Starting with Naruto, I'll become stronger through my own efforts.

Chapter 474 Three Hidden Commonalities of the Strong

Frillie's predicament was obvious to the naked eye.

Her face was flushed, white smoke curled from her head, and even her long ears were bright red.

"Mr. Xia Zuo, is this really alright?"

Xia Zuo, carrying a large stick, replied nonchalantly, "What's the big deal? I just sneaked into the cathedral and took what was rightfully mine."

Frillie looked at the people lying on the ground as she walked along and questioned, "But, but you came straight in through the main gate, and you knocked down all the guards and monks!"

"What kind of infiltration is this?"

Xia Zuo retorted, "Has anyone seen what I look like?"

Frillie shook her head: "No, they were defeated by you before they even saw us."

Xia Zuo proudly twirled the stick and laughed, "See? Nobody saw me sneak in. Isn't that a perfect infiltration?"

"If this weren't human territory, I should have killed them all, just like when I entered the maze last time."

Frillie remembered what had happened last time, and how swiftly and decisively Shazo had killed the monster, and immediately fell silent.

The.

She was afraid of provoking Xia Zuo, causing him to go on a killing spree and turn the cathedral into a bloodbath.

Although Frilian dislikes humans, she acknowledges that the monks in this church are good people, and Mr. Shazo shouldn't kill good people.

Fortunately, the little elf's fears did not come true. Although there were many humans in the church, they were no match for Xia Zuo, who had been hit on the head with a stick before they even saw him and entered the deepest sleep.

Only after the two elves found their destination did Xia Zuo suddenly frown, his excited playful expression vanishing as he asked, "When did such powerful monks appear among humans?"

As soon as Xia Zuo finished speaking, the door opened from the inside.

The one who opened the door was an old monk, bald on top of his head, with a snow-white beard and eyebrows, and skin wrinkled like tree bark.

One look was enough to tell that the old monk was about to die.

But he had a pair of bright eyes that seemed to see through people's hearts and see all the evils in the world.

The old monk bowed, and his words startled Frillie: "Are you Mr. Shazo of the Elf race?"

Xia Zuo was called by name, but he was not surprised at all. He calmly replied, "I am Xia Zuo. I'm here to take away my bet."

The old monk sighed deeply: "Yes, please follow me."

Following him into the room, they found it to be a small prayer room, housing a statue of a goddess and a longsword that shone with a milky white light.

The old monk pointed to the cross-shaped sword and said, "That is the Holy Light Cross Sword that the Grand Patriarch lost to you, Mr. Shazo. You can take it."

Xia Zuo didn't stand on ceremony; he grabbed the hilt of the sword and took it off.

I felt the comfort of the hilt, twirled the blade to check its balance, and finally gently stroked the blade with my left hand to confirm the divine power contained within it.

Xia Zuo put away the cross-shaped longsword with satisfaction and placed it in the suitcase where the ice sword was originally placed.

At this point, Xia Zuo turned to the old monk and asked, "Did your leader, the Grand Patriarch, admit defeat before he died?"

The old monk nodded and said, "Yes."

"A long time has passed, and we no longer know exactly what the Patriarch said, but His Majesty's handwritten secret order has been passed down to this day."

He pulled out an old parchment and carefully handed it to Xia Zuo, pointing to the words written in a simple, archaic style, the handwriting almost illegible, and said, "This is it."

"His Highness the Patriarch said that he only saw the many flaws of the Church on his deathbed, and that the gap between his wisdom and that of Mr. Chazor was more than 30 years. He willingly admitted defeat and ordered the Church to forge a new weapon as the price for losing the bet."

"His Majesty also wrote that he regretted not heeding Mr. Xia Zuo's advice, realizing the truth on his deathbed, but he had neither the time nor the energy to make amends."

"I believe that once Mr. Xia Zuo receives the bet, he will be able to lend a helping hand when the church is corrupt and collapsing in the future, and help the church overcome its most dangerous hurdle."

"For the sake of the Goddess of Magic—"

Xia Zuo laughed: "This guy, even on his deathbed, he still managed to scheme against me—"

"Okay, his reasoning is pretty solid. For the sake of my goddess, I can't refuse to help him."

