One day later, Benjamin and a boatload of people set off from the island and embarked on the return sea route.
The boat was brought over from another village. There are a total of three villages on this archipelago. After all the priests and elders were eliminated, the remaining guards had long since lost their minds. Naturally, no one could stop them from recruiting ships.
Most of the villagers who chose to follow Benjamin came from the first village.
A total of about 300 people chose to follow, which is quite a high proportion. They may not quite understand what Benjamin's words mean, but looking at their expressions, something in these people's hearts has begun to awaken.
- Living in confusion under the rule of theocracy, they realized for the first time that there might be another way of life in this world.
As for the other two villages, they did not witness Benjamin killing all the priests with their own eyes, and the atheist rhetoric was not so convincing to them. Those people only knew that there was an invasion of foreign enemies, but they had never even seen the face of the church. How could they have any consciousness
Therefore, Benjamin did not intend to take them with him.
"We can't save everyone. This is all their own choice." He comforted the two siblings as he stood on the deck and looked at the two siblings at the stern of the ship who were looking towards the island.
The girl turned her head: "What will happen if they stay there?"
"He will die." Benjamin shrugged and said, "There are many warcraft that have been raised by people on the island. Now that overseas sects have been completely destroyed, those warcraft will soon get out of control, and the remaining people will have no resistance. Powerful."
"Do we really just leave them there to die..."
"That's their own choice." Benjamin sighed and said, "If they die for their beliefs, they can be regarded as asking for mercy. There is nothing we can do."
According to his estimate, the population of the entire Sea Clan is around one thousand to two thousand. Most of the people are at the bottom of society and are ignorant. Even if they leave, they may not be able to adapt to life on land. If they don't have the courage to start over, perhaps staying on the island and dying believing lies about the goddess is a better choice for them.
Moreover, the current number of more than 300 people is already Benjamin's limit.
No matter how many people there are, it will be difficult to handle them after they are taken out. After all, the main purpose of his trip was not to liberate these islanders, but to obtain the mind-shu classics of overseas sects.
Information related to telekinesis is basically stored in the altar. Therefore, after Benjamin finished handling the affairs of the village, he naturally flew to the altar as quickly as possible. At that time, there were still a few priests and guards left behind at the altar. They didn't even know what was going on outside, so they were easily dealt with by Benjamin.
Subsequently, all the precious books fell into Benjamin's hands intact.
"Don't think so much, go back and read the books we got from the altar." With this in mind, Benjamin patted the two siblings on the shoulders and advised them.
The two siblings nodded and turned back to the cabin.
The contents of the classics they harvested were actually very messy, and many things were unclear. Overseas sects had not summarized a complete theoretical system. Therefore, only the two sisters and brothers, who were priests and telepathic casters, could slowly sort them out.
However, there is no doubt that no matter how messy they are, these books can bring great help to the two siblings. If you give them more time, Benjamin believes that one day, the two of them will grow stronger than the elders.
At the same time, the college’s academic education will also be on the right track.
In addition, besides those books, Benjamin also gained some unexpected things from the altar.
"These slates should also have runes written on them, right?" He returned to the cabin, took out a few extremely ancient gray slates from his bag, touched the characters with his fingers, and asked in his mind.
"Yes." The system replied, "The interesting thing is that these are very rare runes. Even the way they are arranged together, I feel as if there is some special meaning."
Benjamin nodded and asked: "You mean, what is recorded on the stone tablet is not just runes, but also connected sentences of runes?"
"It's possible."
"So...can I try to stimulate it?"
The system's voice was full of sarcasm and schadenfreude: "You can try it!"
Thanks to it, Benjamin's curiosity was extinguished a lot. He calmed down, looked at the stone slabs for a while, and finally put them away carefully.
It's better to take it back to the academy and have it studied by experts. In the past, I always started working on it as soon as I got interested. As a result, many unexpected things happened, and I almost killed myself several times. To be honest, he is lucky to be alive now.
Therefore, after being reminded by the system, he decided to be more cautious this time.
In any case, he had already made a lot of money during this trip to sea. Not only did they suppress the church's arrogance and use their hands to destroy overseas sects, but they also harvested all the wealth of overseas sects, plus a soul heart whose purpose was currently unknown. Benjamin was very satisfied with this.
What's even better is that all the people sent by the church have been silenced, and there will definitely be no news from the Horli Kingdom. Therefore, Grant will not realize that all this is actually Benjamin's credit.
—They may even be misled into making more bad decisions.
And right now.
St. Peter's Basilica, Havenright.
"Your Majesty the Pope, everyone's crosses have been broken, and the campaign against overseas cults has failed." Suddenly, a priest hurried into the hall and lowered his head to report.
Upon hearing this, Grant did not look back, but remained motionless, looking at the mural on the ceiling.
"...I need an explanation."
The priest took a deep breath, slightly relieved the tension in his heart, and replied in a low voice: "We did not receive any message before the team was destroyed. We will have to send someone over to investigate the situation to find out what happened."
"So... what about the king?"
"It's still the same, good and bad. The evil spells planted by those people are difficult to break, and more and more nobles are protesting. Your Majesty, we may have to prepare some backup plans."
Grant turned around: "For example?"
The priest was stared straight at him, and the pressure suddenly surged up again. He couldn't help but swallow a mouthful of saliva, and then slowly said: "Well... we can use a substitute."
Grant let out a scoff.
The priest became even more nervous: "His Majesty the Pope..."
"Do you think a substitute can deceive those people?" Grant's tone sounded extremely cold, "Within the city walls, every nobleman who walks into the church must salute us respectfully and cannot even listen to what he says. It’s all flattering words. But can’t you see that they have scolded us thousands of times in their hearts, so how could they let this opportunity go so easily?”
The priest quickly lowered his head: "The majesty of God is supreme, how dare those nobles offend."
Upon hearing this, Grant snorted and glanced at the priest lightly, showing a bored expression.
"Go back and continue to send troops overseas. A group of followers of the Deep Sea Banshee. I don't believe they can cause any trouble." He said impatiently, "As for the substitute... you also start preparing."
The priest nodded quickly as if he had received a pardon, then turned around and prepared to leave from the hall.
"… etc."
Grant suddenly stopped him.
"His Majesty the Pope, do you have any other instructions?" The priest quickly turned back and asked with fear.
"Don't tell anyone about the failure of the suppression of overseas sects." Grant suddenly became frighteningly serious and whispered, "Especially Bishop Connor and Bishop Engel, tell them that everything is going well so far, and don't let them know that during our conversation today Any word of it."
When the priest heard this, he nodded like a chicken pecking at rice.
"Of course!"
Seeing this, Grant waved his hand and sent the priest out of the door. The door closed gently, and then the entire hall fell into silence again, leaving Grant alone again.
He turned around and looked at the ceiling again.
It was a fairly typical religious painting, with serious lines and rigid colors intersecting, ultimately forming two opposite but very similar faces. In the painting, two people are facing each other in a gloomy valley. One is surrounded by white light, while the other is painted with red eyes and horns on his head, like a living demon.
—The decisive battle between Cain and Abel can be said to be the most classic religious art theme in the world.
Grant looked at the painting and suddenly narrowed his eyes, showing a bit of displeasure.
"No one can control my destiny."
He suddenly spoke, as if talking to himself or talking to someone. The sound echoed in the empty hall, and the atmosphere was strange.