A Guide to Becoming a God Starting from a Monastery

Five or six Star-Moon believers have rushed out.

They wore no armor, but wielded weapons like daggers, short swords, and knives, charging at Thomas without regard for their lives. Their movements were utterly chaotic, and it was clear at a glance that these men were not warriors at all, possessing no martial arts skills.

At this level, let alone Thomas, the Knights can just pull anyone over to handle it.

But Thomas knew that this was a desperate man who was determined to die and should not be underestimated.

If you are entangled by someone who is not concerned about life and death, you will even capsize in the gutter.

With one last scream, the last Crescent Moon cultist was knocked down.

Thomas walked into the room, casually pulled up a flag with the Star and Crescent Sword beside him, walked to the window, and leaned his upper body out.

The Knights were everywhere below, and many people were looking over here.

Thomas threw down the flag of the Star-Moon Sword.

The next moment, the entire castle was filled with cheers of victory.

Thomas retreated, and only then did a few knights with their troops rush over from behind.

"Pass my orders to take away all the treasure and prisoners in the castle," Thomas said. "Tell Knight Andrea to cover the rear and set fire to the castle completely."

After thinking about it, he felt that this method was not reliable enough. In this case, the castle could be repaired quickly with a little renovation.

Forget it, I’ll do it myself in the end!

Thomas has figured it out. In addition to setting fire, he also needs to use an "earthquake spell" to create a large crack under the castle foundation.

This makes it difficult to repair it.

In any case, this place cannot be left to the Star-Moon Sword.

Chapter 267: Order 1

In the headquarters of the Sword of Stars and Moon, Ferdinand sat calmly on his couch, reading a book.

Since being promoted to the Grand Elder, he has been staying at home, rarely moving around, and trying his best to be a homebody.

Of course, staying at home doesn't mean being uninformed. In this respect, his young followers are very capable.

The main job of a follower is not to serve the master, but to do things that the master is not willing to do.

Competent and loyal.

Ferdinand had many trusted followers in the Knights Templar. But after he abandoned Christianity and converted to the Crescent Moon, only this follower was willing to continue to follow him and convert to the Crescent Moon with him.

There was a knock on the door.

Ferdinand lazily called out "Come in," and then his young attendant entered the room.

Close the door immediately upon entering.

"How is it?" Ferdinand asked while continuing to read.

"Although things appear calm on the surface, people are actually in a state of panic," said the follower.

"That's normal. It's been decades since the Star-Moon Sword had a complete failure in its operations, and there hasn't been an example of a grandmaster being killed in battle." Ferdinand said with a smile.

Although it is common for operations to fail, it is rare for a grandmaster to die in battle.

After all, for any religious group, spellcasters are the ones who are given special protection.

As long as there is a possibility of escape, spellcasters, especially high-level spellcasters, will always be able to escape!

They are not cannon fodder.

"Sir, I heard that you are going back to the Eastern Mediterranean..."

"Well, I'll return as Grand Master." Ferdinand smiled. "My guess is this will happen: The cult won't believe it, so they'll send out an investigation team. After two or three months of back and forth, they'll finally deliver their findings... What do you think? Slower than a snail, right?"

"Why is this happening? Is someone deliberately making trouble?" the follower was puzzled.

"Ah, it's not anyone's fault. It's just that a group... when it exists for too long, it becomes bloated and inefficient," Ferdinand explained with a smile. "It's almost always like that. The Knights Templar were once like that. To change that, a leader with absolute authority, like Thomas, must emerge. I think we can still gain some benefits by going there now, but in two or three months... with Thomas's ability, the Knights Templar will be well prepared for a counterattack and will be invulnerable."

"Then, sir...why don't you do something to speed up this matter?"

"That's why." Ferdinand sighed and closed the book. His attendant, with keen eyes, saw that it was a book about gods, magic, and myths. "It's not that we can't, but that we don't want to. Everyone doesn't want to."

"But...why?"

