The camp of the Beiling stronghold was located in the former Guangming Church that was taken over. Auster parked his carriage in the camp, and Captain Albert, who had been waiting for him, received him respectfully. After Oster briefly inquired about the situation, at his request, Albert took him to the church basement to visit.
Auster had previously read in Borrowed Stars for Eternity that all churches, no matter how small, have underground parts. The power of the Holy Light of the church does not come from faith, but from the large machines with complex structures, gears and boilers installed in the church basement.
When I went down and took a look, it was indeed the same as what was written in the book. Underground in this church, there are also mechanical structural facilities of this type that are very different from the style of the church; and it seems that they have been completely destroyed, and there is only a pile of irreparable waste left. Fresh signs of smashing, burning and emergency dismantling can be found everywhere, proving that people who knew the truth had taken away and completely destroyed key equipment as much as possible before evacuating.
Looking at it this way, the author of the book "The Eternal Star" is really not simple. He seems to be an unofficial historian, but in fact, everything written in the book has been carefully researched. If he were still alive in this world, I would really have to meet him and have a chat if I had the chance.
At this moment, a "didi-didi" sound caught Oster's attention. When he suddenly saw a flashing cursor appearing in his field of vision, he almost burst into tears; this was the interface for launching the Book of Sargeras.
——It has been more than two months. Do you know how I have spent these two months?
It seems that just as Solarius said, this magic book will automatically absorb the remaining energy essence of the legion leader in the nearby air, earth and running water, and slowly and automatically charge it. And now, it's finally recharged to the point where it can be turned back on.
Oster was so excited that he almost shouted, "I, Hu Hansan, am back again!" However, the joy did not last long, as another prompt box popped up on the interface and poured cold water on him;
【Low energy, start in energy saving mode. Only the query function is provided, and the parsing and copying functions are disabled. 】
Oster was filled with sadness and joy. He tried it, and sure enough, he only regained the ability to see, but not to use it. But then I thought about it, just save energy, it’s already good. At least I can detect the magic information I see, which is better than a whiteboard.
According to the scanning results of the Sashu interface, as we learned, the machines and equipment in front of us have nothing to do with the Holy Light Faith or anything else. Their scientific name is: "Device for Refining and Generating Directed Source Energy." Even by Earth's standards, this long-range wireless energy transmission technology is a black technology;
These equipment and technologies are the secrets of the church. Like the Holy Light Faith itself, they come from a certain northern protoss. In fact, it is a scaled-down replica of Titan's source energy furnace. It can extract source energy by refining the resources offered by believers, and then convert it into holy light and shadow energy for transmission.
Every time the Church Knights occupy a place, the first thing they do is to build a church and allow believers to offer magical offerings, or to grab money to directly purchase source ores and enchanted crops for refining operations. Through a magical process called Faith Protocol, the church can act like a signal tower when necessary, providing support for the holy relics held by the high priests.
The holy deeds, noble phantoms, holy staffs, etc. in the hands of the paladins and high-level priests are all mobile receiving terminals that have been logged in to the protocol. By continuously receiving the energy emitted by nearby churches, the magic sticks can continuously cast powerful spells without the help of magic powder. Therefore, the power of the Holy Light spell is closely related to the distance from the church. The closer it is, the more powerful and lasting it will be;
Ordinary people, even many middle- and lower-class priests, believe that the power of holy magic lies in their devotion to the doctrine and serving the Holy Light. In fact, this is a P. Energy is energy. When the switch is turned on, the power will be supplied. When the switch is turned off, the fire will be turned off. If it is far away, the signal will be poor. It has nothing to do with whether you believe in religion or not.
I followed Albert to visit various parts of the church, and saw the church's holy warehouse, which was full of food and treasures and was about to overflow, as well as many people with sallow faces and scanty clothes who voluntarily donated most of their property to the church and offered their children as slaves to serve the Holy Light. After becoming a believer, Auster thought to himself, how many people have been deceived by this rhetoric over the past thousands of years, and how much money has been made in terms of money, blood, and sweat.
It seems that no matter where in the world, whether there is true divine power or not, religions will tend to use the same means to plunder people's wealth and anointing; after all, deception and lies are much simpler and more convenient than direct force to plunder.
