After being forced to step down, the once-annoying nun eloped with me.

Their actions were quite effective, but the ascetics stationed in various places arrived in time and used divine magic to forcefully push back the compacted soil that was about to collapse, reinforcing it. The sudden attack by the old cult brought bitter consequences upon themselves.

If Protestantism is currently in hell but at least climbing upwards inch by inch, then Catholicism is currently plummeting from the clouds, with the risk of falling into hell and eating excrement every day.

Peter the Great probably wanted to eliminate the Protestant Church before his old church was completely destroyed, so as to win the favor of the God of Light and then figure out what to do to the God of Light.

After all, that's just the kind of person he is. He must have realized the abnormality and weakness of the [God of Light]—but to be honest, does Chief Peter really think such a sneak attack, which wastes precious priestly resources, is of any great use?

Illuminated by the torchlight, the Night Witch casually cast a spell to obscure the vision of a priest in the distance. Watching the old cult priest charge recklessly and ultimately crash into a pile of the undead, she remarked with a sigh:

“Without followers, a priest is less than a dog... but a saint and a nun can move freely even without followers—frankly, you can now be sure you have absolutely no connection to that god of light, right?”

"...Probably."

The saintess shook her head. She watched from afar as the golden light emanating from the priest grew dimmer and dimmer until he was finally pinned down and devoured by countless undead, screaming in agony.

"...I doubt why the God of Light would...but after thinking about it, it seems more like a war between a new god and an old god than a sectarian conflict."

Who are the new gods? Who are the old gods?

"The God of Light is a new god, while the original owner of the manual in my hand... was an old god."

Who do you think will win?

"I do not wish for the God of Light to win."

Although her words still carried a hint of bewilderment, the saintess seemed to have denied the existence of the God of Light—or rather, the last vestiges of her faith in the God of Light had long since vanished without a trace due to the previous [golden mist] and the current undead.

She sighed softly. Just then, golden light shone once again from the direction of St. Petersburg.

Everyone turned to look. The Protestant farmers instinctively knelt and prostrated themselves, while the saint and her ascetics stood there.

They had already abandoned their faith in the God of Light—especially those girls who had been destroyed and rescued before becoming ascetics; their only feeling towards the God of Light was resentment.

As for the saintess and the witch, their greater concern was whether the events in St. Petersburg would affect the current battle situation... After all, if the God of Light were to personally intervene to aid the Old Church, the Protestant Church, given its strength, would certainly be no match for them...

How to do it?

Amidst the eerie howls of the undead and the soft thuds of citizens' heads kissing the earth as they knelt in worship, the saint gritted her teeth and decided to send someone to observe from a distance.

At the same time that both the Catholic and Protestant churches made the same decision, in St. Petersburg, the God of Light was looking with satisfaction at the creations within the cathedral, tentatively judging them to be one of his most perfect creations.

This structure, approximately 6 meters tall, was assembled from the bones of countless Bayerzans and demons. While the demon bones are extremely difficult to utilize, if they are ground into bone powder and mixed with the remains of the Bayerzans, and then combined with divine power, they can actually produce many miraculous effects.

For example, resistance to magic, greater agility, the ability to directly reflect divine power, or even the ability to directly transform killed beings into the undead.

Creatures killed by the constructs, after being transformed into the undead, provide the God of Light with negligible divine power—although the supply of divine power is small, it can withstand the influx of power like a flood when there are many of them!

If only two or three million people die, then the God of Light can live a life of abundant wealth and divine freedom. And to kill so many lives, there's no doubt that this construct will become a powerful general in the God of Light's hands!

Without a doubt, this construct is the most perfect creation of the God of Light at this stage.

They are cheap, practical, and fit one's aesthetic preferences. More importantly, because they lack self-awareness, they will never betray themselves.

"These are the creations I need most! With them... I don't even need the faith of mortals to take another step on the path to godhood!"

The God of Light was overjoyed, and under his control, these constructs, known as the "Skeleton Demons," roamed freely throughout St. Petersburg, gradually emitting a faint golden light under the God of Light's influence.

For the poor, golden light holds a unique allure—after all, human nature is to seek advantage and avoid harm, and to strive for a life of wealth and privilege. This is why, after becoming a deity, the most representative radiance of the God of Light is golden.

He was very satisfied with this. However, the Saintess's suspicions were growing deeper... Although possessing a body was possible at any time, the God of Light had another, more important task to perform at the moment.

Because [Light] seems to have escaped. After gaining sufficient divine power, He ran away.

"We must find His location as soon as possible and capture him all..."

The God of Light muttered to himself.

Watching the skeletal demons moving about happily.

He felt greatly gratified, and finally turned his attention to the depths of the Roman Empire...

.....

The date has arrived: November 14th.

During this period of relative peace, the United Nations rapidly developed its national strength, quickly upgraded its industrial capabilities, and made various equipment upgrades in preparation for upcoming military operations.

The Roman Empire, however, gave Yang Hao and his companions some good news—their relationship had become even more fractured. Not only more fractured, but the Aleseans had even broken ties with some of the nobles and were now fighting tooth and nail with the mine owners in the eastern mines, vying for resources.

