Chapter 819: Prosperous
As a result, the two simply smiled at Lin Li when he looked over, and made some hand gestures to hint that they would be leaving, after which they left the room quietly.
Of course, Lin Li didn’t just give Englos some pointers about pharmaceutics. He had also taken the opportunity to ask Englos about the Holy Light theurgy. Although Lin Li had already seen the door to the Sanctuary-realm, he purely only understood and mastered the Power of Light. In terms of Holy Light Magic, he might not be comparable to Archbishop Englos who had studied the Power of Light for a lifetime.
“Archbishop, there’s a mage from the Tower of Dusk outside who would like to see his President for an urgent matter,” a young pastor said respectfully to Englos as he entered the room.
Englos and Lin Li conversed for the entire day, and they were both so excited that they talked about chatting for three days and three nights. However, they had to be interrupted by the mage from the Tower of Dusk before dinnertime even arrived. Although Englos was a little reluctant, he also heard that there was an emergency. He couldn’t make Lin Li ignore the urgent matters that he had to attend to.
Seeing that Lin Li had gotten up and was about to leave, Englos frowned and seemed to have gotten an idea. Smiling, he proposed, “Felic, if you don’t mind, why don’t you let your subordinate come in and talk about it? I’d like to know who dared to ignore the decree issued by His Holiness Pope Rosario himself.”
In Englos’ opinion, the urgent matter that the mage from the Tower of Dusk was referring to should be related to the business of the Tower of Dusk in the Ledin Kingdom. Pope Rosario had already issued a special business rights decree for the Tower of Dusk; hence, anyone who dared to make things difficult for the Tower of Dusk in business would clearly be disrespecting the Brilliance Shrine.
Lin Li could also tell what Englos was thinking. Hence, he nodded and returned to his seat. In fact, it wasn’t surprising. Although Pope Rosario had issued a decree, others could still find their way around it and create trouble. Even on the territory of the Brilliance Shrine, it would still be impossible for the decree to be entirely implemented.
Seeing that Lin Li had returned to his seat, Englos waved at the young pastor, and said, “Invite the mage from the Tower of Dusk in.”
“Yes, Archbishop,” the young pastor quickly replied, secretly rejoicing and feeling thankful about the fact that he fortunately had not disrespected the mage from the Tower of Dusk.
Although the doctrine of the Brilliance Shrine did not discriminate against beliefs, the profession of a mage was an atheistic one which despised the existence of gods. It was also called blasphemy. The more devout the believers of the Holy Light were, the more they despised the mages who were known as blasphemers. Hence, the believers of the Holy Light often treated mages with a hostile attitude, which they felt was right. This time, it was clearly different because the archbishop told him to “invite” the mage in. The pastor dared not think much about it, but he knew that he would have definitely been in trouble if he had been disrespectful to the mage.
After a while, the young pastor ushered the mage from the Tower of Dusk into the room. Lin Li was shocked to see who the mage was, because it wasn’t the mage who was stationed in Sparta, but Alan who should have stayed at the Tower of Dusk.
Lin Li had initially found it rather strange, for he had already gone to take a look at the various stores in the Ledin Kingdom that belonged to the Tower of Dusk in the morning. Why couldn’t the mage have told him about it in the morning? Why would something crop up within such a short period of time? Seeing that the person who came was Alan, Lin Li immediately understood that the problem cropped up in the Tower of Dusk, and not in the Ledin Kingdom.
“Alan, you’ve finally done it,” said Lin Li. Although he knew that something had happened in the Tower of Dusk, Lin Li did not rush to ask. Instead, he paid more attention to something else.
Alan was a mage from the first batch of members of the Tower of Dusk. Among the mages of the Tower of Dusk, he could be considered the most talented one. However, due to the fact that he had wasted a lot of time by making mistakes during his study of magic, he had been progressing very slowly after becoming a Magic Shooter. Lin Li had long given advice for Alan’s problem, but long-term efforts were still necessary for his bad habits to be overcome.
Indeed, Alan did not disappoint Lin Li. When Lin Li went to Alanna previously, more than 10 mages including Alan had reached the peak of level-19, and had even vaguely gotten in contact with some of the Laws of the Legendary-realm. Hence, it would only be right for Alan to enter the Legendary-realm at this moment, and it should not be too surprising.