"However, when and in what form I help is entirely up to me."

The old monk grinned broadly: "That's only natural. Even if you killed all the upper echelons of the church, it wouldn't be a problem at all."

"That's wonderful. Now that you've secured the stakes and accepted the Patriarch's request, I can finally rest easy."

"The atmosphere within the church is becoming increasingly restless. My lineage of ascetics is truly without successors. I have always worried that after I die, no one in the church will be able to convey the Patriarch's request to Mr. Shazo."

Seeing the old monk's gentle and pure eyes, Xia Zuo for some reason thought of the future members of the Demon King Extermination Team, the excellent monk who could manipulate advanced healing magic, and Haita, who was addicted to alcohol.

He said to the old monk, "The lineage of ascetics may be cut off, but I believe the Church will be able to overcome the disaster of the Great Corruption and regain its vitality."

"After all, you really do possess healing magic, and there really is a great god watching over you monks in the dark."

The old monk couldn't stop smiling: "Thank you, thank you so much!"

Then he personally saw the two elves out the door, and finally slapped his forehead, asking, "Mr. Xia Zuo, when will those people inside the temple wake up?"

Xia Zuo replied, "They will all wake up at the same time before dawn. What do you need to do? Do you need me to explain again?"

The old monk quickly waved his hand and said, "No need, no need!"

"Knowing when they'll wake up will allow me to prepare and wake up with everyone, saving me a lot of trouble."

"I'm too old to argue with them anymore. I just want to quietly and comfortably return to the embrace of the goddess."

After saying this, the old monk bid farewell to Xia Zuo and turned to walk back to the temple.

Frillie asked curiously, "Mr. Shazo, who is this old monk? He makes me feel very at ease."

Xia Zuo smiled and asked, "Think about the location of that prayer room in the temple, then think about who is qualified to have a separate statue of the goddess in the temple, then think about the fact that the first Patriarch's orders are in his hands, and think about what these three points mean?"

Frillie put her clever little brain to work and began to think about the question Xia Zuo had raised. The more she thought about it, the more blank her expression became, and finally she opened her mouth wide.

The little elf's eyes were unfocused as it murmured, "Patriarch of the South, Pope of the North, he's the patriarch of the Southern faction of the Church!"

The Elven civilization has a very long history, and the Elves generally look down on the humans who were once their vassals. However, they must take the Church, which can unite a large number of humans and form a powerful force, seriously.

After all, this is a powerful organization that has been blessed by the goddess and has mastered the power of healing magic.

Despite several splits and internal strife, the Pope and Patriarch still hold a high position and are recognized by the elves.

Moreover, Frilian is different from ordinary elves. After the tragedy of her village being wiped out, she was raised by her human teacher Flame. She does not have a natural prejudice against humans and has more respect for the two human leaders.

It took Frilian a long time to recover before she said to Xia Zuo, "Mr. Xia Zuo, Grandmaster Celia, Patriarch of the Southern Faction, I think I've discovered something in common among you all."

Xia Zuo asked with a smile, "What do you have in common?"

Frillie said carefully, "It's a feeling of indifference, the freedom to do whatever I want, and the conviction that other people's opinions have nothing to do with me."

"Is this a common trait among the strong?"

Xia Zuo nodded and said, "Frilian, your insight surprises me. You're right, this is a common trait among the strong."

"Confidence is built upon strong capabilities, steadfastness is honed through the process of acquiring those capabilities, and freedom is the inevitable result of an unstoppable will."

"Most people are distracted by the diverse ideas of the strong and fail to notice these three commonalities."

"Frilian, now that you've noticed these three points, I think you understand the importance of strength. You must not let your guard down in the long years to come."

Frillie replied earnestly, "I understand, Mr. Shazo, thank you for your guidance."

Shazo nodded in satisfaction. He really hoped to see Frilian become an even more powerful mage; such a future would surely be very interesting.

The next day, Xia Zuo led Frilian eastward, traveling along the coast in search of the possible birthplace of the demon race.

