A Guide to Becoming a God Starting from a Monastery

Like adding wood to a campfire, the flames clearly and quickly grew stronger.

The divine power did not disappear immediately, but was instead surrounded by flames. If it were firewood, it would seem to be quite durable.

At least Thomas observed for a while and did not find that the divine power decreased.

But when he tried again, he found that when burning the divine power, the fire could suddenly obey his will.

Just as he could command divine power to move and ultimately infuse it into different parts of his body, the fire was now under his control. The fire, previously immobile, suddenly became mobile. It felt as if the fire was being carried aloft by divine power.

Thomas calmed himself down and returned to reality.

Take off all your clothes and hide them before moving on to the next step.

He carefully tried to pull the fire out from that dimension and combine it with his body.

It was like divine power, pouring into the body.

In the darkness, a burst of flames erupted from the void. Due to lack of preparation and failure to adjust the direction, the flames sprayed directly onto Thomas' body.

Thomas nearly fell down from the pain—his upper body was simply carbonized.

Fortunately, severe physical injuries would stimulate the self-rescue instinct of the damaged divine nature. Without the need for Thomas's conscious control, the burns were forcibly healed by divine power.

After many attempts, Thomas mastered the method of releasing the energy of the fire as flames, but he could not transform his body into energy like the high priest.

In other words...are there some special techniques or specific conditions?

Speaking of which, the fact that the chief priest personally took the field instead of sending a disciple... that itself was unusual. Fire can cause the body to decay... which meant that there was probably some special condition.

Thomas pondered, controlling the fire at will. He unexpectedly discovered that the flame, fueled by divine power, could transform like plasticine, at will. Thomas then casually molded it into different shapes.

In the end, I even molded it into a sickle and axe pattern.

Then suddenly it was discovered that the fire that turned into a sickle and axe suddenly spit out a ball of divine power.

Chapter 187 New Mission 1

Thomas almost thought he was seeing things.

But that was actually the case. He clearly saw a ball of divine power born from the fire.

Just like that, it appeared on the edge of the fire.

No, it wasn't the divine power that was being burned by the fire that separated from the fire, but... it was really a ball of extra divine power that appeared around the damaged divine nature.

It would be more accurate to say that it was "spitted out" from the fire rather than "appearing".

Spit from the fire and drift slowly.

It seemed as if it was attracted by some suction force within the damaged divine nature and drifted all the way to the location of other divine powers.

If Thomas had not been in a state of introspection, he would have missed this scene and would not have been able to figure out where this extra divine power came from.

How is this going?

Thomas immediately used his mind to control the fire to change its shape. This time it became a hexagram.

However, this change did not produce any effect.

After trying several times, Thomas temporarily exited this state.

Looking at the sky, most of the night has passed.

This place is not far from the city of Kiev, and as dawn approaches, people may pass by here at any time.

Thomas decided to try one last time.

So he once again transformed the fire into a hammer and sickle shape.

This time he clearly observed that a ball of divine power was "sucked" out from the flames in the hammer and sickle state by the damaged godhead.

What is...going on?

Thomas had countless guesses in his mind, but he couldn't confirm them for the time being.

It's time to go back.

After daybreak, he would go to the Knights' headquarters. He had already informed them of his arrival time in advance.

Thomas didn't want to attend the solemn ceremony with dark circles under his eyes.

No matter how young he is physically, a night of sleep will leave visible evidence on his face.

We returned along the same route, without saying a word, to our temporary residence.

Thomas closed the door first, then took off his sword, leaned it against the head of the bed where he could reach it, opened the curtains a little, and then lay down to sleep.

At around seven or eight in the morning, a beam of warm sunlight shone through the gap in the curtains onto Thomas' face, waking him up.

Thomas got up, washed and dressed, then put on his full set of clothes and left the hotel.

Eat breakfast directly on horseback.

This time, the atmosphere was indeed different from before.

As soon as he came over, he saw the clerk was already waiting for him there.

There's nothing much to say, just follow the clerk.

After many twists and turns, we arrived at a side hall of the Hagia Sophia.

Here, everyone is in place.

There are two professions, civil and military. The civil ones are naturally the various priests and ascetics, while the military ones are the members of the Knights Templar.

Thomas didn't recognize most of them, but some of them looked familiar.

Some of them were the ones Thomas had saved before.

At the top was the Grand Master, and beside him was the Order's direct superior, the Patriarch of Kiev.

The Grand Master looked haggard, clearly not having fully recovered from the nightmare he'd suffered earlier, but the others were fine.

Thomas remembered that when he was promoted to knight and knight commander, it was just a very brief procedure.

Especially for the promotion to knight, it was just a verbal notification and a direct modification of the personal file. In fact, I didn't even see the modification process of the file.

But the promotion to squad leader is a brief but solemn ceremony.

The people who came were also very important.

The Patriarch was probably considered a "guest of honor," merely showing up for a bit. The actual host of Thomas's promotion ceremony was the Grand Master.

After all, this is the Knights' own "family affair".

However, the Knights themselves still had their top brass in attendance, especially the branch commanders, who were mostly present. Even several branch commanders stationed out of town made the special trip to attend.

The ceremony was finally over.

