I was a lord farming, how did I become an emperor?

Chapter 354 You don't have magic crystals, do you?
……

……

A blue shockwave swept through the air, sending two Templar Knights flying backward with screams!

Carlos charged through the pointed archway with his longsword in one hand, instantly causing panic among the people in the hall!
"Who are you?" the Templar captain demanded sharply.

Behind him were a dozen or so Templar Knights and Deacons, who were watching Carlos warily.

"The one who will kill you."

Carlos casually replied, and in a flash of firelight, a line of blood spurted from the Templar captain's body!
"Lord Sek!"

Exclamations of alarm rang out one after another: "Enemy attack!"

Carlos didn't stop and charged straight into the Templar Knights!

At this moment, Sao led the Winter Knights to charge towards the temple one after another, and fought with the Templar Knights!
At this moment, a priest rushed out with seven or eight deacons, roaring angrily.
"You evil heretics, how dare you set foot on the territory of the Holy Council!"

"Holy Light Judgment!"

The priest raised his hands, and a dazzling light appeared in mid-air, then turned into a beam of light that smashed down on the head of the Winter Knight!
Just then, blue and white lightning flashed in the sky and collided violently with the golden holy light!
The powerful energy created waves of air, scattering tiny pebbles everywhere!

Wright then slowly walked into the hall, followed by Linda.

"The Dawn Society!"

The priest's eyes widened!

As soon as she finished speaking, Linda suddenly raised her hand, and a blazing flame shot straight at the priest!
The deacons beside the priest acted swiftly, and a semi-transparent barrier suddenly appeared!
Bang!
A dull thud resounded, the barrier shattered, and a wave of heat spread through the air!
"block?"

Linda snorted and waved her hand rapidly at the priest and deacon!
In an instant, fireballs the size of volleyballs rained down like a barrage of bullets, shattering transparent barriers one after another, and the priests and deacons were sent flying backward with screams!

At this moment, even more Templar Knights and Deacons poured out of the temple to join the battle!
Five wizard apprentices entered through the pointed archway behind Linda, chanting spells in hushed tones, their magical light flashing and falling upon the church's crowd!

Several soldiers carrying bows and arrows entered the main hall and began to draw their bows and fire arrows at the church members!

In the chaos, many deacons failed to notice the arrows and fell to the ground with a scream.

Without the assistance of the deacons, the Templar Knights were forced to retreat repeatedly by Carlos and the Winter Knights.

At this moment, the priests from other churches inside also heard the commotion and rushed out.

The once empty hall was instantly filled with people, various dazzling magical lights reflected each other in the air, screams and roars mingled, and the scene was in complete chaos.

At that moment, another group of Winter Knights rushed into the hall, longswords in hand, warily watching their surroundings.

Behind them, Rhodes slowly stepped through the pointed archway and into the main hall.

Rhodes's gaze swept over the figures inside, and he quickly realized that many of them were not members of the Church of Dawn.

The members of the Church of Dawn are all clean and tidy, at least in appearance they have an air of righteousness, and the magic they cast is all related to holy light.

And among these people now, not to mention the hostility on their faces, just the gray magic they release with their hands clearly indicates that they are not from the Dawn Church.

"I never expected that the Holy Council would have such a place here in the Empire."

Rhodes originally only wanted to destroy a stronghold of the Church of Dawn, but he never expected to discover a gathering place of the Holy Council.

Releasing the worker bee, Manshu, yielded far more than expected.

"This must be an ancient site, but I didn't expect it to be so well preserved."

Celinesa slowly walked to Rhodes' side.

She looked at the priests blocking her way and immediately raised her cane.

In an instant, scorching energy surged in the air, and more than a dozen half-meter-long fire arrows condensed simultaneously.

Rhodes looked at Celine in surprise and couldn't help but ask, "Aren't you bad at fighting?"

“That was before, Your Grace. Things are different now.”

Celine smiled calmly, then suddenly pointed her cane forward.

call out!call out!call out!
At the same time, a sharp whooshing sound rang out as the flaming arrows hurtled towards the church crowd!
The church members who were still casting spells immediately stopped what they were doing and hurriedly created magical shields in front of them!

