Witch Troupe and the Undead

"Run! Split up and run!" Lilith turned and ran. Without the purification potion, the worst that could happen was increased physical strain, leading to deformities and mutations. However, staying here would likely mean certain death. No profession understood the importance of assessing the situation better than a high-ranking sin mage, and she quickly adjusted her strategy. Countless pink light butterflies spread out in all directions, enveloping the mages, who scattered and fled.

"Captain, the contents of the oracle..."

"I know" The great sinners had been forced to leave the prison wagon, while the heretic huddled trembling beside the wheels.

"Follow the instructions of the oracle first. As for these sinful sorcerers..." The goddess did not give a clear order, so let them go for now. "Hunting requires patience. Let these prey escape for now. When they are exhausted, they will understand that some things and some prices cannot be avoided."

“Ron Holm, the second son of the mayor of Holm Town on the outskirts of the capital, a good-for-nothing scoundrel, has actually transformed himself into a priest. If your old father knew, he would be very surprised and pleased.” The dark curtain was gradually drawn back, and several burly men shrouded in black metallic luster surrounded him.

"Unfortunately, our goddess has some objections to the evil thing you worship, so I have to invite you to our temporary sanctuary. Believe me, this is definitely not a good thing for you."

Before the heretic could speak, the Night Clan commander slammed a powerful punch into his head. The heavy blow, delivered in Night Coil mode, quickly plunged the heretic into a state of infantile sleep.

All Nightcrawler hunters have practiced diligently on how to quickly stun their targets rather than kill them. They can control the force just right. Apart from some minor issues such as headaches after waking up, it can basically be regarded as a very powerful and effective physical hypnosis.

A few hours later.

As dawn broke, the village women, who had to get up early to earn a living, carried baskets filled with freshly picked blue and yellow wildflowers. They came to the crossroads in twos and threes, ready to offer their offerings to the Earth Goddess and pray that she would bless the men in their families to be as strong and resilient as rocks and the earth.

As they stepped into the dense fragrant wood forest, a sharp scream pierced the morning tranquility. Men who were working in the nearby fields, preparing for spring planting, rushed into the fragrant wood forest carrying their farm tools.

They assumed that bandits had dared to rob the sanctuary under the goddess's watchful eye, or that they had encountered some kind of monster. However, the first man to step into the crossroads saw carriages bearing the holy city's insignia overturned along the roadside, the ground littered with signs of battle, blood seeping into the earth, and no corpses in sight.

"This... how dare they do this in the goddess's sanctuary..." The village elders trembled with rage at the sight. "Quickly, go and report to the Earth Pilgrims!"

"What about these carriages?"

"Damn it, what are you thinking? This belongs to the lord of the Holy City! Are you all out of your minds? Or do you want to be burned alive?!" The elder seemed to suddenly remember something. "Right, send someone to the church in Holm Town and tell the priest there about what's going on here!"

Soon, a cavalry column galloped from the direction of the Holy City, running right into the messengers sent by Holm Town and the Earth Church's entourage. Clearly, having missed the scheduled time and not yet seen the escorting team, the Holy City realized that something was wrong.

In the fragrant wood forest, the carriage and the dead draft horse remained untouched, just sitting there. The chains of the prison cart hung down from the carriage, which was empty. Apart from the footprints of the village girl who came to make offerings that morning, there were no other traces left on the ground.

“The Fragrant Wood Forest is the goddess’s sanctuary; all the corpses have returned to the earth,” said the pilgrim of the Earth Church after examining the ground.

“All of this happened on your territory, and you’re telling me you know nothing?” “I didn’t say that,” the pilgrim said, giving the hot-tempered paladin a displeased look. “The goddess knows everything that happens on earth, but I need to ask the goddess before I can tell you.”

“Alright, Brother Calvin, I understand your feelings, but don’t speak recklessly in the sanctuary of other gods.” The slightly more composed old knight spoke, then crouched down to examine the marks on the ground. “Pilgrim, the earth will restore everything, but that shouldn’t include forged metal and armor, right?”

