Surviving The Fourth Calamity

Chapter 549: Chapter 348: The Radiant Knights Order Under Siege from All Sides

When Hill took out the Divine Artifact again, he didn’t stimulate the divine light, which actually consumed a lot of the divine power in the painting.

If it weren’t for planning to help William test those three men, Hill wouldn’t have used so much power.

He held the Divine Artifact to his chest with one hand, the huge painting covered his entire body, and he remained silent. Spencer deftly shifted his position and slipped behind the painting, supporting it with one hand as well.

Spencer couldn’t help but look down at the painting in his hand; he really wanted to share some of the weight, but he was surprised that he could barely lift it with one hand.

Then, the Sky Knight signaled with his eyes his envy of Hill’s arm strength and his jealousy of the wealthy.

Such a heavy weight from just the frame and a thin layer of crystal on the painting could only mean Hill had used Mithril.

Hill didn’t move; his strength was hardly a secret now.

The key now was to make those three overlook his presence so he could enjoy listening to the gossip.

’It’s just one thing, even for us within the domain of this painting, we can’t lie,’ William told the knights openly, ’so when asking questions, pay attention to your methods. If you don’t want us to understand clearly, it’s best to beat around the bush.’

’There’s nothing to hide.’ The original owner of ’Becky,’ the Female Knight Steven, said coldly, ’Even if I said that, who would believe I couldn’t recognize my own horse? The idea that it was swapped on the way is just a modest coverup for me.

I haven’t thanked His Majesty King William yet!

As long as it appears decent, I can still shamelessly stay here.

Riding a man turned horse is just a bit of privacy being exposed, not that he’s riding me; I can still tolerate this humiliation,’ she said.

She stabbed the man under the sackcloth again with her thin sword: ’How many more like you are at our station? Who sent you into the station!’

’No... ah~ Yes... there are! It was that female merchant named Veronica Roche! She approached my master! I was the only one chosen by the Knight Corps, but there are five in the stable, they are of lower level, waiting for a new knight to choose them.

My master said he couldn’t use his Transformation Magic Arts many times, I don’t know if it’s true or not, but in the end, only we six came in!’ ’Becky’ wailed.

When he said there weren’t any, a golden light flashed from the painting and struck him directly, Hill could feel it was quite painful for him.

’Becky’ quickly changed his statement and told the truth directly, otherwise those two thin swords were already planning to make a cross-cut.

Hill found it strange, it looked like the Strike Evil caused ’Becky’ a lot of damage, he couldn’t possibly be from the Neutral Faction.

But even now, the evil aura on ’Becky’ was not strong, similar to those from Teraxil who are neutrally aligned with evil tendencies.

Hill was always accurate in sensing good and evil, but he still hadn’t directly found any issue with ’Becky’s’ faction; William’s Divine Array also hadn’t detected him as being evil.

Could it be that the Permanent Transformation Spell could change his faction?

William seemed to have thought of this, too, and gently pulled the sackcloth, revealing ’Becky’s’ face.

It was a plain, unremarkable face, and Hill overlayed in his mind, looking just like a spy.

That bleached flaxen short hair still retained a bit of ’Becky’s’ semblance.

Unfortunately, the two female knights seemed even more furious.

William looked around, then crouched down and pulled a crystal thread from Becky’s hair.

As soon as the thread was removed, ’Becky’ screamed again, his evil aura became very dense, and the power of the Sun God in the painting was automatically activated.

Even though it was uncontrollable and the light wasn’t as concentrated as before, the continuous power of the sun still made ’Becky’ keep wailing.

’Hill, is this something from the Sun God?’ William asked, holding the crystal thread and coming over to Hill, ’Refrain from stimulating your painting too much, don’t let him die before we finish questioning.’

Hill did not take the thread from William’s hand, he already knew what it was: ’Powdered crystallization of the Sun God’s divine power. The transparent crystal it’s wrapped in must be from the moon.’

All three knights stiffened, their eyes intently fixed on the short crystal thread in William’s hand.

William also hadn’t expected it, he quickly took out a high table and placed the crystal thread on a golden crystal dish, setting it down properly.

Mason clenched his teeth and asked: ’Aurthezia, is Veronica Roche the former commander’s descendant? The one who’s always responsible for purchasing Magical Beasts from the Magic Kingdom!

I remember, the Elders used to praise her for her strong will, saying she often went to the Magic Kingdom and still managed to stay neutral, not corrupted by evil.

Damn steadfast will.

Who did she marry? A scapegoat or a conspirator?’