However, the spells of the high-ranking wizard apprentice exceeded everyone's expectations, and the magical shields were shattered one after another!
Although the size of the fire arrows had decreased, their momentum remained undiminished, and they landed precisely on the various church priests!
The priests were illuminated by a series of lights, a mixture of red, green, and black, which blocked the remaining power of the fire arrows.

It turns out that each priest possessed some means of self-preservation.

But at that moment, Carlos's figure flashed past and rushed into the church priests!

By the time the priests realized what was happening, it was too late!

The sharp sword flashed past swiftly, and a priest fell instantly!

The true legendary knight was terrifyingly strong; the priests couldn't even catch a glimpse of Carlos!
By the time they saw Carlos, a blue light had already swept across their chests!

Even Rhodes was secretly amazed.

He truly deserves to be called a legendary knight, on par with a high-ranking wizard apprentice.

If he hadn't transformed into a dragon back then, he wouldn't have been able to defeat the legendary Carlos.

Rhodes had originally intended to raise his dragonbone bow to provide support, but now it was completely unnecessary.

In the blink of an eye, five or six people fell. Carlos's impact caused complete chaos, and people from various churches began to scatter and flee.

Carlos and his men were about to rush in to give chase when Rod called them back.
"Don't split up, stay in groups of at least six, and be careful!"

Rhodes commanded, "These priests are not easy to deal with!"

"Yes! Your lord!"

Everyone responded quietly and quickly split into small teams.

Linda, Wright, Carlos, and others each led a team.

The knights, wizard apprentices, and hunters worked together to quickly rush into the temple to search.

Rhodes stepped forward, grabbed an injured female deacon from the ground, and questioned her.
"Where is the young man that Priest Laura brought back?"

The deacon closed his eyes, turned his head away, and pursed his lips without saying a word.

Without a word, Rod pressed directly onto the wound on her chest, and blood gushed out instantly.

"what!"

The deacon screamed and cried out, "Priest Laura has gone to the Oracle Hall downstairs..."

"Do you know where it is?" Rod pressed.

"I know, but I'm not qualified to enter the Hall of Oracles," the deacon said fearfully.

Ignoring what the butler said next, Rhodes simply picked her up.

"Lead the way, and you will live."

“Keep going forward,” the female deacon obediently said.

Without a word, Rhodes tossed her to São beside him and said, "Follow her."

"Yes, Holy Lord."

Sao nodded and led the female deacon through the main hall, proceeding along the corridor.

The temple ruins are a maze of interconnected passageways, making it impossible to find the right direction without a guide.

Just to be on the safe side, Rhodes had the others grab another deacon and follow behind.

If two people's statements differ, then someone will inevitably suffer.

Fortunately, the two deacons were not cunning, and São soon spotted the entrance to the spiral staircase.

Before I even got there, I saw Laura dragging Mansh up with her.

"Rod!"

Laura's eyes widened in anger. "It really was you!"

Laura now fully understood that letting them go was all a conspiracy!

"Since you've cornered me here, I'm not going to struggle anymore."

Laura stared at Rhodes and asked, "I've checked Manshu and there are no tracking marks on him. I was careful enough throughout the whole process. How did you find us?"

Don't ask me questions that don't make sense to me.

Rhodes, of course, wouldn't explain to the villain that he was being tracked by a falcon, like the protagonist in a novel would.

"Kneel down obediently, and I might spare your life," Rhodes commanded calmly.

Laura frowned slightly, not expecting Rhodes to show her no respect whatsoever.

She swiftly drew a dagger and held it to Manxiu's neck. "Tell me, how did you find us!"

Laura's persistent questioning made Rhodes feel uneasy.

Even at this point, Laura isn't thinking about how to escape; she's still asking how to track them down...

Rhodes realized something and shook his head at Laura, "You think you can threaten the Duke of the Empire with the life of a commoner?"

Rod took two steps forward, his tall figure blocking Vivian's view, and then quietly pointed with his finger.

Vivian understood and quietly retreated behind the crowd until she reached a corner where the firelight was dim.

"Oh?"

A cold smile appeared on Laura's lips. "Then why don't you make a move now?"

"Why don't you let that Dawn Spellcaster next to you kill me with magic?"

"Because I thought you wanted to live."

Rhodes remained calm and said indifferently, "Since you want to die... then die!"

