Necromancer, summoning 055? What the heck?

Chapter 432 Rainbow Holy City Asking for Price Divine Artifact
P.S.: My mom had a pacemaker implanted today, and the treatment will be finished in about two days. I'll try to get back to updating twice a week as soon as possible.

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Entering this massive central temple, one finds a straight avenue leading deep inside to layers of doors and windows, their entrances and exits faintly visible amidst the rising smoke and ever-burning lamplight.

And behind the layers of gates and doors, there are countless inner courtyards.

Horses and carriages were not allowed inside the temple, so everyone had to walk.

Crown Bishop Ryan Tsukuyomi, swaying steadily as he walked forward, spoke slowly and deliberately.

“Those rough beasts from the wasteland, who don’t know the rules, have turned the Northland into a mess. Now that the lord and his wife have arrived, they have thoroughly cleansed the White Deer Plain and finally driven those stinking beasts back to their lairs on the wasteland.”

"The peace in the North is a tremendous achievement. Even the highest gods can now rest in peace!"

Listening to the old man's flattery, Chen Mo couldn't quite figure out his intentions, so he just mumbled a couple of "hmms" and didn't respond for the time being.

Archbishop Ryan paused slightly, then continued, "It's just that these guys are about to die, and they've caused all this chaos. It's made this old man, who was eager to see the distinguished guest, wait for another dozen days and nights."

"They deserve to die!"

"From now on, Rainbow City and the Lord will be neighbors. We hope the Lord will take good care of us!"

The more Chen Mo listened, the more suspicious he became, so he quickly spoke up to stop the old man's shameless flattery.

"Even without me, these orcs wouldn't be able to touch Rainbow City in the slightest. The Archbishop is truly overrated!"

"Ah, the more you speak, the more ashamed I feel!" The old man stopped and looked out the window with a touch of melancholy.

"The Misty Moon Divine Court lost the White Deer for over two hundred years. Seven bishops have come and gone, and in one cycle, they have never been able to achieve any results on the White Deer Plain. Yet the lord, starting from scratch in the Vast Sea, has taken the White Deer in just a few years. The lord's words are truly, truly making me feel ashamed."

Archbishop Ryan was looking towards the direction of the White Deer Plain in the east. Although it was impossible to see any trace of the White Deer Plain from the distance and angle of the temple, his posture was clearly visible.

Chen Mo stopped in his tracks.

Xia Yuanfeng, who had been following behind Chen Mo and Liu Shuang without uttering a word, glanced at his lord and immediately caught the signal contained in his lord's subtle movement.

After a light cough that drew everyone's attention, Xia Yuanfeng raised his voice and uttered a merciless question.

"Is Archbishop Ryan trying to remind us that the White Deer Kingdom was once a vassal of the Mist Moon Divine Court, and now the Mist Moon Divine Court wants to assert... certain rights over the White Deer Plain?"

This was a very unfriendly question, but that's exactly what Xia Yuanfeng did. Whenever the lord needed to express toughness or dissatisfaction, or wanted to test the other party's bottom line but didn't want to get involved himself, he was the lord's mouthpiece.

With him aggressively pressing forward and engaging in reckless conflicts, his presence creates space for his lord to maneuver freely.

The strong smell of gunpowder instantly filled the avenue in the center of the temple.

Faced with the shocked and furious gazes of the Divine Court bishops, Xia Yuanfeng didn't hesitate to retort with an equally fierce look.

Did the Holy See actually have such intentions? It's hard to say from the Archbishop Ryan in front of me, but there must have been priests who had such thoughts.

Before the fall of the White Deer Kingdom, its royal family was subservient to the Mist Moon Divine Court. The White Deer official religion was the Seven-Eyed God, and they had to pay a large amount of tribute to the Divine Court every year. Because of this, in the early and middle stages of the orcs' attack on White Deer, the Mist Moon Divine Court invested a large number of temple knights and war materials to assist the White Deer Kingdom in its active resistance.

But that was just the beginning.

Once the war crossed a certain critical point, and once the orcs were determined to occupy the White Deer Plains long-term, instead of coming and going as they had in the past, continuing to pour precious and loyal core forces into that bottomless pit became a "seriously irrational" act in the eyes of the Divine Court's higher-ups.