To be honest, when Yang Hao received this intelligence, his first reaction was, "Could it really have gone even further?" But the Regent quickly understood: after all, the intelligence from the capital had already foreshadowed this, and if nothing unexpected happened, the one who would further antagonize Roman would be Robert, Yang Hao's former subordinate and now the Grand Master of the Royal Knights.

"According to our intelligence...Knight Robert, unable to obtain support from the palace and having to protect a large number of civilians, chose to leave the capital and become self-reliant...Since then, apart from the Alessands protecting Prince Garsen's palace, the rest of the capital are either bandits or madmen, making it arguably the most dangerous enclave in the Roman Empire at present."

After leading thousands of knights and nearly ten thousand civilians away from the capital, Sir Robert established their settlement in a safe area far from the capital. It is said that they are constantly in conflict with surrounding rebel forces and noble territories, but Sir Robert is training his civilians using the same methods he uses to train knights. Perhaps soon he will become the second most powerful warlord in the entire central region after General Dreschka, provided he can manage this period effectively.

Besides that, the most intriguing new intelligence is that the Aleser have bypassed the Isugardian ports and landed—they chose to land in a sheltered harbor they stumbled upon in the eastern mining region, and after landing, instead of supporting their companions in the capital, they chose to declare war on the reclusive mine owners of the eastern Roman mines…”

The elven ranger's report made Yang Hao and the others' expressions even more interesting. Afterwards, Yang Hao, who had been confined to the Purple Palace to work for a long time, stroked little Anna's cheek on his lap and sighed to his two wives beside him:

"It seems even the Allese don't really care about Prince Garsen anymore—not to mention, it's understandable. After all, the Allese helped Garsen for their own benefit, and right now, even if they protect Garsen, they can't guarantee their own interests... So, they have no choice but to directly attack and plunder what they want?"

After all, the mining nobles in the east are not to be trifled with—they were originally troublemakers who called themselves "patriots" when the country was founded, and they were known for "not paying taxes" even before Roman broke apart. It is quite normal for them to directly refuse to hand over their minerals to trade with the Alessars.

The Alessands are fighting the eastern mine owners, the settlement of the Knights of Robert is fighting the surrounding rebels and noble territories, the capital is in chaos, and the parishes are fighting not only the undead but also their own internal conflicts.

In this situation, General Dreschuka's military district became a breath of fresh air... I really don't know what to say about that.

However, the problem was that General Dreschuka himself also had issues. He was neither a competent politician nor a competent administrator—all he knew was how to fight, how to win battles, and how to maintain order. He was completely clueless about everything else.

Even so, the military district remained a paradise within the Roman Empire. Here, you might be beheaded for saying the wrong thing, but at least you'd have food to eat and the protection of the army if you worked hard. Could other parts of Roman Empire offer such advantages? Of course not.

"So it's right to let Isugad and Khuttok Khan handle this tough nut of a military region—by the way, how's the situation with the living dead?"

Yang Hao's question caused the wandering knight to fall silent for a moment.

The ranger then produced a new sheet of paper, explaining that the undead crowd currently blocking the path of the Isugard colonial army and the Huttoth Khan's army were almost entirely dead. However, to prevent a plague from spreading and to prevent the dead from rising again, they were currently disposing of the corpses and had no strength left to attack the Roman Empire until August.

"Hmm... that's settled then. Alright, you can all go now and continue gathering more intelligence, especially about the parish—after all, my son is still shrouded in the fog of war, which seems very strange to us... Go on."

"Yes."

The wandering swordsman departed. The information he brought left Yang Hao and the others deep in thought, considering both their next move and how long this period of peace could last.

To avoid being distracted from work, Yang Hao had to carry little Anna into Natalia's arms. Afterwards, he sat down with Theresa and Finn, and after discussing for a while, they reached a conclusion:

The period of stability may last until August at the latest.

Not only because the two allies of the United Nations were about to launch a major invasion of the Roman Empire in August, but more importantly, in order to obtain the mineral-producing areas, Yang Hao and his group had to take the lead and turn them into their own territory before the Isugard and Hutto Khans discovered the mineral reserves of the Kagard Territory and the Shkur Territory.

"One important reason is that Bayerzens harvested the wheat fields in August... August is also the time when the Japa 1406 light machine gun and the [Controlled Golem] will enter service. More importantly—in August, the Kingdom of Eden is probably ready to trade with us. If tomorrow's meeting goes smoothly, that little bitch... that little puppet should build the artificial magic reactor and the [Magic Network] system for us as agreed."

Looking at Fen beside him, her face contorted with resentment, Yang Hao decided to pretend he hadn't heard her resentful use of the word "bitch"—but what Fen said was quite insightful. August was actually a relatively quiet time for the United Nations. Since they had nothing else to do anyway, why not take this opportunity to give the soldiers a picnic while simultaneously securing territory for their side?

In contrast to Finn's "fair and reasonable" reasoning, Theresa's reasoning seemed rather strange...

"...Actually, I wanted to hurry. After all, as you all know... [Light] seems to be appearing in my dreams, urging me to go save Him quickly, otherwise He..."

