When the Saintess Arrives, No King Exist-Chapter 683 - 641: Alchemical Blood—Slime!

"What's the situation with Lana now?" Horn pushed Hilov's wheelchair as they strolled through the garden of the Mechanical Palace with the Wolf Woman.

"She's quite unique and lucky, you won't find one in ten thousand Blessed like her." Hilov tilted her head, but her eyes unconsciously followed a squirrel running beside them, "She probably first got infected with Jeanne's Demon-Loving Fungus before it could completely transform her, and then was infected by your Holy Favor Demon-Loving Fungus.

I initially thought that such a Lana would possess Jeanne's lightning spells and your immense mana.

But unfortunately, she has neither Jeanne's lightning spells nor your immense mana.

Because your Holy Favor Demon-Loving Fungus interrupted the process of the Witch's Demon-Loving Fungus transforming her nerves, she's unable to use lightning spells.

Because Jeanne's Demon-Loving Fungus had already started transforming her nerves, the Holy Favor Demon-Loving Fungus's transformation wasn't thorough, so her mana is higher than ordinary followers but lower than a Blessed.

The only advantage is that she's not afraid of lightning; you know witches can be immune to their own spells to a certain extent."

No way, bro, how come it absorbed the waste and discarded the essence?

At this moment, Horn was somewhat exasperated; he thought he could replicate the abilities of Lightning Mages on a large scale, but ended up with this sort of result.

"I know you're eager, but don't be anxious." Hilov lowered her head, "I have some good news."

Perhaps it was just a trick of the light, but Horn saw a fleeting grin on Hilov's face: "What good news?"

"Previously, wasn't I attempting to cultivate the Holy Favor Demon-Loving Fungus? My first choice was slime; I tried over a thousand slimes, and none were useful, either ineffective or poisoned to death.

But Lana gave me inspiration; since ordinary slimes aren't effective, why not use magical creature slimes?

Originally, due to the high toxicity, injecting Witch's Demon-Loving Fungus would poison the slime, but by adding Holy Favor Demon-Loving Fungus and allicin, we can control the process of the slime transforming into a magical creature.

These slimes have a magic-rich environment inside, so the Holy Favor Demon-Loving Fungus doesn't degenerate, but the slime itself cannot use spells, making them very safe.

So I injected my Demon-Loving Fungus into a slime, and whenever it was about to be poisoned to death, I injected Holy Favor Demon-Loving Fungus to swallow up the Witch's Demon-Loving Fungus..."

Horn's breath caught instantly: "Did it succeed?"

"It grew crazily within an hour, its size doubled, but it still died."

Horn tightened his grip on the wheelchair.

"However, before it died, it gathered its strength and divided into three offspring." Hilov said casually, "Two of them didn't survive, but the remaining one lived. As a magical creature's offspring, it contains a small amount of Holy Favor Demon-Loving Fungus..."

Despite trying hard to suppress, Hilov's swishing tail still struck Horn's knee painfully: "Both can coexist."

"Are you saying..." Horn tried hard to restrain his excitement, "We can mass-produce Holy Favor Demon-Loving Fungus?"

"Not yet, with its amount inside, it can't complete the transformation into a Blessed, but as long as we keep cultivating, we can eventually cultivate slimes that can coexist with large amounts of Holy Favor Demon-Loving Fungus." Hilov took a deep breath, her eyes shining brightly, "We are already on the right path."

"Great job, you've done wonderfully!" Horn's excitement was no less than Hilov's.

This is the cultivation technology for Demon-Loving Fungus, the technology for batch transformation into Blessed.

Although currently it's only in its infancy, as long as it stays on track, it will be created someday.

At present, with the Salvation Army's replenishment and expansion, along with industrialization, there is a need for Blessed everywhere, Horn manually promoting them can't even transform a thousand a month.

Moreover, with four million people in Thousand River Valley and billions in the Empire, Horn couldn't transform so many people even if he talked himself dry.

In the long run, if the Holy Favor Demon-Loving Fungus is not popularized in time, once intermarriage and monopoly of military education become common within the current officer group, the next generation of Extraordinary Knights will arrive.

As long as this technology is popularized before Horn's death, it's a success!

Horn couldn't help but lift Hilov by her armpits, holding her and spinning around on the spot several times. The Wolf Woman was so startled that her tail straightened up, frantically searching for balance.

"Sorry, I got too excited." Seeing the Wolf Woman's tightly shut eyes, Horn quickly put her back in the wheelchair.

Sitting back in the wheelchair, the Wolf Woman's complexion turned slightly red: "What was it you wanted to discuss with me?"