"If I volunteer to take revenge now, I might be able to gain some benefits, but I would probably just destroy a few outer outposts and kill a few enemy spies. Most of the time, I would just wipe out one or two lone enemy warships. This level of achievement will definitely not satisfy the desire for revenge within the cult. So, even though I have done so much, I will still be accused of not working hard enough and having so few achievements. I guess not only will there be no reward, but there will be criticism!" Ferdinand explained.

"On the other hand, if I do nothing, the opposite will happen. There are certainly not many people who dare to go to the Eastern Mediterranean and fight the Knights right now... after all, their lives are in danger. In this situation, everyone will push the blame back and forth, and ultimately it will inevitably fall on me—even if I've been the default option from the beginning. This situation actually allows me to freely impose conditions. The Order must agree, because they have no other choice."

The follower suddenly realized.

Those who work proactively will be blamed and criticized, while those who do nothing will benefit.

So who is willing to do it?

Only fools are positive!

While they were talking, someone suddenly knocked on the door.

Ferdinand gave a look and followed over to open the door.

Outside the door stood a man dressed as a servant. Upon seeing the new Great Elder, he immediately bowed deeply.

"Great Elder," the other man said, "There's an urgent meeting taking place in the upper prayer room."

"Ah." Ferdinand didn't dare to be negligent. At least not in front of the servants. He immediately dropped the book, stood up, straightened his clothes, and walked quickly forward.

In the upper prayer room, people from the middle and lower levels were not allowed to enter without permission. Everyone knew this rule, so the entourage did not follow.

After a while, Ferdinand came to the upper prayer room.

The Star-Moon Religion's religious buildings are beautiful on the outside, but are essentially empty inside. This is because according to the Star-Moon Religion's teachings, their god is the creator, the God of creation, who has no form, is above all things, and certainly cannot resemble a human.

But this prayer room is very interesting, with an oval pool in the middle.

There is a water outlet on the pool, which sprays water continuously, but the flow rate is not high.

I don’t see many people coming here to fetch water for use, but the water never stops flowing and the pool is never full.

The water in the pool is crystal clear, without any water plants or fish. The surrounding area of ​​the pool is decorated with stone slabs, which are engraved with complex and intricate patterns, as well as some relatively abstract relief paintings that are difficult for ordinary people to understand.

But this pool is upstairs, and the ground below is not the ground, but the floor.

So this is either a clever piece of engineering or there is an element of magic.

Everyone worships here and prays to God.

Ferdinand didn't know why, though—he wasn't particularly curious. When in Rome, do as the Romans do!

Anyway, every time a group of elders would kowtow and chant scriptures around the pool.

Ferdinand was the last to receive the notification. When he came in, everyone else was already in place and had started chanting.

The deliberate sense of alienation expressed in it can make people feel uneasy.

Perhaps they had reached an agreement before Ferdinand arrived.

But Ferdinand was not an ordinary person. He smiled secretly in his heart, sat down in the seat reserved for him, and recited along.

After a long time, the religious ceremony ended.

However, the crowd did not leave. Instead, the leading elder took the initiative to speak.

"Great Elder Ferdinand."

Ferdinand stood up and saluted. Although they were all Great Elders, there were differences in status among them. While the Chief Great Elder couldn't completely control everything, he, at the bottom of the hierarchy, had to show respect.

As for whether you respect him in your heart or not, that is another matter.

"What happened last time has been confirmed," the Chief Elder said in a low voice. "I'm afraid the people we sent to the Eastern Mediterranean... have been almost completely wiped out. The Grand Master was also killed."

Ferdinand held his breath and glanced at his colleagues from the corner of his eye. They all looked calm.

Proving his guess was true - these guys had already agreed in advance.

As he had said to his followers before, Ferdinand knew that he could not go through now.

In this game, if I take the initiative to take over the work in the Eastern Mediterranean, I will lose!

The other party has to ask you to go over.

"Before his death, the Grand Master used magical communication to transmit as much information as possible... Now, there's a mess left over there that needs to be cleaned up. Great Elder Ferdinand, are you willing to accept this mission?"

coming!

Although it was earlier than expected, since the other party took the initiative to speak, there was room for bargaining.

Maybe you need to be a little reserved and bargain a little?

Chapter 268: Order 2

"Of course," Ferdinand said calmly. "But there's no rush."

