The villain's way to tame the protagonist

Then, Miss Scholar reluctantly explained to Xitana: "The core driving force behind the Revolutionary Army's war against East Port was Leng Lu, the leader of the Revolutionary Army. Then... who was the core driving force behind the war in the North?"

Who is the culprit who dragged the North into this vortex of blood and fire?

Without a doubt, it can only be one person.

"Domer...Grey Tower."

There was a fierce and violent fire burning in Xitana's eyes: "I really regret not killing that old man on the spot!"

It was he who took the lead in launching the North's independence rebellion; it was he who allied with and then betrayed the Grand Duke of Iron Blade, causing the North to fall into civil war before the rebellion even began; it was he who planned to bring Ivora to the North as a trump card to fight against Anther; and even the second melee that has continued until now was triggered by him.

The core driving force behind this war is and can only be this old guy.

"But...what does this have to do with the church?" Xitana was still puzzled. "Ming Fuluo, are you trying to say that the old man has a connection with the church? Is that true?"

She still remembers the sample that was neither human nor ghost in the laboratory. If Dormer was related to the church, would he directly capture people from the church for experiments?

"Those two large experimental facilities... Let's not talk about his disgusting breeding farm for now. The main thing is his research on the church's magic. Based on those data and samples, he has preliminarily combined the magic with the system of the Road to Heaven, right?"

Xitana didn't know how Ming Fuluo could figure it out just by looking at the data, but she nodded honestly: "The way the old man in the Gray Tower uses ether is indeed very different. His ether is gray, very special, and can also be used to open portals!"

"...Can it be used for space teleportation?" Ming Fuluo frowned slightly, "It's deeper than I expected... Humph."

Miss Scholar sneered: "That makes the problem even more clear."

"Hey, stop being so secretive, just tell me if it's okay or not!"

Xitana was a little anxious. She didn't know why Ming Fuluo was so slow, as if she was afraid that she wouldn't understand.

- In other words, if it is clear enough to make Hitana angry, then anyone can probably understand it. Even if she wants to pretend not to understand and deceive herself, it will be of no use.

"What do you think, Miss Xin?"

Anser could feel that the wrist he was holding tightly was trying to pull away... Xin certainly had the ability to disappear directly, but he didn't do so.

Because the devil was not holding her wrist, but her soul. Even if she wanted to escape, she could not go against the devil's will.

Or maybe... She herself knew that she had to face the reality that she had always been unwilling to face.

Xin followed Hercules to witness Dormer's crazy research in the Skyfrost Tower. As a saint, how could she not know how difficult it was to achieve Dormer Gray Tower's research results.

"Listen carefully, Xitana." Ming Fuluo said word by word, "Without the help of the church, it is impossible for him to achieve the fusion of the two, even just to get started."

"There is a woman named Elalo in Donggang. She was chosen by Bishop Ji twenty years ago as a pawn to monitor Lian De Shenlan. She also has similar means of combining divine magic with her own ether drive method."

"But she is essentially a believer of the church and has received guidance from the bishop for nearly twenty years. Under these conditions, she can barely master this ability. Moreover, the bishop can easily destroy her through her connection with divine arts."

As a means deeply bound to the rules and beliefs of the church, the rigor of divine arts is needless to say. If the analysis of divine arts could be easily obtained from believers and priests, it would not be an extraordinary means that can be called the path to transcend heaven.

In other words, without the guidance of the church, Dormer Grey Tower would never be able to figure out the mysteries of divine arts and find a path.

"But he has lived a long time, Miss Doll."

The cold voice made the somewhat confused Hitana even more confused. She tilted her head slightly and saw Xin who was just blocked by Anther.

"Why are you still like this... When did you show up?"

Xin was not interested in answering Xitana. She stared straight at Ming Fuluo and said, "Domer Huita is also a talented person. Not only is he talented, he also has his own power. Plus, with enough time... Even without the guidance of the bishop, it is entirely possible for him to find that path."

"talent?"

Ming Furo condensed her protruding half body into a solid entity, this time using her tall and slender figure, only slightly shorter than Shitana. Therefore, when she looked down at Xin and sneered, she felt a sense of oppression.

Hydra's Mechanical God, a genius that even the times could despise, pointed at himself and said, "You want to talk about talent in front of me?"

"I can tell you that even for me, it would take at least five to ten years to combine these two systems that look similar but have completely different paths from scratch."

"And what I need five to ten years to accomplish...the 'talented' Dormer Grey Tower you mentioned, no matter how powerful he is or how many helpers he has, will also take five hundred to a thousand years."

Ming Fuluo raised her chin slightly and made this declaration to Xin with undisguised and unparalleled arrogance.

"In the thousand years since the founding of the empire, the only one who can talk to me about talent is the pioneer who founded the road to heaven. Don't insult these two words, Saint."

"This is just your personal recognition—"

The glimmer of light in Miss Genius's hand shattered Xin's words.

"This... this isn't, isn't this the light that only appears from divine magic!"

Xitana's eyes widened and she pressed Ming Fuluo's shoulders: "Where did you learn this from, Ming Fuluo!"