"Yes, it is the product of the God of Crafts and the wisdom of the Son of Man. Since the Goddess permitted the excavation of rocks and minerals, she will naturally not go back on her word." The Church of the Earth believes that natural minerals, if not used, should eventually return to the earth. However, once they have been smelted and cast in a furnace, they belong to humans or intelligent beings, and will not be disposed of even if they are discarded on the earth.

According to the original covenant of the goddess, since the mining of minerals and the smelting of these crystallized elements of the earth were permitted, this right and its products would not be taken back. However, things like corpses and excrement are a different matter. The former is the price paid for receiving the earth's blessings, such as the growth of crops, and is not collected while the person is alive, but must be returned to the earth after death.

On this point, some fervent believers think that there should be no burial goods or coffins, and that people should just be buried in a pit. They also believe that it is even more wrong to build mausoleums underground and disrupt the earth's natural order.

However, in practice, the construction of mausoleums and the burial of funerary objects were tacitly permitted. In fact, the largest business of the Earth Church itself is the funeral industry, and it is a partner with the Church of Death. One sells coffins and cemeteries, while the other is responsible for the final rest and the construction of mausoleums.

The latter refers to food scraps, and since all crops grow from the earth, it is normal for these unwanted scraps to return to the earth.

Therefore, pilgrim priests would carry a shovel with them on a daily basis. If they saw excrement or a corpse on the road, they would dig a hole and bury it. They would also perform a simple ritual to pray that the goddess would forgive the sins of the dead and the laziness of the living. They hoped that the dead could return to the kingdom of the dead after being purified by the goddess. As for the physical body... well, that would naturally be dust to dust and ashes to ashes.

“There are no weapons or armor here. Perhaps the victors took them, but…” The old knight picked up a small piece of metal, which seemed to be a fragment that had broken off from some kind of weapon, “not all of the escorts died. Only a portion of them must have died. The rest escaped, and it seems that these leftover equipment were taken away.”

"You didn't take it, did you?" The young paladin looked suspiciously at the calm earthwalkers, who were busy comforting the villagers and preparing a ritual to cleanse the bloodstains on the ground.

“No, Earth Pilgrims never take things that have fallen on the ground. If the thing belongs to the Earth, a simple ceremony will be held to allow the Earth to reclaim it; if the thing does not belong to the Earth, then it naturally does not belong to them,” the old knight explained. “You should read more about other sects.”

"Isn't it enough for us to just read the sacred scriptures?" "If you were a priest reciting prayers in a church, you could certainly do that, but now you're a paladin, you'd better read more. I don't want the bishop to have to personally intervene and redeem you from other gods in the name of the Lord one day."

This kind of thing happened many times after the Holy War. As the Holy Lord's power declined, many priests and clergy did not change their arrogant ways and were detained.

What could be done in the end? There was no other way but to have the higher-ups step in and communicate with the other side's higher-ups. Considering that they were both on the side of righteous gods, they would pay some price and benefits to redeem the person. However, such a shameful thing would not be clearly recorded. It could only be vaguely recorded as having had some disputes with the believers of other gods or being invited to debate doctrines.

"It must have been taken by some other passerby. As for whether it was a mercenary or an adventurer..." It's impossible to trace. This group of people not only have no fixed abode, but they are also very good at selling stolen goods, and they generally have their own trustworthy and reliable channels for selling stolen goods—and more than one.

The items that fall into the hands of these mercenaries and adventurers can basically be considered completely lost. However, the old knight obviously had not read the more ancient texts, because in addition to the items that fall into the hands of mercenaries and adventurers being considered completely lost, the items that fall into the hands of the Nightshade Church can also be considered completely lost, or even more completely lost.

