Chapter 75 Wilfortism

In the desolate winter, the sunlight in the Imperial City of Helrom was much weaker compared to other seasons, gently passing through the thin clouds, bringing a touch of warmth to the cold earth.

Lan Qi walked alone on the spacious road.

Today was a workday.

He didn't need to tutor Zestira at the Protos Royal Academy, living a retirement-like life in a hotel not far from the school every day.

After receiving a letter in the morning stating that he had passed the written test, he finished lunch and set out on the road to the Nihility Knights Order's temple, still wearing his rhombus-striped waistcoat and a deep gray long coat that could withstand the cold, looking neat and tidy.

His green eyes looked even clearer in the sunlight, like emerald lakes.

As he walked, the imperial citizens on the roadside gradually decreased.

Most of them avoided the location of the Nihility Knights Order, as if it were a forbidden zone on the map.

And Lan Qi, walking in the opposite direction, had a clear destination, attracting the attention of some ordinary people, who looked at the seemingly gentle and well-behaved young man with surprise, wondering why he was going there.

"Lan Qi, are you sure you're really just acting, meow..."

A slightly timid, childish voice came from the shadows.

When there were no people around sensitive to magic, Cat Boss's psychokinetic magic could directly transmit sound to Lan Qi's ears, but its magic control skills were very raw. If there were high-level magic professionals nearby, they would quickly notice the abnormality in the shadows.

Cat Boss felt that Lan Qi's interactions with the priests of the Batian branch in the Southwest Province were already very dangerous.

It didn't expect that Lan Qi had finally obtained the identity he wanted, gotten rid of those Rebirth priests, and now came to the Imperial City where he could live a peaceful life as a tutor. But now he was actually taking the initiative to join the Nihility branch!

Cat Boss only felt that this guy was crazy!

"Don't worry, Cat Boss, my faith is very firm. It's normal for a cop to go undercover in a bandit's den."

Lan Qi said with a smile in a low voice, as if telling Cat Boss a secret.

"...That's good then."

Cat Boss was convinced that after Lan Qi's operations in Lilom City, the original nightmare start had now returned to the right track, and he had even brought it to live a comfortable and beautiful life in the Imperial City of Helrom in a rather dreamy way.

It thought about it and remained silent.

It decided to wait and see what Lan Qi would do before meeting Hugh Bao.

It was already content with the status quo, but this kid seemed to still have some ideas and didn't plan to stop for the time being.

But he should have brakes.

Just like that.

Lan Qi approached the building of the Nihility Knights Order.

In the end, except for the faint snowflakes fluttering in the air, almost no other pedestrians could be seen on the street.

In the distance, the majestic building of the Nihility Knights Order gradually appeared before his eyes.

Although he had been here once before, Lan Qi still felt a bit emotional when he saw the legitimate Rebirth Church temple again.

This was the Northern Continent.

As expected, it was very different from the Southern Continent.

It was always at times like this that he deeply realized that he was in a foreign country, very far away from his familiar town and home.

Lan Qi shook his head and walked unhurriedly to the heavily guarded gate.

The knights in deep gray heavy armor sized him up and down. After checking the letter, one of them nodded, indicating that he could enter.

Then Lan Qi put away the retake notice and strode into the unfathomable building.

Lan Qi remembered the guidance on the letter.

He walked along the corridor on the left and quickly found the retake examination room.

At the end of the corridor, two huge metal doors were tightly closed. On both sides of the door, priests still guarded silently, their eyes indifferent, all in a state of readiness for battle.

"Go in."

Without Lan Qi showing the letter again, the priest opened the door to the examination hall for Lan Qi.

Behind that heavy iron door was a spacious hall with a solemn atmosphere.

Tall chandeliers hung from the top, emitting a faint light, and the surrounding walls were decorated with murals that had been left in the building, depicting the twisted and bizarre holy war in the Northern Continent. The faces of heroes and demons flickered in the shadows, as if they would step out of the paintings and join this space.

Under the oppressive silence, the air was slightly thin. Most of the area was in dimness, and the faces of each candidate seemed to be covered and swallowed by deep shadows, and the shadows behind them were even more pitch black.

Compared to Lan Qi, who arrived relatively late, more than twenty people waiting for the retake examination had already gathered in the examination hall.

They sat on scattered seats around the hall, keeping their distance from each other. Some closed their eyes to rest, some pondered with their heads down, and some villains muttered softly, their lips moving quickly in the dimness, like curse-like spells, but no sound came out.

Most of them were dangerous villains, and the most conspicuous few were the masters of this concentration of malice, making others unwilling to get too close.

Lan Qi scanned the hall. Soon, the door behind him slammed shut.

The gears of the huge pendulum clock above the door sounded with each tick, announcing the impending test of fate.

There was no turning back once you came here.

Lan Qi's appearance attracted a lot of attention for a brief moment.