The guests left and Thomas was taken back to his office by the Grand Master.

"Captain Thomas," the Grand Master coughed softly. "Congratulations! While you're not the youngest captain in the history of the Knights Templar, you're still in the top ten."

"Who's number one?" Thomas was a little curious.

"Oh, that one... his name is Gregory," the Grand Master said. "He was appointed a captain when he joined the Knights Templar, and was promoted to captain a month later."

Thomas's mouth twitched.

Comparing people will make you die; comparing goods will make you lose them.

He thought he was very awesome, but he didn't expect that he was no match for others.

"Gregory's father is the Grand Duke!" Unexpectedly, the Grand Commander suddenly said this.

An illegitimate child with no inheritance rights...?

Thomas finally remembered that this is an era where everyone relies on their fathers.

Every era is an era of competing with one’s father.

Those who don't rely on their parents are in an era of great change that is unsustainable and very short-lived.

"What happened to Knight Gregory?"

"Later..." the Grand Master sighed. "He was transferred to Novgorod and appointed Supreme Commander of the local Knights. Then, he was killed in a conflict with the Chuds."

Thomas, now well-read, knew that the so-called Chuds were actually a branch of the Finno-Ugric peoples. They sometimes paid tribute to the Rus in exchange for protection and goods, but at other times, they engaged in disputes and struggles with the Rus.

The relationship between them is just fighting and making peace.

One important reason for this is that the Chude people were divided into many tribes and were not united internally.

The Russians are not RMB, and it is impossible to please every Chud. Therefore, there are always some tribes that are against the Russians, while others are friendly to them.

Of course, once a hero emerges among the Chuds and unites all the tribes into a tribal alliance, it usually means that a real war is about to begin between the Russians and the Chuds.

Because a unified tribal alliance would not pay tribute to Russia.

The Russians were also extremely reluctant to have such a tribal alliance around them - no matter how stupid the Russians were, they understood that if they turned a blind eye, the Chuds would become a kingdom and a threat within a few decades.

"Novgorod?" Thomas thought for a moment.

A Grand Duke's illegitimate son was gone just like that... well, that was par for the course. The Knights Templar had never been a place for mediocre people to live. Ultimately, the Knights Templar were meant to fight the pagans to the death. The pagans' sharp blades didn't recognize your father.

"Yes, Novgorod is also a magnificent city... and it's where you are going this time."

"I?"

Chapter 188 New Mission 2

"Yes, Novgorod!" the Grand Master said. "How much do you know about this city?"

"Uh, that..." Thomas thought for a moment, "It seems a scourge-level remnant of the Old Ones appeared there? Was it something like... a Cyclops?"

"So you've heard of it. Yes, that's right. The Knights, or rather the Church, expended considerable effort to eliminate it." The Grand Master sounded somewhat frustrated. "Because of this, we lost most of our original strength in Novgorod. Over the past decade or so, we've tried every possible means to restore it. We've invested a lot of resources, but the results have been disappointing."

Thomas's gaze rested on the Grand Master's face.

After just a short absence, the Grand Commander's eye sockets became deeply sunken.

It would not be an exaggeration to say that he is ten years older.

And there is a very strong intuition that the Grand Commander seems to have been greatly weakened.

Thomas began to think that perhaps the Grand Master was not a warrior.

I'd had this feeling before. Thomas's mental field was already able to detect the difference between elite and non-elite warriors. And judging by his mental field, the Grand Commander was definitely no more than a core member.

Now it seems that the Grand Master should have received some warrior training, but overall, the Grand Master is most likely a spellcaster rather than a warrior.

The last time he dealt with Malovit, the Grand Commander must have used up his magic.

"Um, Your Excellency, Grand Commander, do you want me to go there?"

"Yes," the Grand Master said. "I believe you have some understanding of the situation in the Knights' Order. There are no vacancies for captains in any of the regions. If the Knights' Order were to expand its ranks, that is, to organize a new detachment, it would most likely be directly taken over by the Grand Duke. In name only, it's a Knights' Order, but in reality, it's serving the Grand Duke. I'm not saying that serving the Grand Duke is bad, but... it depends on the circumstances."

Thomas completely understood.

The Church and the Grand Duke are the biological parents of the Knights. But on the other hand, the biological parents are definitely the ones who control the children.

Neither the Church nor the Grand Duke would like to see an uncontrolled knight order.

What if he becomes a rebellious son?

But the Knights were also unhappy that their every move was restricted by their own parents.

This is why the Knights wanted to control Marlowit before, and use this as a basis to break free from control.

Although this plan was cancelled due to changes in actual conditions, the Knights' desire to break free from control remains unchanged.

This is also the consensus of the Knights' top leaders.

This is why the Knights do not want to raise an army for Thomas now.

It's no use pulling it up, it will be taken away by the Grand Duke directly.

In that case, we can only assign Thomas some other duties. We can't just stay where we are.

As a Knight Commander, he could be said to be the Inquisitor's deputy, but as a squad leader... that didn't make sense.

"So, we plan to appoint you as an inspector and send you to Novgorod. We need to find out what's going on and why the Knights' power there has been so difficult to recover!"

Thomas understood that this was the mission of the Secret Inspector.