Dimensional Codex System: I'm really not a cultist!

Chapter 65: Chapter 64: Reuniting with an Old Acquaintance

It was no wonder Fang Zheng was so surprised, for just as he was about to subdue his opponent, he saw the man’s face clearly—it was the very dangerous Knight he had once fought alongside. Fang Zheng just hadn’t expected to encounter him again here.

“Who are you?”

Startled by Fang Zheng’s question, Knight Conan also paused, his struggling hands also coming to a rest. He had thought the other party was a cultist, but to his surprise, this person had recognized him by name, and he looked… somewhat familiar?

At that thought, Knight Conan furrowed his brows, looking toward Fang Zheng while desperately searching his memory for his name. However, soon enough, Fang Zheng revealed the answer.

“I’m Fang Zheng.”

“You are Mr. Fang Zheng?”

Upon hearing this answer, Conan’s realization dawned on him; he eyed Fang Zheng from head to toe, finally recognizing the familiar traces on the young man.

“So, you really are alive, Mr. Fang Zheng. Where have you been these past six months? There’s been no news of you at all, and, well, the change in you is quite drastic…”

Fang Zheng understood Conan’s puzzlement. The body he originally had appeared to be about 18 or 19 years old. When remodeling his body, Fang Zheng had chosen how he looked at age 20, so the difference wouldn’t be too great. It was fortunate he had been away for over half a year; if it had been just a few days or months, such a change would have been hard to explain.

“It’s a long story, actually. I only returned here a few days ago… I didn’t even realize I had been gone for so long.”

As he sheathed his longsword, Fang Zheng answered. He wasn’t worried that his response would raise any suspicions in Knight Conan. This was a world where magical civilization was considerably developed, and many mages mastered spells that could connect to different dimensional planes. Moreover, there were many recorded tales of people accidentally entering some worlds. In fact, Fang Zheng had prepared for his return… and yes, he had another daring idea.

“I see… Now that makes sense, Great Knight Shi Dong and Grand Knight Mart will be thrilled to know this.”

“Let’s save catching up for later.”

Since the other party was someone he knew, Fang Zheng relaxed his guard, looked around again, and then curiously asked,

“What exactly happened here? It looks like you’ve been attacked?”

“Yes, that’s exactly right! Those damn cultists…”

When this matter was brought up, Knight Conan was also filled with anger, and he recounted the whole event to Fang Zheng. Now, Fang Zheng finally understood what had happened in the Main World after his time travel.

After he had defeated the Child of Chaos, the underground cavern had collapsed (which finally explained why he had been teleported to this forsaken place). Fortunately, Great Knight Shi Dong and Grand Knight Mart, along with a few remaining Templars, had successfully escaped. The Master of Lich had also vanished without a trace, and the spatial barrier that had been used to block the area was lifted, allowing everyone to return to the Sanctuary subsequently.

As a member of the group, Knight Conan was relieved of his squad duties upon his return to the Sanctuary. This was not due to any dissatisfaction from the Bishopric, but rather because the search squad had been a temporary assembly, and now that the mission was completed, everyone naturally disbanded and returned to their respective homes.

Incidentally, according to Knight Conan, the Bishopric seemed to have concluded that the Templars who were killed while chasing the cultists were slain by the Master of Lich. Moreover, this time the enemy had killed more than ten Templars to complete the ritual of unsealing the Child of Chaos, firmly pinning the blame on the Master of Lich.

After completing his mission, Knight Conan returned to the Northern Alliance, his birthplace and the place where he had become a Templar. He was originally supposed to head to the Order Fortress to participate in battle, but he had been severely injured during the fight with the Master of Lich and was further weakened by a magic-suppressing debuff from the Child of Chaos. Therefore, Conan was appointed to stay behind to monitor the supply lines and to recuperate, as it was relatively safer to be in the rear than at the front. Moreover, with Knight Conan’s abilities, his presence there was naturally fit; otherwise, he would not have been chosen to join the squad that went to Shadow Canyon.

At first, his duties were relatively leisurely, but as days passed, Knight Conan began to feel more apprehensive. He was a member of the Order Fortress and knew about the impending Demon Beast disaster. Although he was only able to contribute from behind the lines, he ordered everyone to stay alert and prepare for the Demon Beast onslaught, even dispatching two cavalry squads to patrol between the rear and the frontline.

But something strange happened three days ago.

It was just as the first snow had fallen. Knight Conan noticed that he had not received any communication from the Order Fortress, which puzzled him. According to protocol, the Order Fortress should have contacted the rear positions as soon as the first snow fell to ensure that everyone was prepared for the Demon Beast disaster. This procedure had not changed since Conan joined the Sanctuary, but by late at night when the first snowfall continued, he still had not received any communication, prompting Conan to immediately dispatch a cavalry squad to the Order Fortress to check on the situation while trying to contact the frontline using the Sanctuary’s communication crystal.

Still, there was no response.

At this point, Knight Conan felt that something was terribly wrong, and he immediately reported back to the headquarters of the Sanctuary, only to find that he could not make contact with headquarters either.

In that moment, Knight Conan was greatly alarmed, having never encountered such a situation before. But being an elite knight who had confronted the Master of Lich in Shadow Canyon, his reaction was swift. He urgently ordered the entire base to lock down and initiated Level One battle readiness.

