Intelligence and massive resources of the Church of Light! (5200)

Upon hearing Cao Xing's invitation, Gwyneth stood in the snow, clutching her lute, seemingly unsure how to respond.

Cao Xing continued, "Although I don't know if I can find a way to restore your voice, if the opportunity arises, I will help you look into it."

"During this time, my territory can serve as your safe haven."

Cao Xing did not give her a one hundred percent guarantee. Gwyneth seemed to be seriously considering his suggestion, a thoughtful expression appearing in her eyes.

A moment later, she gestured a few times. Victoria said, "She is asking what she needs to do if she joins the territory?"

Cao Xing smiled and said, "Do what you are good at; you can teach the children in the territory how to use musical instruments."

"By the way, when you have free time, you can also teach others how to read. You shall serve as the teacher in the territory."

Come to think of it, the literacy campaign in Cao Xing's territory should also be set in motion. Throughout the entire territory, most of the Arctic People and staff were illiterate. Plus, there was Tong Chuchu. The education of this little girl also needed to be put on the agenda.

Gwyneth considered it for a moment, then nodded solemnly.

"She says, 'I am willing.'"

Cao Xing looked speechlessly at the queen beside him. "I know that phrase."

Cao Xing sent a recruitment invitation to Gwyneth, and the woman quickly clicked agree.

[Recruitment successful: Gwyneth has joined your territory, territory population +1]

…

A smile appeared at the corner of Cao Xing's mouth, and he walked in front of her.

"Welcome to the team, Gwyneth."

He extended his right hand. The woman seemed somewhat uneasy, unsure how to respond for a moment.

A moment later, she extended her right hand, took off the black glove, and revealed a hand covered in scars. There were frostbites and some other scars on it.

Seeming to feel that her hand was too unsightly, she shyly retracted it. However, Cao Xing directly grasped her palm and said solemnly once again, "Welcome, Gwyneth!"

Gwyneth only felt that her frozen right hand was suddenly enveloped by a pair of large, warm hands. The intense warmth made the wounds on the back of her hand sting. While feeling embarrassed, a touched expression gradually appeared on her face, and she nodded gently.

Cao Xing quickly let go and looked at the queen beside him.

"Victoria, take her to the territory now."

"By the way, have Dahua bring her a few bottles of Cloud Yak milk to treat the frostbite on her body."

"Very well, please follow me." After saying this, the majestic queen turned around, and Gwyneth followed behind her.

Watching the two women leave, Cao Xing clapped his hands. "Not bad, I've picked up another master-level talent for nothing."

"I'll see if there's a chance to restore her voice later and keep this woman here permanently."

He thought happily, then checked the time. Unknowingly, it was already around eleven o'clock in the morning.

Cao Xing closed the city gate and walked towards the center of the territory. He hadn't walked far when the communication device in his ear crackled with static again.

"Bzzt… Bzzt…"

"Master, are you there?"

Hearing this voice, Cao Xing already knew who it was. It was the puppet baron he controlled, Fitz Walker.

"I am here," Cao Xing replied.

The person on the other end let out a heavy sigh of relief. Fitz Walker quickly said, "That's great, Master! I haven't been able to contact you for a while, and it worried me to death!"

"Later, I sent out the knights to visit your territory. Only after learning that you had left for a period and would not be back for half a month did I finally feel at ease."

"So I was counting the days to send you a message." His tone was filled with intense joy.

Cao Xing smiled. "Speak, what is it?"

"It is like this, Master."

"The list you provided me last time was correct; they were all black-robed priests of the Church of Light."

"Now, these people have been successfully captured."

"The King was very pleased and actually promoted me to a Viscount!"

"Now, I have a larger territory and more power!"

Upon hearing this, a look of surprise appeared in Cao Xing's eyes. He didn't expect that the chess piece he had arranged casually would actually grow.

"Well done, Fitz Walker. Should I call you Lord Viscount now?"

Hearing Cao Xing's teasing words, Fitz Walker on the other end responded with trepidation.

"Master, you joke. Everything I have today is thanks to you, Lord Territory Owner."

"Fitz Walker will definitely do his utmost to serve you!" His attitude was incomparably respectful.

