Knight Lord: Start with Daily Intelligence

24th Triumph Sevenfold Gift - Third Holy Sign (Happy New Year to everyone)

Among the Order Gods worshipped by the mortal empire, the Sun Goddess Violet is probably the one who likes magnificent holy statues the most. For example, the Redema Church, the state religion of the empire, prefers grand and magnificent temples, while Sharaya prefers white churches made of marble.

This difference leads to the fact that believers of the Sun Goddess Church generally place particularly tall statues of the goddess in front of the monastery.

The territory's religious consultant, Rongen, the patriarch of the Sun Goddess Church in the Black Forest Territory, once said that with his current strength, he could lead the territory to build religious statues hundreds of meters high.

However, the territory suffered severe damage in this battle, and the Provincial Council invested almost all of its finances in the territory's recovery, so the temple remains as it was.

The Gothic-style temple spire is towering and has gorgeous decorations. In order to show that this is the temple of the Bauhinia family, it is decorated with a large number of red brocade-made heraldic and is filled with vermilion Bauhinia flower flags in the church and surrounding square. A white holy statue more than ten meters high stands in the square in front of the temple.

When the morning light penetrates the rose windows of the monastery, thousands of knights wearing robes embroidered with Bauhinia纹章(紋章: crests) take the lead in kneeling on one knee. Their Milanese plate armor reflects iridescent colors in the holy light, and the battle songs under their feathered helmets startle the crows in the bell tower. The nearly two thousand armed attendants who follow closely behind, although only wearing coarse hemp armed clothes and chain mail outer covers, the polished halberd blades still converge into a silver wave when kneeling.

Although this statue is only five stories high, when thousands of glittering knights and soldiers kneel in front of the statue, reflecting dazzling light in the sunlight, the entire monastery becomes solemn and respectful. The grand and white holy statue is even more radiant and dazzling, and there is golden divine grace flowing on the religious statue.

This scene made the people participating in the grand ceremony and watching the celebration exclaim. The peasant women hurriedly pulled up their coarse cloth skirts and knelt down. They saw the golden armor on the knight masters resonating. Those offerings loaded with forest monster fangs and beastmen rune battle axes were now flowing with the same brilliant golden light as the holy statue. The children squeezed under the eaves of the temple vowed that they saw the stone statue slightly lowered its head, bestowing blessings on the devout knights whose armor was marked with arrow wounds.

This is a real manifestation of divine grace. A white holy statue that stands silently on weekdays suddenly appears with a golden light after a large number of knights kneel down to her and pray devoutly. Which foolish and superstitious citizen of the empire would not be greatly shocked?

So a large area of the surrounding people also knelt down in the surrounding square, constantly praying devoutly to Violet's statue.

And Violet will of course bestow such a strong divine grace. For three months, it was these knights who shouted the name of the Sun Goddess, trampled the huge formation of the green dragon's minions army with their warhorses covered in horseshoes. At this moment, their armor gaps is still stuck with forest wetland moss, and the chipped swords are covered with goblin的污血(污血: foul blood). These wounds have become the best credentials for the saint to bestow divine grace.

The glory that the Black Forest Territory has won for her, the epic victory achieved by shouting her name, she had already learned even if she had not paid attention to it in the divine world.

These are her most devout believers, the most glorious warriors, and many of them have even reached the point of fanatics, which are the most precious believers of a god.

As the Sun Goddess bestows divine grace, the entire square heard the clear chime coming from behind the statue of Her Majesty the Sun Goddess Violet.

Then seven golden transformed larks and golden eagles soared into the sky from the crown of the statue.

This scene shocked even Rongen and several god-chosen knights who looked up at the sky. Then Rongen became overjoyed and said to Su Li: "Lord, this is the third holy sign of the 'Triumphal Sevenfold Gift' recorded in the 'Violet War Prayer Scripture - Holy War Chapter'. It means that we have a higher level of blessing and will basically no longer receive glorious relics."

"Triumphal Sevenfold Gift? What is it?" Although Su Li didn't know these church classics, he inexplicably felt that it was profound and impressive!

