Chapter 20: The Frontier of Empire: The Debate of Faith

Even in the deep underground, the light of the Emperor's faith once shone here. Thousands of years ago, this Imperial monastery stood at the very core of this depleted planet.

The colorful glazed windows hang high above the inner hall of the monastery, as if the dark light coming from the void shines into the church from behind the glazed windows and shines on the four huge statues.

These four silent guard statues wearing hoods and holding huge swords hold up the space here with their huge bodies.

The towering dome hangs high above the head, with countless lily patterns and the majestic outline of the golden throne on it. Thousands of rays of light emanate from the throne as the core, and eventually turn into countless prayer sculptures covering the entire dome.

Under the dome, several senior members of the Pious Society sat around a mahogany-colored round table. Candles burned on the candlesticks at the center of the table, casting an uncertain light onto everyone's faces.

Henry sat on the chair. Under a burst of curses and shaking of the table, the flames swayed like candles in the wind. The president of the Low Nest Order rubbed the bridge of his nose helplessly.

"Moxley, man, calm down."

"Calm down? We lost a whole ship of scarlet pigment! A whole ship!" Mosley, who was wearing a gray robe, roared angrily.

He has changed into the uniform of a priest. The symbol of three coiled snakes is drawn on the gray robe, as well as the metal decorative piece worn around his neck.

Mosley roared and looked at Vito, "It's all because of your plan! Vito Constantine! If you hadn't used scarlet as bait, we wouldn't have suffered such a huge loss! A whole ship! More Not to mention the batch that was almost given away for free!”

"I thought as a pastor, Brother Mosley, you would enjoy expanding your community of believers," Vito said with a smile.

"Believers? No! They only help us for the scarlet pigment. A large part of the people have to rely on us to continue to provide scarlet pigment, addicts! That is blasphemy to the gods! Shame on you!"

Henry looked at Vito, who leaned back in his chair and rested one hand on the armrest with ease.

"Indeed, Brother Vito, such expansion of faith is very unstable, although we have indeed recruited many people and captured a lot of territory through this."

"Blasphemy! It's blasphemy! The factory must have missionaries before the brothers of faith can carry out illusion preaching, allowing followers to see the image of the real gods and listen to their words. Now this is just throwing a group of ignorant lambs at A maelstrom of chaos!" Mosley shouted as he stood up, glaring at Vito and pointing his finger at him.

"You have no faith at all! Vito Constantine! You are not a member of the family! You don't understand our truth at all!"

"That's enough! Mosley! I won't allow you to humiliate Brother Vito!" Henry stood up and shouted sternly. Mosley glared at Henry and sat back angrily.

Henry watched the irritable monk sit down and looked at Vito, "You need to solve this problem, brother Vito, at this meeting."

Vito smiled, clapped his hands and then stood up. Seeing this, Henry sat down and gave up the stage to the young brother of faith.

"You are right, Brother Mosley and Brother Henry. Indeed, such preaching is very confusing. Our new brothers cannot figure out what God's words mean, and will only be confused and confused."

Vito said and started walking around the round table, walking behind everyone, "We did suffer a lot of losses. We don't know how the Hammer Gang knew about the scarlet pigment problem."

"No, we know, it's that woman! Silver Snake! That woman who hangs out with you!" Mosley said, slamming the table.

"Miss Silver Snake is the intelligence center of Xia Lao. All of us will go to her to trade information. Of course the Hammer Gang got the information from her, but the question is, how did we get it."

Henry frowned and looked at Vito walking around, "You mean, there are traitors? We are inside."

"This possibility cannot be ruled out."

"But I think this traitor is not in the order. I often go to Silver Snake's bar. If it was one of our own people, I would notice it, but I often see a lot of workers going down to the nest. The Hammer Gang workers.”

Vito stopped with a smile and leaned against a statue. "Brothers and sisters, I think our traitors may have exchanged information with the factory workers, and finally reached Silver Snake."

"Then why didn't he tell Mal Hammer directly? Instead of going to such trouble." Henry asked, but Vito smiled jokingly, seeming a little helpless.

"Of course it's money, Brother Henry. If you tell Mal directly, there will be no benefit at all. Why not sell it to Silver Snake?"

