Memory

"Locke, I may have lost to you today, but that doesn't mean I'll lose to you in the future. Thirty years east of the river, thirty years west of the river—don't mock a poor middle-aged man!"

That day, Locke had just entered the tent when the Knight Commander's arrogant, unyielding voice rang out beside his ears.

Some time ago, Locke had inserted a scene from his own memories into the Knight Commander's memories of when he was sixteen, making the Knight Commander believe that he had truly experienced such a past.

The Knight Commander's other memories were somewhat blurred, but he believed that particular line summed up his life, so it was especially deeply ingrained.

Thus, when he saw Locke enter, he loudly recited those old words.

Locke looked at the Knight Commander with pity, then let out a sigh. Shaking his head, he ignored the Knight Commander's yelling, sat down in his seat, merged his soul with the Profound Mystery, entered a state of "Unity of Heaven and Man," and began comprehending the Profound Mystery.

For a long time, Locke had been puzzled by how the Temple of Light had developed so rapidly in little more than a hundred years, seizing forty percent of the Frost Snow Empire's territory.

It was only when Locke studied the Knight Commander's soul, greatly improving his mastery over souls until he could examine the memories within them, that he discovered the truth.

The Temple of Light had indeed been established only a little over a hundred years ago.

However, the Pope of the Temple of Light had not arrived on the Vakanda Plane merely a hundred years ago.

When the Pope of the Temple of Light had first arrived on the Vakanda Plane, he had simply kept an extremely low profile.

So low-profile that, aside from His Majesty Ceres of the Frost Snow Empire, no one knew that another Divine Domain had appeared on the Vakanda Plane.

After observing the Pope of the Temple of Light for some time, Ceres saw that he was merely a Low-grade God and had not affected his collection of faith, so he no longer paid him any attention.

What Ceres did not know was that, over those hundred-odd years, the Pope of the Temple of Light had spread throughout the upper ranks of the Frost Snow Empire the method of finding women with pure souls.

Moreover, he had told those Frost Snow Empire elites that, so long as they sacrificed enough pure souls, even becoming a god was not impossible.

Because Ceres had established a unified empire on the Vakanda Plane, there were few wars on this plane. In order to gather sufficient faith, Ceres also encouraged his citizens to reproduce.

The total population of living beings on the Vakanda Plane exceeded thirty billion.

Although women with pure souls were rare, among a population of more than thirty billion, the upper ranks of the Frost Snow Empire had gradually gathered over thirty of them.

At first, whenever the Pope of the Temple of Light sacrificed pure souls to increase the strength of those who had found them, he did so for free.

But when those elites who had tasted the benefits wished to use sacrifices of pure souls to break through to the Saint-level, the Pope of the Temple of Light finally bared his fangs.

To advance to the Saint-level, one had to join the Temple of Light, become a subordinate of Lord Augusta, the Light Lord God, and offer one's faith to Lord Augusta.

As a result, those elites who had been stuck at the peak of Rank 9 for centuries, as well as those who possessed enough pure souls to let themselves advance to the Saint-level, all flocked to the Temple of Light in pursuit of great power and eternal lifespans.

It was said that, that year, His Majesty Ceres had been so enraged that he had nearly uprooted the Temple of Light entirely.

In the end, it was only because the Pope of the Temple of Light swore an oath to the Supreme God, promising that the Power of Faith collected by His Majesty Ceres each year would not be less than before and would only continue to grow, that His Majesty Ceres spared his life.

The Knight Commander—no, from the Knight Commander's memories, Locke learned his name: Feobo Ola.

The Ola Family was a noble clan that had been passed down in the Frost Snow Empire for over a thousand years.

Feobo Ola was a collateral descendant of the Ola Family and was not valued.

Moreover, because his cultivation talent was poor, he was often bullied by other members of the family.

When Feobo was over seventy years old, he received a mission issued by the family: find women who could make a bead glow and emit heat.

If he found one and presented her to the family, he would receive the family's full support. Even becoming part of the main line and gaining the right to inherit a title would not be a problem.

Perhaps Fyodor's luck was simply heaven-defying. Before long, he found a woman who could make the bead glow and emit heat.

However, Fyodor did not present the woman to the family at the time. Instead, he imprisoned her in the basement of his home. While continuing to search for other women who could make the bead glow and emit heat, he secretly investigated what use these women had that made the family go to such lengths to find them.

Fyodor believed that only if the woman's value far exceeded the rewards offered by the family would the family be willing to trade those things for a woman who could make the bead glow.

Heaven rewarded the diligent. After seven years, Fyodor finally learned how these women were used.

Thus, one day, Fyodor secretly took that woman and set out on a journey alone.

In the end, he successfully advanced from a Rank 6 Warrior to a Rank 8 Warrior.

After his strength increased, Fyodor's standing within the family improved. But unfortunately, as a collateral descendant, he could still sense that some Rank 7 Warriors of the main line did not think much of him.

Over a hundred years ago, the Ola Family finally found a woman with a pure soul and announced that they were leaving the Frost Snow Empire to join the Temple of Light.

Naturally, in return for the Ola Family's allegiance, the Pope of the Temple of Light performed a sacrificial ritual for the head of the Ola Family, allowing him to become a Saint-level Expert.

From then on, the Ola Family became a Saint-level family under the Temple of Light.

Over the following hundred-odd years, Fyodor too relied on his extraordinary luck to find two women with pure souls. After secretly sacrificing them, he successfully advanced to the Saint-level and became the Ola Family's second Saint-level Expert.

Of course, Fyodor becoming a Saint-level Expert meant that his concealment of the women with pure souls he had found instead of handing them over to the family was exposed, and he was denounced by most members of the Ola Family.

In a fit of rage, Fyodor killed many who had spoken disrespectfully to him, thoroughly teaching the people of the Ola Family what it meant that "the Saint-level cannot be insulted."

Of course, Fyodor was ultimately defeated by the head of the Ola Family and expelled from the family, no longer permitted to bear the surname "Ola."

It was precisely because of this that Fyodor later cooperated with other Saint-level Experts to ambush and kill the former commander of the Frost Snow Empire's Fifth Legion, regaining the Temple of Light's title of Count.