Knight Lord: Start with Daily Intelligence.

Chapter 353 Chaos Crisis: Oliver's Three Strategies (Upper, Middle, and Lower)

With the official Cavaliers Stage Finals approaching, Su Li can finally relax and sleep in again.

At the formal knight stage, one has stepped into the realm of the extraordinary, becoming a true member of the ruling class, and thus retains considerable prestige. The Lion Ring Arena postponed other competitions to focus solely on their final match.

Meanwhile, after a brief decline, casino betting amounts surged again, even surpassing the enthusiasm of the same period on the first day.

However, contrary to Su Li's expectations of a smooth process, Su Li discovered a big problem as soon as he got up and refreshed the information.

As Flashspear City gradually took shape, at least the spire beneath the Spear of Heaven had been erected, and the Spear of Heaven shone brightly on the vast and dark Old World continent, attracting the attention of the evil gods.

Intelligence indicates that two of the three players selected for today's official ranking competition will run into problems!

One was bewitched by Tzeentch, another was blessed by Khorne, and the last one wouldn't fare much better; he drank too much medicine and was forced to drink it by the "merciful" Nurgle!

So after reading today's intelligence, Su Li decisively stood up and summoned ministers Oliver, Hilde, Dietrich, and Fandral, demanding that the matter be suppressed.

When the ministers arrived, he barely ate a few bites before getting straight to the point: "What happened to the official knight competition? I repeatedly warned them that there absolutely could not be any mishaps. But it has still been corrupted by Chaos. You don't want to see our highly anticipated knights all become lackeys of the evil god in the finals, do you? In the end, they become followers of Tzeentch, fighting against Khorne's Bloodlust Champion. And the only one left is covered in blisters, with pustules erupting, and finally, a large number of Nurgle spirits sprouting from his body!"

If the finals really turn out like this, it will become a joke, and it may even greatly affect the subsequent elite-level finals and championship-level finals.

Hearing Su Li's serious criticism, the group was slightly surprised. In the past few days of the competition, some people had been corrupted by the chaotic winds and become henchmen of the evil god due to extreme obsession and strong emotional fluctuations. But to be honest, the people of the empire had long since become exceptionally numb and resilient in this dark and desperate world, having witnessed the corruption of chaos in their lives.

Living in this world permeated by chaotic winds is like living in a weakened version of the Demon Realm. Who hasn't seen a few humans corrupted and turned into minions of evil gods? Especially since a large number of the spectators are superhumans, when chaos corruption occurs in a region, they are often the first to be alerted and invited over.

Therefore, examples of people falling into depravity and becoming henchmen of evil gods are common in life, so such corruption and depravity on stage are really not surprising. They wouldn't think that the probability of this grand ceremony of the Church of the Goddess of the Fiery Sun being corrupted by evil gods had increased much.

However, if three evil god minions appear at once in today's finals, it would be a stain on this competition.

Even if the elite and championship-level competitions all conclude perfectly, the number of official knights participating next year will decrease significantly. Nobody wants to work so hard to reach the finals only to end up as a Chaos Monster.

People participate in competitions for honor and profit. If achieving results means inevitable distortion and death, who would participate in such competitions?
These people will definitely become the main force of the Glorious Competition, and Su Li can even imagine the content of the jokes.

"Are you talking about that competition where the finals were all infighting among Chaos's minions?"

"Do you want to win the championship representing Khorne, or do you want to become Tzeentch's champion? But I suggest you choose Selene, after all, you can really have a good time and get a thrill before you die."

"Participate? Not even a dog would go! Only the top three get prizes, and all three of them are corrupted by chaos. Isn't this just risking your life to find a path to chaos corruption?"

Thinking of these sarcastic words, Su Li felt a chill run down his spine. Before the meeting even started, he set the tone: "We will absolutely not allow the final of the official knights to become a stage for infighting among the minions of the Chaos God."

As the planner and organizer of this celebration, Oliver has a deep understanding of all the contestants.

Now that this has happened, no matter what the consequences, he must immediately step forward and take responsibility.

So he immediately said, "My lord, the schedule for today's finals is as follows: the two winners of the semi-finals will compete for the championship and runner-up, and the two losers will compete for the third place."

“I’ve already learned about these knights, and the one with the best chance of winning is Bloodhowl Gunther of the Church of Yuric. As a follower of Yuric, his deity can always evoke the fury and courage in a knight’s heart, giving him a great advantage in one-on-one duels. You could even say that Yuric’s followers are stronger than the followers of the Sun Goddess in battle. After all, the Sun Goddess is the goddess of tactics and strategy, and she pays more attention to the use of war strategies.”