Unfortunately, the enemy’s actions were quicker than Conan had anticipated. Before his orders could even be communicated, those damn cultists had launched an attack. They assaulted the entire base, and initially, the Sanctuary Soldiers fought against the cultists, but their opponents were overwhelmingly strong, including among them a Destruction Mage who could manipulate Hellfire!

The Destruction Mage was a central figure of the Doomsday Sect, equivalent in power to a Grand Knight. If Shi Dong or Mart had been there, perhaps they could have stalled their advance. But Conan, merely a Templar and recently recovered from grave illness, was no match for them. Before he could even act, the enemy had deployed a Hellfire Explosion that demolished the tower he was in, burying Conan in the rubble.

Fortunately, his life was spared, for this unlucky lad was not crushed to death, but upon waking, he found the entire base deserted. Conan himself barely managed to escape from the debris, and just as he was tending his wounds and planning to track down those cultists, Fang Zheng appeared. At that moment, Conan did not realize it was Fang Zheng; he thought the cultists had returned, so he hid by the wall, waiting to take a hostage, but unexpectedly… he encountered Fang Zheng.

“So that’s how it is…”

After listening to Knight Conan’s account, Fang Zheng had not much to say but sighed and patted the other man’s shoulder.

“Alright, relax a bit. At least you’re still alive, and that’s a good thing, isn’t it?”

After all, considering your name… I won’t say anything more.

“Ah…”

However, Knight Conan’s expression didn’t look too good.

“Right now, I’m only worried about what exactly happened at the fortress. Facing the Demon Beast disaster, they simply couldn’t detach themselves. Without supplies from the rear, the fortress can’t hold out for a month! And now, our communication with the rear has been completely cut off… Those cultists also captured my subordinates, and I’m really worried about what they might do…”

“And there’s no reaction from our base after losing contact?”

Faced with Fang Zheng’s question, Knight Conan shook his head with a grim expression.

“Though nominally, the Northern Alliance should send someone to check, in reality, it’s us, the Sanctuary, handling everything. Moreover…”

At this point, Knight Conan didn’t say much more, just let out a long sigh.

Fang Zheng naturally understood his meaning. In this continent, the relationships between nations were very delicate, even more so than on Earth. Although this continent was headed by a few of the strongest nations like the Kingdom of the Holy Church, other nations couldn’t compare with them. But these powerful nations also couldn’t oppress the smaller ones as they wished, like those on Earth.

He had initially thought that the great powers in this world could do as they pleased. However, after reviewing the Sanctuary’s records, Fang Zheng realized that this world was not exactly as he had perceived.

The reason is simple, because this is a world of magic!

A weak nation bullied by a great power, then destroyed, with their prince having to flee from home, subsequently encountering adventures and ultimately becoming a powerful Legendary Powerhouse who returns for revenge. These plots aren’t just the stuff of novels on this continent; they’ve genuinely happened, and more than once!

There have even been instances where weak nations, unable to resist oppression, ultimately fell into complete despair and sacrificed their citizens to open the gates of Hell, plunging the entire continent into a dark period of warfare lasting a full one hundred fifty years. These events aren’t just fiction, but are genuinely written in history books!

This is a world of magic, anything is possible!

Although those people ultimately perished for various reasons, and that mad nation was completely destroyed, these are bloody lessons! How can you be sure that there won’t be another Long Aotian among those weak nations?

Not to mention destroying your entire country, just casually killing a few members of your royal family, or targeting your capital with a series of Five Fireballs explosive attacks, wouldn’t you be throwing away centuries of dignity? Even without magic, Earthlings can crash planes into buildings, play with human bombs just as smoothly. In this world, those aren’t just human bombs; they’re nuclear bombs!

You might end up creating disasters lasting for centuries. freeωebnovēl.c૦m

This is also why those small countries haven’t been completely swallowed up by the large nations. In the past, there hasn’t been a lack of ambitious monarchs trying to obliterate these small nations, but all were ultimately thwarted for reasons like this. After stirring chaos across the continent for several hundred years, these great nations have reached a consensus—why forcibly drive people into despair? The barefoot aren’t afraid of the shoed. With our vast land, abundant resources, and such a harmonious and stable society, why force people to their deaths, and then sacrifice a flood through Hell’s gates, dragging us down too? Isn’t that just madness?

Finally, after the event of that cataclysmic sacrifice, all the nations across the continent gathered in Caron and signed the world-renowned ‘Violet Pact’, agreeing that unless in an emergency, no nation shall lightly declare war on another. It also set the terms of alliances between various nations.

So now, the situation on this continent is essentially that all the nations form alliances with each other, binding themselves together through economic or military means.

The relationship between the Northern Alliance and the Kingdom of the Holy Church is just like that. The Northern Alliance, originally a union of smaller tribes from the north, then sent representatives to forge an alliance with the Kingdom of the Holy Church. The Kingdom assists them in guarding the borders, maintaining order, and eliminating Chaos. As a return, the Northern Alliance is responsible for supplying logistical support and materials to the Order Fortress.

The partnership had always been good, but Knight Conan knew that things weren’t actually that simple. There were many troubles within the Northern Alliance itself…

But now wasn’t the time to talk about these, so he quickly shifted the topic.

“Mr. Fang Zheng, what is your view?”

“Me?”

Hearing Knight Conan’s question, Fang Zheng thought for a moment.

“In short, let’s see how things play out first.”