With his loyalty at one hundred percent and his life controlled by Cao Xing, let alone a Viscount, even if this guy became King, he would still have to obey his orders. Cao Xing did not continue to tease him but said seriously.

"Fitz Walker, come to think of it, I do have something I need your help with."

"Please speak, Master! I will definitely do everything to complete it!" he replied hurriedly.

Cao Xing got straight to the point. "I need supplies now, a lot of supplies."

After all, he still had 1,000 Ascalon Warriors under his command who needed to advance from Tier 3 to Tier 4, and then to Tier 5. The various resources required for this were massive.

"Please tell me, Master. I will find a way to get whatever resources you need!"

Cao Xing said, "First, I need a lot of crowns, at least 300 million!"

"Then food, help me transport a million kilograms first."

"Besides that, there is Mithril, at least 600,000 pieces."

"Are there any problems with these three resources for now?"

These resources were truly vast; an ordinary noble wouldn't be able to produce them. However, the Baron's mansion had been operating in this area for many years, and its foundation was quite astonishing. It shouldn't be a problem for him. Hearing Cao Xing's request, Fitz Walker pondered for a moment and then replied.

"Respected Master, what you want is naturally no problem."

"However, the quantity of these resources is too large, and I need some time to gather them."

"Within a week, I will have gathered these supplies and sent them to your territory. Does that work for you?"

"That works," Cao Xing replied.

He could afford to wait a week. Of course, it would be best if they could be delivered before the monster siege.

Fitz Walker immediately replied respectfully, "Very well, Master, I will handle it right away."

After saying this, he prepared to hang up the communication, but Cao Xing stopped him.

"Wait a moment."

Fitz Walker quickly said, "Master, please speak!"

Cao Xing asked, "Besides these resources, I want to know, did those black-robed priests you captured last time reveal any key information during interrogation?"

"For example… the location of the Church of Light's headquarters?"

Hearing this question, Fitz Walker seemed to realize something and immediately replied,

"Answering the Master, the Kingdom also attaches great importance to finding the headquarters of the Church of Light."

"So they have conducted various strict interrogations on this group of black-robed priests."

"Although these cultists have been brainwashed and will not easily leak any information about the church,"

"the Kingdom has managed to obtain some important information through some special interrogation methods."

Cao Xing was surprised. "Oh? There really is?"

"Yes, Master!"

"One piece of key information is related to the Ice Crystal Kingdom's neighbor: the Kingdom of Velen."

"Recently, the Kingdom of Velen has been harassing the border, which we previously found strange, as the Ice Crystal Kingdom and the Kingdom of Velen have basically maintained a non-interference relationship."

"Now we know that there may be the shadow of the Church of Light behind this."

"Moreover, people have indeed seen a large number of wights at the border."

A thoughtful look appeared in Cao Xing's eyes. The Church of Light was actually able to obtain the support of a kingdom; this was somewhat beyond his expectations. It seems the God of Light must be exerting influence behind the scenes, right? Looking at it this way, the God of Light's power is truly immense.

Cao Xing asked, "Is there any other news?"

"Yes," Fitz Walker replied respectfully. "Besides the shadow of the Church of Light behind the Kingdom of Velen…"

"A strange incident occurred not long ago."

"According to reports from the Kingdom's border scouts, about twenty-odd days ago, a great battle took place in an area near the border. The disturbance from that battle was so powerful that it caused a mountain range to collapse."

"When the Ice Crystal Kingdom sent people to investigate, they only found ruins below."

"However, there were still strong traces of Holy Light and demonic energy remaining inside…"

"According to the analysis of a Light-element Archmage in the Kingdom, these two auras belong to the powers of the Church of Light and demons, respectively…"

Upon hearing the last sentence, Cao Xing's gaze immediately sharpened.

"You mean that place was likely an important stronghold of the Church of Light, and then it was attacked?"

"Yes, Master."

A grave look appeared in Cao Xing's eyes.

"The aura of holy light belongs to the Church of Light."

"And on the other side, there was a massive amount of demonic energy."

"In other words… the Church of Light once fought a great battle against the demons."