Ming Fuluo shook off Xitana's hand with a hint of disdain and continued to look down at Xin.

"When I experienced the so-called 'Shroud of Coordination', I was already analyzing the composition of divine arts. Elalo's sudden situation made me speed up my research on it... Although this result was not used and could not be used."

She let the glow dance lightly on her fingertips nonchalantly. "It's just that the manifestation is the same. I can't drive it normally yet. After all, I have too little time. If I calculate, the total research time should only be... about half a month."

Half a month?

It only took half a month to go from knowing nothing about divine arts to being able to display such pure holy light?

Moreover, can one achieve this just through the experience in the Co-operation Curtain?

No matter who said it, even if it was the bishop, Xin would only think that the other person was lying. However, the holy light emanating from Ming Furo's fingertips was more powerful than any words, and more... cruel.

"So you should understand, Your Excellency the Saint, that I never make inferences without basis. I know my progress in the study of divine arts, as well as the energy and time I will have to invest in the future, better than anyone else... Dormer Grey Tower, if he had not received help from the church in his study of divine arts, he would never have reached this level."

"He did a good job of disguising himself. Perhaps others really thought the way you said it—talent, power, time... He also felt that he could use these reasons to distance himself from the church."

"But it's a pity."

Ming Fuluo clenched her fist to crush the flickering light and made a judgment expressionlessly:

"It's a pity that he was facing me."

He was facing a genius who was truly capable of studying divine arts on his own, so he knew better than anyone how incredibly difficult this task was.

Dormer might have expected that Sitana would flatten everything, and he might have expected Ming Furo to take over, but there was one thing he could not have expected no matter what - that was Ming Furo's limit.

Just as ordinary people cannot imagine the life of extraordinary people, even the top ones among extraordinary people find it difficult to see at what height the great people who can change the world stand.

In this way, the logical chain that even Xitana could understand easily became extremely clear, and Marina's doubts at the time were also answered.

——Since Dormer Grey Tower just wanted to create his own crazy ideal country, why did he bring turmoil and chaos to the North again and again? What benefits does this behavior of putting himself at the forefront bring to him? Or...what benefits are worth taking such a big risk?

The answer is, the exchange of churches.

Dormer sees divine arts as the new future of the supernatural path, and he wants to abandon mortals and make the world belong to the supernatural. For this idea, he wants to elevate the supernatural to a higher level... Therefore, he needs divine arts and needs to understand the essence of divine arts in order to create new possibilities.

For him, this is the most important thing after that ideal country.

So when the church offered this as a deal, Dormer agreed. He was willing to take such a big risk if he could get divine power.

It may be that as a fifth-level extraordinary person, he is much more cautious than Elalo; it may also be that he chooses to restrain himself because he does not want to be controlled by the church. Dormer did not get much, and the progress of his research was average, but it was enough for him. At the same time, in Ming Fuluo's eyes, it also represented an impossible situation.

"Although we don't know what their purpose was in starting wars in East Harbor and Northland, there is no doubt that... the church used divine arts as a bargaining chip to let the Gray Tower do things for them, causing one war after another. Otherwise, the Gray Tower would have no motive to do so, and it would be impossible for it to initially combine divine arts with the Path to Heaven."

All the information in the ring that Ming Furo gave to Xitana can prove this point - although the people in the church do not have the same talent as her, they have been studying the divine system. They can also realize that Dormer would never be able to achieve this.

There is naturally only one possibility left.

After hearing this, Xitana was surprisingly not angry. She looked down while holding the ring, and even showed a bit of...pity.

"How pitiful they are."

she said softly.

These priests are all kind people... Perhaps their kindness comes from their faith, perhaps their righteous deeds come from their mission, but no matter what, their willingness to protect refugees and even stand here at all costs is enough to prove that they also possess admirable goodness and justice.

In fact, if it were just kindness and justice, it would be fine. But if these qualities and emotions came from faith in God and faith in the church, then the truth would be even more cruel to them.

Everything they worked so hard to protect, to bless, and even to the point of risking their lives for, turned out not to need to go through such hardship and torture at all.

Without the Church stirring up trouble, the revolutionary army, which had difficulty in achieving internal unity, might not have been able to effectively attack East Port and would have been divided and disintegrated by Marina along the way; and the independent rebellion started by the Grey Tower might not even have existed from the beginning, the North would not have fallen into chaos after chaos, and the people living on this land would not have been ignited and burned by the fierce flames of war, leaving only corpses.

But the church did just that, provoking the war in the empire for unknown reasons. In Donggang, Mu promised Anser that the priests who came across the sea would help to end the war; in the north, dozens of shelters sprang up, and the priests personally sheltered the refugees.

——They were even so hypocritical as to play the role of saviors in the war.

How will the believers and priests who know the truth view their own faith, how will they view... their own lives?

Of course, the bishops can have ten thousand explanations and ten thousand reasons to convince their believers, and the vast majority of believers and priests who live on faith and feed on belief will eventually accept the explanations given by the bishops.

But for Anser, it was enough if there was just one person who was unwilling and unable to believe it.