As a church with a "hidden" divine realm, once something falls into their hands, it's no different from a physical disappearance. The Church of Nightshade's biggest business used to be "insurance." This insurance isn't the kind that covers accidents, but rather the safekeeping of secret, risky, and dangerous items and information.

What is given to them, unless the principal or their authorized agent comes to claim it, can almost be considered to have completely disappeared from the world. Even if you use a séance to summon the god of "knowledge and prophecy", it is highly unlikely that you will be able to find it.

When the Nightshade Church does this, the fees they usually charge depend on the value of the item, the level of danger, and the level of confidentiality. Generally, the higher the value, the lower the fee; the higher the danger, the higher the fee; and the more money someone is willing to pay, the higher the level of confidentiality.

Well, the reason why high-value items have low fees is that those who need this service are not ordinary gold coins. Therefore, the lineage often breaks down, resulting in the client not having a successor. After the confidentiality period expires, the items belong to the church, and the information can naturally be traded.

Yes, another major business of the Church of the Night was intelligence. You could buy everything from monster weaknesses to noble gossip from them, and the church also ensured that every trader would not reveal their true identity or the content of their transaction—this service was very popular on the continent at the time.

If this line of work hadn't been so lucrative, the Church of Nightshade wouldn't have had its own ruins, abandoned sanctuaries, and shrines all over the Southern Continent. Even deep in the sewers of Hearthstone City, at the bottom of the Black Abyss Cemetery, there are large complexes and fortresses they built back then.

However, that was then. Without the goddess's response, the church began to degenerate and fall into depravity. Now, a thousand years later, no one has even heard of the Church of the Night. The last remaining members of the church live in poverty. The four of them cannot even afford a hotel room and have to sleep on benches at the train station.

"Goddess bless us, these things can sell for at least 200 gold coins!" A knight's sword blessed with holy light, half a set of enchanted armor, the monks' various weapons, a steel knight's shield with a large gash cut into it, and the complete equipment of two guard cavalrymen, including armor, swords, magic crossbows, potion belts, and so on.

For the Night Clan members who were so poor they practically had to walk all the way to their current status, this was a windfall. As for how to sell the stolen goods and turn them into cash, that wasn't a problem at all for the Night God's kin; they didn't even need special channels for selling stolen goods.

"It looks like we can finally sleep under a roof tonight!" The Hunter Commander smiled with relief. Not only had they captured the heretic, but they had also made a small fortune. Hopefully, those sinful sorcerers would also be quite wealthy, so that their travel expenses back would be taken care of.

"These things need to be dealt with. It's such a pity that the Night Guardian didn't come with us, otherwise we wouldn't even need to deal with them."

Divine power would envelop these things, preventing anyone who saw them from perceiving any information they didn't want them to know. The more powerful the guardian, the more information they could temporarily shield or erase, such as the style of the equipment, its origin, and the appearance of the trader.

This is why they don't need a channel to sell stolen goods. Even if they walk directly into an equipment buyback shop and sell it normally, the shop owner won't remember who sold the items or what they bought. Of course, this ability doesn't affect their judgment, so don't try to sell stones as gold.

“The veil of night…” The Nightbringer brushed his hand across the shield bearing the church's emblem, which vanished at an alarming speed, leaving behind an ordinary, damaged, enchanted steel shield.

Similarly, the knight's swords and standard equipment were treated in the same way, transforming them from easily identifiable items into commonplace equipment, at least to the point that they could be directly sold in pawnshops or equipment buying shops in the city.

This treatment will not affect the value and assessment of the items. Of course, considering the lack of information such as church emblems, the shopkeeper's price will most likely not be the original price. The advantage is that you won't be pressured to lower the price when selling some sensitive materials. The disadvantage is that you will be heavily discounted when selling items such as antiques that require information about their provenance.

“Without a keeper, this is the best we can do.” The commander stood up. “Now, let’s go into the city, find a shop to sell these things, then rent a house, set it up as a sanctuary for the goddess, and then deal with this heretic. As for those sinful sorcerers, we’ll hunt them down later. Hmm, Sangus, did you remember those guys’ ‘aura’?”