"And during the Battle of the Oracle, I did indeed receive an unexpected piece of information that the Church of Light had suffered heavy, inexplicable losses."

"It seems highly likely that it was that battle."

After analyzing this,

Cao Xing couldn't help but laugh out loud in his heart.

These demons, well done!

It would be best if they hit the Church of Light hard.

Moreover, according to Fitz Walker, this battle was quite intense, and both sides must have suffered damage; after all, Cao Xing's mission progress had surged by a significant margin.

In this way, even if the two sides had no enmity before, they certainly do now.

Furthermore, there is another key piece of information.

The range of Cao Xing's search has narrowed down significantly.

Clearly, the headquarters of the Church of Light is either within the territory of the Velon Kingdom or in the border region!

After reaching this conclusion, a smile appeared on the corner of Cao Xing's mouth.

At the same time, he felt even more appreciative of Fitz Walker.

This kid looks like someone who can't be helped, but he is actually quite useful.

Fitz Walker asked cautiously, "Master… are you planning to make contact with the Church of Light in the near future?"

He was actually not stupid; from the moment Cao Xing asked the questions above, he knew that this lord might be preparing to take action against the Church of Light.

Hearing this question, Cao Xing laughed, "What's the matter, Fitz? Are you reluctant to part with your old employer?"

The other party hurriedly replied, "How is that possible! My loyalty to you, Master, is known to heaven and earth!"

"However… I would like to remind you, Master."

"The Church of Light is a faction with numerous headquarters and branches, and they all worship the same God of Light."

"Therefore, to completely destroy this faction, you need to seize all their branch strongholds."

"Otherwise, as long as a single stronghold remains, this faction will make a comeback in a short period."

After listening to this guy's advice, the corner of Cao Xing's mouth twitched.

"Fitz, have you been thinking about dealing with the Church of Light for a long time?"

The young viscount on the other side stiffened, and he quickly said, "Master, you've misunderstood! Everything I do is considered from your perspective, I have no ulterior motives!"

Cao Xing didn't say much more.

In fact, he also knew that it would be very troublesome to completely destroy this faction.

However, he didn't need to completely wipe out this faction all at once right now.

He just needed to find a way to make the Church of Light's damage progress exceed 30%.

In that way, that old guy, the God of Light, wouldn't be able to come out.

As long as he couldn't come out, the Church of Light would not be a threat and could be gradually eroded…

Cao Xing had been coveting the souls of those red-robed bishops and archbishops of the Church of Light for a long time!

After all, these souls were the resources most lacking in his territory.

However, because there were so few ways to obtain them, there weren't enough Commander or Dominator-level creatures for Cao Xing to kill.

It just so happened that the Church of Light had many powerful individuals.

"Come to think of it… I haven't heard any news about that Archbishop Sullivan lately."

"Otherwise, I could have found a way to add another Dominator-level soul to my inventory."

Moreover, besides dealing with these red-robed bishops, Cao Xing also wanted to test the strength of that old guy, the God of Light.

"What kind of strength does a being without a godhead actually have?"

"Can he withstand two shots of 'Wrath of the Ancient Lizard Emperor'?"

Shaking his head, Cao Xing decided not to attempt it.

After all, no matter what, that is still a deity!

If things went wrong, he might just die!

Cao Xing continued speaking into the communication device, "I understand, Fitz. Now go and prepare the resources and send them over to me."

"Understood, respected Master. I will go right away."

With that, Cao Xing hung up the communication.

"Very good. The money and mithril needed for the warriors to break through to Tier 5 are basically resolved."

"What I still need to secure are a large amount of Advanced Elemental Crystals and Expert Elemental Crystals."

"These are simple enough. As long as I have enough resources, I can trade for them on the market. After all, there are still hundreds of thousands of people in the four major districts."

And next, Cao Xing was going to capture griffins.

To capture them all in one go, he would need a large number of pet contracts.

He had already prepared two [Master-level Pet Contracts] to capture the Griffin King.

As for the other griffins, there was a chance to capture them using Advanced Pet Contracts.

However, to be safe, he should trade for more Expert-level scrolls.

"In addition to a large number of pet contract scrolls, I also need a large amount of Ice Dragon Mark to exchange for Advanced Heart of Strength."