From time to time, gazes were fixed on him, assessing his every subtle movement.

At this moment, the black-haired, green-eyed youth, who looked overly gentle and harmless, was like a pure white lamb who had strayed into a dark wolf pack.

Perhaps there were still people like him who looked orderly and rule-abiding in the first round of written tests.

But those who had completed that test paper knew that to pass the written test with a high score, they not only needed a detailed understanding of the Rebirth Church and the Nihility branch, but also an extremely villainous mind.

No matter how you looked at it, he was really weak and had no sense of threat at all.

Presumably, even if this guy passed the exam, he did so by relying on his solid theoretical knowledge to answer objective and conceptual questions correctly and barely pass the passing line.

Lan Qi simply walked to an empty seat on one side of the hall and sat down, placing his hands on his lap, looking calmly ahead.

As time passed, the atmosphere in the hall became increasingly tense.

Lan Qi wasn't flustered at all, but the Cat Boss in the shadows was trembling with fear at the dense malice.

It wanted to run away if it could, and it regretted following Lan Qi out of curiosity.

Everyone who came here was a heavyweight.

A good young man like Lan Qi, with a clean record, was clearly not on the same level of danger and chaos as those pure villains!

Clang, clang.

The hourly chime above the metal door rang.

Lan Qi, sitting in the corner, could clearly hear the superimposed echoes. Each chime was like a warning, reminding everyone present that the danger here was increasing.

In the hall, the faint light from the corner in front echoed the faint chandeliers, and the cold air also condensed at this moment. As the chimes gradually dissipated, a slight, sandy sound slid into the hall from the depths of the darkness in the distance, like some kind of spell that made time stand still. Every corner of the hall, every candidate, every decoration, seemed to freeze at this moment.

It was the sound of footsteps.

Although the sound was not loud, in this tense atmosphere, the sound of footsteps was like drumbeats on everyone's heartbeats, guiding their attention and drawing their eyes to that unknown direction.

On the iron doors on the inner side of the hall, wind occasionally blew in from somewhere, bringing a chill and also stirring up the faded curtains in the corner of the hall, causing them to make a "whooshing" sound.

Lan Qi's gaze, like that of the other candidates, passed through the shadows of the hall, waiting for the figure that was about to appear.

Gradually, a faint light emerged from the depths of the hall, reflecting the figure of a deep gray robe, gradually walking out of the darkness of the hall.

He didn't walk fast, and his face was presented to everyone's eyes. It was a face with the vicissitudes of age but also gloomy and stern. The deep-set eyes revealed a kind of cold possessiveness, and below the hooked nose were rather thin lips.

What shocked the candidates was the purple holy seal on his chest, which emitted a faint light, illuminating his robe.

None of the villains present dared to underestimate him. Being able to wear a purple holy seal meant that he was not just a big villain, but also a well-known high priest in the Nihility branch, a true high-ranking member of the Rebirth Church and a terrorist lurking in the dark side of the Northern Continent.

In this way, High Priest Caius, who was in charge of the chief examiner, walked to the front of the hall.

"I am Caius, the chief examiner in charge of this retake and final assessment."

Caius's figure seemed even taller in this faint light. He slowly opened his mouth, his voice low and spreading throughout the hall.

"In order to prove your most basic and most important loyalty to the Rebirth Church, you must complete a task. This is the content of the retake exam."

His eyes slowly swept over each candidate. When he didn't speak, silence enveloped the entire hall.

Many of the candidates present slowly showed puzzled expressions. They didn't know what method could accurately test loyalty.

Even if there really was magic that could see through inner thoughts, it would at least have to be an eighth-order powerhouse specializing in the mind and soul to be possible. Even if there were ancient magic props of this level, it was clear that the scale of this retake exam was not enough to use them.

"Some time ago... the Church of the Goddess of Destiny in the Kingdom of Ethertelan was very popular. They came up with a way to detect Rebirth priests. Although it is not necessarily completely accurate, it has indeed screened out many of our people. And this atrocity of generally 'questioning first, and then asking the other party to prove themselves' was called 'Wilfortism' by the propagated clergy."

Caius told everyone in the hall lightly,

"Now in the Protos Empire, our position with the Church of the Goddess of Destiny has been reversed, so this 'Wilfortism' can also be used by us."

"I will first treat you all as spies of the Church of the Goddess of Destiny, and you need to prove to me that you are not."

"The content of the retake exam is very simple, that is, to remodel the statue of the Goddess of Destiny."

"I will give each of you a statue of the Goddess of Destiny. You can freely imagine, destroy, or even desecrate the Goddess of Destiny to prove your loyalty to the faith of the Rebirth Church. Then submit a piece of work to me, and I will also use this to judge your position, style, and artistic compatibility with our Nihility branch."

At this point, Caius simply and clearly explained the theme and rules of this exam.

Four updates today, three more chapters later

(End of this chapter)