“Remember, as long as they are in the same neighborhood as us, there won’t be any problems.”

“Very good. The capital city will definitely be bustling with these sinful sorcerers. After we set up the sanctuary and complete the goddess's task, we can start hunting freely. By the way, prioritize collecting loot. The valley over there... well, we really need money.”

Repairing the dilapidated temple, spreading the word to the surrounding towns, building sanctuaries, training new keepers (priests) and hunters, and retraining and learning the Great Sin spells (the official version) all require money.

The Night Clan's biggest weakness is money, yet they lack reliable ways to make money. Without a Keeper of Secrets, they cannot continue their past businesses; without Great Sin Mages and Extraordinary Professionals, they struggle to gain the Lord's attention, making it impossible to even establish a small church to amass wealth.

Although the goddess's grace has been restored, many people need a long period of rehabilitation to regain their former skills. Therefore, making money is the secondary task of this small hunter team. They initially found this task quite difficult. Along the way, they could only make enough for travel expenses by accepting adventure commissions. When they arrived in the capital, they couldn't even afford to stay in a hotel and had to sleep on a bench at the train station.

But now it seems, perhaps, not so difficult? So many walking wallets (sinful sorcerers) are wandering aimlessly on the streets of the capital! (Dull reading)

Chapter 238 The Astonishment of Friendly Nations (Church Version)

If you want to sell your loot, the academy's shop is the best choice. The professors are always happy to spend money on all sorts of strange and unusual things, such as stone tablets from ruins, rubbings of murals and inscriptions, ancient scrolls, and of course, magical items and equipment from foreign lands.

"Enchanted steel shield, made of silver steel, with a protective enchantment to increase additional armor strength, hmm... a rare enchanting material and method." Professor Wilder carefully examined the shield on the counter with an enchanted magnifying glass. "Unfortunately, this crack has destroyed most of the spell's structure, and now it can only be viewed as a simple silver steel shield with a slight enchantment reaction."

The professor put away his magnifying glass, thought for a few seconds, and said, "25 gold coins."

Silvershine Steel is a unique material of the Church, a special metal forged using divine power. It has a strong diffusion effect of divine light power. Armor made of this material can repeatedly spread the healing effect of holy light among itself, amplifying single-target healing into group healing and increasing its intensity.

The price of 25 gold coins is roughly the cost of Silverstain Steel plus the crafting cost of the shield itself. Obviously, the price reduction is quite significant.

“Then take a look at this.” A knight’s sword, an enchanted half-armor, and two sets of cavalry equipment, but these items didn’t need Professor Wilder’s appraisal. He waved his hand dismissively, signaling his apprentice to go and check them. Appraising alchemical artifacts was a basic practical course at the Alchemy Academy.

After all, reverse engineering, analyzing, and learning from other unfamiliar alchemical artifacts is an important way of learning and researching alchemy, and its most basic ability is the ability to identify alchemical artifacts.

First, you need to make sure that the "legendary XXX" you buy from those adventurers and impoverished nobles is genuine before you can even talk about whether you understand the technical system of these alchemical creations.

"This pile of stuff adds up to 150 gold coins." After checking, the apprentice rounded it up to a whole number. The actual purchase price should have been several gold and silver coins less, but well, since you've come to pawn, how could I not give you a little change?

"175 gold coins..." The Hunter Commander scratched his head. It was less than expected, but it was still a lot of money. At least it was more than enough to stay in an inn in the city, eat, and cover the expenses for the operation. As for magical equipment and potions, he couldn't afford much.

Fortunately, the goddess has now begun to respond to the prayers of her kin, so most of the healing can be done by themselves, and there is no need to buy or prepare potions. Since most hunters fight unarmed, they do not need to buy things like incendiary potions or electrocution potions to enhance their weapons.