The reason why the Misty Moon Divine Court finally gave up on the White Deer was to publicly claim that it was "in accordance with divine decree," which can be described as dark humor!
The gods abandoned their followers without hesitation.

The truth is now unknown, but the reason is clearly defined by Han Hai Ling.

why?

Because it's not worth it!

That period of history has long been buried in the dust of time, and most of the documents from the parties involved have been lost. The remaining parts are even less likely to be seen by Chen Mo.

However, Chen Mo was very clear about the ins and outs of the matter, because in the vast sea, there was a survivor of the war, a person directly involved—

Aurelio Zelin Lee.

Director Li of the restoration plant—though he now prefers to be called "Model Worker Li"!
According to Li Zelin's explanation, whether it's gods or temples, for the Bailu Plain, it's all about economic calculations.

The initial investment in resisting the orcs was not large, but the benefits obtained from the White Deer Kingdom were considerable. For example, the Divine Court accounted for nearly 40% of the profits from Redstone Valley and later Vulture Cliff Mine.

At that time, everyone in the Divine Court firmly supported sending reinforcements to Bailu.

But war is a meat grinder, and even more so a black hole of wealth.

The war raged on sporadically for over a decade, marked by protracted battles, territorial losses, Pyrrhic victories, and further losses. As the situation worsened, the White Deer royal family's control dwindled dramatically. For the Divine Court, the kingdom gradually transformed from a stable source of revenue into a heavy burden that constantly required financial support.

Why would such a vast plain, fertile land, and a huge population become a burden?
The reason is simple: the people of the White Deer Kingdom do not always stand with the Divine Court.

Back then, Li Zelin had a heart-to-heart talk with the lord, a talk that could be described as a deep and painful experience.

Chen Mo had one major question at that time.

"Why did the White Deer Kingdom, as a vassal state of the Mist Moon Divine Court, end up scattered all over the country after its defeat, with so many warriors scattered and the White Deer Restoration Society struggling to stay in their homeland? Why didn't they flee to the territory of their suzerain state, the Mist Moon Divine Court, to accumulate strength and wait for an opportunity to strike?"

Undead creatures generally don't have intense emotions, but the moment Li Zelin answered, he clearly broke down.

“My lord, you don’t know that back then, the Mist Moon Divine Court did not regard heretics as human beings!”

Specifically, in the eyes of the Mist Moon Divine Court at that time, professionals who did not believe in the Seven-Eyed God were to be sent to the Inquisition.

The beliefs within the White Deer Kingdom are quite complex. In addition to the mainstream Seven-Eyed God, who is revered as the state religion by the royal family, there are also nature spirit worship, ancestor worship, and the remaining followers of some ancient fallen gods.

In the eyes of the Inquisition, these people were, at best, heretics, and at worst, blasphemers.

Even in the early political struggles of the White Deer Kingdom, many of the "Never Return" clan members who left were ostracized, suppressed, and even slaughtered by the White Deer royal family in collusion with the Divine Court because of their faith. Disheartened, they angrily went north to join the beastmen!

These "non-returners" later became particularly ruthless towards the humans of Bailu, which was partly due to a combination of national and personal grievances and religious persecution.

In this way, the orcs and the divine court demonstrated their power to suppress ordinary people through a competition.

In the later stages of the war, as the kingdom was on the verge of collapse and the situation became increasingly uncontrollable, the Mistmoon Divine Court immediately ceased its indiscriminate attacks on the "heretics" and began to use "whether they resisted or surrendered to the orcs" as the primary distinguishing criterion.

But the lingering effects remain, and are unavoidable.

"My family has made great contributions to the White Deer, but in terms of faith, because my family once had a lineage of summoners, my ancestors worshipped the star god Castil."

"Although the gods have fallen, our ancestors firmly believed that Castile would eventually return and rebuild the Astral Godhood."

At this point, Li Zelin let out an extremely contemptuous snort towards the northwest.

"Therefore, in the eyes of the Divine Court, my family is heretical and a hidden danger!"

"They probably have to thank those green-skinned orcs for not letting those charlatans in the Inquisition kill me. It was the orcs who put enormous pressure on the Divine Court that gave people like me some 'exploitable' value in the war!"

