Founding the Sect

Brian had enjoyed a peaceful evening, but when he got out of the house in the morning, he heard a commotion outside.

"What's going on...?"

Why has the snow here melted?

"Why are those people who went to that church last night acting so differently?!"

These words jolted Brian awake. He had just woken up and was still a little sleepy. He jumped out of bed, put on warm clothes, and ran outside.

When he pushed open the door, this is what he saw.

The entire village huddled around that small house, with no space between them.

What surprised Brian the most was that the snow around the house had melted, revealing solid ground, and the crowd was standing on that melted snow.

Some people in the crowd took off their coats and didn't put them back on afterwards.

When others saw this, they followed suit, unbuttoning their outer garments and leaving only their thin inner linings.

To their surprise, even though they were wearing such thin clothes, they did not feel cold.

From Brian's perspective, he saw the crowd cheering collectively because they felt the warmth, which made him unconsciously lower his hand from the air.

Brian also noticed something that really caught his attention.

Above the church, he could vaguely see a golden phantom with wings made of feathers, its face obscured.

But after he blinked, he could no longer see the golden phantom.

"Was it just my imagination?" Brian shook his head, but didn't see the phantom again.

So he lowered his head, no longer thinking about the phantom, and instead looked at the changes around him.

Whether it was his imagination or not, he seemed to feel much warmer after the cheers of the crowd, and...

Brian looked down; at his feet, the snow was slowly melting.

Anna stood on the second floor of the church, looking down, and couldn't help but swallow hard. For the first time, she realized the difference between mages and other Profession.

Before that, she had never met Profession like Fran, who was skilled in almost everything and excelled in every aspect.

If Fran's combat skills had previously made him somewhat envious, this incident deeply shocked him with the methods of mages.

She watched as the crowd below, in front of the few people Fran had hosted the night before, asked to join the church and, after being granted permission, bowed their heads in prayer on the other side.

"Is this the power of the Alliance mages?"

To be honest, Fran was quite confused when Fran first asked Anna to build a church.

In Anna's mind, Fran's actions were aimed at establishing a Sect, which was why she was asked to come here first to set up a church.

However, in Anna's limited understanding, she knew that not all Sect could be called true Sect.

Sect like the Church of the Goddess of Ocean Currents is a typical Sect, with a large following, a well-established internal priesthood, and extensive religious activities.

Anna wasn't surprised that such a Sect possessed methods for becoming Profession and had a vast system of Profession.

But besides the Church of the Goddess of Ocean Currents, there were many other minor religions that Anna had heard of.

Before arriving at White Dragon Port, she had passed through many places and encountered many strange beliefs along the way.

While the Fish King and the Lord of the Forest were manageable, she also encountered a religion that worshipped a wildflower that could be found everywhere.

The Sect placed that wildflower, which Anna had seen many times elsewhere but rarely in this place, on the altar, and villagers from several towns worshipped it.

This incident left a deep impression on Anna, so when Fran asked her to find a church, her first thought was whether Fran should also start a Sect similar to that Wildflower.

After all, although Anna didn't know the process of establishing a real Sect, she still knew that even for the sake of the Sect's future development, Sect shouldn't be established in a small village.

Fran set up her Sect in a remote village where people rarely passed by, which made Anna think Fran didn't really intend to run a Sect.

But the facts once again refuted her guess. As the people prayed one by one, even she, a Ranger, could clearly feel an unknown fluctuation in the Divine Statue.

By now, Anna could easily understand that the faith of these people could generate extraordinary power and also create Profession.

This discovery widened her eyes, and she felt that her previous understanding had been overturned.

Before this, she believed that the faith, including that of the Church of the Goddess of Ocean Currents, was merely a title.

She believes that the difference between those Profession in certain Sect and other Profession is only due to their unique internal Profession systems; fundamentally, they are no different from other Profession.

Not only her, but most Profession think so, believing that these Sect ' beliefs are merely using a name.

However, after witnessing the extraordinary power emanating from the Divine Statue, Anna overturned her previous assumptions.

