The Era of Gods - Chapter 384:

Chapter 384: Chapter 384: Advanced Giant Compound

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Of course, being able to defeat it presupposes a paladin strengthened twice to completion.

Ordinary people cannot withstand such a powerful infusion of strength; in his vision, a complete Church paladin must be strengthened twice. Currently, Afonso has only been strengthened once, possessing a physique and strength equivalent to that of a great knight.

It should be noted that this classification is based on the assumption of comparable combat skills. The Church’s knights all undergo abnormal enhancements to increase their strength, so naturally, they won’t have the same level of combat skills as knights who have endured hard training and countless battles. In an actual fight, a knight of the same rank who has just been promoted in the Church ranks is slightly inferior.

However, this is only for those who have just been promoted. If they have been promoted long enough and have honed sufficient combat skills and experience, and possess superior equipment, they would be stronger than a knight of the same rank.

One month later, the Temple of Fu’er Village was completed, and Lin Xiao personally carved statues of the God of Life and Wisdom that now stood within the Temple.

On the day the statues were erected, the entire Fu’er Village held a massive mass. He took all the Power of Faith he had gathered during this period and transferred it to the statues. The modest amount of Power of Faith covered the statues with a faint glow, which was especially noticeable in the early morning, appearing like a miraculous sign.

Seizing this opportunity, Lin Xiao used the statues as a medium to cast a Great Blessing Technique that affected all believers, as if actual angels had descended upon the Temple—a divine intervention occurred.

From that point on, all the villagers of Fu’er had become followers of the God of Life and Wisdom. Having witnessed the miracle and influenced by the Great Blessing Technique, all traces of stubbornness and discomfort from the villagers were swept away. The actual miracle made their faith devout. Now, at a minimum, everyone in the village was a True Believer, with a substantial portion being Devout Believers.

Two months later, Lin Xiao, who had been waiting for Gould to no avail, received news that a major event had occurred in the Marston Viscount Family, the neighbor of Baron Gibson’s Territory.

Bandits took advantage of a family gathering within the Marston Family’s castle and killed most of its members. When the once-great family was on the verge of collapse, the eldest daughter and Lady of the original viscount, Julia, and her husband stepped forward. They quickly defeated other contenders and successfully gained recognition from Count Dyson to inherit the viscountcy, becoming Lady Viscount Julia.

From the received information, Lin Xiao recognized that the husband of the countess must certainly be a Descender but was unsure whether he was Gurda or some other Descender.

It was quite the stroke of luck for such a remote place to have three Descenders.

Fortunately, that was not an issue. As his strength grew, he was not afraid, no matter how many Descenders showed up.

However, he didn’t plan to keep waiting. He couldn’t just do nothing if Gurda never showed up. In the third month after the Temple was completed, Baron Herman, who had gone to the family’s mines for inspection, was killed in an ambush by bandits. His son, Afonso, quickly succeeded to the baronetcy and immediately threw the blame on their neighbor, Baron Gorton, who had long coveted the mines and frequently conflicted with them. Afonso declared war on the Gorton Baron Family to avenge his father.

The Gorton family naturally denied any involvement, but whether they admitted it or not was irrelevant. Everyone knew the conflict between the Gorton and Gibson families, with several minor conflicts having occurred before. It was reasonable to put the blame on them this time.

After the funeral of Baron Herman, Afonso gathered the family’s knights and soldiers. He also borrowed two Holy Warriors and ten Church Knights from Lin Xiao and, including the gathered troops from his own territory, had a total force of one hundred and fifty men.

Each Church Knight had combat capability comparable to an ordinary knight, not to mention the two Holy Warriors who were comparable to great knights. Their high-level combat power was comparable to an earl’s, entirely overwhelming for a baron’s family.

After waiting for only half a month and two days, he received word from the front that Afonso had breached the Gorton family castle.

Then, staying at the castle for a full month, he continuously defeated several relief forces from the Gorton family.

One month later, following the rules among aristocrats, the Gibson Family formally annexed the Gorton baroncy and its territory.

That is the influence of noble status. If you’re not a noble, even occupying the land for a year is pointless. If the noble class doesn’t recognize it, as soon as you leave, other lords will send troops to take it over.

Even if your power is strong enough and other lords can’t compete, they still won’t acknowledge you. You can’t always just keep guarding it.

Furthermore, if you are an upstart occupying too many lords’ lands without legitimacy, you will alert the aristocracy. At that time, the Big Nobles may send troops to fight you.

The annexation of the Gorton baroncy was just a minor episode. After merging the two territories, Lin Xiao sent Holy Warriors to carry out missionary work in the villages of the Gorton barony.

They still dare not carry out missionary work in towns, but villages are no problem.

After all, the Holy Church couldn’t care less about the villages – they might not visit even once a year.

Over these past few months, he had long since sent people to several villages under Baron Gibson’s jurisdiction to preach, and they had achieved significant results. They had accumulated several hundred nominal believers and about the same number of casual followers.

This was just the beginning, as the work of evangelism was a slow and steady process. As long as he found an opportunity to perform a few miracles, these casual and nominal believers could easily undergo a conversion of faith to become True Believers or Devout Believers.