You must know that in Rongen's words, even glorious relics are not as good as all of this.

The importance of glorious relics to knights and the empire is well known, that is the foundation of the empire's founding.

And this holy sign actually surpasses the foundation of the empire's founding?

Rongen immediately replied: "Lord, you must know that whether it is glory or triumphal holy sign, they are all rewards given by gods to believers for a glorious victory. However, basically secular territories can achieve a brilliant victory (this is not easy, it requires a lot, at least winning more with less and with rich results), and with rich sacrifices, it is possible to obtain glorious artifacts. Because of its universality, it has become the basis for the empire's nobles to rule the territory."

"But triumphal holy sign is something that ordinary secular territories cannot obtain at all. Generally, it is only armies led by legendary knights or saints of faith who have achieved an epic victory that may receive this super high standard divine reward. This is a exclusive divine grace blessing from the gods to their high-level believers."

"Like the Triumphal Sevenfold Gift, it is the exclusive divine grace of the Sun Goddess Church, and its origin chronicle is recorded in the 'Violet War Prayer Scripture - Holy War Chapter'."

Rewards that legendary figures and saints among the gods' followers can only obtain?

Su Li asked himself, he doesn't have anything to do with these two things. In terms of strength, he can't even touch the shadow of the legendary level. As for saints, it's even more out of the question. He doesn't even count as a fanatic or devout believer. After all, he basically hasn't finished reading a few of Her Majesty Violet's books that are stacked higher than people, so he doesn't even know the war prayer scripture.

The Sun Goddess bestowing such a powerful divine grace blessing, one can see how glorious the victory of the Black Forest Territory was in this battle, and what kind of care the Goddess Majesty gave.

Su Li was also quite interested in the content of the war prayer scripture. For the goddess's special care, he also had to learn more doctrines, so he asked: "Tell us about the origin chronicle of the Triumphal Sevenfold Gift, and also take advantage of this grand ceremony to promote the doctrines of the Sun Goddess."

Rongen immediately began to explain with the devotion of preaching: "In the years when the City of Light was still shrouded in chaotic miasma, Her Majesty Violet, still a mortal, led twelve knights to defend the Bronze Pass. Their shields were pierced by demon horn thorns, and after their spears were broken, they used scripture boards inlaid with the 'Tactical Canon' to fight, until the seventh dawn, seven holy lilies cast of gold and iron suddenly bloomed in the stone cracks of the pass - this is the earliest recorded holy sign of the 'Triumphal Sevenfold Gift'.

"The first gift of the Triumphal Sevenfold Gift is called Golden Eagle Crown: In the 'Blackfire River Estuary Battle' in the imperial calendar 1322, the Flame Sun Knights relied on the golden eagle perspective that appeared in the sky to see through the ambush trick of the green skin warlord. The members of the legion who receive this blessing will forever have the eagle-eye perspective, able to see all the ambushes in the dark forest and shadow mist. Thus avoiding being ambushed and being able to timely detect most invisible enemy units."

"The second gift of the Triumphal Sevenfold Gift is called Holy Fire Crest: During the Beastman War in the imperial calendar 1415, all the breastplates of the participating knights emerged with burning的书卷徽记(书卷徽记: book emblem), and its heat actually melted the frost of the Chaos beast swarm frozen earth. The legion that receives this blessing, the knights recite the ' Dawn Oath' on the eve of the decisive battle, and shout " Take wisdom as the sword" during the charge, the armor will emerge with a burning sun emblem, causing burning damage to all surrounding enemies, and the burning to Chaos believers and sons of Chaos beastmen will be super doubled."