In short, because of the existence of this party involved who knew the inside story... Chen Mo basically understood the terrible things the Divine Court did in Bailu back then.

In short, their inhuman behavior made many people in the White Deer Principality feel that, compared to the Divine Court, orcs were not such an unacceptable option.

Of course, by the time the orcs had completely conquered White Deer and began implementing even more brutal racial policies, it was too late for them to regret it.

In short, according to Li Zelin, the Misty Moon Divine Court, facing a dire situation with powerful external enemies and internal rebels, was unwilling to continue its high-level investment and ultimately abandoned the White Deer Kingdom. This departure led to over two hundred years of bloodshed and suffering for the White Deer Kingdom.

Now, Chen Mo has taken back the White Deer Plain from the Plains Orcs.

Is it possible that the other party might try to reaffirm its former suzerain rights over the White Deer Kingdom?

Chen Mo was unaware of this, but he had already made contingency plans before the visit. Therefore, Xia Yuanfeng's seemingly reckless but actually meticulously designed and rehearsed probing behavior was a result of his actions.

Ryan Yueyong turned around in surprise, took a closer look at Xia Yuanfeng's serious face, and seemed to suddenly realize something. He waved his hands repeatedly to stop his angry bishops.

"Little friend, don't be angry."

"I don't know what the other priests and high priests of the Divine Court think, but my Rainbow Holy City has absolutely no such intention!"

"Within the Great Hall of the Seven-Eyed God, I would not lie to the gods. The White Deer Plain was reclaimed from the orcs by Your Excellency and should rightfully be Your Excellency's territory. You can rest assured about this, and I think Lord Chen Mo should also be able to rest assured."

Before the old man could finish speaking, Chen Mo had already shouted angrily, his face showing three parts reproach and seven parts helplessness: "Xia, what are you saying?"

"How rude!"

"The Divine Court and my Han Hai have always been very close. Ruian is highly respected and has always taken good care of my Han Hai. How can you judge the bishop with such a petty mind!"

"Why aren't you apologizing to the archbishop yet?"

"It was my recklessness and inappropriate words. Please forgive me, Your Lordship, and please forgive me, Bishop!"

As soon as the two leaders spoke, the atmosphere instantly cleared up. Sunlight streamed through the huge crystal glass, casting colorful beams of light. Countless tiny particles danced slowly in the beams of light, and everything seemed to return to a sunny and harmonious state.

"It's alright, it's alright!"

Archbishop Ryan waved his hand with a smile, seemingly not minding at all. "Come on, Your Excellency, we have prepared tea and refreshments for our distinguished guests. We mustn't let them get cold!"

The group continued onward. To avoid an awkward silence, Chen Mo quickened his pace, pointed to the guardian statues that appeared periodically inside the temple, and asked with some curiosity:

"Why are the faces of these statues blurry and indistinct, even less clear than the statues outside?"

The old man tilted his head and explained softly, "Your Excellency has a keen eye! Those statues outside are not depictions of the true faces of the gods, but rather the images of deities as defined by the temple."

"That was the image of God manifested in the world, defined and shaped collectively by the first God-Emperor, the theological masters, and experts of the Vatican."

"They are all illusions, merely to give believers a specific goal to believe in!"

The old man stopped and bowed in reverence to the nearest statue, which was about five meters tall and carved from a single piece of blue pyroxene.

"The statues enshrined in our temple are those of true gods!"

"Divine figures should not be looked at directly, and deities should not be fixed in form!"

"How can one define the appearance of a god without having seen their true face!"

"If everyone is devout and attentive, they can see the deity in their own heart!"

Chen Mo frowned slightly, stared intently at the statue for a while, and then nodded.

"That's quite interesting!"

The group walked and talked for more than twenty minutes before finally arriving at the spacious and luxurious hall at the end of the avenue.

Inside the main hall, seven massive pillars, each thirty meters tall, support the arched dome. Each pillar is a different color, corresponding to the seven colors of the legendary rainbow.

The floor inside the hall is a single, enormous piece of crystal, crystal clear and sparkling. Walking on it feels like being high above the clouds, with light and shadow seemingly flowing beneath your feet.

A faint fragrance filled the air, and low-ranking servants dressed in plain white robes moved silently, guiding the guests and hosts to their seats in the center of the hall on large chairs with velvet cushions that had been arranged in advance.