It’s worth mentioning that after taking over the Gorton barony, Afonso did not find any trace of Gurda. Upon inquiring with the locals, it seemed that there had been no sightings of large groups of bandits for several months.

Combining the pieces of information, Lin Xiao surmised that the husband of Lady Viscount Julia of the Marston Viscountcy was very likely Gurda.

This individual, whether a Child of Nightmare or Child of the Spirit Realm, was too cautious. Sensing danger, they simply abandoned their revenge and left.

Clearly, Lady Viscount Julia was just a Puppet, and the true power of the Marston Viscountcy likely now lay with Gurda.

“This is a threat!”

Lin Xiao stroked his chin, deep in thought. Although Afonso’s elimination of the Gorton barony was justified and he had a good excuse, he still received stern warnings from Count Dyson not to engage in such acts again in the short term unless he was confident enough to ignore Count Dyson.

However, at the current stage, the strength of the Gibson Family was far from being a match for Count Dyson’s, even with the military support of the Church under his command.

An earl was already among the upper echelons of the nobility in this realm, alongside marquises and dukes, collectively referred to as Big Nobles. Each possesses vast territories and powerful armies; while ordinary minor nobility could afford to maintain dozens of professional soldiers, Big Nobles could sustain several hundred. Their overall strength was of an entirely different level.

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Unless Afonso could accept a second enhancement to become a true Knight, they might have a chance to fight, but he had just undergone the first enhancement not long ago. It wouldn’t be possible for him to undergo a second enhancement within one to two years.

In other words, it was impossible to expand the territory on a large scale within one to two years.

However, it didn’t matter; it was a good opportunity to consolidate.

But plans always change faster than one expects.

He wanted to keep a low profile, but others might not be willing to allow that.

Two months later, during a routine Mass, Afonso found Lin Xiao and told him that the Marston Viscountcy had recently annexed a nearby Baron’s Territory, having subdued a Baron and rapidly inflated their strength.

Most importantly, the wife of the Marston Viscount didn’t seem to care about Count Dyson’s warning. She had frequently sent people to harass the villages at the border of the two territories and seemed to have plans to attack Baron Gibson’s Territory.

“Hmm, what a nuisance!”

He said to Afonso:

“Send an envoy to meet Count Dyson and tell the Count that if the Marston Viscount’s wife continues her provocations, it will be very difficult for you to comply with the Count’s orders.”

This was not a call for help; he didn’t need help—it was just a message to the Count.

However, before the envoy sent to Count Dyson could return, Lin Xiao received news that the Marston Viscount had declared war on Afonso.

“So impatient!”

He was standing in front of a statue praying when he received the news. After hearing it, he chuckled and said to a nearby warrior:

“Gather our Lord’s warriors!”

Since they were so eager, he would expel them from the game sooner!

After his subordinate left, Lin Xiao reached out towards the statue, and threads of light gathered to him, forming into a Sword of Angel and Angel’s Wings.

Gibson Castle—this castle was the ancestral home of the Gibson Family, with a history of over two hundred years. Neither wind nor rain had altered the castle much.

Lin Xiao stood atop the castle and looked into the distance, where a troop of about two to three hundred men was slowly approaching.

There were no siege engines, no battering rams, and though there were over thirty cavalrymen, it was not known how many were Knights.

Due to the limitations of the plane’s civilization, catapults and rams were present but not widely used. Usually, sieges involved throwing stones at gates, where powerful Knights could hurl large stones far distances, or they would directly hack at thick wooden doors with their weapons.

The most conventional siege method involved using crude ladders to scale the walls.

But this time, before the enemy even approached, the castle gates were opened, and a troop emerged from within to form a line on the open ground in front.

Standing on the battlements, Lin Xiao watched the approaching enemy forces, his gaze falling upon a Knight in thick full-body plate armor in the enemy’s central army. The sensation from the Descenders confirmed that this was a Descender from the Nightmare World.

The two not-so-large armies slowly neared each other and faced off. Lin Xiao slowly rode out from the crowd, flanked by two holy warriors and four Church Knights.

The Child of Nightmare, also escorted by his subordinates, advanced from his side. His gaze swept over Lin Xiao’s men and he said:

“Was it you who took my weapons and gear?”

He nodded with a smile:

“You gave me the weapons and gear?”

Gurda’s forehead twitched, and he said coldly:

“You just picked up a bargain. Today, you’ll pay it back with interest.”

“Naive!”

Gurda’s anger flared up momentarily; he glared at Lin Xiao for several seconds, but his rage quickly dissipated as he slowly retreated and drew his sword high.

Following his movement, the troops behind him started to ready for a charge, with dozens of cavalrymen lowering their visors and raising their lances.

That’s when Lin Xiao drew the Sword of Angel from his waist and raised it high. The metallic sword radiated a white light that surged outwards. He pressed on his steed’s back and leaped into the air, as two streams of thick white light sprayed out from his back to form a pair of glowing wings on either side, making him appear like an Angel.