"Gunther comes from a military family in the Frost Fortress in the north of the Empire, and the family is marked by a wolf-headed battle banner. It is said that when Gunther was young, he traveled to the northern ice plains and once single-handedly slaughtered a tribe in a battle against the Norscan barbarians. Perhaps it was during this battle that he triggered a blood sacrifice ritual due to excessive killing, and his subconscious was marked by Khorne."

"His fighting style is extremely ferocious. In open-world combat, he wields a two-meter-long serrated double-edged axe called the Skullbreaker. The handle of the axe is also inlaid with the teeth of a frost wolf, which can be used to pierce blood vessels and enter a berserk state. Then, his attack trajectory will leave a bloody afterimage. The more seriously injured he is, the faster his attack speed becomes."

"Then, when he was seriously injured during the match, his battle cry could shatter the eardrums of the audience nearby, and thick drops of blood kept dripping from the gaps in his helmet. This is the origin of his nickname, Bloodhowl."

“Although he was ferocious in previous matches, he never lost control. I think it’s very likely because they all changed into their own weapons and armor in the finals. I think to solve this problem, we can forcibly change their weapons. Then use the Scales of Vorkatrix to purify the corruption in his body. Although it may not be able to completely remove the Chaos Wind in his body, it can at least suppress it to a certain extent, so that he will not be corrupted and degenerated by Khorne during the finals.”

“Okay!” Su Li readily agreed to the plan: “As long as he doesn’t become the Blessed Khorne in public, then we’ve weathered this crisis.”

Whether he becomes a minion of Chaos in the future is none of Su Li's business. Because far too many famous figures in this world have eventually fallen into Chaos worship, and many skilled generals and knights, either seduced or driven by despair, have become renowned champions of the evil god.

Basically, the greater the fame, the higher the probability of such depravity and being seduced.

No one can criticize Su Li or guarantee that the knights who have achieved results will never fall into depravity in the future.

Moreover, this Gunther was probably marked by Khorne long ago. This man was far too brutal, single-handedly slaughtering an entire Norse tribe, wiping out men, women, and children alike.

To put it nicely, this is called "sweeping away the weeds and eliminating the roots." To put it bluntly, it's being a bloodthirsty and cruel person.

The difference lies entirely in his state of mind at the time. Was he calmly executing strategies and tactics to fundamentally weaken the Norscan strategic threat, or was his will already be consumed by slaughter and bloodshed, reveling in the thrill of carnage?

Therefore, Su Li felt that the teachings of the Goddess of the Blazing Sun had some merit, at least in encouraging believers to remain calm and thus avoid being misled by evil gods to the greatest extent possible.

Su Li calmly said, "Don't leave any room for criticism. If you're going to change their weapons, change all their weapons and armor. The reason given is that regular knights cannot fully and accurately control their power. Replace them all with perfect-grade armor and weapons. I believe they will gladly accept this change of high-level weaponry."

Su Li's praise for the teachings of the Goddess of the Sun hadn't lasted long before Oliver broke it.

“Gunther’s opponent is Orlando Silvereye, a formal knight of our territory’s Sunrise Knights. He has this title not because he has silver eyes, but because his eyes always gleam with a cold light, and he always remains calm and composed.”

"He always carried a pocket watch that had been modified by alchemy. It was said that he could calculate everything precisely, and even his daily routine and training were strictly arranged to the point of obsessive-compulsive disorder."

"He previously served as a border scout knight, during which time he gave a clear report that he discovered 27 wild dates missing from a patch of wild date trees, thus determining that there was a hidden goblin tribe nearby."

"In battle, he would use a rapier that burned with blue flames to attack enemies. This light weapon obviously required an extra amount of careful design to cause effective damage. But every time, he would dazzle and confuse his opponents before successfully detonating the flames to inflict near-fatal damage on them."

"Today's final is his duel with Gunther. Many are eagerly anticipating this moment, wondering whether Yurik's brutal fury will prevail, or whether the Sun Goddess's strategic wisdom will gain a tactical advantage." "This is also the most important reason why the Lion Ring specifically canceled other matches to hold this grand final. This match has garnered immense attention, igniting the enthusiasm of spectators, and the betting volume has surged, exceeding 10000 gold crowns."

"If, as the lord says, someone will be misled by Tzeentch in today's final, then it's almost certain that it will be Orlando."