The moment the words left her lips, Vivian's figure suddenly appeared, her embroidery needle piercing straight at Laura's nape!
In that instant, Laura sensed the killing intent behind her, but it was too late to dodge!

Pfft!

A rough, grating sound rang out as the embroidery needle pierced Laura's throat!

Upon seeing this, the knight beside her rushed forward and, without hesitation, plunged his sword into Lara's body!
From the first day they became soldiers, they were taught that after killing an enemy, they must finish them off.

Especially now that they are facing spellcasters and clergy with various abilities, they must finish them off as soon as possible.

With a clang, Laura's dagger fell to the ground.

As the longsword was pulled out, Lara's body went limp and collapsed to the ground, blood instantly pooling around her.

"Sao, examine her body."

Rhodes instructed, "Send two more people down to check carefully for any hidden passages."

Laura's actions just now were too obvious; she was basically planning to escape.

"Yes, Holy Lord."

Sao responded respectfully and quickly went forward to search through Laura's body.

Soon, he found a purple rhombus-shaped crystal among them.

“Holy Lord, we’ve found this.” Sao presented the crystal to Rhodes.

Rhodes took the crystal and discovered that it was not a supernatural gem.

Otherwise, the system will display a message indicating that it can be absorbed.

"Do you recognize this thing?"

Rhodes handed it to Celinesa.

Celine took it and began to examine it carefully. "This..."

After a moment of contemplation, a glint suddenly flashed in Celine's eyes.
"This is a non-directional teleportation crystal?!"

"Teleportation crystal?"

Rhodes asked in surprise, "Is it teleportation that allows people to travel thousands of miles in an instant?"

"That's not it..."

Celinesha looked up, smiled and shook her head, "If I'm not mistaken, this is a teleportation crystal that allows people to teleport anywhere within 500 meters."

"Within 500 meters, any place known to any user, and that location must be an open space."

Celinesha added, "And it's a one-time use spell crystal."

"Ok."

Rod's tone was slightly disappointed.

"But this is still very precious, Your Grace."

Seeing this, Celine explained, "This short-range, non-directional spell is a quasi-fourth-circle spell, which only formal wizards can master."

"Ah."

Rhodes nodded slightly. "That's true. These teleportation crystals can be lifesavers in critical moments."

Rod's gaze then fell on Laura, and he frowned slightly. "When we captured her, we searched her thoroughly, didn't we?"

Rhodes looked at São.

"Yes, Holy Lord."

São replied with a serious expression, "I searched him from head to toe."

Rhodes knew that there were many places where things could be hidden, so after capturing someone, the wizards would search the place carefully.

"So it seems she only got this after she came back here."

Rhodes smiled. "After we wipe out these cultists, we'll have to conduct a thorough search."

Rhodes withdrew his gaze and then fell on Mansh beside him.

Manshu's lips were pale, and he leaned against the wall with his head tilted to the side as the knight bandaged his wounds.

"How did you get into this situation?"

Rod frowned slightly. "You've been found out?"

In Rhodes's mind, since Manxiu had been brought in, he probably hadn't been exposed.

Even if Rhodes' men attacked this place, it couldn't be determined that Manshu was the spy; at most, it could be determined that the guard, São, had deceived everyone.

"Lord Rhodes, you're right, they're just a bunch of hypocritical liars..."

Manshu weakly recounted everything that had just happened to Rhodes.

Rod listened to everything expressionlessly and said calmly, "Normal."

"They all obey the orders of the Lord of Dawn, and everything they do is to accomplish a specific goal."

"You've seen Laura's kindness before, but that might just be a means to achieve your goal."

Rhodes did not consider himself a noble person and used many means to achieve his goals.

In this world with its rudimentary magical civilization, blood and souls are indeed the best way to quickly acquire powerful magic.

"However, I cannot accept the idea of ​​sacrificing one's own people."

Rod patted Manshu on the shoulder, stood up, and looked down at Manshu.

"Get some rest, your mission is complete."

“Then my family…” Mansh looked up at Rhodes with difficulty, his voice weak.

"Don't worry, I will keep my promise."

Rod said, "As long as your family no longer has any connection with the church, I will not make things difficult for anyone."

