Banner of the Evil God

"That crossbow arrow that was embedded in the wall should have been shot from a reinforced heavy crossbow, right? This crossbow is a controlled item, and there are probably only one or two in the entire Jinta City. Why would someone bring this to trouble you?"

Liv was silent for a long time and sighed deeply.

"...It's a long story!"

Since she had confirmed that the other party was a reliable friend, she no longer hid it and told the whole story.

About five years ago, the Church of the God of Nobility sent a high-level priest with great skills to strengthen its power management in Jinta City.

The God of Nobility is an active member in the human pantheon. Although the level of the god is not high, this goddess who was deified more than 200 years ago has been actively promoting faith. On the one hand, his church strengthened cooperation with adventurers, and on the other hand, he used the advantageous position of the nobility to exclude the church organizations of other gods, and he had an advantage in many places.

However, the God of Nobility also has opponents. Not to mention the distant ones, there is a god in the human pantheon who has a very bad relationship with him-the God of Knights and Pioneers.

In terms of divine power and might, the God of Knights is an old and powerful figure in the human pantheon. He has been deified for tens of thousands of years, and his qualifications are even older than the God Kings of the contemporary human pantheon. He symbolizes the development and protection of human military organizations. In ancient times, he was even the God King of the human pantheon. The reason why his power declined later was because human society continued to develop, and new gods continued to emerge, dividing his priesthood and domain, and diluting his faith.

But even so, he is still much stronger than the God of Nobles.

But the strength between gods cannot directly determine the victory or defeat of their churches in the world. Because of their inherent disadvantage in status, the knights were suppressed by the nobles, so that the Church of the God of Knights was also at a disadvantage and almost became a vassal of the Church of the God of Nobles. Only in some pioneering territories, with wandering knights and church knights as the main force, can they not be suppressed.

The missionary work of the Church of the God of Nobles often starts with the occupation and annexation of the faith of the Church of the God of Knights. There is no exception in Jinta City.

Facing the aggressive Church of the God of Nobility, Knight Parn, as the most prestigious knight in Jinta City, who himself was not loyal to any lord, naturally became the mainstay of the Church of the God of Knights in resisting aggression. As the leader of the secular power of the Church of the God of Knights, he repeatedly thwarted the conspiracy of the Church of the God of Nobility and firmly held the position of faith. No matter how the new high-ranking priest of the God of Nobility played tricks, he was never able to gain a big advantage.

This situation lasted for three years until an "accident".

About two years ago, a businessman who had been operating in the local area for many years and had a lot of wealth decided to do a big business. He prepared a large amount of magic materials taken from Warcraft and planned to go to the Blue Moon Kingdom in the east of the continent by sea to trade with the city of Gars, which is rich in fragrant leaves (a kind of edible medium and low-grade spices).

The trade of spices and magic materials has always been the most profitable, and of course the most dangerous. This kind of business mostly requires traveling to the ocean. Storms on the sea, terrifying sea beasts, and endless pirates can all lead to the tragic result of shipwreck and death. In order to ensure the safety of the transaction, the merchant sent out invitations to almost all the more reliable adventurers in the entire Jinta City. In the end, more than a dozen masters including Knight Parn decided to join forces to do this business. At the suggestion of the merchant, they also took out almost all their savings, bought magic materials, and set off together.

It is said that with so many masters in charge, and the merchant specially invited several experienced old captains, the safety of the fleet should be relatively high. However, for some reason, when the fleet bypassed the "Great Wilderness Cape" of the Iron Cliff Mountains on the southeast coast, it encountered a terrifying monster, "Dark Tide" Timsar.

"Dark Tide" Timsar is the most terrifying and dangerous sea monster in the southeast sea area. It can be called a nightmare on the sea. Any fleet that encounters it has almost never survived.

It is said that in ancient times, there was a powerful demigod named "Living Tsunami" Salamante. It is the incarnation of storms and huge waves and one of the most terrifying overlords on the sea. But it failed in its attempt to become a god. The terror and resentment accumulated over countless years tore the body of the demigod apart, splitting it into two, the "Wrath of the Tide" Heimsara and the "Dark Tide" Timsal.

"Wrath of the Tide" Heimsara is an irritable but rational demigod. It likes to wander in the coastal waters. Whenever people see a sudden storm, accompanied by huge waves sweeping over the deserted beaches and islands, they know it is coming. At this time, people often offer sacrifices to it and pray for its blessing. This kind of prayer generally has only a one-third chance of being answered, but as long as Heimsara responds to people's prayers, it will temporarily stop wandering and protect this area of ​​the sea from dangerous monsters and storms. About a year or two later, it will drift away in a storm and disappear without a trace.

