The Path to Lordship Begins in the North

Just like its name suggests, the Sea of ​​Unpredictability is capricious. When you're lucky, you can cross the entire sea calmly, just like the Castilian delegation. When you're unlucky, you might capsize as soon as you leave the harbor.

To prepare for the voyage, Grey Robe had crammed a lot of nautical knowledge, and with the help of the captured Avars on board, the voyage went relatively smoothly.

The fleet encountered sea monsters several times along the way, but Regus didn't even need to lift a finger. The cannons alone wiped them out. With the added enchantments, ordinary sea monsters posed no threat to the ships. If humans and dragons had known so little about the ocean, Regus would have even wanted to taste what these sea monsters were like.

The gray-robed man was staring blankly at Regus, who was feasting in the cabin. Although blue dragons were a symbol of wisdom in legends, the gray-robed man, who grew up on the continent of Soron, believed that dragons were either brutal or even more brutal. Regus, in front of him, was indeed not associated with the word "brutal" at all, and was even a little... a little innocent.

Just as the gray-robed man was lost in thought, a clear cough came from beside him.

"Your Excellency in Grey Robes, where were we?"

The one who spoke was Bernice. Although she was a nun from the Lantern Dream, the Lantern Dream was now more like a research institution. Because of the awkward relationship between the Lantern Dream and the Central Holy See, the nuns of the Lantern Dream were now nominally under the Northern Church. Bernice was more special than the other nuns. There were rumors that she had a close relationship with His Majesty the Emperor's direct order of nuns and had even joined the combat nuns.

"Faith, the faith of the continent of Solon."

The gray-robed man immediately sat up straight. Although he was a high-level spellcaster, Bernice in front of him always gave him a dangerous aura. The gray-robed man even felt that Bernice might have more forbidden knowledge than all the high-level spellcasters on the continent of Soren.

"I just talked about how the beliefs of both the official and the common people on the continent of Soron underwent tremendous changes after the dragons descended."

It was precisely because of this conversation that the grey-robed man stared at Regus in a daze.

"At the height of the religious conflict, with the support of the dragons, the emerging sects that worshipped the dragons and their power quickly defeated the original faiths on the continent of Solon, causing the faiths on the continent of Solon to become strange and distorted."

Grey Robe immediately continued the conversation from where they left off. He had already compiled all of this into a booklet for His Majesty the Emperor of the Roel Empire to review. However, since they were about to land on the continent of Solon, Grey Robe also had to make things clear to the others, especially Bernice, who held the highest position in the fleet.

"The Dragon Church occupies the absolute mainstream of the Solon continent and has become a tool for the dragons to exploit and amass wealth. Of course, those dragons don't really care about worldly affairs. As far as I know, the dragons don't actually get much wealth from the Dragon Church. Most of the wealth is embezzled by the clergy of the Dragon Church."

After speaking, the gray-robed man glanced at Regus, who was licking his fingers contentedly after eating and drinking his fill.

"The Mother of Boundless, the largest faith on the continent of Soron, was able to rival the Church of the Dragons thanks to its vast number of believers... Rather than rivaling each other, it would be more accurate to say that the two had reached a cooperative relationship, with neither side infringing on the other's interests."

"But other faiths fared much worse. Most of them were destroyed by dragons, and even their religious texts were completely wiped out, including the once second largest faith, the 'Lords of the Morning Star'."

The grey-robed man then explained these beliefs to Bernice in detail. After listening, Bernice understood the general idea. The Mother of the Boundless governs gestation and creation. As the continent of Soron explored the sea, she also extended the authority over the ocean. The authority of the Lord of the Morning Star overlaps somewhat with that of the Goddess, both pointing to light, purification, and the starry sky.

Of course, the authority of the so-called Lord of the Morning Star is far inferior to that of the Goddess. Unlike the Goddess's alternation of day and night, this Lord's authority is mainly concentrated at night. Moreover, the authority of faith on the continent of Soren is chaotic and has many overlapping aspects, unlike the continent of Mu where the gods each have their own duties. Bernice even felt that even those oracles were not real. Although there were miracles, they were very different from the visible miracles on the continent of Mu, which had clear historical records.

The main reason is that this continent does not have any so-called divine magic. Although there are things similar to divine magic, compared with the divine magic of the Mu continent, they are just magic that has formed a special system. However, it cannot be ruled out that there really is a god bestowing magic, so we still need to investigate slowly.

The gray-robed man also had a faith, but it was a faith in the goddess of magic. He was a shallow believer, a kind of faith among spellcasters. Rather than a faith, it was more like a shield when being proselytized.

"But as far as I know, the Church of the Morning Star has not been completely destroyed."

The gray-robed man continued to explain to Bernice in detail: "This is a common secret among high-level professionals on the continent of Soren. Even though the Morning Star Church was destroyed by the Dragon Church, such a large church system still has many believers in the shadows. They renamed themselves the Dark Night Holy Court, waiting for their chance in the dark, and controlling the continent's resources behind the backs of the dragons."

The gray-robed man shook his head as he spoke: “The Dark Night Holy Court has become more and more like a cult. They seem to have mastered a secret technique. I don’t even dare to call them by name on the continent of Solon, otherwise they will sense it. Even many members of the royal family do not know of their existence, or rather, they know but have no way of knowing how far the Dark Night Holy Court has infiltrated.”

Bernice frowned slightly. The fact that she could sense something just by saying the name piqued her interest.

Bernice is now a dream network security expert with a deep understanding of the sea of ​​consciousness. Moreover, she was allowed to carry the Oracle Lantern on this voyage, which was personally selected by His Majesty the Emperor. It doesn't matter if she preaches; she can just bring the Oracle Lantern to the continent of Solon and let the goddess see what the continent of Solon is like.

"Could you elaborate on the point about receiving a response simply by saying the name?"

Bernice curiously turned to the grey-robed man, who glanced at the bards fiddling with instruments on the other side of the cabin. Neither the communication devices nor the bards' means of communication could be used after leaving the near sea. Even the Empire's technology could not transmit information on the Sea of ​​Unpredictability, so the Dark Night Holy Court probably couldn't either.

Thinking of this, the gray-robed man explained to Bernice in detail the reason why the Dark Night Holy Court could not address people by their names.

The more she explained, the more Bernice began to suspect that this was likely a trick related to the sea of ​​consciousness and dreams. Rather than saying that she couldn't call out its name directly, it was more likely that the Dark Night Holy Court had somehow connected to the sea of ​​consciousness and was able to search for information and quickly lock onto it. In this case, a fake signal could be used to bypass it and even conduct counter-tracking.

It's far from the truth that one shouldn't call someone by their name.

Of course, these are all just guesses. We still need to face the other side directly to know the general situation. However, this only made Bernice more curious. Is the consciousness sea of ​​the Soren Continent connected with the Mu Continent? Can they communicate with the Mu Continent through the consciousness sea? Bernice looked towards that continent in the distance.