Theresa's strange expression and hesitant manner aroused everyone's curiosity.

Faced with everyone's gaze and Yang Hao's question, "So?", the little nun chose to keep her mouth shut. Right in front of Anna, she sat on Yang Hao's lap, pinched his shoulder hard, and then snorted without saying another word.

After all, Theresa really couldn't bring herself to say it.

She never imagined that the "light" she believed in would be so shameless as to use her own past diary entries and those painful memories to threaten her into rescuing her...

Although Theresa tentatively believed that her husband probably wouldn't mind that she, her mother, had wet the bed when she was seven...

But Theresa was fucking horrified that Finn knew about it. She really was!

So... can we hurry up and get there? We don't need to take the place, just raise the church and take a look... Can't we hurry up?

Faced with Theresa's questioning gaze, Yang Hao pondered for a moment before nodding and saying, "Okay." However, this meant they would have to gather the troops currently engaged in farming and construction beforehand, just in case.

Alternatively, they could organize a small group of hunters and elves, using as few people as possible, and then everyone could ride on the back of the black dragon. They could fly to Shkur village in just one day, handle matters the next day, and return to Constantinople for breakfast by the early morning of the third day...

"But will Black Dragon agree?"

Holding Anna in her arms, Natalia asked with some concern, to which Yang Hao and the others only responded with mysterious smiles.

"She'll agree. It would be strange if she refused!"

After all, the Black Dragon has completely taken on the shape of the United Nations—Yang Hao thought to himself, feeling a pang of sympathy for the Black Dragon's pitiful state.

Why did Nia end up in this situation?

This is related to the information that Yang Hao casually mentioned to her yesterday: that the United Nations might have a large number of artificial magic reactors in the future.

As everyone knows, Isgard is a country with extremely scarce magic. They are willing to exchange one ton of gold for 100 barrels of magic produced from the continent of Elusia, not to mention that the advanced technology that Yang Hao gave them for free is all related to magic, and it would consume a lot of magic to operate.

In this situation, the Black Dragon, as the highest diplomat of Isgard, inadvertently overheard His Majesty Yang Hao saying...

They heard the crucial intelligence that the United Nations might be struggling with what to do with the surplus artificial magic reactors.

She even vaguely heard Emperor Yang Hao hint that "if she fought for it, she could gain control over these artificial magic reactors"...

Naturally, from that day on, Miss Black Dragon, who had previously been unfriendly to Yang Hao due to her hard work on the floating continent, now wore a fawning smile on her face whenever she faced him.

To paraphrase Naruja at the time—the Black Dragon seemed eager to drug Yang Hao and then force herself on him, using the child in her womb to demand that he immediately agree to her request and leave the disposal of the excess reactor to Ysugard...

From a patriot's perspective, Heilong Nia is undoubtedly a patriot. She even went so far as to willingly use her body to secure benefits for her country. Yang Hao could already imagine the scene where Heilong would do anything to imprison him on the other side of the sea when he went on a business trip to Isgard...

But returning to the current topic, under these circumstances, Heilong would certainly not refuse any proposal from Yang Hao.

So borrowing her wings for a round trip shouldn't be a problem. The only issue is that in the wild, without protection, the black dragon might actually be bold enough to do something to Yang Hao right there in the open...

"So when the time comes, don't leave the guard duty, understand?"

Finn gave instructions, Yang Hao agreed, while Theresa stared at her with dead fish eyes.

After confirming that they needed to go to Shkur Village before May to resolve Teresa's minor problem and rescue the "Light" who might be trapped there and was currently sending messages in her dreams, Yang Hao and the others finished their work for the day.

If we had to use a metaphor, today's work would be like the elderly men in Guangdong who, after finishing their morning tea, only have to prepare dinner tonight. During this relaxed and peaceful period, the most challenging task for Yang Hao and his colleagues is hosting Elena tomorrow.

After all, this is a formal visit from the Kingdom of Eden. As an ally on Earth, we certainly cannot neglect proper etiquette.

The only problem is that Yang Hao genuinely suspects Elena will be disappointed with the United Nations by then...

“After all, that’s a country where even the soil possesses magic…” Yang Hao sighed. “It’s like how people living in golden houses look down on people living in mud houses—while I personally don’t care about such diplomatic evaluations, and I’m willing to believe that Elena wouldn’t directly express her disdain… it’s still absurd for this to cause diplomatic difficulties…”

"But the envoy from the Kingdom of Eden has already met with me once, hasn't he?"

"But the problem is, tomorrow's arrival won't be a mature 'human,' but a real life form born from machines, you know? She'll speak bluntly, directly expressing her confusion, and easily ignoring other people's feelings by stating the facts... Theresa, you haven't met her before, so you might actually get angry about it."

"No matter what, I'm a qualified empress now! I would never be angry about this, absolutely not!"

The little nun angrily pinched Yang Hao's side, and just as Yang Hao was about to explain Elena's "strangeness" to Finn, the conference room door was knocked on again.

The person who opened the door and came in was Kate, one of Yang Hao and Theresa's adjutants.