"It's not urgent! You..." A great elder beside him jumped up in frustration, wanting to speak. But after being glared at by several hawks, he could only shut up awkwardly.

"Why not rush?" the chief elder asked gently.

"Because the time has not come," Ferdinand replied.

"What time?"

"I think everyone is aware that the situation over there is extremely complex. All the personnel we sent out, aside from a few scouts who were scattered around gathering information, were wiped out. Even if we sent out an equal number of personnel, we wouldn't be able to grasp the situation quickly enough, making it difficult to act... But what I'm saying is, even if we had complete control of the situation, we still wouldn't be able to act!"

"Back when Thomas left Rome for his post, I suggested to the Grand Master that we send more troops to intercept him en route. But at the time, the majority disagreed. On the surface, they felt that having a warrior of lowly origin, barely elite, as Grand Commander wasn't a bad thing for us. But in reality, I think it boiled down to... our people each had their own agenda."

"While our Order was steadfast, support from other nations wasn't strong enough! Everyone had their own interests. After we defeated the Byzantines and eliminated the greatest threat... all support from other nations was almost completely withdrawn. It was precisely because of this that the Knights took advantage and captured Smyrna!"

After all, the Star-Moon Sword is just a religious sect, not a country!

The Knights Templar is a state power, but it is called the Knights Templar in name only.

This is the fundamental difference between the two!

"So I believe that it's impossible for the Order to defeat the Knights with its own strength! The main problem is the internal strife among God's believers. We underestimated the impact of this civil strife. But on the other hand, it was precisely because of this civil strife, and because the Knights seized this opportunity, that they provided us with their most steadfast allies!"

"Then we do nothing? Wait patiently for the confrontation between the two countries to end?" The chief elder continued in a gentle tone.

"Some preparations do need to be made in advance," Ferdinand said. "We need to intensify our efforts to mediate the border dispute between the two countries. We need to send eloquent envoys to the palace in Constantinople to make some promises and concessions to the emperor. The emperor is also extremely angry with the Knights. If the envoys speak appropriately, there's a good chance they can persuade the emperor not to intervene in this war. Furthermore, if we can convince the emperor to reduce his border troops, we can resolve the Sultan's concerns!"

"Besides that, we also need to send an envoy with money to find those Assassins. We used to think that Thomas becoming Grand Master was an advantage for us, but now we must change that view!"

These things were not something Ferdinand could do on his own.

The support of the church is necessary.

"That'll take a long time..." someone questioned. "The Knights are building a brand new castle in Smyrna! If we delay until they're finished, things could get out of control."

"It's just a castle. No matter how much the Knights expand, even if they deploy their entire navy ashore, they can't have more than ten thousand men defending the castle. In fact, I think eight thousand is a lot," Ferdinand retorted immediately. "And the Sultan... he could probably mobilize an army of two hundred thousand and take Smyrna in one fell swoop!"

In this era, although bastions have appeared, they have not yet proven themselves on the battlefield.

Although it is generally recognized that siege warfare is more difficult than field warfare, the general view is still that it is not that difficult.

Relying on absolute numerical advantage and large-caliber artillery, victory is not a problem.

It's just a matter of time and cost.

"I understand your intention," the Chief Elder pondered for a moment. "You want to take advantage of this war?"

"Yes, this is the simplest and most convenient method." Ferdinand bowed again. "We need to destroy the main force of the Knights in Smyrna!"

"Once the main force of the Knights is destroyed, landing on Rhodes Island will be a piece of cake."

"But you have to consider that artifact flag!" someone else said.

"So we need to prepare enough spellcasters." Ferdinand smiled.

As for the golem, not many people mention it now.

No one knew it before, but now after many actual combats, everyone already knows that the eight giant golems are wooden golems.

Although it is very powerful in close combat, it cannot withstand artillery bombardment.

It is also afraid of oil and fire attacks, and cannot withstand magic attacks!

Although the eight giant golems are powerful and can play a decisive role in a battle of a few hundred people, they are nothing in front of an army of 200,000.

Now in everyone's evaluation, the Golem Legion is far inferior to the Bloody Cross Flag.