After all, there were many Tier 3 entities in Cao Xing's territory.

Besides those one thousand Ascalon Warriors.

There were also Earth and Wind mages, Silver Hand Knights, Tribal Witch Doctors, and so on…

Calculating based on the requirement of 50,000 Ice Dragon Mark for one Advanced Heart of Strength, for over a thousand people, that is a terrifying number.

To trade for so many resources, he had to have a large number of precious items.

However, Cao Xing really did have them!

Besides the saber-toothed tiger meat that didn't sell out last time, Cao Xing also had the even more insane [Lizard Dominator Meat (Orange)].

Just listing a little bit would be enough to cause a sensation in the entire market.

After pondering for a moment, Cao Xing finally decided to list 20,000 portions of lizard meat first.

He went to the side of the market and directly set up the trade information.

[Consignment Item: Fresh Lizard Meat (Orange)]

[Inventory Reserve: 20,000 portions]

[Required Items: Ice Dragon Mark, Expert-level Pet Contract, Advanced Elemental Crystal, Expert-level Elemental Crystal, etc.]

[Consignor: Cao Xing]

[Seller's Note: Lizard meat with powerful attributes. 1 portion = 5,000 Ice Dragon Mark = 1 Expert-level Pet Contract = 100 Advanced Elemental Crystals = 10 Expert-level Elemental Crystals]

…

This time, Cao Xing set the price very high.

It cost 5,000 Ice Dragon Mark to exchange for 1 portion, which was 100g.

But the attributes boosted by this kind of beast meat were also very powerful.

Not to mention the initial 300-point attribute bonus, just the 5% armor bonus afterwards was enough to make everyone's heart race!

After all, who wouldn't want higher armor and increased survivability?

Once this beast meat was listed, it would definitely cause a frenzy of snatching!

Sure enough, not long after this epic-level beast meat was listed.

It immediately caused a sensation in the entire chat channel!

Although the Survivors were already used to Cao Xing listing powerful beast meat time and time again.

But this time, it was epic-level beast meat!

One could imagine what that concept meant.

Everyone began to frantically gather various resources, then rushed to the market at the first opportunity to trade with Cao Xing.

Fearing that they would be a step too slow and it would all be snatched up.

Including those legion commanders, they also dropped everything in their hands and ran back to trade with Cao Xing.

In less than a minute, Cao Xing received a massive amount of trade notifications!

[Transaction Successful! You received [Ice Dragon Mark] * 100,000, you lost [Fresh Lizard Meat (Orange)] * 2,000g…]

[Transaction Successful! You received [Expert-level Pet Contract] * 1, you lost [Fresh Lizard Meat (Orange)] * 100g…]

[Transaction Successful…]

…

When a massive number of system notifications appeared.

In less than three minutes, Cao Xing's 20,000 portions of epic-quality beast meat were instantly sold out!

Not only that, because the market was too hot, Cao Xing also listed an additional 7,000+ portions of lizard meat.

The moment the trading ended, the entire chat was filled with sighs and lamentations.

The Survivors who managed to snatch some were excited to the point of losing their minds.

And those who didn't were very regretful.

And many people were frantically sending private messages to Cao Xing, wanting to buy some privately, even willing to pay extra.

Cao, the man himself, was excitedly counting the gains from this transaction at this moment and had no intention of paying attention to these private messages.

After doing some calculations.

The accumulated gains from this transaction were:

[Ice Dragon Mark] * 118 million

[Expert-level Pet Contract] * 572

[Advanced Elemental Crystal] * 37,624

[Expert-level Elemental Crystal] * 21,963

…

"Haha, over 100 million Ice Dragon Mark, that is so damn satisfying!"

"Plus over 20,000 Expert-level Elemental Crystals, now the materials for the warriors to break through to Tier 5 are all settled."

"So comfortable…"

This time, he sold 27,000 portions of lizard meat and exchanged them for a large amount of resources.

And in Cao Xing's inventory, there were still 170,000 portions of this Lizard Dominator meat left!

From this, one can imagine what a staggering amount of wealth this is!

It can be called an instant fortune!