Chapter 177 One Faith, Two Churches
"They didn't get in touch with us at the scheduled time."

In the cathedral of the capital of the principality, several clergymen were discussing in low voices.

"Should we launch another attack? The mobile forces we have should be able to organize an attack that is enough to deal with two level 10 priests."

Footsteps were heard in the distance, and several teachers stopped their discussion. The topic they were talking about turned to the transportation of grain in the principality and related road issues.

It was not until they caught a glimpse of the faces of several priests approaching that they relaxed a little and changed the subject again.

Although many priests have joined the underground church, the newly developed believers in the Wind Whisper Principality seem to have no interest in their anti-foreign speeches. They once tried to find new members among the newly developed believers, but their existence was almost exposed by those new members. If they had not acted quickly enough, the news that there was an underground church hidden in the Principality's Cathedral would have been known to Laming long ago.

Although most of the priests who were unwilling to join their ranks have been sent to various parts of the Principality, there are still some priests in the church who are unaware of the existence of the underground church.

At least for now, they have no plans to eliminate all those clergy who have no intention of joining the underground church. After all, in their eyes, these people believe in the same gods as them, but they have been blinded by the church.

Under such circumstances, the priests of these underground churches will still take ordinary priests into consideration when discussing these matters.

But the person walking over not far away was one of their own, so there was nothing to worry about.

"Inform the brothers coming from the Skitarii that their promotion ceremony will be postponed."

The priests who came were not just passing by, but brought them new orders.

"How long should it be postponed? Those brothers were favored by the Lord after fighting bloody battles with foreign races. If I tell them to postpone their promotion baptism now, I have to find a way to appease them."

The latest task of these priests is to receive the priests who have come from outside the Elf Forest. They will perform a ceremony in the underground church and be promoted to high priests.

Several more church brothers were favored by the gods and were promoted to high priests. For the entire underground church, the preparation of the ceremony was a very high priority. Even the assassination of Laming did not affect the preparation of the ceremony.

And now, it looks like the ceremony will be postponed.

"I don't know. There is no specific date. All I can say is that the promotion ceremony will be held as soon as possible after there is an opportunity."

This answer made the other priests present in a solemn mood, which was tantamount to saying that the promotion ceremony was postponed indefinitely.

"why?"

The priests murmured their questions.

"Because we need to move, the priest has checked all the recent transfers of the church. No one from the church can be there when we attack. This means that Leming has found help from outside, and the assassination attack is no longer feasible."

The priests understood what this meant. Laming was still the supreme leader of the Sun God Cult in the Principality, and those clergy who sympathized with the underground church would not really disobey Laming's orders for the sake of the underground church.

As long as Lai Ming takes the initiative to start the investigation, the underground church will soon be exposed to him. With the resources that Lai Ming can mobilize, the underground church headquarters will not be able to continue to exist under his crackdown.

"The official evacuation order will be issued soon. The chief priests are still discussing which backup location to use. You can pack your things first."

After saying this, the priest who came to deliver the order left in a hurry. He still had many other orders to pass on to different underground church members. The priests looked at each other in bewilderment.

"Let's go and inform those brothers from the Skitarii who have come from afar first. Comforting them is what we should consider now."

The priests quickly ended their chat and walked towards the room where they housed the clergy of the Skitarii. Although they felt uneasy, they still had to continue their work.

"My Lord, what are you thinking about? Is this a test for us?"

A priest was walking in the church, a few steps behind his companions. He stretched out his hand, and the warm sunlight shone in his hand. Seeing the sunlight, he breathed a sigh of relief.

He could still cast magic, which meant that the sun god still favored him and his prayers could still borrow strength from the god.

"That's right, this is just a test. The path we are on is the right path under the light of our Lord."

The priest canceled the magic in his hand and caught up with his companions in front.

Betraying God will undoubtedly cause the clergyman to lose God's favor and then the ability to cast divine spells. Being able to cast divine spells normally strengthens the "faith" in the priest's heart.

But what he didn't realize was that those priests who they thought were "blinded by the church" were also able to cast the magic of the Sun God Cult smoothly like them. Even the church leaders who "blinded" those priest brothers and sisters were also high-ranking clergy. When they prayed to God, they could obtain much more power than priests like him who were "on the right path."

"The church has been undergoing more and more unusual movements recently. There have been a lot of unusual movements of personnel in the capital of the principality, and these personnel movements have not appeared in the church's official transfers."

The unusual movements brought about by the underground church have made the principality nervous, especially since Morarichi recently issued an order to strengthen monitoring of the church.

These changes appeared in the adjutant's report to Morari within less than a day.

"Have the city defense forces raise their alert level, and then conduct a formal inquiry with the church."

The adjutant noted Laming's order and began the next report.

"The statistics on the members of the Lakeland Church have been released."

The adjutant looked at the document in his hand with a strange expression.

"According to current statistics, the church activities in Lake Territory are in the early stages, and the total number of church personnel entering Lake Territory should be less than 400."

This result was not entirely unexpected by Morari.

"However, the number of 'church members' who have recently left Lake County, reported by various troops, adds up to more than 3,000."

This number speaks for itself.

"Mobilize all the reserve troops at the traffic nodes and chase them in the direction reported by the blockade troops as the 'church personnel' leaving."

(End of this chapter)