Because she saw Aila, who had injured her arm a few days earlier, standing perfectly intact in front of the Divine Statue, beneath Divine Statue.

It seemed that because of that incident, these people were all very willing to get close to Aila.

Anna could clearly see that the fluctuation was gradually forming within Aila's body, and Aila's movements seemed to be lighter and smoother than at the beginning.

"She can already be called a seasoned apprentice Profession."

Anna was very curious about the changes in Aila and stared at Aila intently.

"She won't be promoted directly to Formal Rank Profession, will she?"

It's worth noting that even after Anna obtained the method for advancing to the Ranger, she still spent about a year training before successfully advancing.

Judging from Aila's current state, it seems that she will become a full-fledged Profession as time goes by.

"She won't be promoted now because there aren't enough people available."

Fran's sudden interruption startled Anna, but Anna quickly recovered and became curious about what Fran had just said.

"What's the meaning?"

"The problem is that there are too few people in this village. Even if we convert the other two surrounding villages into believers, it won't be possible for her to advance to Formal Rank."

"If she can convert everyone in the entire Snow Bear Territory into believers, then advancing to Formal Rank will be more than enough."

Anna understood the implication in Fran's words, and she countered with a question:

"You wanted Aila to spread this Sect throughout the Snow Bear Territory, but didn't you use up the favor the lord promised you? In return, you only got these three villages."

Fran gave a meaningful look, and then said:

"That's true. So this is just a small request I make to that lord. If the lord doesn't agree..."

Fran stopped talking and didn't continue. Anna knew what method Fran was going to use.

There was a moment of silence between them, then Anna asked:

"Then why did you choose these three villages? Wouldn't it have been better to establish this Sect directly in Snow Bear City?"

This has always been Aila's question. Even if Fran really wanted to create a legitimate Sect, in theory, this Sect should be in Snow Bear City, or even outside the Northern Lands Society, not in this small village.

Fran smiled and then said:

"This is not my purpose in taking these three small villages. Developing Sect and what I want to do are two different things. It's just that I happened to do the other thing first."

"Just now, I was doing that other thing."

As she spoke, Fran took out a huge Stone Tablet and pointed to the writing on it.

Anna then read the text aloud.

"The precepts of believers..."

"The property of all believers is protected..."

"All those who violate the rights of believers will be sent to the church for trial..."

"The trial will determine whether this person is guilty or not, and what punishment should be imposed..."

This was Fran's attempt to gain the blessing of territory. Instead of using the spells of the Law School to exert coercion first, she established a system to test the waters.

To ensure that her system was accepted by the villagers as much as possible, she painstakingly designed this 'law' in a simplified form.

Furthermore, taking into account the productivity level here, the law specifically stipulates that all judgments must be made by humans, and the standards for judgment must be discussed and implemented independently.

This was done to fit the specific conditions of the village.

Fran knew that within the Alliance, there had long been institutions similar to courts, but in this backward feudal territory, all coercive measures were carried out by the villagers themselves.

What? If someone hits you, just hit them back. If you really encounter someone with heinous crimes, then all the people can just kill them together.

Fran's simplified court system, on the contrary, seems somewhat 'progressive'.

"Just follow the rules above. If someone violates them, discuss it with the believers and then carefully consider an appropriate punishment."

Anna looked at the contents and felt a headache coming on. She said:

"Why did you put me in this job? I'm really not good at this. And if I do this, what will you do?"

"I have other things to do and need to leave here for a few days."

"Huh?! You want to leave at this crucial moment? Isn't this Sect newly established?"

Anna didn't quite understand Fran's thinking. Their Sect had just started to show promise, so why was Fran going off to do other things?

Fran glanced at Anna. Wasn't she bringing Anna back to the Northern Lands Society to have someone manage it for her? Now was the time to need Anna, while she had to deal with matters in the Spirit Realm.

"Okay, I'll do it."

Under Fran's watchful eye, Anna accepted the job.