In the northern part of Xicheng District, the cheapest residential area, they rented an old house with a basement for just one gold coin. Although it was old and expensive (for the price level in Xicheng District), it not only had complete and reinforced doors and windows, but the furniture inside was also intact!

In the dark cellar, about 70 of the original 175 gold coins had been converted into materials and props for the sanctuary. A silver incense burner emitted a faint, unknown fragrance. Stone shrines, deep purple silk curtains representing the night hanging from all sides, and a silver plate engraved with intricate runes symbolizing the Eye of the Goddess, among other things.

The amount of money required for a formal sainthood is not small, and these symbols of divinity and holiness are indispensable. As the hunter commander used a black dagger to carve runes representing the goddess on the door, the entire basement was instantly filled with a sense of isolation from the world, as if the whole room was separated from the world and filled with an atmosphere of solitude, holiness and tranquility.

"Go in!" The cultist was left in the center of the sanctuary, where the unusual atmosphere was so palpable that he trembled like a leaf.

"You think I'm going to judge you? You're overthinking it." They aren't judges of the night; they don't do trials. As for the consequences for this guy, that's the goddess's business.

The curtains swayed without wind, and shadows flowed silently from every corner. "Wait, I'll tell you whatever you ask!" The blackness that spread like a swamp made the other person scream. However, the hunters stood on the steps at the entrance, arms crossed, watching him as if he were a stone thrown into the middle of a swamp, slowly sinking into the shadows.

In the void, some invisible lines spread out from the sanctuary towards the entire sanctuary. Each line slowly dissipated as the cultists sank into the shadows. Soon, everyone in the capital forgot about the young man from Holm Town, including the priests and believers of the Church of Spiritual Response, and also forgot how many people were in their own parish.

"Is this the legendary disappearance?" The young hunter peered out, curiously observing the scene. They had only read about these things in ancient books, and this was the first time they had witnessed them in person. Of course, the unfortunate ones who were "hidden" did not escape punishment. On the contrary, they had already passed through the veil of darkness and were going to the goddess's kingdom to receive even more severe punishment.

Soon, a new divine decree was issued, requiring the establishment of 12 ritual sites around the capital to activate the ritual effect of a powerful goddess of the night, thus ensuring that the evil entity behind the Church of Spiritual Response would have no chance of escaping. These ritual sites had to be set up in a very concealed and secure manner.

"Looks like those sinful sorcerers have escaped again," one of the hunters said irritably. They were clearly too busy to hunt down the sinful sorcerers now.

“They can’t escape, this is a cage ritual,” the commander grinned. “They will all be caught in one fell swoop.”

"Then what about our funding? We don't have enough people or money for 12 ritual sanctuaries!" Each ritual sanctuary requires at least one person, plus mobile personnel and guards to protect the sanctuary from attacks. Their four people are not enough.

“Send a message to the ‘Valley.’ This is an official divine decree, and I don’t think the goddess will leave us without money.” Indeed, she wouldn’t, because several hideouts and treasuries hidden by the power of the Dark God were also open to them. The valuables that had lost their owners over the long years lay quietly inside, and could be summoned from the shadows with just a simple summoning ritual.

It's just that the items that require this service are worthless, but it's also impossible to say they're valuable. Those confidential intelligences have long since passed their validity period, and the noble deeds and investiture documents can no longer be found in terms of the parties involved or the countries that endorsed them.

As for the physical items, they are mostly high-level magical items that are not easy to convert into cash or forbidden dangerous goods. Very few people would spend money to deposit money here, and it usually means that the money may not be clean or that it is not convenient to take it out and use it.

After searching through several reopened divine treasure vaults, the commander couldn't help but wonder what kind of people had purchased the confidentiality service in the first place. The highest-level item was an alchemy recipe that could reliably produce artificial magic crystals.

In the past, most magic crystals could only be found inside the bodies of high-level monsters or accidentally mined from natural mineral veins. This technology was so important that it was necessary to keep them in the Dark Temple.

