Castle of Black Iron

After fixing the matter of the capital city, Zhang Tie told the three elders about the sacred order, items and classes in Ancient God Church.

The entire Ancient God Church was divided into three classes and contained 14 sacred items according to the feature of Ice and Snow Wilderness and Ancient God Church.

The commonest believers of Ancient God Chruch was the first class.

Among believers, those who could comply with the four sacred disciplines and four sacred deeds would promote to clergymen through sacrificial rites and church’s consent.

Those who practiced the ”Book of Eternity” at home and in their daily lives instead of taking positions in Ancient God Church could be White Clothes Clergymen. Those who joined in the branches and agencies of Ancient God Church and wished to be clergies of Ancient God Church were called Black Clothes Clergymen.

Black Clothes Clergymen were divided into four classes based on the length and performance when they did the four sacred deeds, iron-star clergyman, copper-star clergyman, silver-star clergyman and gold-star clergyman. It would take an iron-star clergyman at least 4 years to promote to a gold-star clergyman.

A clergyman was the second class in Ancient God Church and the foundation for the development of Ancient God Church.

Above clergyman was the most attractive magisterium class, also the third class of Ancient God Church.

The lowest rank of magisterium class was acolyte, which was closely above the gold-star clergyman. Acolytes could work as subsidiaries in rituals or branches of churches. They had certain rights just like deacons.

After accomplishing practice in the Grey Palace, acolytes could take the position of priest, who was entitled to build churches in villages which had less than 10,000 villagers so as to disseminate the creed of Ancient God Church.

The position above priest was ”bishop”, who could rule parishes of different ranks in the territory of tribes according to the power of each tribe.

Those who could rule rat-class tribal parishes were bishops of glory.

Those who could rule eagle-class tribal parishes were titular bishops.

Those who could rule wolf-class tribal parishes were diocesans.

Those who could rule Leopard-class tribal parishes were metropolitan bishops.

Those who could rule fox-class tribal parishes were garrison bishops.

Those who could rule bear-class tribal parishes were patriarchs.

The position above patriarch was helm bishop who could manage all the affairs across the Ancient God Church.

The position above helm bishop was pope, which, after being integrated with the secular diadem of Sacred Iceland Kingdom was called Tsar, like Zhang Tie.

The original priests in each tribe of Ice and Snow Wilderness were awarded the same ranks as that of their tribal bishops, namely, priest of glory, titular priest, parish priest, metropolitan priest, garrison priest, sect priest and pontiff.

Elder Mocco of the grey eagle tribe who once punished Zhang Tie was awarded ”titular priest”. Although Pontiff Sarlin maintained his title, his social status raised, who nominally ruled all the priests across Ice and Snow Wilderness and was only responsible for Zhang Tie.

Once the framework of the Ancient God Church was confirmed, the entire Ancient God Church would enter a new stage.

...

”How are you going to deal with Ewentra Archipelago? Based on its scale, we need to dispatch at least one patriarch over there. Do you have a suitable candidate?” Elder Gouras asked Zhang Tie after listening to Zhang Tie’s introduction.

”I don’t mean to dispatch any bishop to Ewentra Archipelago. I will just dispatch a batch of priests over there!” Zhang Tie replied calmly.

”Ahh, just priests?” Elder Gouras became faintly stunned.

”Yes, priests!” Zhang Tie nodded, ”Actually, besides awarding the heads of the fire bear tribe, wild bear tribe and sea bear tribe as patriarchs, I will not promote any other members of Ancient God Church. I will just confirm their titles based on their achievements. Although Ancient God Church is disseminating widely across Ice and Snow Wilderness, its foundation is still weak. In the past 5 years, the best rank among my followers in Ice and Snow Wilderness was bishop of glory. Therefore, besides the three heads and the priests who paid allegiance to us, I will not award any other clergymen with ranks above bishop of glory. I will give them some time to show them the bright future. Their titles in the future will depend on their achievements!”

The three elders were all smart. Soon after they heard this did the three elders understand Zhang Tie’s meaning. The reason why Zhang Tie didn’t award others with high titles was that he didn’t want to identify horses; instead, he wanted to race horses. He wanted all those above clergymen to compete fairly and display their own abilities. He wanted to have the real talented ones to stand out. If one could consolidate the belief of Ancient God Church and his status in a rat-class tribe, Zhang Tie would award him with a bishop of glory. If one could consolidate the belief of Ancient God Church and his status in a wolf-class tribe, Zhang Tie would award him with a diocesan. Each one’s title depended on his ability and achievements. In this case, Ewentra Archipelago would become the untilled virgin land and training field in the eyes of all the clergymen of Ancient God Church.

”If someone could really consolidate the belief of Ancient God Church and his status across Ewentra Archipelago, I would even award him with a helm bishop, not to mention a patriarch. However, if nobody has such an ability in Ewentra Archipelago...” Zhang Tie shrugged and said casually, ”Just leave those bishops vacant. I prefer them to be vacant than use the wrong person! All in all, it would take a religion at least 10 years to consolidate its foundation.”

The three elders nodded at the same time.

”Umm, I intend to adopt the 10,000 fighters of the bear-killing camp of the huge bear tribe into grey palace warriors as the direct force of Ancient God Church, how about it?” Zhang Tie asked.

Zhang Tie already had the Thor’s Hammer. Plus the bear-killing camp, the two most powerful forces across Ice and Snow Wilderness would be in Zhang Tie’s hand. The two forces were the pillar forces of the huge bear tribe.