However, Lin Li ought to celebrate the fact that the Tower of Dusk had produced its first Legendary-mage. With the first one, there would be a second one. There would definitely be more mages from the Tower of Dusk entering the Legendary-realm in the future. A force could only secure a footing in Anril if they could produce Legendary powerhouses like the Brilliance Shrine and Darkness Shrine.
“This is all thanks to your guidance which allowed me to take this step, President,” Alan said humbly while glancing at Lin Li with zealous admiration and awe.
“This is because of your efforts too. Tell me what you’re here for. Did you come straight from the Tower of Dusk?” asked Lin Li who noticed that Alan was dressed simply like he had just rushed out of a sandstorm. He had clearly traveled a long distance.
“President, this matter…” Alan said hesitantly as he glanced at Englos who was beside Lin Li.
“Don’t worry, just say it,” Lin Li said indifferently. Although he had already guessed that the incident might be related to the Tower of Dusk, he felt that there was no need to avoid letting Englos hear it.
“Yes, President,” said Alan, a little more confident after hearing Lin Li’s words. He expressed his apology and saluted Englos before continuing, “President, our businesses at the Tower of Dusk have been suffering some joint attacks by a few unknown forces. They’ve resorted to lowly tricks like slandering us, and also competed with us maliciously in terms of business. They truly resort to all tricks. Besides, we’ve also found that some unknown forces are infiltrating Doland City. They seem to be after something big.”
The situation that Alan mentioned was considered a huge blow to a force, especially one that had just risen. In fact, most of the time, such blows would be fatal. Ever since the end of the Dark Age, countless emerging forces that were once promising perished under such attacks. Some had no choice but to give in and abide by the old forces. However, they were still devoured in the end.
However, Lin Li did not show any anger after hearing what Alan said. Instead, he asked calmly in a playful tone, “Anything else?”
“And…” Alan hesitated for a while before saying with a look of guilt and embarrassment, “One of our mages has somehow been bribed by another force and stolen the forging sketches for our magical equipment and some of the formulas for our potions.”
The commercial obstacles that Alan mentioned beforehand were due to external forces, but the fact that his subordinate had been bribed meant that there was definitely a problem with his internal management. Besides, it was considered their dirty linen, and yet he had to wash it in public, in front of the people from the Brilliance Shrine. That would be tantamount to embarrassing the President, and it was no wonder that Alan would have such a peculiar expression.
“I was just wondering, how could they have possibly missed this trick?” said Lin Li who remained calm, not surprised by what Alan said. In fact, from the establishment of the Tower of Dusk and the beginning of the development of the pharmaceutical and forging businesses, Lin Li had already expected that that would happen. Loyalty only existed when the price offered for betrayal was too insignificant. Although that saying was not absolute, it was still applicable to most people.
Since the establishment of the Tower of Dusk, Lin Li had already known that bribery would be inevitable. Even a major religious force like the Brilliance Shrine had its own traitors, let alone the Tower of Dusk. Not only did they have traitors who betrayed the Brilliance Shrine for their own interests, they were definitely far more than the Tower of Dusk. However, the Brilliance Shrine had a solid foundation, and the traitors wouldn’t affect the Brilliance Shrine much.
As for the Tower of Dusk, regardless of how rapidly they were developing, they were still an emerging force that had been established for only more than two years in the eyes of others. Didn’t the foundation and background of the force rely on their pharmaceutical and forging businesses? As soon as those two pillars were gone, they would instantly crumble regardless of how high they climbed. The higher they were, the harder they would fall.
“Felic, now that I think about it, it feels like it was yesterday that I participated in your inauguration ceremony. In the blink of an eye, the Tower of Dusk has already accomplished so much. Even I am a little jealous of such a high development speed.” At this time, Englos cracked a joke with Lin Li in a relaxed tone.
Lin Li was not at all annoyed, and instead said with a smile, “Yeah, the development is too fast, it is inevitable for others to think that we might have an unstable foundation. There will always be those who want to try and challenge us and see what we’re made of.”
In fact, when it came to the foundation, the Tower of Dusk would indeed not be that strong if Lin Li did not have his Undead servants, Connoris’ perfect body, and Angelano who controlled an Alchemy Colossus. In the eyes of others, it was at best just a force that was led by a Legendary-level President. The rapid development of the Tower of Dusk had brought about massive wealth to them, but they did not have the ability to keep the money. Just like with a child carrying a bag of gold, everyone would definitely covet their wealth.
If the owner of this massive amount of wealth was replaced by a force like the Brilliance Shrine or the Darkness Shrine, or even the Supreme Council, who else would dare to covet it?