537: Chapter 537 The Situation is Chaotic

Nie Ning waved his hand, signaling the three not to be so formal, his gaze falling upon Jeff.

Although he wasn't someone who held grudges, losing a battle of wits truly annoyed him.

Nie Ning felt quite helpless about this.

If he couldn't even handle someone like this, he really didn't know how he could win in a battle of wits against the gods.

Given his current situation, he couldn't afford to be careless about anything, which placed immense psychological pressure on Nie Ning.

Because if he let his guard down, he feared he would end up dead with no corpse left.

"Holy Son, is there anything your subordinate has done wrong?"

Jeff appeared respectful, but his eyes were as calm as water.

Nie Ning shook his head: "Nothing. It's just that I haven't seen you in a long time and missed you."

"That is good."

Although Jeff said this, he muttered to himself inside.

'It seems this Holy Son is indeed a bit petty; life probably won't be easy from now on.'

"Where is Eugene? He said he was very busy last time; it seems he doesn't care about my current situation at all."

Nie Ning found a chair, sat down, and said casually.

Seeing Nie Ning call the Pope by his name, the other two looked at each other, but didn't say anything.

Although Eugene was the Pope, Nie Ning, as the Holy Son, was the vessel of the gods, placing him on an equal level with Eugene, perhaps even slightly higher.

Of course, at least on the surface.

As long as Nie Ning didn't break with the Pope, they just needed to follow the established procedures; there was no need to invite trouble over a name.

"The Pope is dealing with other matters, so he hasn't had time to come over recently. If you have any needs, Holy Son, you can tell me."

Jeff remained in his respectful posture.

Looking at Jeff's unchanging face, Nie Ning even suspected the guy was expressionless.

"Then did he say what I should do now?"

He had now left the Extreme Phase Demon Palace, and this visit was to test the attitude of the Nales Church and see if these people had any other plans.

Because for him right now, the probability of seizing the artifact fragments was infinitely close to zero, and he didn't believe these people would truly pin their hopes on him.

At this moment, one of the female clergy members spoke up.

"Currently, besides the Extreme Phase Demon Palace and the Yin-Yang Sect, major forces are all making moves, so the Pope wants you to secretly hinder the establishment of the academies."

Upon hearing this, Nie Ning instantly understood the reason behind it.

For the churches of the gods, faith had always been a very serious issue.

The higher the level of education, the fewer people would believe in gods.

But with the emergence of the academy system, individual knowledge and reason were gradually gaining the upper hand, which would inevitably affect the church's expansion.

Moreover, wizards had always been very averse to the existence of gods; once initial results were seen, they would likely become even more enthusiastic about establishing academies.

Nie Ning leaned back in his chair, his gaze sweeping over the three: "You don't expect me, a Fifth-Order Wizard, to muddy these waters, do you?"

"Of course not."

The female clergy member smiled: "Besides us, there are quite a few forces that do not wish to see the academy system continue."

Nie Ning raised an eyebrow: "Besides us, who else?"

"The Forest Church in this region, as well as several nearby transcendent forces, have expressed their grievances about this. With us instigating things, I believe they will take action soon."

Jeff explained with a cold expression.

Nie Ning rubbed his chin, falling into deep thought.

This was not good news for him.

If these forces were plotting, the first to bear the brunt would naturally be those from the Extreme Phase Demon Palace.

His situation was already troublesome; he was afraid that before he could even start fishing in troubled waters, someone would take the opportunity to target him.

"Those transcendent forces are cooperating with the Forest Church?"

After a long while, Nie Ning asked.

Churches and transcendent forces had always been at odds.

You have to know, according to the ancient texts he had consulted, churches were originally not allowed to exist in this world, not even in the subsidiary worlds.

And last time he had read the collection in the Extreme Phase Demon Palace, he had seen some explanations regarding this.

The main reason was the issue of the Power of Corruption.

It was said that the dimensional passage was sealed by wizards in conjunction with the gods.

As beings who would not act without profit, gods naturally wouldn't help wizards for no reason, and the reason churches were able to establish themselves was precisely because of this.

Gods helped wizards seal the Corruption passage, and wizards allowed the gods to spread their faith and doctrines in this world.

But allowing them to spread didn't mean wizards would accept the religious sects.

Even though more than a thousand years had passed, both sides remained at odds.

Only because of the agreement from back then, wizards hadn't completely torn off the mask, but small frictions still existed.

"Those transcendent forces also need to survive, and naturally, they are unwilling to see these top-tier forces become invincible dynasties that stand forever at the pinnacle of the world."

"They cannot fight those top-tier forces alone, so joining forces is their only chance."

Listening to Jeff's explanation, Nie Ning fell into silence again.

If transcendent forces were cooperating with the church, then this problem might be a bit big.

To put it mildly, it was for the survival of their respective factions; to put it bluntly, it was funding a foreign enemy.

Although the various forces weren't stupid and surely had their own hidden agendas, the development of everything didn't follow a predetermined path, and he feared the outcome would be different from what they anticipated.

Nie Ning couldn't help but sigh inwardly.

The main issue was that this time, the top-tier forces were being too ruthless, leaving absolutely no room for other forces to survive.

Once the academy system was established, the most top-tier, gifted individuals would almost certainly belong to the major top-tier forces.

And only the scraps left over would be available for other forces to choose from; it would be strange if they could endure that.

Of course, Liuguang City was the troublemaker in all of this.

Because recently, the Extreme Phase Demon Palace had sent down new instructions to prepare for the establishment of a magical energy network, which was essentially the Internet from his previous life.

Previously, the major top-tier forces didn't lack the technology; it was just that things had been stable in a peaceful state, and everyone had chosen this tacit way of survival.

Now that Liuguang City, this troublemaker, had appeared—and the key was that they had actually made it big and strong.

If war were to break out, they feared it would result in heavy losses.

But the major top-tier forces couldn't just let Liuguang City continue to develop.

So, it had now turned from a contest of strength into a war of plundering population resources.

And this was still the initial stage; Nie Ning guessed that technologies like the Teleportation Array would soon be opened up to prepare for the flow of population.

If they really did that, Nie Ning wouldn't be surprised even if a world war broke out.

After all, the top-tier forces were preparing to steal their homes, and those other major forces naturally wouldn't sit idly by and let their high-end talent be snatched away, which would ultimately lead to complete class solidification.

It was likely that this time, those forces had truly been pushed to the edge, which was why they were taking the risk of cooperating with the church.