of motivation is far greater than you can imagine!"

While explaining, Rogge used the pure magic flames spewed from his fingertips to modify Mora's original plan on the canvas. It's just that the power of his book [***] is too far away from Mora's powerful font.

After almost the entire canvas was painted, the fat man looked at it with satisfaction and said with a smile: "Let's do this first, and then slowly improve it." Now let's talk about the Ice Mage. What do you think the Ice Mage represents to different people inside and outside the Church? Is there just a devout belief and great magic behind this title?"

(To be continued)