The Era of Gods

Ordinary people could not withstand such immense power infusing their bodies, and in his vision, a church knight had to be enhanced twice to be considered complete. The current Afonso had only undergone one enhancement, possessing a physique and strength equivalent to that of a great knight.

It’s worth noting that this classification is based on equal combat skill. The knights of the church all enhanced themselves through abnormal means, so their combat skills were definitely inferior to knights who had trained arduously and survived countless battles. In actual combat, a newly promoted church knight of the same rank would be slightly inferior.

However, this was only true for those who had just been promoted. With sufficient time to hone their combat skills and experience and with better equipment, they would be stronger than other knights of the same rank.

A month later, the Temple of Ful Village was completed, and the statues of the gods of life and wisdom personally sculpted by Lin Xiao stood within the temple.

On the day the statues were erected, the entire Ful Village held a massive mass. He took all the Power of Faith he had collected during this time and transferred it to the statues. The modest amount of Power of Faith caused the statues to be covered in a faint radiance, particularly prominent in the early morning, appearing like a divine miracle.

Seizing this opportunity, Lin Xiao performed a Great Blessing Technique that extended to all believers using the statues as a medium. It was as if the Angel had descended into the temple, and a miracle had occurred.

From then on, all the villagers of Ful Village became followers of the gods of life and wisdom. Having witnessed the miracle and affected by the Great Blessing Technique, all traces of obstinacy and discomfort were cleared from the villagers. This actual miracle led them to devout faith; at the very least, they were all True Believers now, and a good number of them Devout Believers.

Two months later, the long-awaited Gould did not arrive, and Lin Xiao received news that a significant event had occurred in the Marston Viscount family, neighbors to the other side of Baron Gibson’s territory.

Bandits took advantage of an internal gathering of the Marston family to infiltrate the castle and killed most of the Marston family members. Just as the grand family was about to fall apart, the eldest daughter of the original viscount, Lady Julia, and her husband stepped forward. They defeated other competitors rapidly and successfully gained the recognition of Count Dyson to inherit the viscorrect, becoming Lady Viscount Julia.

From the intelligence received, Lin Xiao recognized that the husband of the viscountess must surely be a Descender, though whether it was Gurda or some other Descender was unknown.

Such a small place, and yet three Descenders had appeared here; that was quite some luck.

Fortunately, that was no concern of his. As his strength grew ever more formidable, he wouldn’t fear no matter how many Descenders made an appearance.

However, he wasn’t planning to wait indefinitely. It was not feasible to do nothing if Gurda did not come. On the third month after the temple’s completion, Baron Herman, who went to inspect the family mine, was killed in an ambush by bandits. His son, Afonso, swiftly inherited the barony and promptly blamed it on the neighboring Baron Gorton, often in conflict with them over the mine, declared war on to avenge his father.

The Gorton family, naturally, denied any involvement, but their denial was irrelevant. Everyone was aware of the friction between the Gibson and Gorton families, having engaged in numerous minor conflicts before. It was reasonable to blame this incident on them.

After burying Baron Herman, Afonso gathered the family’s knights and soldiers, borrowed two holy warriors and ten church knights from Lin Xiao, and along with the troops collected from his territory, he amassed a force of a hundred and fifty men.

Any church knight possessed combat power comparable to a regular knight, not to mention the two holy warriors who were on par with great knights. Such high-level military strength was almost equivalent to an earl’s, completely overwhelming for a baron’s family.

Anyway, after waiting just over half a month, he received news from the front that Afonso had breached the castle of the Gorton family.

Then, for a whole month, he stayed in the castle, repeatedly beating back several supporting forces from the Gorton family.

A month later, according to the unspoken rules among the nobility, the Gibson family officially annexed the Gorton barony, including its territories.

This is the power of noble status, without which, even a year of occupation would be futile; the noble class wouldn’t recognize it, and as soon as you leave, other lords would come to snatch it away.

Even if you are powerful enough that other lords can’t take it from you, they wouldn’t acknowledge you. You can’t always just keep guarding it.

Moreover, if you occupy too much territory of other lords illegitimately, it could alert the entire noble class, at which point some Big Nobles would dispatch troops to attack you.

Annexing the Gorton barony was just a small episode. After merging the two territories, Lin Xiao sent holy warriors to convey the gospel to the villages in the Gorton baron territory.

There’s no boldness to spread the word in towns yet, but it’s manageable in the villages.

After all, the Holy Church doesn’t care about the villages; it might not even go there once a year.

Over the past few months, he had long since sent people to preach in several villages under Baron Gibson’s command, with significant results – accumulating hundreds of marginal and shallow believers each.

This was just the beginning. Missionary work is a slow and steady process. With any opportunity to perform a few miracles, these marginal and shallow believers can easily undergo a transformation of faith, becoming True Believers or Devout Believers.

