Quadruple split.

Chapter 2533 Sauron

Soren Francis Puzo Corleone, the owner of this difficult-to-pronounce name, was once the chief inquisitor of the Inquisition of the Knowledge Sect. However, given that the Knowledge Sect ranked relatively low in the Holy Alliance and had never been fond of or good at fighting, its chief inquisitor was not as well-known as sects such as Dawn, Sun, Fertility, and Justice, which were both large and powerful.

Of course, stereotypes are one thing, and individual strength is another. In fact, Soran, who had already sat in the position of chief judge in his middle age, was very strong. Although he failed to break through to the legendary level, he was definitely the strongest one in the epic.

To give an example, Sauron's position in the epic should not be inferior to the position of strong men of the level of Xinglong and Ji Xiaodao among the high-level ones.

In addition, his inherent barrier [All-Seeing Explanation·False Truth] is the most bizarre and unpredictable ability to tamper with rules. Even Xia Lian, who is considered to be the highest-level fighter in the Holy Church Alliance, is very optimistic about his combat potential. Although because the Knowledge Sect does not like fighting, Soran has not fought many times, his record is a terrifying 149 wins and 2 losses.

There are many occasions to win, such as suppressing heresy, punishing fanatics, internal competition, etc.

As for the two times I lost—

The first was that when he was a teenager, he was buying books and met Luke Tifilo, who was also a young boy. At that time, the latter was being hunted for peeping at the girls of the Battle Convent taking a bath. Based on his own moral values ​​and sense of right and wrong, Soran confirmed the whole story from the pursuer and immediately decided to help. He picked up the Holy Book and slapped Luke's handsome face that was so handsome that it made people hate him.

Putting aside the seemingly impure motive, Sauron's holy book was extremely exquisite in terms of power, angle, and the magic contained in it. If it were someone else, not only would they be knocked to the ground by this boy who was often disliked for his slightly wretched appearance, but they would also probably suffer injuries to their nose bridge, cheekbones, etc. that would be impossible to heal within two months. However -

Unfortunately, he encountered the biggest, most evil, and strongest asshole among the younger generation in the Holy Church Union... and even the entire religious system on the entire continent.

"Fuck, where did this rat come from?"

Thus, along with a cry from Tifilo, Soran, who was already at the peak of the high level at that time, lost his ability to move in an instant, and he froze in the middle of the road, holding high the hideous holy book with metal horns.

What's worse is that after Tifilo knocked Soran down with the Silent Law, he pinched his throat and screamed loudly, something about someone peeping at the girls of the Battle Nunnery taking a bath, and was stopped by a young man with regular features and even more correct values ​​when escaping. He was just about to get angry and do something desperate.

What's even more outrageous is that after shouting, Tifilo actually fell directly to the ground, looking up at the triangular-faced young man who was unable to move, had a fierce shape, and a slightly wretched appearance, pitiful, weak, helpless and handsome.

Then, people from the surrounding houses and shops ran out one after another and saw a scene that was easily misunderstood.

In the distance, there was Sister Dawn, who looked murderous and obviously deeply offended.

On the ground, there lay a handsome, determined, fair-skinned and upright pretty boy.

In front of the pretty boy, there is a guy with a ferocious expression (trying to break free from the law), holding a weapon (to punish evil and promote good), a wretched appearance (born by his mother), and a trembling body (trying to explain).

As a result, the situation naturally got out of control as expected, and with the impassioned cry of "Save the handsome guy!" from the daughter of the bookstore owner, Soran, who had completely lost his ability to resist due to being controlled by the law, was subdued on the spot by the enthusiastic crowd, while the instigator escaped in the chaos, hiding his merit and fame.

The final result was that Tifilo was hung on a tree in the atrium of the Dawn Chapel for three whole days, and was beaten by Xia Lian Zhuye, Neva Fao, the head of the convent, and the second in command for no less than ten times. Priest Soren, who was beaten up by the crowd, received various gifts of comfort in the following days, such as a set of high-level divine scroll transcription materials from the convent (very valuable), a "Memorial Edition of the Codex of Knowledge" from the bookstore owner (Sorren could tell it was a fake at a glance), two sets of wreaths from the flower shop owner (made of various beautiful white flowers), a set of gorgeous plate armor from the weapons shop owner (Sorren had difficulty walking after putting it on), two large fruit baskets from the fruit shop owner (the ones left over from the day when Soren was hit), and the bookstore owner's daughter (the one who shouted "Save the handsome guy").

