I, the wizard, the foolish Buddha

Calling it a church is really more like a manor.

Typical churches often cultivate some economic crops.

Many fine wines originate from churches.

The location of a church usually includes a mill and a bakery.

Therefore, churches not only meet the spiritual needs of the surrounding villagers but also their daily life needs.

Thus, the 'shepherd' of the church is essentially the local lord.

After Roland reunited with Catalina, the three of them headed towards the church.

Catalina told Roland that he could look around without worry.

Roland thought to himself, 'She must have been here to handle some matters that she didn't want me to see.'

Roland didn't know why Catalina specifically wanted him to come here.

From a route perspective, coming here is a detour if they were heading to Bloodless Fortress.

Shaking his head inwardly, Roland began to observe the surroundings of the church with a tourist's mindset.

The environment here is indeed quite special.

There were no economic crops or even farmland.

Where farmland should be, there stood rows of tombstones.

Some people wearing gray robes, holding hoes and pickaxes, were leading a group of farmers, busily working in the cemetery.

Judging from their magic and some of their behaviors, these gray-robed people were all apprentice wizards.

To be precise, they were apprentice necromancers.

Of course, these Heretic apprentices called themselves 'leading sheep' and referred to their mentors as shepherds.

Roland suddenly realized that he had some misconceptions.

This was a place of the Twilight Council, a gathering place for cultists.

The church here was different from the churches in Valerian.

It seemed that those tombstones were the economic crops planted in the 'fields'.

Soon, the three entered the church.

This church was actually quite nice, and one could tell that the shepherd who was responsible for building it back then had put a lot of thought into it.

Ailina was slightly shocked after entering.

Catalina also showed a hint of appreciation.

But ever since Roland saw the Straw Church, seeing these churches again gave him a feeling of being substandard.

The Straw Church of Straw Town was the source of economic and social turmoil that sacrificed the entire kingdom.

The designer at the time saw a lot of inspiration from the underworld when building it.

After the church was completed, all the participants went mad, and its artistry was unparalleled.

Therefore, even the Goddess Heraca couldn't help but take another look after discovering that she had such a church.

Later, the little Rolands went crazy for another eight years on this basis, modifying the church to be more in line with Heraca's style.

Therefore, although the church in front of him was very good, it could not be compared with the church in Roland's pocket.

However, the architect here was amazing, possibly a Tower Master, who described Heraca from another perspective.

Roland inexplicably had a feeling that the Heraca Church was strange... He felt that this place was not Heraca enough.

Or rather, this was another side of Heraca.

The orthodox Heraca of the Eastern Territory was in Twilight, and they had studied Heraca for who knows how many years.

But perhaps what they described was just the tip of the iceberg of Heraca.

Roland believed that there were some things here, but these things were completely different from what he had seen.

The church was not big, but there were many people inside.

As Catalina said, Roland could visit at will—the shepherd was a formal wizard, he glanced at the three of them and ignored them.

Roland was stunned to find that the church was not holding a funeral, but a baptism.

It was just that Heraca's teachings might be a little special, so he mistakenly regarded the ceremony as a baptism.

There were eight people in total who were being baptized, all of them little girls.

They were ignorant and didn't know how sacred this baptism was, but they knew how important it was.

Their parents and relatives were all present, and everyone was very excited.

Everyone was chanting Heraca's scriptures, and many people were so excited that they wept bitterly.

It seemed that the process of Heraca's baptism was the same as the normal baptism process.

The chief shepherd of the church was a mid-stage first-order cultivator and quite professional.

The ceremony didn't seem to have anything special, and Roland got bored after watching it for a while.

He couldn't help but once again examine the Heraca statue in the church.

At first glance, you would find that it was a sacred angel statue bound by shackles and bathed in holy water.

On closer inspection, you would find that this was an evil god.

Its wings were not feathers, but small skeletal spines.

Its limbs seemed graceful, but on closer inspection, you would find that the joints of its arms and legs were reversed.

Its hands and feet were broken and then twisted at a specific angle.

The water droplets flowing from the body of this bathed sacred angel must not be water, but blood emerging from its body.

At first, Roland thought that the restraints carved on its body were chains, but on closer inspection, he would find that they were countless wriggling maggots.

Roland was a master sculptor, and he could see that the statue could present multiple postures from different angles.

He left his seat, looked around, and came up with a guess.

Soon, the baptism ended, and the people in the church gradually walked out. Roland couldn't help but walk to the altar and look up at the Heraca statue.

In a daze, Roland realized that this was not a sacred angel at all.

This was a flying big fly!

Catalina had been waiting for Roland in the seat in the church. Roland walked back and asked, "You brought me here, not to visit the artworks here, right?"

