It should be said that Antiya Lisi's confidence was not unfounded; it was a necessary conclusion derived entirely from his understanding of the world's geography.
Before the outbreak of the Demonic Tide, the Holy See only owned a small piece of land, which is now the Holy City and its surrounding area.
At that time, the Holy See was caught between a powerful kingdom to the north and a powerful empire to the south, using religious faith as a lubricant between the two sides.
Similar in status to the Holy See was a nearly independent port city-state that repeatedly oscillated between the kingdom and the empire. The existence of the Holy See and that city-state shortened the border between the empire and the kingdom by nearly two-thirds.
In the aftermath of the Demonic Tide, city-states of various races were said to have turned into hell overnight. The Tree Worship Church survived the first wave of attacks and began to devour the corpses of the dead kingdoms. Ultimately, they defeated the Eternal Domain and the Graycast Corridor in the Ghoul Eating Contest, taking control of a vast area in the center of the continent and becoming the winner of the "Kingdom Region" of the Ghoul Eating Contest.
Unlike the kingdoms in the north, which were completely wiped out and divided among three emerging powers, the empire in the south, impacted by the Demonic Tide, was merely split in two. One half still considers itself an empire, while the other half formed the mysterious " Skeleton Alliance."
Therefore, from the perspective of Tree Worship Church, the situation in the north and the south is completely different.
In the south, the Tree Worship Church's southern borders both the Empire and the Skeleton Alliance.
The empire seeks to reunify, hence its relentless war against the Skeleton Alliance, while also remaining wary of the Tree Worship Church.
Meanwhile, the Skeleton Alliance, the winner of the "Imperial Division" of the Ghoul Tournament, also wanted to continue devouring the half-dead Empire, so they were never afraid of the opponent's attacks.
The conflict between the two sides naturally spilled over into the Tree Worship Church, since the current Tree Worship Church also grows by eating corpses. The Empire has no goodwill towards the Tree Worship Church, whose actions are close to betrayal, while the Skeleton Alliance has no interest in the so-called Tree God and even has the tendency to want to compete for the championship of the Ghoul Tournament.
Therefore, the population density and garrison size of the southern part of the Tree Worship Church are far greater than those of the northern Tree Worship Church. A large number of elite Holy Crusaders who are ready to fight have always been stationed in the area near the southern border.
In contrast, the sparsely populated northern region of the Tree Worship Church has taken the "strong trunk, weak branches" strategy to its extreme.
The capital of a province gathers almost 90% or more of the province's military force, while each town below it only has a church to maintain basic rule. As for the villages, they are completely ignored. As long as they pay taxes on time to support the front, no one cares whether they live or die.
The reason for doing this is simply because the northern part of the Tree Worship Church is too safe.
The Graycast Corridor and the Eternal Domain were both isolated from the Wilderness of Chaos, and the ice plains further north remained unchanged after decades of observation, further confirming the safety of the Tree Worship Church's northern borders.
In such a vast and sparsely populated region, even if a rebellion sweeps across the entire province, it still poses no threat to the main body of the Tree Worship Church as long as it does not capture the capital.
This is why Antiya Lisi is so confident. The nine knightly orders in Fir City ( Motley's are gone) as well as a large number of battle priests and militia are the cards he currently holds, and the three knightly orders that are about to arrive are his next cards.
It's not surprising that a gambler who knows his next card always has extraordinary confidence.
In Antiya Lisi's view now, the fact that the Treant Hunters bring back a dozen or so nameless corpses every morning indicates that the rebel infiltration has been contained to some extent.
That should suffice. Once reinforcements arrive and a counterattack is launched, these rat-like enemies will no longer be a problem.
I wonder if they will be able to continue ravaging my city once I've captured Duolin, the rebel leader, alive.
It seems unlikely.
After all, with their own hometown about to be captured, who would be in the mood to cause trouble in Fir City?
But speaking of rebels...
Antiya Lisi seemed to remember something, put down his pen, and turned to enter the secret passage behind the holy statue.
From the solemn and majestic twin-towered church, Antiya Lisi entered the dark and desolate dungeon, and his identity changed from archbishop to warden.
He arrived at a cell and carefully examined the prisoner who was hanging in mid-air with multiple tree roots stuck in his body:
How are you feeling right now?
Antiya Lisi asked in a calm tone.
He promised to make them experience something more terrible than death. The process of transformation was painful, and killing a former comrade with one's own hands was equally painful. He wanted to hear words of begging for mercy from their mouths, just like the powerful enemies who had fallen before him, and the experimental subjects he had handled.
Antiya Lisi did not consider himself a bully; after all, he always went all out for anyone, whether strong or weak, as long as they were his targets.
The middle-aged archbishop, his eyes gleaming with a sharp light, received nothing from the suspended Soul Returner.
He lowered his head somewhat displeased, pondering why the other person was still unconscious.
Logically, the pain caused by body modification should have made him wish he were dead, and he shouldn't have fallen into a coma.
The only plausible explanation is that this rebel was physically strong enough to survive the hunt by the Treant Hunter and to briefly fall into a coma when suffering extreme pain.
Antiya Lisi was unaware that there was a state called "offline," and simply sighed inwardly:
According to information transmitted back from the root system, the transformation has reached its final stage.
This should be his last coma. When he wakes up again, a new Treant Hunter will be born.
A few hours later, night fell once again in the World of Disorder.
Winter nights always come exceptionally early, corresponding to three or four in the morning.
[ Clear Soup Master ]'s alarm clock rang on time. In his drowsy state, he grabbed the helmet from the bedside and put it on his head.
There's nothing he can do about it; he's always been busy with real-world matters during the day and plays the World of Disorder online at night.
But he's been having a really tough time being locked up these past two days.
As is widely known, a person can only serve one prison sentence at a time.
He's already been "jailed" in real life (referring to his job), and he really doesn't want to go through another "jailed" period in this World of Disorder.
But he wanted to know exactly what the effects of Tree Transformation were, so he hesitated to abandon this body, which was theoretically already considered dead.
Finally, after logging in this time, he saw new information on his panel:
The [ Tree Transformation ] process is complete. Your current status is: "Tree Person".
[Body Status - Treant]
Basic attributes: Constitution +20%, Strength +10%, Willpower -50%
Special attributes: Plant Compatibility +20%, Psionic Energy Compatibility +10%, Animal Compatibility and Mechanical Compatibility are temporarily set to zero.
Additional effect: Cannot use any plant other than the last Aberration plant used; Treant appearance and abilities are strongly correlated with the last Aberration plant used.