"The third gift of the Triumphal Sevenfold Gift is called Lark Morning Song: During the Scarlet Scourge in the imperial calendar 1534, the empire's Grand Duke of Wester, once because lark landed the enemy arrow tower above and accidentally discovered a underground passage. The Grand Duke personally commanded elite knights through the passage arrived at the vampire tomb和地宫(地宫: dungeon) depths, completing a decapitation tactic against the vampire legion, thereby reversing the battle situation. When the army achieves a strategic goal with less than three times the enemy's strength, the legion may receive this blessing. At the dawn of the decisive battle, there will be gilded larks circling the camp three times. The tail feathers of these divine birds can turn into gold powder for healing serious injuries, and their chirping can make newly forged swords gain the ' bane' characteristic. On this day of the decisive battle, a layer of brilliant gold light will always adhere to the weapons in hand, greatly increasing the armor-piercing ability against evil monsters."

After finishing speaking, Rongen paused slightly and said: "The triple holy sign that our territory has now obtained stops at this layer, which are 【 Golden Eagle Crown】, 【 Holy Fire Crest】, and 【 Lark Morning Song】."

"The next four holy signs are 【 Rainbow Barrier】, 【 Blood Ink Document】, 【 Sun Horn】 and 【 Original Manifestation】, but all of this is relatively far away from us. We will explain the contents in detail when we obtain these holy signs. But you can look forward to all of this, because the commander who perfectly triggers these seven holy signs will obtain the ' Living Holy Canon' title. Although the church emphasizes that the Sevenfold Gift is a proof of wisdom and courage rather than miracles, even the most stubborn dwarf warrior will take off his iron helmet and salute when the holy lily blooms in the scorched earth."

Su Li suddenly listened with rapt attention! The Sun Church has such a deep historical foundation! The name of the army of flowers and swords is well-deserved.

The territory has only triple holy sign, and Su Li feels that the strength of the legion has suddenly soared by a notch. This is the goddess spreading glory, and the holy hymns resounding the world, the sky scattered with pure petals, bathing in this sacred and vast的神恩(神恩: divine grace). Every soldier who survived in this battle obtained the eagle-eye perspective的能力(能力: ability).

What is this concept? It is basically equivalent to the Sun Goddess blessing more than two thousand knights and soldiers at once.

Even an armed attendant and trainee knight, as long as they devoutly believe in the Sun Goddess, can obtain the divine magic that other territory's elite knights can obtain. It basically means that these people's future is limitless. As long as they continue to fight, even if they rely on divine grace stacking, they can forcibly push them to the rank above formal knight. Moreover, it can be basically confirmed that the Sun Goddess will be extremely generous to these people. These believers will, like Rhea's believers of the Morning Light Church, universally obtain the first divine magic in the formal stage.

With such a strong divine grace, Su Li decisively sent the ' Sun Triumph Prayer' that Rongen had already prepared for him.

"Lord of the Sun, God of tactics and strategy, Her Majesty Violet!"

You use the sun wheel to forge our armor,

Use war fire to temper the spines of the people!

Look at this broken beastman banner soaked red sand,

Listen to the fleeing dark hooves still wailing!"

As he proclaimed the prayer, the monks of the accompanying army simultaneously blew the deep horns, playing magnificent的圣咏叹调(圣咏叹调: holy aria).

All the knights eyebrow-high held horizontally swords, the blade surfaces successively reflecting a large amount of sunlight towards the statue.

"We use the ' Dawn Oath' bestowed by you as a shield,

Cut through the badlands clouds with quenched holy纹(纹: lines) as a blade!

The holy lily blooms the seventh petal in the scorched earth,

larks bring good news defeated by dragon claws!"

"Here offering the poisoned Kunos wailing tree crown,

offering the goblin shaman entangled wraith的颅骨杖(颅骨杖: skull staff)!

May holy fire cleanse every inch of filth curse above it,

melted into a new star on the side of your crown!"

"Please inject our saddlebags with inexhaustible light,

Let the decayed swamp turn into golden wheat fields where the hooves reach;

make broken spears sprout new shoots before dawn,

make fallen的名讳(名讳: names) turn into gilded inscriptions on the armor!"

Then the knights uniformly with the back of their swords tapped shields three times, kneeling on one knee the armor roared like thunder.

"In the name of iron and fire,

In the light and blood as a proof——

Today we adorn your altar with the heads of enemy chiefs,

Tomorrow we are willing to crush ten more dark fortresses for your chariot!"