However, now... The commander glanced at the magic crystal lamp hanging in the basement and was speechless for a moment. The alchemists hadn't been idle in the past thousand years. They had not only advanced the artificial synthesis technology on the original basis, but also made it as cheap as cabbage.

Now, it only requires the blood of the lowest-level monsters and some mineral powder to synthesize artificially. Although a considerable amount of low-level monster materials are needed, the price of these materials is also a factor. These harmless monsters can all be artificially raised.

In particular, blood can be extracted repeatedly without actually killing these low-level monsters. The main material of artificial magic crystals on the market is a large rock sheep, which is a low-level monster and has basic ability to sense chaotic elemental magic.

In the ancient past, ram horns were used as offerings to the goddess of the earth and fertility. They were raised in large numbers, with seven or eight large farms outside the capital city each having more than a thousand rams. They were also the supplier of mid-to-high-end meat to the capital.

These argali sheep can have 200-300 ml of blood extracted each week without affecting their health or meat quality. In other words, a farm can provide tens or hundreds of thousands of ml of low-level monster blood each week, excluding pregnant ewes and lambs that cannot be blooded.

Synthetic crystals are produced at least in kilograms per week, while the unit of measurement for magic crystals is usually mg (milligrams). In Roach's laboratory, the large magical train cannon powered by a spirit water steam engine only used 500mg of magic crystals.

"Two pieces of mithril, a large piece of adamantite, and the most expensive one is this..." A magic pearl the size of a fist, an artificial object formed from the essence of magic. In this magical world, it's probably no different from a large piece of enriched uranium. If a magic pearl of this size were embedded in a human body, that person would never have to worry about insufficient environmental magic for the rest of their life.

If detonated, the dazzling fireworks would be visible throughout Ruby City, and even across half the empire, as a magical pillar of light shot into the sky, coloring most of the heavens.

"I remember this was entrusted by the kingdom's treasury, right? An indefinite preservation agreement. Is it really okay to violate the agreement?" A thousand years ago, civilization wasn't as... prosperous as it is now.

At that time, outside the kingdom's territory, there were dark forests and threatening monsters everywhere. Even within the kingdom's territory, every village and town had to protect itself with high walls and set up various defensive rituals, otherwise monsters might even spawn in the town.

Without seven or eight extraordinary guards on the trade routes, it would be difficult to even maintain trade. Ultimately, this is because the population, the level of civilization development, and the scope of expansion are too small, causing the chaotic natural magic to dominate. Now, at least within the territory of civilization, the magic of order is dominant, and most monsters are the type that ordinary adventurers and armed guards can deal with.

Simply put, the area outside the Kingdom Gate was basically similar to the Little Witch's "Living Forest." It's hard to imagine how many civilizations and kingdoms fell on the road to expansion over the past thousand years. However, this boundary built with corpses has finally been completely completed.

Back then, these magical pearls were enough to create a temporary magical field covering the entire land at critical moments, defending against the invasion of chaotic magic. In the event of an invasion by multiple lord-level monsters, they could at least guarantee the safety of the capital and the core area—and then there were the various ancient epics and heroic tales circulating in this world.

The story revolves around a hero who, inspired by a divine oracle or chosen by a king, lord, or saint, wields the finest sword, axe, spear, or wand in the land, and, with a group of companions, traverses perilous roads and crumbling towns, crossing the kingdom's gates to challenge demon kings, dragons, demons, or lords.

"The client is finished, the kingdom has been destroyed, and these magic pearls naturally belong to the church according to the terms of the agreement, but there's a problem..." Who would buy this thing? And who can afford it?

The creation of magic pearls is a technique lost over a long period of time. One reason is that ordered magic is not as easy to manipulate as chaotic magic. In other words, the cost of creating magic is extremely high. Ordered magic must be used through strict rituals and procedures, unlike chaotic magic, which can be easily extracted (easy to extract but difficult to use).

