The villainous young master just wants to live a Buddhist-like life.

　However, for decisions of this caliber, Laura naturally had to consult with the young master first.

　"Give it to the royal family."

　Dak handed the document back to the maid beside him and said casually.

　"They need it more than we do."

Chapter 1526: The Love-Hate Entanglement of the Son of the Holy Church (4k)

　Every transaction involves a comparison of value.

　Rachel Hodge believed that her worth was sufficient to match the conditions he offered.

　But Laura felt that paying such terms to buy the "services" that Rachel could provide was not a worthwhile deal.

　So she asked Darker to drop her bid. After considering it, Darker agreed. It was that simple.

　The seller can arbitrarily raise the price. The buyer, of course, can also choose not to make an offer.

　Although Raqi is the holder of a "God Card", his value is immeasurable.

　However, its intrinsic value is not actually equal to the value of the "services" it can provide.

　The calculations involved are extremely complex.

　Furthermore, it will also involve the buyer's own needs.

　As Darke said, the royal family needs it more than they do, so naturally they will ask for a higher price.

　Competing with the royal family would only lead to vicious bidding wars.

　Furthermore, the "services" that Lei Qi can provide are inevitably limited. He cannot possibly be as devoted to the family as the maids who have been trained from childhood in the Duke's mansion.

　Therefore, Dark's view is that rather than spending a huge amount of money to win over someone who is difficult to win over, it is better to spend the same amount of money to cultivate one's own people into talents.

　In fact, he has been doing just that all along.

　The five maids who successfully advanced to the preliminary rounds are proof that the training program has been effective.

　Compared to Rachel Hodge, the only thing they lack is the "God Card." One way to obtain the "God Card" is quite clear: find a god who resonates with you and form a contract with them. This path seems difficult, but during the special period of the gods' resurgence, it has a relatively high probability of being achieved.

　In fact, taking Ms. Joliet as an example, if Rose and Diana were not present, it would likely have been Joliet who ultimately gained the approval of the "Goddess of the Stars," rather than the more suitable Rose.

　The resurrection of the gods is like a race; the gods who are the first to revive will naturally reap greater benefits.

　So-called authority is the power to govern rules.

　Different gods can govern the same lineage of rules... or even the same detailed rules!

　However, rules are unique. Two different gods who are in charge of the same rule do not mean that they can divide a rule into two parts, but only divide the authority to be in charge of that rule into two parts.

　The degree of their authority is usually determined by "first come, first served," followed by comparisons of divine power, divine status, and the degree of understanding of the rules, among other factors.

　In short, the "first come, first served" principle is very important in the allocation of permissions under the same rule.

　Each Ragnarok and subsequent resurrection is a reset of authority. The first god to fully recover gains the highest initial authority, unless Chi possesses unique rules.

　Therefore, any deity that has awakened even a little consciousness will instinctively vie for the order of revival.

　They were equally anxious.

　Once they find someone worthy to entrust their soul to, they will never let them go easily.

　Therefore, as long as we continue to explore "miracles", we can always cultivate more "divine messengers".

　Once this plan is successfully implemented, Leiqi's value relative to the Duke's mansion will be infinitely reduced.

　After making his decision, Dark turned to the last document. This document was about the lich Sloan, and it was quite detailed. The lich Sloan was actually a very famous figure. In particular, his entanglement with the Holy Church was "well-known."

　In short, this is a story that has little to do with other forces, so many people are happy to watch the drama unfold.

　The fact that Sloan dared to appear on the World Cup stage shows that he has not offended everyone, nor has he done anything such as siding with the demons.

　Otherwise, he wouldn't be able to keep his status as a contestant.

　The moment his identity is exposed, he will be punished for being a "traitor".

　But right now, the only ones truly causing him trouble are the Holy Church. Moreover, because he possesses the "Card of God," other forces are also secretly contacting him and offering assistance... This makes for another intricate and complex game of power behind the scenes.

　Of course, the Duke's mansion did not participate in this.