As he prayed, the monks nailed the prayer and the bronze tactical plate recording the battle situation of this battle into the holy statue base, and the plate surface immediately emerged with the sun scorch marks of the goddess's profile.

This means that the Sun Goddess has accepted the victory report and offerings of this battle. When the last mass aria penetrated the clouds above the territory, the war banner of the Sun Goddess fluttered in the holy flame, and the chalice-shaped golden light waterfall poured into the monastery dome. The holy radiance carrying the ancient vows constantly between the stained-glass windows reflected strengthened, until turning into burst的光之潮汐(光之潮汐: tide of light), soaking the entire territory into flowing liquid gold.

The weapons of the knights who proved their bravery in the holy war began to emerge the Sun Goddess's blessing. All the soldiers who triumphed and participated in the sacrifice, the sword blades, halberd blades, and hammer handles emerged with the crests of the powerful enemies defeated in this battle.

The bloodstained lance emerged the starlight outline of the slaughtered fierce beast, and the concave kite shield surface grew briar rose的烫金纹路(烫金纹路: gilded patterns). Even the gilded hilt of Su Li's warhammer manifested a wyvern pierced by the warhammer的浮雕(浮雕: relief).

And Hilde's rare grade rune sword 【 Black Forest Territory Beast Slayer】 has already turned into a mobile reliquary, engraved with densely packed的击杀印章(击杀印章: kill stamps), from the powerful dryad god-chosen, to the chaos monster· three-headed chimera, then the densely packed champion grade monsters wyverns, gnoll leaders, centaur chieftains, etc.

The golden scriptures and kill stamps densely covered on her golden sword spine roaming like living chains. This means that she has special attack effects against almost all forest monsters.

Under her blade, those forest entwined poison ivy monsters will dissolve like natural objects foreseeing the morning light.

If we fight another battle with the green dragon's minions, the green dragon's legions will instantly collapse, completely defeated in the face of these blessed territory knights, simply can't stop the Black Forest Territory's offensive.

Such a strong divine grace from the Sun Goddess made Su Li even more satisfied. After the ceremony ended, he decisively announced: "I will take out 10,000 golden crowns to fund the Sun Goddess Church to expand the scale of the Sun Goddess Monastery and increase the height of Her Majesty Violet's statue!"

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Rong En, of course, welcomed such funding and quickly said, "Thank you, Lord, for the allocation to the church and faith. We will recruit more monks to make more contributions to the spread of the Goddess's teachings, striving to make the territory a model territory for the Church of the Radiant Sun, attracting more believers and immigrants to visit."

This initiative has already been very effective. Since the territory achieved an epic victory against the Green Dragon, its reputation has spread far and wide.

Just the day before yesterday, a combat pilgrimage group of more than 130 people visited the territory, led by an old, blind knight. He used a broken sword to measure the land illuminated by the grace of the Radiant Sun Goddess for his group. They visited the border哨所 battle site and the tragic battlefield ruins in the city. They wore bone bells made from human skulls on their plate armor, and the crisp ringing of the bells echoed along the way. More than twenty apprentice knights and armed attendants remained behind to feel the grace of the Radiant Sun Goddess in those ruins, to learn the combat arts of Violet's elite knights, and to experience the martial skills of Violet herself.

This is the kind of pilgrimage group that any territory would welcome. They are not only believers of the church, but also the most perfect free militia. They do not consume any of the territory's finances on weekdays, but when war breaks out, they will bring their well-equipped weapons to join the territory's free militia and fight against evil for the territory, and even after the battle is over, they are not greedy for spoils.

They are simply ascetic monks, selfless and dedicated to others.

Some pilgrimage groups from churches of salvation and mercy even have female monks who comfort those who are in pain and despair with their bodies, alleviating their suffering caused by unfulfilled desires, lest they become followers of Slaanesh, which is the most respected profession among the common people.

However, Black Forest Territory probably doesn't need such female monks to provide comfort. Once Su Li disbanded the army, the knights who had been given a large amount of wealth and spoils were willing to spend money in brothels to vent their months of war-torn energy.