That's right, although they met by fate, the daughter of the bookstore owner, who was good-looking and had a strong preference for looks, did eventually marry Soran. It was also because of this that after getting to know Soran, Tifilo, who had pitted him so hard, insisted that the former, who was destined to be alone, owed him a favor.

In short, Tiphiro, who was of the same age as Sauron, gave Sauron his first defeat, and it was a devastating defeat in the form of a dimensionality reduction attack.

The person who gave Soran his second defeat was a younger generation he met during a manhunt.

Although Soran was not famous at that time, he was already one of the best masters in the Knowledge Sect. The person he was chasing was the wanted criminal who massacred twelve churches in the eastern part of the Holy Land twelve years ago. He was the former deputy director of the Security Department of the Southeast Region of the Gold Coin Chamber of Commerce. He was wanted by the Chamber of Commerce for embezzlement and became more and more cruel and bloodthirsty in the past few years. Hogg was a dangerous man named "Cockcomb Jackal".

As a result, when Soran unexpectedly controlled the gnoll who was disguised as an innocent civilian, a young paladin broke his own magic in an instant. Soran, who mistook the other party for an accomplice of the [Cockscomb Jackal], did not hesitate to deploy his inherent barrier and directly included the two of them in the range of influence of [Universal Explanation·False Truth]. Unexpectedly, his domain could not even last for a second in front of the paladin.

With terrifying willpower, the Paladin, who should have had his cognition distorted by a large number of tampered rules, was not affected at all. Instead, he conceptually denied the core of Sauron's inherent barrier, causing it to collapse directly.

This is not a theoretical game. If we use a relatively stream-of-consciousness statement, it should be that Sauron's belief in his own "Tao" is not as firm as that young man's, which causes the inherent barrier to collapse due to the shaking.

After that, the young Paladin immediately realized that the Jackal was not a good person, and then he subdued it effortlessly and expressed his most sincere apologies to Soran.

It is true that the two of them only fought for two rounds before they went from being "suspected opponents" to "comrades in arms", but Sauron knew clearly that if there was a third round, there would be no doubt that he would be defeated.

But his defeat was not unfair, because the young man named Madolan Locke has become the backbone of the Cult of the Abundance twenty years later. Together with Green Tiree, who is also the Grand Knight of his own sect and has the same legendary strength, they are called the "Positive Energy Duo."

In short, it means being honest, reliable, just, kind, and able to fight.

Apart from Tiphiro and Madoran, Soran had never lost a battle in his life, and these two failures gave him valuable opportunities for improvement. Especially after his defeat to Madoran, Soran realized that his beliefs were not firm, and after concentrated training, he finally filled this shortcoming and became stronger.

But the price of becoming stronger is questioning God.

Finally, realizing that he had nowhere to go, Soran decided to leave the Sect of Knowledge and wander to the lawless area of ​​the Free City, preparing to live in seclusion in the city.

Sauron had no children and his wife died of illness more than ten years ago. He was alone and had no worries, so he decided to make this most rebellious and chaotic place the last stop of his life.

Because he had "betrayed" the sect, he did not use the name of the intellectual sect. Instead, he used his own savings to build a small church called "Black Curtain". He read books and prayed every day, and occasionally confessed to those who were not convenient to go to a regular church. His life was relatively peaceful.

However, there has never been true peace in the city of freedom.

I don't know since when, [Black Curtain] has become a gathering place for many religious people. Religious people who can gather in this "ownerless black church" generally have a common "difficulty", that is, they have lost the qualifications to talk about their faith in the sun for one reason or another.

There are no low-class world enemies like the followers of evil gods. Those who come to the Black Wall to worship all believe in the righteous gods.