　For Dimon, the main focus remains on gathering intelligence regarding the "Lich" Sloan.

　Dak quickly flipped through the documents, and the words that entered his eyes transformed into concrete information that took root in his mind. He soon understood the whole picture.

　Sloan is a necromancer, but that wasn't his original profession.

　His original profession was a priest, and he only became a necromancer after being exiled by the Holy Church.

　And this is where his enmity with the Holy Church originated.

　Sloan was originally a highly promising candidate for the Holy Son. He had an extremely high affinity for the divine attribute, second only to the other Holy Sons and Holy Daughters at the time.

　Moreover, he has an extremely high talent for using tools.

　Therefore, the Holy Church initially intended to train them as guardians of the sacred artifacts within the church. However, the life of a guardian of the sacred artifacts is extremely monotonous.

　They must be pure of heart and free from desires, always keep clean, strictly abide by religious rules, and not allow themselves to be tainted by any defilement.

　Basically, it's like being an ascetic.

　But Sloan joined the Holy Church to become a Holy Son, and his wish was to be worshipped by countless believers like all Holy Sons, and to become a highly praised and exalted figure.

　In other words, he is ambitious.

　Although his ambition was deeply hidden, it even led people to mistakenly believe that his heart was pure and innocent.

　But perhaps it is precisely because he hid himself so well that the Holy Church wanted to train him to be a guardian of the divine artifact.

　For church members, that is actually a great testament to their trust.

　From the Church's perspective, this means the Church had placed such immense trust in him, even entrusting him with the protection of sacred artifacts. Yet, he betrayed this trust by refusing to become the guardian of these artifacts!

　So when Sloan finally revealed his thoughts, the Holy Church was enraged and punished him with solitary confinement.

　Originally, this was only a temporary punishment.

　But after being confined, Sloan became increasingly angry and resentful, and eventually escaped from the dark room, stealing a divine artifact along the way.

　Thus began the entanglement between Sloan and the Holy Church.

　Slon's performance within the Holy Church was exceptionally good. As a result, he was very popular, and even a saintess harbored feelings for him.

　If things develop normally, he can endure loneliness, and he will eventually become a guardian elder of the divine artifact.

　But after he stole the artifact and escaped the Vatican, all of this became like a mirage, a dream, and vanished completely.

　The artifact he stole was called "Heart of Light." It was a heart-shaped gem set in a necklace.

　Although the name "Heart of Light" has become extremely common in various works, every instance of "Heart of Light" in any work refers to an extremely powerful light-based artifact.

　The same applies to the "Heart of Light" that Sloan stole from the Holy Church.

　It is said to be one of the cornerstones of the Holy Church, originally an ordinary gemstone excavated from a temple of light.

　But as time passed, light gradually began to shine from the gem. The members of the Holy Church discovered that it could absorb light elements, so they placed it in an environment rich in light elements.

　As a result, the gem, like a sponge placed in water, immediately began to frantically absorb light elements.

　The light elements in that area were completely absorbed in the blink of an eye.

　The Holy Church thus discovered the extraordinary nature of the gem and immediately launched a targeted study.

　However, for a long time, the Holy Church only regarded the "Heart of Light" as a tool for storing light elements.

　—Its ability to store relational elements is virtually inexhaustible. Year after year, day after day, the Holy Church poured light elements into the "Heart of Light," creating a terrifying ocean of light within it.

　They used the pure light element of the "Heart of Light" to activate forbidden spells. This not only accelerated the formation of the forbidden spells but also greatly increased their power. However, this was only one use of the "Heart of Light." As time continued to approach the modern era, the ocean of light within the "Heart of Light" had become boundless and vast.

　The Holy Church discovered by chance that the "Heart of Light" can absorb not only light elements, but also dark elements!

　It can transform dark elements into light elements!

　Although the conversion efficiency is not very high, and it requires a certain amount of light elements.

　However, because the conversion result was greater than the consumption, the final result was an increase in light-type elements.

