NOVPUBIn the lonely winter, the natural sunlight of the imperial city, Herram, is much weaker than in other seasons. It gently penetrates the thin layer of clouds, bringing a hint of warmth to the frozen land.
Lanci walked alone on the broad road.
Today was a workday.
He didn’t need to tutor Zestira at the Protoss Royal Academy, and spent each day living a retirement-like life in an inn not far from the school.
After receiving a letter in the morning saying he’d passed his written test, he set off to the Temple of the Nirvana Knights after lunch, still wearing his rhombus-striped vest and a deep gray long coat that could ward off the cold. He looked methodical.
Under the sunlight, his green pupils became even clearer, like a jade-green lake.
As he walked, the number of pedestrians on the streets of the imperial city diminished.
Most of them avoided the location of the Knights of Nirvana as if it were a restricted area on the map.
However, Lanci, heading in the opposite direction, drew some sidelong glances from the common folk who wondered why such a mild-mannered young man was heading in that direction.
"Lanci, are you sure you’re only pretending, meow...
A timid childlike voice came from the shadows.
When there were no people sensitive to magic power around, Cat boss’s telekinesis magic could directly transmit sounds to Lanci’s ear. However, its control of magic power was very raw. If there was an expert in magical professions nearby, they would quickly notice that something was amiss in the shadows.
Cat boss felt that Lanci’s interactions with the priests of the Hegemony Branch in Xi Nan Province were already very dangerous.
Unbelievably, after finally obtaining the identity he desired and shaking off those Priests of Rebirth, now that he had arrived in the Imperial City and could peacefully be a tutor, he had chosen to join the Nirvana Branch!
Cat boss only felt like this guy was insane!
"Don’t worry, Cat boss. My faith is unshakeable. It’s normal for a detective to infiltrate a bandit’s lair."
Lanci said softly with a smile, as if whispering a secret to Cat boss.
"...That’s good."
Cat boss assuredly thought that after Lanci’s manipulations in Lilom City, his previously horrific start had now returned to the right track. Furthermore, in a rather dreamy fashion, he had chosen to lead a comfortable and beautiful life in the imperial city of Herram.
After some thought, it chose to stay silent.
It decided to wait and see what Lanci would do before meeting Xiu Bao.
It had already accepted the current situation, it’s just that this youngster seemed to have some ideas and wasn’t planning to stop anytime soon.
But he should know when to stop.
Just like that.
Lanci approached the building of the Knights of Nirvana.
By the end, no one else could be seen on the streets besides the faintly visible floating snowflakes.
Off in the distance, the imposing building of the Knights of Nirvana gradually appeared before his eyes.
Though he had been here before, Lanci couldn’t help but feel moved upon seeing the lawful Temple of Rebirth Church once more.
This is the Northern Continent.
The difference with the South Continent was indeed vast.
It was at times like this that he would deeply realise that he was in a foreign land, very far from the town and home he was familiar with.
Lanci shook his head and strolled leisurely up to the heavily guarded gate.
The knights in dark grey heavy armor inspected him from head to toe. After checking his letter, one of them nodded, signaling that he could enter.
Lanci then put away his repeat test notice and walked into the seemingly bottomless building.
Lanci remembered the directions on the letter.
He walked along the long corridor on the left and quickly found the examination hall for the retest.
At the end of the corridor, two large metal doors stood closed. On either side of the door, priests quietly stood guard. Their gazes were cold and they were always ready for battle.
"Go ahead."
Without needing Lanci to show his letter again, the priests opened the doors leading to the assessment hall.
Behind that heavy iron door was a spacious hall shrouded in a heavy atmosphere.
A large chandelier hung from the ceiling, casting a dim light. The murals that adorned the walls depicted the twisted and bizarre Northern Continent’s Holy War. The faces of heroes and demons were faintly visible in the shadows, as if they were about to step out of the painting and join this space.
Under the oppressive silence, the air felt somewhat thin and most of the area was shrouded in darkness. Each examinee’s face seemed to have been swallowed by a deep shadow, their back draped in pitch-black darkness.
Compared to Lanci who had arrived later, more than twenty people were already gathered in the test hall waiting for the retest.
They sat scattered around the hall, maintaining a distance from each other. Some closed their eyes to rest, some were lost in thought, and some low-ranking villains were murmuring to themselves, their lips rapidly moving in the darkness, like a curse, yet no sound came out.
Most of the beings inside were dangerous villains, with the most conspicuous ones being the rulers of this gathering of malevolence, making others somewhat unwilling to come close.
Lanci glanced around the hall, and soon, the door behind him was shut tight emitting a booming echo.
The huge pendulum clock above the door, with every tick, announced the imminent test of fate.
Here, there was no turning back.
Lanci’s presence quickly attracted many gazes in a brief moment.