’The Elder’s grandson,’ Aurthezia choked out in reply, ’always in charge of managing the Knight Corps’ stables. The two of them grew up together, and the Elder deeply trusted Roche. I can’t be sure.

The Elder can only manage logistics and internal affairs, his hands can’t reach into the Knight Corps.’

Hill silently calculated; this disturbance had already lasted 10 minutes.

So, when the two knights conversed, they were very honest, and the strong Female Knight suddenly broke down emotionally, likely amplified by the Light of the Silvermoon on her spiritual power.

There was no helping it, even the strongest mental resistance couldn’t withstand the assault of the Silvermoon, and as it wasn’t a harmful light, it was even harder to resist.

”What do we do now?” Steven whispered, ”We definitely can’t use the base anymore.”

”First, let’s sort out the things here, then go back and gather all the knights, and take the children and apprentices with us. The Radiant Knights Order’s code still works, spies can’t infiltrate. The rest we’ll sort out slowly,” Mason said with a firm tone.

”Where do we bring them? If there’s a problem with the Great Elder, he knows all the contingency locations!” Aurthezia countered.

Then, the three knights all looked towards William.

”Whenever you come, I will welcome you,” William said with a light smile, ”But there are many rules on my turf. For guests, as long as there is mutual pleasure, it’s fine, but if you plan to stay permanently, you must obey my laws.”

”Just follow the rules?” Commander Mason persisted, ”Nothing else?”

”Of course,” William chuckled, ”The Undead Tribe has strong combat capabilities. However, if demons or devils appear in the territory, you’ll also need to help search and pursue them. That’s a duty of the residents.

As for the battles inside and outside the walls, knights are basically unnecessary.”

”What kind of rules are there?” Aurthezia asked softly, ”Could we take a look first?”

Spencer immediately presented a thick volume of books, and Hill couldn’t help but glance, confirming it indeed comprised the legal codes of Saral Country.

Aurthezia stared blankly at the book for a while before tossing it into Mason’s arms: ”You read it, I’ll continue with the interrogation.”

Mason’s face turned green, and his expression was filled with the torment of a poor student forced to read.

Aurthezia and Steven didn’t even look back as they went to interrogate ’Becky’, now more concerned with how many spies were still in the Radiant Knights Order base, what their names and positions were.

This horse was likely the first spy sent into the Knight Corps, so actually held a high position, many incoming spies had to serve him, so he truly knew a lot.

He also exposed another merchant group, affiliated with the Seventh Elder of the Knight Corps, most children he had sent were problematic.

The Knight Corps dared to take in these children because the vow to become a Radiant Knight, sworn in the name of the world, was a promise true spies would absolutely not dare join.

So they overlooked the various logistics personnel walking around with the Knight Corps.

Hill, listening as ’Becky’ named them one by one, almost laughed out loud, no wonder the devils hadn’t completely wiped out this knight corps.

Almost all aspects of their daily life were controlled by others.

Had not the comprehensive invasion by demons shifted the devils’ attention, these knights might have already become puppets of the devils.

Initially, Aurthezia could still smile, relieved she didn’t have to memorize the code of law, but soon her complexion turned ashen as she borrowed paper and pen from William to jot them down.

With too many names, she could no longer trust her memory.

After asking several times more, ensuring ’Becky’ could divulge no more, they began to ask about the affairs of the Magic Kingdom.

As Hill thought, despite the king’s prestigious position, the real power in these Divine Kingdoms belonged to the Four Gods Church.

The king’s prestige was only in secular pleasures and the power to issue royal decrees.

All laws, good or bad, were issued by the king.

No wonder none of them lived long.

In the Magic Kingdom, the most powerful was during the tens of thousands of years after the God of Magic ascended the Divine Throne, where his Pope had changed only twice.

The current Pope had just recently taken office.

The previous one had retired because, thousands of years ago during the demon invasion, he was severely injured and barely held onto his position for a while before he had to retire to recuperate in the Magic Kingdom.

Otherwise, each Pope would have served for ninety thousand years.

Hill was struck by a thought, was it because of the nine layers of hell?

’Becky’s words made it clear that the former Pope’s forced early retirement was very detrimental to him, and it was very likely caused by a scheme from the current Pope.

So the internal strife in the Magic Kingdom was very intense.

The former’s retirement was abrupt, and the current Pope’s people were not fully in place yet, but the opportunity was rare and not to be wasted, so he still gladly took the position.

Unfortunately, his power was not yet sufficient to suppress the entire kingdom, the former had too many contingencies.

The Radiant Knights Order thus caught his eye, a perfect choice for puppets!