And she really... couldn't believe it anymore.

Xin's empty and dazed pupils were reflected in the devil's eyes.

Along the way, Anser has been slowly unveiling the sacred veil that shrouds the church.

He dismantled the greatness of God and the grandeur of the Church, causing Xin to uncontrollably doubt the true meaning of God's existence and the true value of the church's existence.

——Everything is circulating between good and evil. The so-called coordination that transcends all things has actually never deviated from the scope of human needs; the so-called gods that are above everything, what they do is always revolving around humans.

There is no great and distant goal, there is only a tool that exists to serve people.

However, when Xin accepted it little by little... or even when she knew the truth but still didn't want to accept it and chose to escape from it, the devil cruelly pierced her chest again.

The church... has even abandoned the so-called good and evil.

If it is for the purpose of enabling people to live a better life, then even if he is deceived or driven, Xin may be able to find the faith and motivation to work hard for it in his future life and continue to work hard for it.

But even though it is ironic, such a lie is still based on a lie.

The church doesn't even care about good or evil. They started a war in Eastport and stirred up chaos in the North. As long as they can achieve their unknown goal, it doesn't matter how many people they sacrifice...

They could deceive any believer, but they could no longer deceive Xin, who had been devastated step by step and was already on the verge of collapse. Moreover, how could this be the only thing that was exposed in this transaction and could bring despair and destruction to Xin?

In order to achieve his own goals, he pushed the entire North into war, which was cruel and selfish; he handed over the secrets of divine arts to people who did not believe in God at all, making the strict rules of the church for more than 800 years a complete joke, and...

Even with the corresponding guidance, Thomas still spent a lot of energy on research, and indeed achieved results. In other words, divine arts can be studied. This "gift from God to the world" and "great power that must be feared" described in church scriptures seems to be no different from other secular things.

It's as if the power of God... has never existed.

The devil smiled and stared at the trembling saint. He could not break the nightmare that was entangled in her soul and heart no matter what. The thorns entangled with her white robe began to wriggle almost all over her body, which was extremely terrifying.

bah—

Faintly, it seemed as if something was broken, and at the same time, a large number of memories began to emerge in Anser's mind.

I see… Is the condition for lifting the blockade dependent on Xin’s complete collapse?

This is a bet that really suits my personality. However, the effect of this bet should not be limited to this. But before that...

Let’s first take a look at what the devil and the saint in the dream communicated.

Chapter 5: Between Reality and Illusion Part (K)

The young Hydra moved towards the Broken Royal City which was getting closer and closer. After a while, he suddenly stopped and raised Gleipnir, which now only symbolized his supreme majesty.

The luxurious staff transformed into a dark and cold hand cannon amid the sound of steel, and right in front of Anther, bubbles suddenly appeared in the deep and muddy swamp. The sticky liquid gathered into a twisted and huge monster with uncomfortable strange sounds, roaring at Anther.

boom--

The blazing glow instantly evaporated the huge body of the swamp monster before Anther pulled the trigger. Anther turned his head and saw that the Saint Lady had just put down her hand and was standing obediently.

"Do you really want to take care of me, Miss Xin?" He raised his eyebrows slightly.

"That's not the embodiment of erosion. It's the enemy that Mr. Devil created for himself."

Xin did not answer Anser, but instead said to himself: "Mr. Devil, why did you create enemies for yourself in your dream? Don't you want to reach your destination?"

Gleipnir turned into a cane again, and Anser continued to move forward, not moved by Xin's question at all. He even smiled and asked back: "Why, do you think I'm scared in the dream?"

Because there is even greater terror and unfathomable despair at the end, this fear took the form of a monster, forcing Hydra, who was trapped in the dream, to quickly move away... It sounds like there is some truth to it.

But Anser looked so relaxed and contented, as if he was out for a hike, which had nothing to do with the so-called "fear".

Xin, on the other hand, studied Anser for a while and shook his head gently: "Mr. Devil now is not afraid."

"..."

The end of the walking stick pushed aside the mud and dead branches under the swamp. Hydra narrowed his eyes slightly and continued to move forward without reacting.

Xin followed closely behind him, never taking his eyes off him for even a moment.

On the way, they encountered several swamp monsters again. As they got closer to the broken city, the monsters became more and more ferocious. Even Xin couldn't destroy them immediately. This was more in line with Anser's teasing question just now - the appearance of these monsters seemed to be the embodiment of Hydra's panic, fear and self-protection, preventing him from reaching the end of his dream.

The might of thunder tore apart this gloomy and dark dream for a moment, but the next second an even deeper and deeper darkness filled everything. This world... seemed to be shrouded in an eternal night that would never break.

Everything about Ansir Hydra seemed to have sunk here and come to an end.

Xin's fingertips released a shining light again, and the surging power clearly devoured the swamp monster. But when the white light dissipated, the monster that fed on the swamp roared and attacked again, determined to submerge Anser in its darkness no matter what.

Xin frowned slightly. She was not good at fighting. Adjusting the ether to a level suitable for killing was all she understood about fighting.