Catalina answered with a question, "Do you think the Twilight Wizards' research on Heraca is professional?"

Roland frowned for a long time. After considering his tone, he said, "Heraca is formless, and every master sculptor has a different understanding of Her image.

The person who built this statue... is a true master, a grandmaster!

He profoundly depicted a part of the Goddess Heraca's appearance. But I always feel a little strange.

It's not that it's not similar, but it's too holy. I always feel that Heraca is not as simple as a god of the underworld who simply controls decay and death... This church lacks some madness."

Catalina looked at Roland and nodded deeply, and said, "Roland, I find that you are not generally arrogant.

The Twilight Council has been 'describing' Heraca for hundreds of years, but you have seen Him a few times and dare to have such a guess?"

Roland sighed and said, "Indeed, I think the Twilight Wizards should see the matter of the Goddess Heraca more clearly than I do."

Catalina looked at the statue in the distance and shook her head, saying, "No, you may not be wrong."

Roland: "?"

Catalina said, "I have the same feeling as you. And this is also the reason why I insist on going to 'Bloodless Fortress' instead of the Heraca Temple."

Roland frowned and said, "Princess Catalina, what exactly are you here for this time?"

Catalina said, "Roland, the path of a wizard is the path to becoming a god. In order to touch the realm of the gods, we need to build a ladder to the sky and pass through the gates of truth.

There are nine gates of truth in total. After entering the fourth gate, you can ignite the divine fire and begin to enter the realm of God.

A long time ago, there were many wizards on the continent who stepped into the higher gates.

These sages led the wizards and mortals to drive away the so-called gods who once ruled this world.

But in that war, they destroyed the former laws. Since then, the steps leading to the Gate of Truth have also lost their anchor. All the roads have collapsed.

In the past three thousand years, there have been almost no sixth-order wizards on the continent.

In the past thousand years, there have only been three wizards in the Eastern Territory who have entered the fourth Gate of Truth. One of them entered the fifth gate, but she was not considered to have entered that gate in this world.

Currently, there are still two fourth-order wizards in the Eastern Territory, but their path is wrong and they have entered a wrong gate.

We have to find a new path."

Roland had his own understanding of Catalina's words—the Great Dao of this world has been destroyed.

Fourth-order, or fifth-order wizards, are the apex of this world.

He thought to himself, 'No wonder there are so many mysteries here, no wonder so many people can directly ascend to immortality here!

This world was originally a fairyland!

The people here were originally able to directly transcend tribulation and become immortals!

But after the Great Dao was destroyed, there were fewer and fewer old monsters who could cultivate to the third-order Nascent Soul stage, and there were only a few who practiced to become gods within a thousand years.

The boss of the Twilight Council is about to die, and the White Queen's lifespan is also coming to an end.

In the future, third-order wizards will be the sky here.'

Catalina said, "The last three 4th-order wizards to appear in the Eastern Territory were the Black Abyss Demoness (Alexandra's Demoness), the White Queen, and the Thousand-Eyed King.

The White Queen's path is the most stable, but it is ultimately wrong and has side effects... It's okay when entering the third order, but once you enter the fourth order, you will almost lose your freedom like a statue. Moreover, you will slowly lose humanity and personality.

Back then, 'Alexandra' once touched the 'Sun Throne (5th order)', but her path of truth partially belonged to the 'Thousand-Eyed King', partially belonged to the 'White Queen', and partially belonged to herself.

Unless the two councils are completely unified, her path is difficult to replicate.

Her younger brother, 'Iger,' also known as the first Dean of Black Abyss, exhausted his life's efforts to comprehend his sister's path, only managing to create a route to the Third Gate of Truth.

Moreover, this path is exceedingly difficult, and whether one can touch the Third Gate is entirely a matter of luck.

Even if one enters the Third Order, further progress becomes nearly impossible.

Twilight's 'King of a Thousand Eyes' was the most remarkable. We once believed that his path was the best, capable of leaving a legacy for future generations. However, after he entered the Fourth Order, no one in the Twilight School dared to touch that gate again.

No one even dared to walk that path anymore.

For nearly two hundred years, the Twilight Council has been in Black Abyss. The council, in order to explore new paths, has taken a different approach—they are attempting to find a new path to truth by peering into and describing the power of the Abyss.

Roland suddenly noticed two words, and he muttered, "To touch the truth by peering into and describing gods or mysteries?"

He didn't know what he suddenly thought of, but goosebumps rose all over his body.

He abruptly shook his head, casting the random guesses in his heart to the back of his mind.

Katalina continued, "That's right, peering and describing. The path to truth has been sealed off by the gods. The only way to find the gate is to follow the footsteps of the gods.