Upon hearing this, Su Li couldn't help but feel a headache coming on. He asked, "Why does it seem like Orlando's problem is more serious than Gunther's? At least with Gunther, we could remove his weapons and there's a high probability of stopping his corruption and depravity. But Orlando's situation is beyond Tzeentch's control to resolve."

At least for now, whether or not he gets a new weapon doesn't make much difference. His fighting style is prone to going to extremes and being misled by Tzeentch.

Tzeentch was far less famous among the people of the mortal empire than Khorne and Senna, mainly because the people of the empire were too foolish; many couldn't even meet the threshold of Tzeentch's existence. Tzeentch disdained to bewitch these incredibly foolish mortals.

But it is said that among the four Chaos Gods, Tzeentch was the strongest (in the past) and also the oldest.

He is also known as the Great Rebel, the God of Ravens, the Master of Change, the Master of Deception, the God of Fortune, the Great Conspirator, the Ruler of Fate, the God of Bookworms, the God of Advanced Darkness... and nine thousand nine hundred and thirty-three other names!
He governs magic, change, evolution, fate, lies, and deceit. He is the embodiment of all change, a true evil god who embodies the terrifying energy and power of chaos.

The world always calls him Tzeentch, a name derived from the pronunciation of his true name in his dark voice—the Lord of Change. He is the Archmage of Chaos, the God of Change, because without a doubt—endless, chaotic change is the true essence of chaos, and chaos is the source of terrifying power—which mortals superstitiously call "magic."

What mortal dares say he doesn't yearn to understand the mysteries of fate, or the wondrous power of magic? Only Tzeentch possesses the true key to this terrible knowledge, but at a high price. For his worshippers are merely pawns in his grand game, tools to secretly hinder his brothers, or to destroy all civilization. The Raven God rewards his followers with madness and insanity, and when their bodies perish, their souls are taken to his halls to serve him for eternity. Yet, the Raven God has no plan to achieve any particular purpose; instead, he creates chaos for chaos's sake.

Ironically, in all mortal worlds, Tzeentch is often portrayed as a god of hope. This is the duality of the Chaos gods; they are the embodiment and a collection of extreme human spirits. For example, Khorne represents brutality and bloodshed, but also symbolizes courage and sacrifice. Senna represents tyranny and debauchery, but also art, beauty, and love.

Tzeentch is a particularly unique god; he simply stirs things up endlessly, scheming for pure pleasure, without any ultimate goal or even purpose. Tzeentch is a true god of chaos; he would never advance an achievable, rule-based, step-by-step plan.

In His world, there is no victory, no defeat, no end. In the mad and cruel game of fate and soul between gods and men, there is only the endless clanging of dice. In this sense, Tzeentch is indeed the god of hope, for if He could, He would never allow chaos to destroy the world—at least not if doing so would not trigger a new wave of change. While most fight for victory, Tzeentch fights for pleasure.

Tzeentch's followers are often think tanks, mages, warlocks, nerds, psionicists, magical creatures, unstable mutants, and social outcasts. Unlike Nurgle's unconditional love, Tzeentch only notices those who stand out from the crowd and encourages them to explore new methods and directions to push their limits.

This results in the fact that the followers of the Church of the Sun Goddess are most likely to produce all kinds of treacherous believers.

According to Imperial statistics, the probability of knights of the Sun Goddess falling into the clutches of Tzeentch is at least two to three times higher than that of knights of other churches. Even so, some underground rumors claim this is a result of the Sun Goddess Church's embellishment and exaggeration. In the church's secret inquisition files, the number of fallen Sun Goddess followers secretly executed is more than ten times that figure.

Of course, the Church of the Sun Goddess strongly opposed such slander, and their opposition was full of wisdom, so much so that other churches rarely used this point to attack them.

Because when Violet's chosen knights engage in great debates with other churches, they question their opponents: "Do you believe these rumors? If the probability of our church's knights being seduced and corrupted by Tzeentch is 20 to 30 times that of yours, is that our stain or yours? Doesn't that prove that you are all extremely foolish, twenty or thirty times less so than our Church of the Sun Goddess?"
Although the imperial high command has always considered stupidity a virtue (at least for the lower classes and commoners), they actively promote a policy of keeping the people ignorant.

But this absolutely does not mean they want to admit that they are more foolish than the knights of the Sun Goddess and the priests of the monastery, or at least not by much.

Therefore, people from higher social classes are less likely to attack the Church of the Sun Goddess in this regard. On the other hand, believers from lower social classes are more likely to accuse the Church of the Sun Goddess of cultivating a large number of wicked and depraved individuals during debates.

