I, the wizard, the foolish Buddha.

The execution was over, but only a few people left the square. Most remained prostrate, constantly praying or worshipping towards the sky, hoping the gods would see their piety.

In order to make room for Roland and the others to proceed to the Holy Throne, Brianna had to have the knights of the Inquisition disperse a portion of the crowd on horseback.

Soon, a corner of the square was cleared out, where the knights erected a human wall to keep the pilgrims outside.

When Roland and the others arrived at this deserted area, the Holy See was ready to summon them at any time, but Roland did not activate the teleportation rune on the sacrificial cake.

"Your Excellency Charles, I have a question."

Roland looked at the crowd in the distance and said, "The Holy City has so many residents, but I haven't seen any places in the city where they can work along the way."

There was no school in sight.

I rarely even saw vendors' stalls. The few shops I did come across were all run by churches, and the people working there didn't seem to be locals.

The people of the Holy City don't seem to engage in farming or similar work. So, how do they make a living?

Prince Regent Charles laughed and said, “Your Highness, this is a holy city because it is the Garden of Eden created by the gods for their children.”

There is no hardship or suffering here, and people naturally do not need to be literate, do business, or farm. Because God will fulfill all people's wishes.

"Your Excellency Roland, this is paradise on earth. The believers need to do nothing; they only need to focus on their faith."

Listening to Charles's words, Roland finally understood why the King of a Thousand Eyes had said that this world had once been a giant sheepfold.

The City of Light and Shadow is a microcosm of this era.

As the truth spread, many places in the south, such as Vermek, received new ideas. They gradually woke up, broke free from the shackles of the 'sheepfold,' rediscovered themselves, and developed their own thoughts.

But there are still many people in the sheepfold.

Once the wizards completely submit to the gods, they will replace the gods and build a new sheepfold.

The new sheepfold will not be fundamentally different from the old sheepfold, because essentially, people live in a lie woven by the gods and the new church.

The only difference is that the new sheepfold will be more efficient in producing things than the old one.

And perhaps this is why the gods favored the wizards.

Roland said, "I've seen a lot in the records of the scribes. So, the purpose of these lies is to make believers more devout, to create emotional fluctuations in them, and thus to extract more 'profit'?"

"Squeezing profits? Haha, you're certainly being blunt."

Charles shook his head and smiled. After a moment's thought, he said more bluntly, "That's certainly true at the moment. However, more and more people are beginning to realize that managing the gods' ranch in this way is starting to fall behind the times."

Therefore, based on the memories of the angels, the church learned about the management strategies of those more advanced ranches, and used this as a reference to create Malrod and adjust the strategies for areas such as Angel River.

The 'profit' of personally experiencing divine grace and punishment, hardship and war is completely different from reading myths.

The harvests from these new pastoral areas were astonishing, even attracting the attention of the gods.

But the 'profits' generated from the land you've managed have shown us that we are still lagging behind the times.

Roland paused, then asked, "The profits we generated? You mean, even in the areas occupied by the wizards during these three months, the power of 'faith' still manifested?"

Charles said, “That’s right. Although the Holy See’s Well of Faith cannot gather these powers, the gods can sense it all.”

According to statistics, the force generated north of the riverbank in the past three months is an astronomical figure that is hard to imagine.

It even surpasses the total output of the Church of Time's faith over the past thousand years!

Roland's pupils contracted sharply. The wizards had been trying their best to eliminate people's faith in the gods, but Charles said that the gods sensed the unparalleled power of faith in the wizards' hearts.

This left Roland in disbelief.

He couldn't help but ask, "What kind of faith is it? Is it a faith in the gods of dawn?"

"Do not."

Charles replied, “It is called ‘Hope’.”

A thunderbolt flashed through Roland's mind, and he suddenly remembered something Catherine had mentioned many times.

—The ancient forbidden wizards reached unimaginable heights in both the material and spiritual realms. They could even collect the 'wisdom' of the planes governed by civilizations into bottles.

Using this power of will, forbidden wizards can act like gods, fulfilling all their desires by distorting the nature of things.