After traveling for several months, in the crisp autumn harvest season, Xia Zuo and Fulilian arrived in the central part of the continent.

In the past few months, wars have broken out among many human kingdoms. The purpose of these wars is to annex and unify, so the fighting on the battlefield has been extremely brutal, but the slaughter and looting outside the battlefield have not been severe.

However, the collapse of order still caused enormous chaos, and those who could not survive had no choice but to flee to the wilderness, becoming vagrants or bandits.

The war also brought strong negative emotions, spreading an atmosphere of killing everywhere.

Several factors combined led to a significant increase in the frequency of demon births. In just a few months, Xia Zuo witnessed the birth of two more demons.

He therefore concluded that if humans are infected by the aura of the demon race and pupate into pupae of demons, they are the most likely to pupate into demons.

Even if she is just a little girl who is powerless, or a starving and dying wanderer, it will not affect her power level after becoming a demon.

Like elves, demons possess an unknown, long lifespan and can continuously increase their power through cultivation.

Given enough time, they will surely become terrifying demons.

However, few demons could resist their own desires, and before they could even become great demons, they were surrounded and killed by the strong among the elves, dwarves, and humans in a frenzy of slaughter.

The frequent births of demons led to more killings and chaos, and even resulted in towns being completely wiped out after being conquered by demons.

But Frilian was surprised to find that amidst this chaos, the human population was declining, but the overall strength was rapidly increasing.

During their months-long journey, Shazo constantly commented on the changes in the world, guiding Frilian to develop a historical perspective and enabling her to observe the changes in the world from an observer's point of view.

This is a perspective that is very much in line with the long-lived species, and it is also the core of Xia Zuo's chosen philosophy of life. He does not interact with individual humans, but he engages in dialogue with human civilization.

After being given a historical perspective by Shazo, Frilian could only use it as a tool and could not adapt to this grand worldview, so she had no choice but to give up.

Xia Zuo didn't care at all. He took the initiative to comfort Frilian, saying, "Every elf has a different outlook on life. Celie's outlook on life is different from mine."

"As long as you can step outside your narrow perspective, you will naturally find your own philosophy of life as time goes by."

Encouraged, Frillie felt relieved and asked curiously, "What is Grandmaster's philosophy of life?"

After thinking for a moment, Xia Zuo replied, "Selie's core philosophy of life seems to be the cause of magic. She binds her perspective to the development of magic, transcends the limitations of the elven race, and does her best to promote the development of magic."

Frillie asked again, "So, between Grandmaster Celia and Mr. Shazo, whose philosophy of life is more impressive?"

Xia Zuo shook his head and said, "My and Celia's views on life cannot be judged as powerful or weak, because there is no distinction between strong and weak views on life, only differences in the degree of compatibility."

"As long as they don't regress to the same worldview as humans, a short-lived species, because of laziness, cowardice, and incompetence, as most elves do."

"That is a kind of spiritual depravity, which will cause them to never live more than 1500 years, or even less than a thousand years before they die of old age."

Frillie exclaimed incredulously, "How could mental depravity affect lifespan?"

Xia Zuo replied, "Of course it will have an impact. It's not just elves who will experience this; humans and dwarves will also be affected."

"The wolf children and bear children that often appear among humans are real examples."

"Those children who were raised by wild beasts during the critical period of their soul's development have forever lost the opportunity to become intelligent beings. Even if they return to human society and live a life free from worries about food and clothing, they will reach the limit of their lifespan in their teens, just like wild beasts."

Frilian secretly vowed in her heart: Frilian will definitely find her own philosophy of life and will never fall into depravity.

Upon seeing the mountains ahead, Xia Zuo suddenly said, "The Likel Canyon is just ahead; we need to take a detour."

When Frillie first heard that Shazo wanted to take a detour, she asked in great surprise, "Mr. Shazo, are there dangerous monsters in Likel Canyon?"

Xia Zuo nodded: "The monster that dwells in Likel Canyon is a dragon, a Red Mirror Dragon."

"Although it is a demon, it is a monster that is more dangerous than any other demon."

"Even the Demon King isn't as difficult to deal with as the Red Mirror Dragon."

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