"Undertide" Timsar is just the opposite. He is a terrifying monster who only knows destruction and killing, and has no way to communicate with him at all. Whenever it appears, there will be a huge shadow across the seafloor. The sea surface wherever it passes will be shrouded in decaying mist and icy cold wave. Countless ghosts and undead creatures in the water surround it and attack the sea surface crazily. All living creatures on the planet will eventually drag them into the abyss of death. It comes and goes without a trace and moves without warning. Whenever people notice that the sky suddenly darkens and the water under their feet becomes pitch black, it is often too late to escape from its clutches.

Knight Parn's fleet encountered this terrifying monster. They fought with all their strength, but in the end only one ship escaped. The remaining ships, including the flagship of the fleet (the businessman was on the flagship at the time) and the ship where Knight Parn was on, all failed to escape and were buried at the bottom of the sea. The senior priest of the Church of the Noble God was also in the fleet at the time. It is said that he, who always liked to plot conspiracies behind the scenes, fought heroically at the time, but was unable to save his life.

Almost a year ago, the ship that had a lucky escape returned to the Mystic Tower Federation, and a maritime trade route was established. Maritime merchants in the future will be able to make huge profits through this, but the people who died exploring the trade route will never be seen again. Can't come back.

When the bad news reached Jinta City, at least a quarter of the families in the city fell into grief. But before everyone could recover from their grief, the Church of the Noble God suddenly came forward and took out many contracts signed in advance to collect debts from each family.

According to the contract, all the adventurers, including Knight Parn, participated in this voyage as "shareholders." If they make money, they can pay dividends based on equity; if they lose money, of course they have to lose money based on equity.

To be honest, there was nothing wrong with this contract, but it was only then that everyone suddenly discovered that the businessman had actually borrowed a large sum of money from the Church of the God of Nobles. The amount was astonishingly large!

According to the original contract, the Parn Knights and the others had a lot of equity, so the money they needed to lose at this moment was naturally a lot. Families that had already lost all their money due to the shipwreck could not find such a large sum of money, and they were suddenly in trouble.

The Church of God of Nobles is not a good man and a believer, and it immediately came to each house one by one to press for debts. The families of two adventurers were forced to commit suicide, and many of the others were forced to sign contracts, sell their faith and labor, and become subordinates of the Church of the Noble God.

The crossbow arrow in the corner of Knight Parn's house was left behind by the debt collector to threaten her when Liv had a conflict with her debt collector.

Fortunately, some people, including Knight Parn, still had some connections. At that time, a senior mage came forward to persuade, and the Church of the God of Nobles angrily agreed to grant a period of grace, but it required interest.

In order to repay the debt, Liv became an adventurer and formed an adventure group with the children of families who were also burdened with huge debts. They worked hard to hunt dangerous monsters and earn money to pay off the debt. However, at this time, the Church of the Noble God used commercial means to greatly reduce the purchase price of monster materials in this city. Often they risked their lives to fight for a day, but the income was not enough to pay the interest!

Under such circumstances, the mood of the boys and girls is of course becoming increasingly anxious, and the Church of the God of Nobles comes to collect debts from time to time, like a reminder that the number of debts is increasing and the date for repayment is decreasing.

"So... when we came here just now, you thought we were from the Church of the Noble God?" Lei asked.

Liv nodded and said angrily: "Those guys are really hateful!"

"Didn't anyone come to visit me?" Lei asked again.

Liv shook her head and said with some frustration: "No more. Father's friends either died on that voyage, or they were forced to cut off contact with us due to the power of the Church of the Noble Lady (another name for the God of Nobles). Now we are the only young ones. People help each other and encourage each other...but there is no hope."

"Sister, don't be sad, we have money now!" Little Nisi saw that her sister was depressed again, and hurriedly grabbed a few gems and brought them to her, "Look, look, there are so many gems! The debt can definitely be paid off!”

Even the little girl is also a woman. Although she cannot estimate the price of these gems, a woman's nature tells her that these gems are valuable and completely enough to repay the debt.

Looking at her sister's concerned and happy face, Liv couldn't help but smile.

"Yes, thanks to Mr. Satan, we don't have to worry about debts." She said, "But when I think about the situation of my partners, it's hard for me to be happy..."

She had no intention of borrowing money. To repay everyone's debts, a staggering amount of money would be needed. Even if Mr. Lei and Miss Steele were willing to borrow money, they would not be able to carry such a huge amount of money with them when they came from afar.

Lei pondered and frowned slightly.

"This matter...I always feel like something is wrong..."

A reader who has been supporting me was admitted to the hospital due to heart valve disease and organ bleeding. The situation was very dangerous. A few days later, while we were celebrating the New Year, he was facing death on the operating table. I can't do anything to help him, I can only wish him well and wish him a smooth operation and a speedy recovery!