Occasionally, eyes stared at him, assessing his every subtle move.
The young man of fine black hair and green eyes currently looked too harmless, much like a pure white lamb that accidentally strayed into a dark wolf pack.
During the first round of written tests, there might be people with orderly appearances like him.
But those who had completed those papers knew well that to achieve high scores in the written test, one needed not only an in-depth understanding of the Rebirth Church and the Nirvana branch but also a devilish mind.
No matter how one looked, he was truly weak and utterly non-threatening.
Presumably, even if this lad passed the test, it must be by solid theoretical knowledge, scoring correctly on objective and conceptual questions from the passing line.
Lanci just walked to an empty seat on the side of the hall and sat down. He put his hands on his legs, gazing ahead calmly.
As time went by, the atmosphere in the hall grew more and more tense.
Lanci was not hurried at all, but the cat boss in the shadows was shivering with fear due to this intense malevolence.
If there was any chance to flee, they would have taken it, somewhat regretting following Lanci out of curiosity.
Everyone who came here was heavyweight.
A good young man with a clean track record like Lanci was clearly not on the same level of danger and chaos as those pure villains!
Bong, bong.
The hourly chime rang above the metal door.
Even from his corner, Lanci could clearly hear the overlapping echoes, each chime sounding like a warning, reminding everyone present of the escalating danger here.
In the hall, a faint light in the corner echoed with the dim chandelier, the chilly air solidified at this moment, and as the chime gradually faded, a soft sound like sand slid into the hall from the distant darkness, as if a curse had made time stop; every corner of the hall, every examinee, every piece of decoration, seemed to be frozen at this moment.
It was footsteps.
Although the sound was not loud, in this tense atmosphere, the footsteps were like beats pressing on everyone’s hearts, drawing their attention and leading their eyes towards the unknown direction.
The iron doors on the inner side of the hall had gusts of wind blowing in from gaps somewhere, bringing a chill and causing the faded curtains in the corner of the hall to make a rustling sound.
Like other candidates, Lanci’s gaze penetrated the shadows of the hall, waiting for the upcoming figure.
Gradually, a glimmer of light appeared deep into the hall, casting the shadow of a dark gray robe; the figure slowly emerged from the darkness within the hall.
He walked at a leisure pace, his face was revealed to the crowd, a visage filled with age and gloom, yet cold and stern, a deep-set pair of eyes emanating a detached desire for control, while thin lips rested below his hawkish nose.
What startled the candidates was the purple holy seal on his chest, emitting a faint light, illuminating his robe.
None of the villains present dared to underestimate him, being able to wear the purple holy seal meant that he was not just a wicked man but a famous Grand Priest within the Nirvana branch, a true high-ranking person in the Rebirth Church and a terrorist lurking in the dark side of the North Continent.
So, the one in charge of the exam, Grand Priest Caius, took his place in the front of the hall.
"I am Caius, the chief examiner conducting this re-examination and the final assessment."
Caius’s stature seemed even taller in this dim light. His voice was low and resonated throughout the hall as he opened his mouth slowly.
"To prove your most basic, yet essential, loyalty to the Rebirth Church, you are required to execute a task; This is the content of the re-examination."
His eyes slowly swept across each candidate, the silence engulfing the entire hall when he ceased speaking.
Fairly a few candidates in the room slowly put on a puzzled look; they wondered whether there was a way of accurately testing loyalty. 𝑛𝑜𝑣𝑝𝑢𝘣.𝘤𝑜𝘮
Even if there really was magic that could penetrate one’s mind, this feat can only be done by an eighth-order strongman that specialised in spirit and soul manipulation. Even if ancient magical tools of this caliber existed, the scale of this re-examination was not quite enough to make use of it.
"A while back... the Church of the Goddess of Destiny in Aestheland Kingdom came up with a method of detecting Rebirth priests. Even though it’s not entirely accurate, it did screen out quite a few of our people, and this sort of ’first question, then demand proof’ trend is known amongst the disseminating priests as ’Wilfordism’."
Caius calmly narrated this to the crowd in the hall.
"Now in the Protoss Empire, our positions with the Church of the Goddess of Destiny have reversed; therefore, this ’Wilfordism’ can also serve us well."
"I will consider you all spies of the Church of the Goddess of Destiny, and you need to prove to me that you are not."
"The content of the re-exam is simple; to transform a Statue of the Goddess of Fate."
"I will give each of you a statue of the Goddess of Fate, you are free to imagine, destroy, even violate the Goddess of Fate, to prove your loyalty to the faith of the Rebirth Church, then submit a piece of work to me. Thus, I will evaluate your position, style, and the extent to which you fit with the artistic sense of our Nirvana Branch."
With this, Caius succinctly narrated the theme and rules of this examination.