”Sure!” The three elders agreed at once.

Zhang Tie became reassured completely as he patted his hands and said leisurely, ”Well, that’s what I wanted to tell you. I wonder what you want to tell me?”

After exchanging a glance with each other, Elder Sarlin slowly said, ”Before the formal coronation, you should know something!”

”Ahh, go ahead?”

”This is the biggest secret of the huge bear tribe. Since so many generations, only tribal elders of huge bear tribe knows it!” Pontiff Sarlin said with a solemn look.

”Ahh...” Zhang Tie became amazed as he asked, ”What’s that?”

”You will know it, come with us!” Pontiff Sarlin replied as he stood up. Watching the other two elders standing up, Zhang Tie also stood up.

Elder Toles left the room ahead of them, Zhang Tie just stayed with Pontiff Sarlin and followed Elder Toles.

This room was in the hieron, while the hieron was in the hinterland of Elzida Mountain. Therefore, the moment they left the room, Zhang Tie had entered the hinterland which had been excavated by people. Both sides of the aisle were inlaid with fluorescent crystals, which were of the highest quality and could only be found in the ice-capped continent. The tender, milky luster radiated by the fluorescent crystals illuminated the entire artificial aisle.

Elder Toles led them towards the depth of the hinterland. The crisp footsteps of the four people reverberated around the entire hinterland.

At the beginning, there were guards of the hieron on both sides of the aisle. Gradually, after entering a turnoff, the guards started to grow sparse with more doors on the road. Elder Toles had the keys of the doors. Each time he opened a door, Elder Toles would carefully close it after all of them passed through it. He acted very meticulously.

”Where are we heading for?”

”The backroom where the elders of the huge bear tribe enter meditation!” Pontiff Sarlin replied.

After moving about 1 mile ahead and opening more than 10 doors, they finally arrived at the backroom of elders. Elder Toles opened the hard alloy door with a key and entered it, followed by Zhang Tie and the other elders.

With a loud sound ”bang...”, the thick alloy door of the backroom was closed from inside. Zhang Tie started to look around the backroom.

This was an empty space being excavated, which covered over 5,000 sq meters. Like a big warehouse, it contained many simple tools. It indeed looked like where the elders usually entered meditation.

After looking around, Zhang Tie found nothing special about it.

When Zhang Tie was still curious, the three elders moved to three different places and put their hands on three trivial pieces of rocks on the walls of the backroom with a distance of dozens of meters. After that, they nodded towards each other and forcefully pressed down their own rocks.

At the same time, a stony table slid away more than 20 m from Zhang Tie, exposing a well to Zhang Tie.

Zhang Tie walked over there and found the well was hundreds of meters in depth while a faint orange ray shot out of the pitch-dark underground space.

Zhang Tie looked at Elder Sarlin. Elder Sarlin nodded. Zhang Tie then jumped off.

As a knight, Zhang Tie directly flew downwards instead of free landing.

The closer he was to the entrance of the well, the brighter the orange ray was, Zhang Tie instantly rushed out of the entrance of the deep well and entered a natural mountain cave which was 2-3 times bigger than that of the backroom.

When he noticed the source of the orange ray, Zhang Tie widely opened his mouth.

A piece of orange crystal, which was as large as a 7-8-year-old boy, was suspending in the air over 50 m away from the entrance in the shape of a huge crystal bamboo shoot. It radiated the orange ray, turning this underground mountain cave into a dreamland.

The moment he caught sight of that thing, Zhang Tie sensed the powerful and special energy filling this space. In a split second, that energy had penetrated into his body. It seemed to carry some exotic property, that energy penetrated through Zhang Tie’s body like how the water flow penetrated through a broken ladle; however, it didn’t cause any damage to his body.

Gradually, the ray of that item had turned into cyan from orange...

The three elders had already followed Zhang Tie in this space. They were suspending in the air beside Zhang Tie. The special energy also penetrated through their bodies freely...

”What’s this?” Zhang Tie asked out of amazement.

”This is the piece of God’s Star!”

”What?” Zhang Tie watched that huge crystal bamboo shoot floating in the air with an unbelievable look, ”This is a piece of God’s Star?”

”The one who discovered it first was Elzida, the Great Pontiff. It’s also the most precious wealth left by the Great Pontiff to the huge bear tribe!” Elder Gouras watched that huge crystal bamboo shoot with an awe-stricken look as he explained with full respect.

’Alight. I remember that when I came to Ice and Snow Wilderness for the first time, Samaranth the Stars and Moons Sword Sage also came here for the God’s Star. Pitifully, he didn’t have a chance to even see the piece of God’s Star after being trapped by Three-eye Association. It turns out that there’s indeed a piece of God’s Star in Ice and Snow Wilderness. However, it’s in the secret cave of the hinterland of Elzida Mountain in the hand of huge bear tribe instead of the underground space of Haidela Gracier Crack. Of course, nobody else could discover it.’

Watching this huge crystal bamboo shoot floating in the air, Zhang Tie became puzzled, ”What’s it used for?”

”This piece of God’s Star contains a special energy, which could work in the realm of elements. The realm of elements in the place where the piece of God’s Star lies in will experience some marvelous changes. After having this piece of God’s Star, Slavs could promote to a new high in their battle force in a split second. The source that could drive bear-killing fighters mad came from this piece of God’s Star. After your coronation, you will have this piece of God’s Star according to the will of Elzida, the Prophet Pontiff...”

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