Pioneer Lord: Starting From Daily Intelligence

Chapter 816: Chapter 92: The Bountiful Harvest and Final Preparations Before the Festival

This trip to the Vault Area led by Su Li, along with Selanweir and Hela, was quite fruitful.

In fact, before Su Li left, Vandar took the time to introduce some of the other items inside.

For instance, the potions of various churches. Currently, the potion scale in the territory has reached over 2,500 bottles!

The main ones are ordinary potions like [Hand of Shalya], [Regeneration Potion], and [Vitality Potion]. Notably, the Saint Renji Hospital in the territory used to produce 40 bottles per month, but after significant scale enhancement, the monthly output has increased to over 130 bottles.

Coupled with the production from the Dawn Church, over the past six months or so, the number of potions in the territory has increased dramatically.

Moreover, nearly 100 of these are high-tier potions like [Tears of Mercy] and [Blood of the Earth], which is a very pleasant surprise for Su Li.

After all, the production of such potions used to be calculated yearly, with an annual output of just 3 to 5 bottles. The primary reason for such a significant increase lies in the territory’s successful establishment of a large number of monasteries.

With the rise and increase of strongholds, each stronghold has no fewer than one monastery, and some villages may even have two or three church monasteries and shrines.

This has significantly increased the output of these high-tier potions, unlike the past when Hesse Territory only had one or two monasteries, which is incomparable to the current dozens.

Currently, the factor limiting the production of high-tier potions is the number of priests, as many monastery priests have not reached the elite level, hence unable to produce high-tier potions.

Although the combined number of Secular Knights and Church Knights in the Black Forest exceeds 1,000, that’s due to the serious oversupply of knights within the Empire. In other churches, elite-level extraordinary cultivators are still rare.

The Dawn Church is indeed the second largest church in Hesse Territory, but even their elite-level cultivators may only number a dozen or twenty, definitely not exceeding 30.

In most churches, being elite means being outstanding among people.

This is why Vandar is eager to have Su Li sell witchcraft items to boost the treasury as much as possible.

Because whether massive deficits or surpluses, neither is a good thing; large surpluses mean waste and corruption, and leaving so much money without investment is just a pile of scrap metal, isn’t it?

So after surpluses, Hesse Territory will definitely engage in broader investments. Through Hesse Territory’s Bishop’s Council, the Dawn Church can again obtain financial support; they can buy more high-level cultivators and Paladins to protect the church.

The Dawn Church’s Paladins are a church armament currently being planned, attracting knights and adventurers to join and serve as guards for their church priests and monasteries.

Su Li is very supportive of this and believes it is very necessary!

Currently, Hesse is vast, encompassing a forest, a hill, a plateau, and a very expansive plain, alongside dozens of villages, strongholds, and manors scattered across this vast land, with Dawn Church’s cultivators stationed in the countryside and suburbs.

Their safety cannot rely on a large, heavy army for protection. Military mobilization in the territory requires Su Li’s approval, inherently making it less flexible than these adventurers and the church’s own armament.

Due to long-term guarding of church chapels and monastery priests, the combat power of Paladins is almost insignificant compared to battle-hardened knights. Hence, the church armament of Dawn Church poses minimal threat to the territory and Su Li’s rule. Su Li has always supported their church’s expansion.

The expansion of the church indeed brings many benefits. Besides potions, they also produce religious holy images. The Vault Area alone holds 67 religious holy images, not including those already sold.

In this world, churches indeed assist Lords in enhancing power, an important ally against Chaos.

However, every gift from Destiny is secretly marked with a price.

While the church provides such strong support, it means their power and influence will rapidly grow, and the church also has its own large-scale industry.

This often leads to Knight Order Grand Leaders and church popes having influence not inferior to secular lords in many territories, even in Elector’s Territory. Powerful churches like the Yurik Church and Redema Church’s voting rights far surpass those of the Elector, reaching 3 to 4 times. For example, the Redema Church, as the National Church, holds 4 elector votes.

No matter how the Avalan Elector ascended to become Emperor, it inevitably is said to be supported by the Redema Church. Indeed, without the Redema Church, the Avalan Clan would only maintain their so-called false Imperial dignity by prancing about and selling themselves. (from Olaf Erich von Kazabag, the Twelfth Elector of Midland).

The followers of the Yurik Church most enjoy compiling scandalous literature about Avalan Electors.

There’s no help for it; both clans overlap significantly in faith and secular influence. Additionally, both clans have produced the most emperors among the Elector dynasties, so the Midland Elector gladly mocks the currently dominant Avalan Elector.

However, at present, this aspect has little to do with Su Li. He’s not in a position to worry about excessive church power and influence; instead, he wishes the church were stronger, hoping for faster development.