"Uh, actually, it's about the Truth Report." Horn felt a bit awkward thinking of asking Hilov to write debate articles right after she solved a major technical issue.

"I've already selected the letters and written the responses, but there's quite a bit of content, and there might not be enough space in the theology section."

"It's okay, I'll give you the largest political section, and if that's not enough, we can add a special issue." With a paper workshop under his control, the only limitation for Horn was transportation.

"Actually, I always had a question." Hilov hesitated for a while but decided to ask, "Do these citizens really care about this topic?"

"Don't worry, they will." Horn gave a confident smile, "This question will unravel the torment and confusion they've carried all along."

Through land reform for perpetual tenancy rights across various locales, Horn unearths in the tens of thousands of complicated reports a looming threat.

It's less pronounced among the mountain people, but more apparent in the plains, frankly speaking, it's servitude.

In other words, though Horn has eradicated the Church from the Thousand River Valley's surface, people's inner churches aren't yet dismantled.

Even Horn's Holy Father Association is deemed by them as just another reformed church, showing no difference, even within some Saint Father Order Monks, and Hundred Households Captains, hold such beliefs.

The most classic is the rebellion in Mason District, slaves not thinking to overthrow their masters, but instead maintaining their interests, without seeking their own.

The underlying logic has already been figured out by Horn.

Simply put, the Imperial People believe they were created by the Holy Father, where all destiny, value, and significance rely on the Holy Father's will, not on individual's rationalistic freedom or choice.

Imperial People regard themselves as the Holy Father's toys, striving for redemption in the next world rather than achievement in the present.

This ideological contradiction announces itself most starkly within merchant and civilian circles.

While amassing wealth to enjoy worldly happiness, they simultaneously dread contravening the Holy Father's will, promptingly donating vast sums to purchase indulgences.

This ultimately results in one thing—wealth is seen as a sin, with the poor suffering from poverty, while the wealthy suffer from affluence.

Consequently, nobles and priests unite, harvesting the crops with wide hands.

Conversely, the El people, as the "Chosen Ones of the Holy Father," skirt this turmoil.

With ancestors traversing oceans alongside Miseria, they bore adversity upfront for future generations.

Thus, within the Empire, major merchants or newly prominent trading nobles typically stem from the El people.

Horn wrote the rights of his followers into the constitution, yet they refuse to assert these rights, rather adhering to the old order.

When monks ask why people conform to the old order, they have numerous reasons, but when questioned why they should obey the new order, Saint Father Order Monks can't convince them.

This theology debate instigated by Horn aims to yield persuasive reasons, introducing his natural theology.

Having unraveled the shackles of economy and politics, Horn now proceeds to liberate ideologies.

Though appearing to broach the topic of freedom rights by discussing "can people voluntarily enslave themselves," it essentially delineates the definition of humans, hence reshaping worldview.

Defining people's essence is merely the initial step; the subsequent phase entails resolving the definition of worldview.

Regarding this discussion, Horn's themes are long predetermined.

In this world, due to the presence of extraordinary dominance, many theological deficiencies have been left unpatched by priests.

The most glaring among them concerns the classical issue of theodicy; priests surprisingly omitted affixing a fitting remedy to the dualism of good and evil or affirming Holy Father's omnibenevolence and omnipotence!

After all, if anyone raises objections, they just dispatch knights to physically eliminate the person—in this perspective, priests appear rather "materialistic."

This, too, serves as the persistent reason the Black Snake Bay Secret Faction assaults the notion of Holy Father as an Evil God—if he isn't an Evil God and boasts omniscience, omnipotence, and omnibenevolence, why does the world still overbrim with wickedness? 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮

The Church's response is regrettably crude, mumbling that wickedness is merely a test by the Holy Father, and thus, evil is part of goodness, leading to a theory bereft of genuine evil.

Counter to this, Horn effortlessly retorts: then why do children in the Blue Blood Monastery suffer extreme hardships without a chance for growth or benevolence?

Does it not then entail that witches and the Secret Faction perpetrate wickedness in aiding the Holy Father, implying the Church should venerate witches and the Secret Faction?

Therefore, it's inherently contradictory.

They didn't bother to install patches, let's not fault Horn for applying his natural theological amendments.

Crouching before Hilov, Horn looks straight into her eyes: "Within four issues, we must conclude the debate on whether people can voluntarily enslave themselves—I'll personally handle these issues, prepare a new topic."

"A new topic? What's it?" Hilov queried.

"Reflections on Blue Blood—interpreting Holy Father's omnipotence and omnibenevolence."