On the one hand, there is no longer any need to use such a thing in modern times. Magic pearls can power the magical mechanisms of a city or support the city's protective magic array, but the development of modern arcane magic no longer requires such an expensive and troublesome thing to do the same thing.

Large magic pearls still have strategic significance in the modern world, but the most produced are small magic pearls the size of a fingernail. If the latter are no longer in demand, then the manufacturing process of the former will naturally be lost. Large magic pearls, which take a hundred years to produce and only one is needed, cannot support the corresponding large group of magical artisans and alchemists!

"Don't you have smaller ones?"

"No, smaller ones don't exist here." Smaller mana pearls have long been used as the core of city defense arrays or to create those ancient legendary equipment. Moreover, the nature of a mana pearl is that it is a highly condensed ball of pure magic power. In other words, once it is created, it cannot be cut into smaller pieces.

"This amount of money is still not enough. However, once the reinforcements from the valley arrive, we may be able to obtain some money through other channels, or find a way to convert these things into cash."

Many of these items are antiques and works of art, but as hunters, they lack the ability to authenticate them and cannot simply use a dark veil to hide crucial information, because the value of these works of art lies in this information. If you really erase its origin and history, it is no different from an old piece of furniture.

"That needs to be handled by professional Night Watchers." They would precisely erase easily exposed information while preserving the crucial details, retaining its antique value. "It's a pity the Goddess of Dreams no longer responds to her followers, otherwise..."

Otherwise, they could fabricate false information to attach a believable story to the antique, thereby distorting its true origin.

The Church of Dreams and the Church of Night were essentially in cahoots. In fact, in the remote and difficult frontier territories near the kingdom's border, the two churches might have even shared a single stone church, with the chapels of the Church of Dreams and the Church of Night located on either side of the main hall.

"Even if their goddess is still responding to them, it will be difficult for them to continue..." Back then, the Church of Dreams was not known for its combat power. Most of its divine arts were in the mental realm, mainly focusing on illusions, hallucinations, and mild memetic distortions. They were first-rate at causing trouble behind the scenes, but their level of direct combat was only slightly higher than that of the demonized horned rabbit.

At the very least, the demonized horned rabbit not only grows larger, but its horn can also unleash lightning attacks. As for the Dream Guides, they are just "fake priests," wearing light robes, carrying short staffs, and only casting a few spells like sleep from afar to provide some assistance.

They didn't even have healing spells—if you don't count mental healing, they were the best mental doctors—when faced with enemies who weren't susceptible to sleep spells or illusions, they would... they would decisively call in "real priests" who were also dressed in light robes and didn't even have a short stick.

Although the Keepers and Inquisitors of the Church of Night God also wear robes and don't even have a stick, they possess steel-like muscles honed through countless trials. Their super-heavy punches in Moon Wrap mode are no less powerful than the meteor hammers of the heavily armored priests under the Holy Lord.

"In the era after the kingdom's collapse, it's a question of whether their goddess or their faith will perish first." The commander spread his hands. "However, perhaps, like us, there are still some followers of the Goddess of Dreams. Hopefully, the goddess can bring that gentle lady back."

"I hope so..." After all, compared to the newly emerging sects, these old buddies who had risked their lives together back then are more trustworthy.

"Speaking of which, after the church is rebuilt, should we continue the same training as before? I think modern people probably wouldn't be able to adapt very well." The Church of the Night God and the Church of Holy Light were originally the two main sects that were keen on expansion. The former protected the night from the corruption of demons and chaotic magic; the latter spread order and healed wounds. In a sense, the relationship between the two sects and the gods was not as bad as outsiders imagined.

The reason they are now causing trouble for the Holy City Church is that protecting the common people and watching over the long night are the domain and responsibilities of the Church of the Dark Night; while burning light and opening up the wilderness are the domain and responsibilities of the Church of the Holy Light. In other words, they are not only sitting in their own backyard, but they have also fallen.