Among them, there are believers of the Holy Church Union sects such as Justice, Plenty, and Dawn, as well as believers of the Blood God, Dark Goddess, Moon God, etc. These people either committed crimes related to blasphemy against the gods, or were people who were not tolerated by their own sects. Each of them had their own misfortunes and differences.

Compared to the past, Soran, who now viewed the concept of "gods" more objectively, accepted them. He prepared various statues, shrines and scriptures. Although he would try his best to follow the core ideas of each sect, such as placing the statue of the dark goddess Delia away from the statue of the dawn goddess Pakosi, it was already heretical enough in the eyes of outsiders.

If it were within the Holy Land, this kind of church would be demolished, and Patriarch Soran would even be at risk of being physically purified.

However, this is the city of freedom, the most rebellious place in some sense, so [Black Curtain] has become a place to stay, a refuge and even a place to live.

Some people come to worship every now and then.

Some people will just hang around for no reason.

Some people even asked Sauron to take them in.

Over time, Sauron was no longer alone.

Over time, [Black Curtain] gradually became the "house of blasphemers" passed down by word of mouth.

Patriarch Solon gradually became the patron of those religious people.

As the chief judge for decades, he knows very well who can be protected, who cannot be protected, and who deserves to die, so not everyone can be accepted by [Black Curtain]. But even so, with the passage of time, [Black Curtain] has finally become a force that cannot be underestimated.

Where there are people, there is not necessarily a world of martial arts.

But where there are many people, there must be rivers and lakes.

[Black Curtain] as expected attracted the attention of other forces, and then, perhaps because of interests, perhaps because of personal grudges, or perhaps because of instructions, some people gradually began to set their sights on this small church.

However, the people who united around Soran managed to persevere and defend their own place several times.

[Black Curtain] gradually gained the right to speak and the capital to make others listen to him quietly.

And its leader, the unfathomable patriarch, became one of the countless upstarts in the free city. The difference was that he did not disappear like a shooting star.

Later, due to the special nature of the "Church", [Black Curtain] gradually became a "neutral place" where many people can talk about things with peace of mind without fear of being attacked.

Later, Soran used the power of knowledge to calm down several conflicts between neighbors. Specifically, he demonstrated the "knowledge" that was enough to analyze the interests of everyone, and the "power" that made everyone listen to him carefully.

Thus, Sauron became a "balancer". With rich knowledge and little interest in worldly fame and gain, he did have an innate advantage in this regard. He could always come up with a profit distribution model that everyone could accept, and use some mediation methods to make everyone reach a consensus.

Unknowingly, his influence grew, and at this critical juncture, the "Godfather" of the "Black Curtain" disappeared mysteriously.

Because such things are extremely common in the Free City, although Sauron's acquaintances felt regretful, they were not surprised and just returned to their usual daily life of fighting and killing.

……

“But it was actually an invitation.”

Soran shrugged and said in a leisurely tone: "Those invitations sent by the 'Uncrowned King' we just talked about."

The carefree girl stretched herself and raised her eyebrows, "They want you to become a real archon?"

"Obviously, they've been keeping an eye on me for a long time."

"So, why did you take up the identity of the Patriarch of the Black Curtain again?"

"Because work is work and life is life. Since 'Consul' has become my job, then guarding that small church will naturally become my life."

"Aren't you worried about being discovered?"

"Don't worry, because the capital of freedom is the least free place in the world. Without violating principles, there are too many people who can influence what everyone sees and hears at will."

"For example?"

"For example, I can ensure that most people 'forget' the existence of the Black Curtain in a short period of time, and this level of intelligence manipulation only takes me two hours at most."

"Thank you for your patience, Lord Soran. Now, the last question for today."

"Please say."

"Are you willing to bet on the Joker, who has the full support of the Violet Empire, is regarded as an important partner by Her Highness Fiallie Graham, and has established several cooperation lines with Gray Money; the backers include but are not limited to the Great Astrologer Diana A. Archizorti, the Misty Moon Sage Kenneth A. Archizorti, and the two-digit laboratories in the City of Miracles, as well as several big figures in Academy City?"

Chapter 2524: The End