Judging from the shaking and flashing state of the interface, Sashu's battery level should still be ridiculously low. Oster quickly turned off the phone. He would have to use it sparingly in the future and not just breathe out casually.
After having dinner with the officers of the stronghold, Albert reported to Oster that there was a difficult matter that needed to be decided by the hall master.
Following him to the main hall of the chapel, he saw an aging priest who was probably over seventy years old and with white hair and beard, kneeling under the statue of Titan to pray, motionless.
It turned out that after the rebels occupied the church, all the priests who were originally here were expelled. But the old priest named Carlos refused to leave, and no one could do anything about him.
Although Auster knows the details of the Holy Light Church, many people from other worlds who have received higher education also know it. But in a world with medieval management levels, religion is still the most effective way of organizing society;
Although the church defrauds people of money and forbids people's thoughts, in places beyond the reach of the government, it at least provides the people with basic moral principles and order, so that people will not rob and slaughter each other like primitive people or wild beasts.
In the entire Kingdom of Stormwind, 70% to 80% of the residents are believers of the Holy Light. In Westfall, the proportion is slightly lower, more than half. Skaar specifically instructed the ministries not to treat others differently based on their beliefs. Therefore, the rebels were very careful when operating near the knight territory and did not cause too much trouble to the priests and believers here.
This church was demolished by the rebels after being reported by nearby residents. There was a large amount of clear evidence proving that it had colluded with the kingdom's officials to deceive and exploit local residents and passing victims. The hypocritical priests were also deprived of their property and driven away.
However, many residents testified that Carlos, the old pastor, was not in league with the rest of the church. He never accepted bribes, always treated people for free, and even spent most of his salary on relieving victims. Albert did not forcefully drive him away, but waited until the hall master came to report to him.
Oster thought to himself, just like the church on Earth, the doctrine is good, but it has been misunderstood. Although the upper echelons of the Holy Light Church are deceivers who only do superficial things and are no different from politicians, there are still many pastors and missionaries at the grassroots level who sincerely believe in justice, mercy and sacrifice. They not only abide by the rules and regulations, but also take it as their duty to save and help others.
Since this old pastor has many residents as guarantors, it proves that he is actually a good person. So Oster nodded in approval, Carlos was acquitted, the Holy Rod robes were returned, and he was allowed to continue to stay in the church.
Although he was pardoned, the old priest still looked down upon the rebels completely and called them traitors and traitors when he saw them. Others said to him, "It was Master Brown who pardoned you, so don't be ungrateful!"
It doesn't matter if I don't know. When he heard this, Carlos shook his head and said, "Is it that famous devil? I would rather be killed by gangsters like you than be favored by such evil people. It's simply It’s just an insult.”
Auster's fans couldn't stand it anymore, so they all stepped forward to tie up Carlos and brought him to Auster.
At this time, Oster had just finished checking Albert's work report and was preparing to go home. I looked up and saw a group of people escorting the old priest over, asking the church leader to teach this stubborn old man who didn't know how to appreciate others a lesson.
Before Auster could say anything, Carlos started to accuse him;
"I've heard about you, the red-haired villain. As a former priest with divine power, you use the holy light to kill and intimidate. They all say that you are some kind of fire-walking saint. Unless you see it with your own eyes, I don’t believe those lies that boast. Although you have forgiven me, I will not endorse a demon because of it, nor will I be afraid of you.”
Everyone said angrily, "Master, this old guy is really irritating, show him something!" "Yes, show him your hand!"
Auster's heart was full of embarrassment. If he wanted to expose it, would he wait now? After thinking for a long time, he walked over and untied Carlos, then waved his hands and let him go without doing anything.
Although everyone was disappointed, they had already expected such a result. They just wanted to scare the old priest. "Old man, you see, the hall master always knows right from wrong. If you meet him, burn some incense!"
Carlos was still sullen, and it seemed that he was reluctant to receive favors from the evil person in his heart again, but it was hard to say anything.
Just when everyone was about to disperse, there was a commotion from the other side of the stronghold, followed by the sound of quarreling.