"Huh, greedy man." Mosley said calmly, crossing his arms.

Vito snapped his fingers, "Yes, Greed, a lot of information about the Hammer Gang was also transmitted in this way. We used scarlet pigment as a bargaining chip in exchange for a group of less pious internal agents, and therefore Got the information."

"So we have had a lot of success recently. This is a double-edged sword, brothers and sisters, and we should be lucky that Yu Mal has learned to take advantage of this so late."

Vito walked back to the table and sat back in his seat. He looked around everyone with a smile, "So unfortunately, Mal is too late. We will take down his most important factory within this week. We have not taken down it before. The Hammer Factory.”

Everyone started talking among themselves until Henry knocked on the table to silence everyone. The leader of the Lower Nest Order looked at Vito curiously, and even Mosley looked over curiously.

"How to get it?"

"You see, we have captured so many of his factories before that Marr's attention has been on defending those small and medium-sized factories that may be captured by us, while ignoring the fact that in his base camp, his hometown already has Some of our supporters."

Vito looked at Mosley with a smile, "Brother Mosley, you see, I left the largest hammer factory to you. The workers there are waiting for the gospel and guidance from you and your pastors. I believe , you’re not worried about the risk of being discovered, are you?”

Vito's slightly sarcastic smile angered Mosley. He stood up angrily and slapped his hand on the table, "Are you humiliating me?! You are questioning my courage and consciousness to devote myself to the Lord of Redeemer!"

"No, of course not. I trust you, my brothers, so I plan to hand over the most important task to you." Vito waved his hand and said with a smile still on his face.

"Mar has not noticed the problem under his nose yet. I will let my brothers continue to attack his outer factories and strongholds to make him believe that we are preparing to launch an offensive to divert his attention."

"And you, brother, you and your priests can sneak into the hammer factory, use faith and truth to influence the workers, lead them to initiate a riot, or an uprising, whatever you want to call it, cooperate inside and outside, and help us take down the factory "

Henry frowned slightly, a little confused, "If, as you said, Vito, how can we take down the Hammer Factory while launching a series of peripheral offensives? We will lack manpower and weapons."

Vito put his hands on his belly and smiled jokingly, "That's why we need so many new believers who, although lacking piety, are very brave."

"Our new brothers will take on the responsibility of the perimeter offensive. They are huge in number. With the cooperation of some of our elite brothers, it is easy to create the illusion of a large-scale offensive."

"And empowered by the scarlet pigment and the chaotic whispers of the gods, these addicts, who, as the Mosley Brothers said, lacked faith, were brave enough to serve as the great sacrifices on our path to salvation."

Everyone looked at Vito, even Mosley showed a surprised expression. This was all a plan, right? All together, the seemingly chaotic behaviors are actually interconnected and logically rigorous. It is hard to believe that he came up with it on the spur of the moment.

But well, from what I know about Vito, it's possible that he actually improvised it, although just how much of a plan he had in his head is anyone's guess.

Henry looked at Vito opposite through the dim light of the candlelight. He was silent for a moment, "Did you plan this all?" "Maybe, maybe not, but that doesn't matter."

Vito raised a hand with five fingers, "I have obtained five more neatly equipped Sentinel Walker mechas. With their cooperation, we will take down the factory. Of course, in the Mosley Brothers with the help of."

The discussion started again, and Henry was extremely surprised, "Where did you get the sentry? I don't remember."

"Just tonight, I went to collect the goods before the meeting. Dear Mal. Hammer bought five Sentinels from the Upper Nest, so I thought, since he has caused us so much damage, and Scarlet Pigeon Transport I will use it to compensate for the hijacking of the ship."

Vito wagged his finger playfully, "Seriously, those big guys are fierce and can definitely help a lot."

The young religious member looked at the priest with a smile. Of course, the smile was not sincere, but more teasing, "Brother Mosley, when will you be ready? If you need time, I can." "

"No! We are ready now! We can spread the voice of faith at any time." Mosley accepted the challenge. He had to accept it. He could not tolerate such a young new member of the order challenging his authority and appearing to be a So incompetent.

Henry frowned slightly. He seemed to realize something, but chose to remain silent. He looked at Vito with his peripheral vision, and the latter showed a real smile, "Great."