Currently, all known meditation techniques that can step into the Second Order or above have been developed by peering into and describing gods or mysteries."

Roland understood somewhat. Wizards have been searching for a path to 'ascension' and immortality. Each major school has its own path, and the various known meditation techniques are created based on these routes.

School wizards regard those self-taught wizards in the secular world as wildlings, wild wizards.

But in the eyes of the gods, aren't these school wizards also 'wild gods'?

Katalina said, "The Twilight Wizards originally had only one mainstream school, the Eye School. But after the King of a Thousand Eyes entered the Fourth Gate, no one went down that road anymore.

No one knows what's behind that gate.

But a second mainstream school was born.

This school specializes in describing the mysteries related to 'Lady Heraka'.

We all believe that the path of Heraka is much easier and gentler than the path of the Abyss. And that is indeed the case.

Since the knowledge of Heraka flowed from the West, Twilight Wizards, Black Abyss Wizards, and even White Chess Wizards have been trying to describe this god.

However, the Eastern Continent's research on Lady Heraka has stalled at the Second Gate.

In order to further study this path, the White Queen even provided protection to Joan's family, allowing them to be brought over from the West and establishing an anchor point in the 'Land of Final Rest'."

Speaking, Katalina looked at Roland: "The forbidden area does not exist to plant magic herbs, but to study Heraka."

Roland's pupils suddenly contracted.

Many, many things from before were vaguely connected.

Katalina said: "The White Chess Council intentionally allowed the Twilight Council to plant Prisoner Seeds in the forbidden area. Those three Prisoner Seeds allowed the Twilight Wizards to verify many of their conjectures, and we, based on the research in the forbidden area, have also deduced many things.

But your mentor, Usark, your fiancée, and I believe that there are some problems with this path.

We suspect that stepping into the Second Order by walking this path will leave great hidden dangers.

In any case, this is a new path, and it gives us a new choice.

But walking this path requires Prisoner Seeds.

Prisoner Seeds are the map to the Gate of Truth."

Roland suddenly understood the meaning of their mission this time.

Roland asked, "So, our trip to Bloodless Fortress is to steal Prisoner Seeds?"

Mentioning Bloodless Fortress, Katalina's eyes lit up: "That's right, but to be precise, they will give us Prisoner Seeds. They will give us some bad Prisoner Seeds, but there are real Prisoner Seeds there, and many of them."

In the Twilight Council, there are three major families specializing in Heraka.

The Bloodless Wizards are one of them.

Roland had seen those apprentices during the forbidden area trial.

Katalina said, "This time, in order to go to Bloodless Fortress, the council secretly made careful arrangements and spent a great price.

The Bloodless Wizards did not originally walk the path of Heraka, so in addition to the Prisoner Seeds of Heraka, they also have a kind of Bloodless Prisoner Seed. We must obtain both of these two kinds of Prisoner Seeds."

Katalina told Roland that the Bloodless lineage was originally a group of wizards from the southern world.

Therefore, they not only possessed the Heraka Prisoner Seeds, but also mastered a method of making a Prisoner Seed called 'Bloodless'.

The path in the hands of the Bloodless Wizards has two major drawbacks.

One is that the Prisoner Seeds they developed can only allow people to step into the Second Order.

One is that the lifespan of the Bloodless Wizards is very short, far inferior to normal Second Order wizards. Moreover, after entering the Second Order, they often die inexplicably and violently.

But the Bloodless Path is very, very strong, or rather, it has almost no bottlenecks, and it is also very fast to cultivate.

Many Bloodless Wizards can step into the Second Order from apprentice in just a few decades!

Therefore, although this path can only go to the Second Order, and has great drawbacks, many wizards want to walk this path.

After all, many wizard apprentices have difficulty even advancing to become formal wizards in their entire lives.

The Black Abyss Wizards now have very few people. The bottleneck for orthodox Black Abyss Wizards is very large, and they are walking the path of slaughter, so the number will become less and less.

But once they have the Bloodless Path, the Black Abyss School can establish a new Bloodless Tower. From then on, the wizards of the Bloodless Tower will be able to support the Black Abyss lineage together with the Serpent Tower Wizards.

The Black Abyss Wizards originally came from the Twilight Council. Apprentices use the Bloodless Meditation Technique and the Bloodless Prisoner Seed, and then study the magic of the Black Abyss. This is very consistent.

For the Black Abyss Wizards, this is the waste utilization of garbage apprentices.

And for the garbage apprentices, this is a godsend opportunity, a chance to step into the Gate of Truth, or even become a Second Order wizard.

Therefore, even if there is no further progress after stepping into the gate, even if this path is a dead end, with drawbacks such as violent death, everyone is willing.