　Whether it's the dark attribute corruption caused by a curse or the dark attribute magic released by a dark mage, both can be absorbed and transformed by the "Heart of Light." Later, they even discovered that the "Heart of Light" can transform dark items into light items!

　This reminded Dark of Ergane's words: Light and darkness are opposites.

　However, apart from their opposite attributes, they are extremely similar, even completely identical, in essence.

　Darkness can "erode" and "pollute" light. Light can also "erode" and "pollute" darkness. And the "Heart of Light" is the embodiment of this characteristic.

　The abilities of [Heart of Light] are not limited to this.

　Before it was stolen by Sloan, the Holy Church had already discovered "divinity" within it.

　They believed at the time that the light elements inside the "Heart of Light" had reached a certain quantity and finally underwent a qualitative change, thus giving birth to divinity and becoming a true divine artifact.

　But now it seems that the emergence of that "divinity" is more likely due to the impending resurrection of the gods.

　"The Heart of Light, Divinity..."

　"Does this mean that the original owner of the 'Heart of Light' had already awakened at that time?"

　Look beyond the surface.

　Suddenly, Dak noticed something else in the information about Sloan.

　The awakening of consciousness is the first step in the revival of the gods.

　A sufficiently powerful god can bring about tremendous changes even if it is only a brief awakening of consciousness.

　"The Holy Church couldn't possibly be unaware of this; they should already be searching for the Temple of Light, which exists only in historical records. But without the guidance of the 'Heart of Light,' they may not be able to find it or gain anything."

　After a moment's thought, Dark guessed some of the Holy Church's intentions. Sloan's appearance was likely more than just a bad thing for them. According to their records, although they killed Sloan, who had transformed himself into a "lich," they failed to retrieve the "Heart of Light" from him.

　It was a lost artifact.

　But now that Sloan has suddenly appeared, the long-lost "Heart of Light" has found a home.

　Of course, there may also be outsiders involved.

　Unknown privacy. In short, once intrigued, Dark continued reading. The love-hate relationship between Sloan and the Holy Church is quite complex. The entire story, while not exactly epic, is certainly extremely twisted.

　His betrayal dealt a severe blow to the morale of the Church at the time, causing its reputation among the people to plummet.

　Especially when he reappeared as the "Lich," the morale blow was unimaginable.

　The reason why Sloan transformed himself into a "lich" is currently unknown. The records in the Duke's mansion do not provide details about this.

　However, his first public appearance after becoming a "lich" was during a war between humans and demons.

　He participated in the battle as a "lich," helping humanity destroy the demon army.

　This is the main reason why he was later able to walk in human society as a "lich" without being wanted by the authorities.

　But after that incident, Sloan never participated in another war.

　He was like someone who only joined the battle to obtain a "pass".

　Of course, it's also possible that the Holy Church prevented his further involvement. Because every achievement Sloan made was a huge blow to the Holy Church's reputation.

　The battle between Sloan and the Holy Church has likely never ceased, but it has mostly been conducted covertly.

　The number of times they were discovered and recorded was not very high.

　Besides the final battle that completely killed Sloan, there was another famous battle between Sloan and the Holy Church.

　In that battle, the Holy Church lost one of its holy sons!

　Even at that time, the number of Holy Sons of the Holy Church was extremely limited. Moreover, the Holy Son who died was an artificial saint. According to records, that Holy Son volunteered to hunt down Sloan.

　He and Sloan had known each other since childhood, but they didn't get along. The main reason he wanted to kill Sloan was probably unrelated to the church itself, but simply out of revenge.

　The hatred and entanglement involved also involved a saint at the time.

　The saintess was the one who had feelings for Sloan before he fled the church.

　In several subsequent operations, she secretly helped Sloan escape the Holy Church's pursuit.

　They were even punished by the Holy Church for this.

　The holy son, however, harbored feelings of love for the holy maiden, which fueled his desire to kill Sloan.