It’s worth mentioning that after taking over Gorton barony, Afonso did not encounter Gurda. Inquiring with the locals, it turned out that there had been no trace of large-scale bandits for several months.

Considering the information at hand, Lin Xiao surmised that the husband of Lady Viscount Julia of the Marston domain was probably Gurda.

This person, whether he’s a Child of Nightmare or a Child of the Spirit Realm, is far too cautious, having abandoned his vengeance and left as soon as he sensed danger.

It was clear that Lady Viscount Julia was merely a puppet; the real person in charge of the Marston viscountcy was likely Gurda.

“This is a threat!”

Lin Xiao stroked his chin in contemplation. While Afonso’s elimination of Gorton barony was logical and fully justified, he still received a stern warning from Count Dyson, restricting further actions of such nature unless he was confident enough to disregard the count.

Yet, at the current stage, the Gibson family’s power was far from being a match for Count Dyson, even with the church’s military forces at his command.

In this realm, an earl belonged to the upper echelons of the noble class, grouped with marquis and dukes as Big Nobles, each commanding vast territories and formidable armies. Whereas ordinary minor nobles could only maintain a few dozen professional soldiers, Big Nobles could support several hundred. Their strength was not on the same level.

Unless Afonso could accept a second enhancement and become a true Knight, it would still be possible to fight, but he had just enhanced for the first time not long ago and it would be impossible for him to accept a second enhancement without one or two years.

That is to say, it would not be possible to expand the territory on a large scale within one or two years.

But it didn’t matter, it was a good time to consolidate.

However, plans always change more quickly than intentions.

He wanted to keep a low profile, but others might not let him.

Two months later, during a routine mass, Afonso found Lin Xiao and told him that recently the Marston Viscount had annexed a nearby Baron’s Territory and subdued a Baron, rapidly increasing his strength.

Most importantly, the Marston Viscountess, feeling inexplicably confident, did not take Count Dyson’s warning seriously and had recently sent people to frequently harass the villages at the border of the two territories, seemingly planning to attack the Gibson Baron’s Territory.

“Hmm, what a nuisance!”

He said to Afonso:

“Send an envoy to meet with Count Dyson and tell the Earl that if the Marston Viscountess continues her provocations, you will find it very difficult to comply with the Earl’s orders.”

This was not to seek help; he did not need help. It was just to inform the Earl.

However, before the envoy sent to Count Dyson could return, Lin Xiao received news that the Marston Viscount had declared war on Afonso.

“So impatient!”

He was standing in front of the statue praying when he received the news, and after hearing it, he chuckled softly and said to a Holy Warrior beside him:

“Summon my Lord’s warriors!”

Since they were so eager, he might as well send them packing earlier!

After his subordinates left, Lin Xiao reached out towards the statue and made a grabbing motion, and streams of light gathered towards him, forming a Sword of Angel and a set of Angel’s Wings.

Gibson Castle, the heritage castle of the Gibson Baron’s family, had stood for more than two hundred years and had weathered wind and rain with no significant changes.

Lin Xiao stood atop the castle, looking out into the distance where a troop of two to three hundred men was slowly approaching.

There were no siege engines, no battering rams, about thirty cavalrymen, but it was unclear how many were Knights.

The limitations of the plane civilization meant that although catapults and battering rams existed, they were not yet widespread; usually, sieges involved hurling stones at the gates, and powerful Knights could throw large stones a great distance, or directly use their weapons to hack at the thick wooden doors.

The most common method of laying siege involved using makeshift ladders to climb the walls.

But this time, before the enemy could approach, the castle gates were flung open, and a troop marched out and arrayed in formation on the open ground in front.

Lin Xiao stood on the battlements and watched the slowly advancing enemy, his gaze settling on a heavily armored Knight in the enemy’s central army, a Descender from the Nightmare World.

The two not-so-large armies slowly approached and confronted each other. Lin Xiao slowly rode out, flanked by two Holy Warriors and four Church Knights.

The Child of Nightmare also came forward under the protection of his men. His gaze swept over Lin Xiao’s subordinates, and he said:

“Did you steal my weapons and equipment?”

He nodded with a smile:

“Are you the one who brought me weapons and equipment?”

Gurda’s forehead muscles twitched as he said coldly:

“Just picking up a bargain, today I’ll make you pay back with interest.”

“Naive!”

Gurda’s face flushed with sudden anger, he glared at Lin Xiao for several seconds, but then his anger vanished as quickly as it had come, and he slowly retreated, drawing his sword and raising it high.

As he did so, the troops behind him began to enter a charge formation, with dozens of Knights lowering their visors and lifting their spears.

Just then, Lin Xiao drew the Sword of Angel from his waist and raised it high. The metal blade quickly lit up with a white glow that burst forth, and with a press on his horse’s back, he leaped into the air. Behind him, two broad streams of white light spurted out from each side and transformed into a pair