Manxiu bowed deeply in gratitude. "Thank you for your kindness."

Rod didn't say anything more, he just waved his hand and had someone help him out.

At that moment, a Winter Knight ran out from the stairwell and reported,

"My lord, below is a cylindrical hall with many carved stone tablets inside. It might be a magic array."

As the main force carefully cultivated by Rhodes, the Winter Knights not only need to improve their strength, but also need to learn various kinds of knowledge and cultivate extraordinary thinking in their spare time.

They have a certain understanding of various runes, magic circles, mysterious ruins, glowing magical plants, and so on.

You may not know what it is, but you will realize that it is not simple.

Therefore, upon hearing the knight's report, Rhodes did not hesitate and waved to Celinesa.

"Let's go, my wise man, let's go down and take a look."

Rhodes walked quickly down the steps, while Celinesa, leaning on her cane and supported by Orton, followed him.

A moment later, Rod reached the bottom.

Through the pointed archway, illuminated by the torchlight, Rhodes saw the magic circle the knight had mentioned.

I don't know him at all.

Rhodes turned to Celinesa and asked calmly, "Sage, do you know what this is?"

"Yes, you should know."

Celine, leaning on her cane, walked up and glanced at the runes on the stone tablet.

"It's a teleportation array, and it can teleport up to ten people at a time."

Celine's tone was calm.

Rod's eyes lit up after hearing this, and he immediately asked, "Complete?"

"This... some of the man-made damage seems to have been changed to something else."

Celinesha stroked the stone tablet and said, "But it can be repaired; it's much simpler than rebuilding it."

Rod's furrowed brows immediately relaxed, and he smiled, "That's good."

It's only a few days' journey from here to Riftrock City, and riding a dragon would be even faster.

If there were a teleportation array here, and another one were built in Frostleaf Town, then travel between the two places would be much faster.

Celine seemed to see through Rhodes's thoughts and smiled helplessly, "Even if we try to repair it, there's nothing we can do. We don't have any magic crystals..."

Celine's voice stopped abruptly.

She suddenly realized that Rhodes wasn't someone who liked to fantasize.

Unless you are absolutely certain.

"You don't have a magic crystal mine, do you?" Celinesa asked, standing still.

Rhodes stared at Celinesa without saying a word.

Celine's eyes sparkled.
"You're really pregnant?!"

Celine was now certain that Duke Rhodes had indeed discovered a magic crystal vein.

“I do not wish to deceive you, my wise one.”

Rhodes smiled and said, "Let's repair the teleportation array here first. I'll tell you about the rest later."

"it is good!"

Celine's voice was full of energy and brimming with excitement.

……

……

This ancient temple ruins does indeed have other exits.

However, with falcons guiding their way and Rhodes' dragons also outside, the dozen or so people who escaped the ruins were caught before they got very far.

Ultimately, we should thank the cautious Laura for leading Mansh and the others through those winding paths.

Otherwise, Rhodes wouldn't have had the extra time to notify the nearby church hunters to gather.

After capturing these people, in addition to stripping them of their equipment, the more important thing was to interrogate them to extract more information about the church.

In particular, are there still any such outposts? There are a few.

Rhodes no longer needed to do these dirty and tiring jobs; both the Knights and the Church Hunters had dedicated personnel to handle them.

The priests were all stubborn, but the deacons were quick to respond.

They couldn't get any information from the other outposts, but the deacon revealed their plan to gather together to deal with Rhodes' subordinates.

"These guys have a lot of ideas; it seems we really need to be careful."

Rhodes had to admit that if they assassinated those craftsmen, their losses would be considerable.

This will strengthen the guards and patrols, and increase their ability to identify these church spies.

Military industrial workshops should also be established as soon as possible to bring together all the craftsmen involved in military industry and protect them better.

Just as Rod was thinking, Linda walked over.

Linda was followed by a knight carrying a small box.

"Are all the equipment stored there found in here?"

Rod looked at the small box and asked.

"Yes, my lord."

Linda turned around and took a wooden box out of the trunk.
"And I also discovered something that is both familiar and unfamiliar to you."

As she spoke, Linda opened the wooden box.

A black stone slab was exposed inside.

Rhodes' eyes widened in surprise. "It's this again?"

(End of this chapter)