The 'Cellular Bubble Automaton'—also known as the 'Wishing Machine' by the old Black Abysses—is a typical example of such a tool.

The gods of heaven have not gone far on the material path, but they have reached the pinnacle on the spiritual path.

The gods have an incredibly deep connection with the forbidden creators. If Roland's long-held conjecture is correct, then the numerous pastures of Heaven are bottles in the hands of the gods.

The thoughts or fluctuations that anyone inside the bottle generates will, like burning gasoline, continuously heat the bottle.

With just a little use, they can make these bottles work like a perpetual motion machine, generating endless profits for them.

Without a doubt, the world is also a bottle.

Roland and his companions were like ants kept in a bottle by the gods.

Their faith in the gods generates 'heat', their hatred of the gods generates 'heat', and their hopes for the future of the entire ant colony also generate 'heat'.

It is undeniable that in recent years, the people of this world—especially the wizards of the North—have indeed generated unparalleled 'heat'.

For tens of thousands of years, the people of this world have never seen light in darkness as they do today. Never before have they seen hope as they do today.

Charles said, "Your Highness, it is undeniable that you are far superior to us."

However, you are just like us, puppets on this grand stage.

You utterly defeated us, and even jumped onto the stands to challenge the spectators.

But all you got in return was applause from the audience.

Charles's face broke into a deep sneer as he said, "This drama is absolutely brilliant, and we are honored to be your 'enemies'."

And you will soon realize that all the characters and all the scripts are just arrangements by the magicians.

You are not puppets with thoughts of your own; you, like us, are bound by strings.

Roland remained silent for a long time, carefully considering the implications in Charles's words, and finally asked, "Charles, have you tried cutting the thread?"

Charles said, "Put aside your naiveté, Your Excellency Alayer."

It is precisely because a puppet has strings that it is 'alive'. Something without strings isn't a puppet; it's just dead wood.

Roland looked at Charles and said, "What if the puppet could hold the threads in its own hands?"

Roland's words were like a scientist hearing a pseudo-scientist say, "I have invented a perpetual motion machine," leaving Charles with a sense of both absurdity and pathos.

"We look forward to your performance."

Charles left those words behind and departed with his men.

Charles would never have imagined that Roland and his group actually intended to pull the string themselves, and even planned to force Charles and his companions to do so.

Because the King of a Thousand Eyes was very certain of one thing—these puppets, who had been kept in the study by the magicians for many years, had learned a great deal of magic knowledge left behind in the study by their magic teachers.

The King of a Thousand Eyes knew that once the little wooden puppet named 'Roland,' who could move on its own and turn the pages of a book, unlocked the magic teachers' final secret, all the puppets would become magicians who could pull their own strings!
Roland was unaware that he was a small wooden puppet that could move on its own. He thought that he was like the puppets such as the King of a Thousand Eyes, unable to survive without the strings.

But he never forgot the task his father-in-law, the Thousand-Eyed King, had given him—to find the secret hidden in the old scriptures in the Holy See's library.

Charles' departure left Brianna somewhat embarrassed, as they were the ones responsible for hosting Roland, and now, before Roland had even settled into the Holy See, Charles had already left with his entourage.

Of the entire reception party, only Brianna remained. On Roland's side, standing beside him were Joan, Helena, and Roland's other six wizard attendants.

However, it was reasonable for Brianna to bring Roland to the Holy See alone for a private reception, since Charles was a secular man and did not visit the Holy See often.

On the contrary, as a core member of the Papacy, it was reasonable for Brianna, in her role as hostess, to arrange Roland's residence in the Holy See.

In addition, Charles's early departure was partly to give Brianna and Roland some space.

Soon, everyone was teleported to the Holy Throne.

This is also a plaza, or rather, a huge platform. There are no buildings around it, and as far as the eye can see, the edge of the platform is the sky.

There was no wind on the platform; it seemed to be protected by a barrier.

Roland first raised his head and looked up, then froze in place.

In his mind, this place was already in near-Earth orbit of the space station, and he should be able to look up and see the black starry sky.