The seats are arranged in an arc facing each other, with enough space in the middle to facilitate conversation while maintaining an appropriate distance for etiquette.

After both the host and guests were seated, it was finally time to get down to business.

This is Chen Mo's favorite and most proficient part.

There aren't many twists and turns; it's straightforward and simple—what do you want, and what can you give?
Chen Mo excels in this area because he has so many leverage options and is confident in his abilities!

Even the Mist Moon Divine Court, which possesses the omnipotent Seven-Eyed God, covets a bunch of strange and wonderful things in the Vast Sea Territory.

Ryan Tsukuyomi seemed to have a deep enough understanding of the lord's style, so she stopped beating around the bush and went straight to the first topic.

"Lord Chen Mo, Your Highness Liu Shuang, if I may be so bold as to ask, what price must we pay to obtain this [Morning Star] from the Vast Ocean?"

【Morning Star】, whose full name is 【Morning Star】Special Edition Multifunctional Integrated Intelligent Robot. Of course, for the Divine Court, it doesn't care about functions such as education, questioning, clarification, and grading. What the Divine Court needs most is the translation function of 【Morning Star】.

This multilingual translation function is extremely unreasonable.

The Divine Court also participated in the bidding for administrative positions in the Vast Ocean Territory and was shortlisted for a considerable number of positions. After actually coming into contact with this device, based on feedback from various priests, Rainbow Holy City immediately realized that this thing was simply a divinely chosen aid for missionary work.

In the past, the first problem that priests needed to overcome when they went out to preach was the language barrier.

If you can't even communicate with people, how can you persuade them to believe in a religion?

While there are linguistic geniuses like Helan who are proficient in more than a dozen languages, they are certainly rare. In the Misty Moon Divine Court, the priests who are mainly responsible for missionary work are actually of the lower and middle ranks of the court. To be able to master another language in addition to the common language of Misty Moon is considered an outstanding talent.

The other party cannot use dialects, and the believers in the mission area cannot have too strong an accent...

At this very moment, the appearance of the [Morning Star] in the Vast Ocean fundamentally solved the core pain point of the Divine Court.

Almost all the reports submitted by the priests pointed out that this thing was an absolute holy artifact for the expansion of the divine court's mission!

Based on the existing feedback, this tool can analyze almost all races and languages ​​on the Bailu Plain, and can even translate more than 70% of local dialects with relatively high accuracy.

And this is only a small part of its powerful translation capabilities.

It is proficient in the slang, nicknames, slang, and even code words of many local ethnic groups. At the same time, it has a particularly exaggerated characteristic: when it hears the language of a certain ethnic group during the translation process, if the communication inadvertently involves racial taboos, it will not hesitate to optimize the language.

Without losing sight of the original intent, skip sensitive words that might offend the other party.

For example, when talking about dwarves, the "short sword" you mention will be quietly replaced by "dagger" by [Morning Star], and the dwarf horse you casually mention will be secretly replaced by "rock beast" by [Morning Star].

It's hard to imagine the shock a senior priest would feel when he first noticed this.

Even more remarkably, this thing seems to be able to intelligently distinguish whether you are "unintentionally mentioning" or "intentionally insulting" based on your tone, word choice, and context, and thus perform targeted translation.

For example, if you intentionally insult someone by saying, "You short, ugly bastard," then [Morning Star] will translate it verbatim without hesitation. Sometimes, to better convey the emotion, it will intelligently add an interjection before the translated sentence, such as "Pah!"

A significant number of priests who had used the [Morning Star] firmly believed in their reports, with an almost horrified tone, that a living, intelligent, and erudite soul was sealed inside this thing; otherwise, it could not have been so agile.

"It must have been that lord who was a necromancer who used some kind of unknown, forbidden, and incredibly powerful necromancy to plunder and imprison the souls of countless linguistic masters, diplomats, and folklorists, then shattered and mixed them together, and forged them into these metal plates!"

Archbishop Ryan Tsukuyomi didn't care what the truth was.

He just wants to ask the price, and then make the deal!

Furthermore, if something like a soul could actually help Rainbow City acquire artifacts at a more favorable price...

The Divine Court's great prison can probably free up quite a bit of space!
(End of this chapter)