Within the Church of the Sun Goddess, the believers also regarded Tzeentch as their greatest enemy. After all, the number of knights who had fallen into Tzeentch's clutches was at least two to three times that of the knights who had fallen into the clutches of the other three evil gods. If 100 followers of the Sun Goddess fell, at least 70 of them would have become Tzeentch's minions, while the remaining three evil gods—Khorne, Nurgle, and Selene—would only be able to seduce 30 of them.

If Orlando were to fall into the clutches of Tzeentch, theoretically it would be a perfectly reasonable and common occurrence for the Church of the Sun Goddess.

But Hilde's handsome face was filled with determination. She clenched her right fist and slammed it heavily on the table: "No matter how complicated Orlando's situation is, we must save him. We cannot allow him to be corrupted into a Tzeentch's henchman in public at such an important celebration of the Church of the Sun Goddess."

"During this important festival, the Goddess of the Sun may be watching our territory. If her knight wins the championship but is bewitched by Tzeentch in front of everyone, it will surely enrage the goddess and become a laughing stock in the eyes of the spectators in our territory."

"Corruption and depravity can occur in any other church, such as the Church of Yurik and the Church of Mannan. Their knights are full of rage and capriciousness, and the probability of them falling into the clutches of Khorne is several times higher than in other churches. But everyone is used to it and will not laugh at them, because the Glorious Games are not their festival."

Su Li nodded. During this Glorious Arena, no members of the Church of the Goddess of the Sun among the participating knights had fallen from grace. Everyone believed that this was due to the goddess's protection and the strength of the doctrine.

The fact that it was the champion knight of the Sun Goddess who became corrupted and degenerate at this grand ceremony of the Sun Church was such a slap in the face.

So Su Li turned to Oliver and asked, "My minister, is there any way to solve this problem?"

Oliver thought carefully for a moment and replied, "I have three solutions: the best, the middle, and the worst."

"The worst option is simple and brutal: manipulate and interfere in the finals. As long as a chosen knight makes a move in secret, or adds some witchcraft potion to his water, he will be easily defeated. That way, he will at least get the treatment of a runner-up, and he won't have time to be bewitched by Tzeentch and have any impact."

Su Li shook his head decisively: "This is such a despicable tactic! No way, it goes against our principles. We've held firm to our bottom line throughout the competition, never resorting to underhanded tactics, which is why we've won so much applause. But in the most crucial final, we're manipulating the game, and targeting our own knights no less! If word gets out, how can we face continuing to host the event next year?"

This world is truly under divine protection!
Nothing can be kept secret forever. If the truth were to leak out of the monastery, it would be a devastating blow to Su Li's prestige. The support of the local knights and the goodwill of the church's knightly order would plummet. More importantly, angry gamblers might immediately raise their objections and upside down the entire arena.

A promising champion suddenly became a liability, turning a closely contested battle into a one-sided rout. Enraged gamblers will undoubtedly accuse the match of match-fixing, given the stakes involved are in the thousands of gold crowns.

So Su Li immediately asked, "What is the middle strategy?"

"The best course of action is for you to spare no expense in purifying him of the Tzeentch Corruption. Give him the Scale of Vorkatrix, and then gift him a batch of Stardew Oranges. This will ensure that nothing goes wrong during the competition."

"This price is too high!" Su Li frowned. "He's just a regular knight; frankly, it's not worth us investing so many resources." This amount would be enough for Su Li to buy back a champion knight. Especially Stardew Oranges—that's a supernatural material, and there are practically none left.

Su Li had no choice but to ask, "Then what is the best strategy?"

"The best course of action is to secretly execute Orlando and frame the Skaven or Tzeentch, or whatever. This would force the cancellation of the final, which would also benefit Gunther's condition and further ensure that he is not blessed by Khorne during the match. Of course, you can also choose to secretly execute Gunther, but this would have a certain impact on the reputation of the Church of the Sun Goddess, and some spectators would question whether we are ensuring that the followers of the Church of the Sun Goddess win the championship."

Given the dark nature of this world, even if Orlando dies, the bets won't be refunded; the casino will simply declare Gunther the champion.

This ensures that Su Li will still gain a lot of benefits in this game.

In fact, this best course of action is truly perfect. At least given the dark and hopeless nature of this world, choosing this best course of action is the most advantageous decision.

However, Su Li still couldn't get over this hurdle, so he sighed and said, "Then let's choose the middle option. Spending some money is better than ruining the fairness of this grand event. As long as we ensure the success of this grand event, we can earn more than dozens of 1000 gold crowns every year in the future."

(End of this chapter)