But above him was a magnificent, colorful sky—like a swirling oil painting of various colors. For some reason, it reminded Roland of Van Gogh's "Starry Night."

Brianna guessed Roland's thoughts and smiled, "It's fake. Normally speaking, this altitude is indeed incredibly close to the stars. At least closer than the ground."

"No, it's true."

Roland's expression was somewhat subtle as he said, "What's above us is the universe full of stars—but it's been 'exposed'."

"Expose?" Brianna frowned, somewhat confused by Roland's meaning.

Helena, who was standing nearby, suddenly exclaimed, "Ah! I've seen it before!"

She jumped up, grabbed Joan's arm, and said, "The box, give me my box right now! I took that picture on the observatory at White Chess Academy!"

Amidst the puzzled looks of those around her, Helena found a photograph in the suitcase that Joan was carrying for her.

It seems that this is a masterpiece created by a careless junior professor as a homework assignment.

It's unclear what kind of starry sky she originally intended to photograph, but due to her mistake, the photo was overexposed. As a result, the stars in the sky appeared to swirl together like a vortex, leaving trails of starlight.

This photo shows the view of the Holy See sky.
"Roland, how are these the same?"

Brianna said with a strange expression, "They look completely different, don't they?"

This photograph is indeed completely different from the sky above the Holy See, which is incredibly bright and colorful. Therefore, the two are entirely different.

But for some reason, people felt that they were somewhat similar.

If one had to find a common thread, it would be that there is also a slightly swirling area in the sky above the Holy See—a vibrant, multicolored hue, like oil paint spilled into water and swirling into countless tiny eddies.

Brianna pointed to the colorful little whirlpools in the sky and said, "You mean these places?"

"That's the aurora borealis."

Roland said, “The Holy City is close to Antarctica, and the Holy Throne is located very low—there must have been an aurora borealis some time ago.”

Brianna's pupils suddenly contracted—Roland was right.

Roland picked up the photograph from Helena's hand and said, "This photograph was only exposed for a few days or weeks by some careless photographer. But this has been exposed for who knows how many years."

The old celestial orbits are constantly being covered by new ones, and the sky becomes as bright as day.

Occasionally, the aurora borealis leaves its colorful trails here, adding color to what should be a clear, bright sky.

As Roland explained, the expressions on everyone's faces gradually became quite interesting.

Everyone looked up at the sky, and a variety of guesses popped into their minds.

The priests were all in the Serpent Ring, and everyone present was a legitimate Eastern Wizard. They all knew what it would mean if the sky above the Holy Throne was not an illusion created by a barrier.

Roland's entourage had all stayed in Vermec. Their first thought was of the 'blackout' in the seventh-floor ward of the Vermec mental hospital.

Back then, to prevent Roland and others who had been to the 'Parallel World of the End' from bringing back the evil of that world, the wizards and Dawn Monks set up a 'Black Barrier' there.

Old Johnson jokingly referred to it as a 'high-dimensional bottle' that could isolate time and space.

When someone looks out the window from the darkness of a seventh-floor ward, everything outside appears still and motionless.

But once the blackout is removed, the still view outside the window will be like a videotape being played on fast-forward, showing many, many days' worth of footage in a very short time.

At this time, the countless stars outside the window will trace streaks across the sky, forming a vortex.

If this continues for a long time, interspersed with daytime, nighttime, and even the aurora borealis, the sky will transform into a strange, magnificent, and colorful oil painting!

Helena touched her lips with her finger and said thoughtfully, "I remember my senior saying that our world is a plane that has been stripped away. It is extremely close to the ocean of the lower world and could sink back into it at any time."

So, is there something like a 'black barrier' outside our world, separating us from the ocean of the lower realms?

"hiss"

Brianna suddenly remembered something and said, "I remember the scriptures of the Church of Light and Shadow saying, 'The wings of the Angels of Peace protect us.' So, the gods really do protect this world?"

Roland's eyes flickered slightly as he looked up at the magnificent sky, muttering to himself, "So, this sky is the rope that binds us." (End of Chapter)