Su Li also planned to vent with Freya. He had been resting these days, and his body, familiar with flames, felt like a fire was burning.

He had been stuck in the embassy for a long time and had not enjoyed the soft body of a female knight for a long time.

After the celebration, Su Li took Marshal Orstein, Commander Constantine, and other military commanders back to the castle for the final banquet celebration of the day.

Marshal Orstein also took the opportunity to report to Su Li on the current most important army size situation.

After Su Li donated 10,000 gold crowns to the Church of the Radiant Sun Goddess, the territory repaid its loans to merchants, leaving only more than 36,000 gold crowns in its treasury.

Although this was a considerable sum, it would soon be exhausted given the territory's monthly financial deficit of thousands.

Among these financial deficits, the biggest expense was the maintenance cost of the territory's army.

While waiting for the banquet to be prepared, Su Li asked Marshal Orstein, "Can the size of our territory's army be reduced? I originally planned to control the size of the army after the war ended and reduce expenses to alleviate financial pressure, but this blessing from the Radiant Sun Goddess has disrupted many of my plans."

Under this blessing, many soldiers had kill marks and eagle-eye vision. These were the most elite soldiers in the territory, veterans who had experienced many battles. With their abilities, they could be a company commander or even a warband leader in other territories.

Although Su Li wanted to streamline the army, he couldn't just lay off such excellent soldiers and let them fend for themselves in the free militia.

Orstein calmly replied, "Lord, the size of our army cannot be reduced any further. After the prayer, I checked the size of the army with Chief Steward Hiltrud."

"Many of our knights will be converted into Black Forest Guard Knights. According to the assessment, there are more than 140 knights who meet the conditions for the Black Forest Guard Knight title."

"This will cause the size of the Black Forest Guard Knights to skyrocket after the war, increasing to about two companies."

"The cost is that the size of other armies will be further reduced. The size of the high-level direct attendants has been reduced to more than 200 people. In any case, we have to transfer about 300 elite knights from the provincial army to increase the size of the high-level direct attendants to more than 500 people. Then the size of the provincial army will only be about 900 people, and there will be more than 400 free militia left."

"This scale means that our territory is quite dangerous. If beastmen appear in several directions at the same time, we may have to rely on the strength of the free militia, which will increase the territory's expenses."

The troops mentioned by Marshal Orstein are the total size of all those who received the grace of the Radiant Sun Goddess today.

If reorganized, there would be 200 Black Forest Guard Knights, 500 high-level attendants, and 900 provincial army soldiers. Even with the addition of secular knight orders such as the Griffin Knights and the Crimson Night Knights, Su Li's secular army would only have more than 1,800 people, less than 1,900.

It's not that the Black Forest Territory's army directly suffered more than half of its casualties in this battle, but that a large part of the army belonged to church knight orders and free militia.

Those ordinary militias were disbanded after the war and returned to the territory to engage in production.

The remaining free militias were all elite mercenary groups and brotherhood members.

This means that if the Black Forest Territory does not carry out a general war mobilization, it will only have about 2,000 available troops.

Among them, Marshal Orstein's army only has more than 900 people, so the marshal is naturally strongly opposed to further reductions.

Faced with Su Li's idea of reducing the army, he strongly opposed it and advised, "Lord, with the current situation in the territory, it is difficult to reverse the financial deficit by cutting costs. My suggestion is to use the provincial army and small elite knight orders to increase revenue, whether it is clearing out bandit groups in the forest or sweeping away surrounding monster camps, we can reap a lot of wealth."

"After surviving the Green Dragon crisis, it is time for us to expand militarily!"

Happy New Year to everyone ~ I wish all my book-loving friends a happy new year, a happy life, good health, family reunion, and all the best.

Then let me talk about the content of this book. The VIP first volume, Green Dragon Crisis, has come to a successful conclusion here.

Next, the second volume, Beacon Fire Prince Territory, will be opened. Welcome everyone to continue to support it ~