The Lord Of Blood Hill-Chapter 241: The Church and the Empire
Two days after Henwell manages to get out of bed, Arius finally finds time to visit him again.
By now, Henwell’s blood regeneration is complete, and the inner layers of his wounds have mostly healed.
In a few more days, Henwell will start correcting some misaligned bones.
His internal injuries have basically healed, and walking around causes no real problems—though he’s still not ready for battle.
Of course, some of his bones remain out of place, so moving still hurts quite a bit.
Henwell wants to fix his bones now, but everyone else insists he wait a few more days, so he reluctantly agrees.
This time, Arius brings Henwell a wealth of information about the recent events.
First off, there really are other continents, but no one knows exactly where they are or how far away.
Information about those continents is scarce.
Only the royal families and some ancient families keep scattered records.
Most historical texts across the continent barely mention them.
The Holy Spirit Church, where Archbishop Atwood belongs, actually originates from another continent.
That place is called the Land of Abundance, or simply the Abundant Continent.
It’s said to have excellent cultivation conditions, with extraordinary resources far surpassing those on this eastern land known as the Forgotten Continent.
Embarking on the path of the professional isn’t considered difficult there.
High-level professionals aren’t rare either.
While the Grand Knight is extremely rare here on the Eastern Continent, it’s nothing special on the Abundant Continent.
Only when someone reaches the rank of Iron Knight are they considered truly skilled.
The Glory Knight rank, while not common, is far from rare.
Moreover, the Abundant Continent lives up to its name, not only is it much larger in area, but its population far exceeds this land’s.
Various powerful factions there control vast territories and populations, boasting large numbers of high-level combat forces.
The empire Atwood mentioned is one such powerful force on the Abundant Continent, called the Groias Empire.
From what Arius learns from Atwood, this empire fields ten elite combat legions stronger than the Blood Lion Knights.
Piecing together these tidbits, Henwell envisions a sprawling, populous, and militarily formidable super-empire.
Beyond this, Archbishop Atwood shares no further details with Arius.
Why is this land connected to the Groias Empire and the Holy Spirit Church? Why is it called the Forgotten Continent? How do they communicate with each other?
None of these questions were answered by Archbishop Atwood to Arius.
He simply told Arius to focus on his duties, and promised that once Arius becomes king, he’ll learn all these secrets.
Respecting the gap in status and rank, Arius didn’t press further.
Besides this intelligence, Arius also inquired about the assassin’s identity.
He mentioned that the Vorry Kingdom plans to issue a kingdom-wide bounty notice to hunt down this notorious thug named Newwood.
Although Atwood doesn’t believe anyone on the Forgotten Continent can truly handle Newwood, causing him some trouble is still necessary.
That’s why Arius was given some background on Newwood.
Newwood’s exact age remains unclear to both the empire and the church.
Records show that over a decade ago, Newwood massacred an entire monastery belonging to the church.
He was immediately wanted by the church, back then only holding the rank of Battle Knight.
Despite he resisted fiercely during the church’s manhunt, Newwood was ultimately outmatched.
On several occasions, he barely escaped death, eventually fleeing severely wounded into territory controlled by other factions.
For years after, Newwood vanished without a trace.
Then, seven years ago, during a grand ceremony held by the Holy Spirit Church, Newwood somehow disguised himself as a church knight.
He detonated magical explosives hidden beneath the viewing platform.
Amid the chaos, Newwood launched a surprise attack, killing three bishops and numerous church members.
This was a brutal slap in the church’s face, and that attack directly and indirectly caused the deaths of several high-ranking figures in the empire.
By offending two major powers, Newwood made some very dangerous enemies.
Both sides immediately dispatched elite teams to hunt him down.
They coordinated with neighboring powers and secured cross-border pursuit rights.
This manhunt lasted more than two years.
Several times, Newwood nearly got cornered.
But in the end, he managed to slip away and escape their grasp.
Over the following years, Newwood keeps popping up now and then, causing trouble for the two major powers at critical moments and places.
Facing this slippery, cunning assassin—slick as an eel and a master of disguise and strategy—the two sides are completely overwhelmed.
They set several targeted traps, but Newwood never takes the bait.
After multiple confrontations, only warriors at the Glory Knight rank can consistently suppress Newwood.
Glory Knights or those at the Radiant Burst extraordinary rank aren’t common by any means.
Each one is a key figure who can’t be tied down to hunting a thug indefinitely.
But neither side is willing to tolerate Newwood’s constant harassment.
So both sides each assign two Radiant Burst professionals.
With these four elite forces at the core, supported by dozens of Iron Knights ranked as
Hope of the Rising Sun
, they form a specialized hunt team.
They pursue Newwood relentlessly for three years.
By this time, Newwood’s overall strength far surpasses
the Hope of the Rising Sun
rank.
Combined with his cunning and ruthlessness, the hunt yields no results, while Newwood is pushed into desperate situations several times.
Finally, after cornering Newwood in a death trap, both sides believe he couldn’t have survived, and so they call off the chase.
A year ago, one of the Glory Knights involved in the hunt, a high-ranking imperial legion commander, suddenly dies at home.
Later investigation reveals he was poisoned by a rare toxin.
At the time, no one suspects Newwood.
But when a second Radiant Burst professional from the hunt team dies unexpectedly, people begin to realize Newwood might not have been killed after all.
Incidentally, Archbishop Atwood was also a Radiant Burst professional in that hunt team. And then he was promoted afterward to become the twenty-first archbishop.
But Archbishop Atwood isn’t worried about being assassinated.
For one, he spends most of his time at the church’s core headquarters, surrounded by a large number of church knights.
Plus, since becoming an archbishop, he’s blessed with divine protection and can even borrow the power of the gods.
When Newwood tried to ambush him, he nearly got killed on the spot.
Atwood never expected that this madman would secretly tail him all the way to the Eastern Continent.
On this unique land, the sudden appearance of such a killer almost cost the archbishop his life.
After this close call, Atwood realizes that Newwood has fully reached the Radiant Burst rank by now.
So he must rush back to the church, not only because he’s seriously injured and needs to recover in a safer place, but also to deliver the bad news to the top leaders of both sides.
A cunning assassin at Radiant Burst level is now capable of inflicting real damage on both factions.
.
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Chapter 241: The Church and the Empire
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