Demon Bible

Chapter 143: Saint Child?!

Isabella was not a rigid pedant. If she were in Nemus's position, it was highly likely she would do the exact same thing—using smuggling as a pivot to prop up the Church.

The overarching structure of Tail Fin Town was fundamentally upheld by a delicate balance between the Church, the Nobles, the Clerics, and the merchant consortiums.

Throughout this process, the Church acted as the dominant force steering the direction. The various rules and the equilibrium among all factions required the Church's firm control.

Once that balance was lost, trouble would inevitably follow.

The issue was that the upper echelons of the Church were plagued by incessant problems. From top to bottom, the conflict between the Enclosure Faction and the Governance Faction was merely a byproduct of this deeper dysfunction.

Tail Fin Town was no exception, continuously corrupted by these very same issues.

Now, Nemus had barely managed to find a solution to this predicament.

The problem concerning the Azure Sky Whale was fundamentally difficult to resolve. As long as people lived on the whale's back, their greed toward the colossal creature could never be curbed.

Currently, Nemus was using the smuggling channels as a central hub to rationally distribute the various factions' excavation and exploitation of the whale.

Although this still caused a variety of problems—such as some buildings in Tail Fin Town swaying a bit too violently.Certain fissures in the ground even collided and expanded as a result, turning from small cracks into hazardous pits. If one wasn't careful, a person could easily fall right in.

The excessive frequency and amplitude of the tail movements proved that the Azure Sky Whale was feeling anxious.

Fortunately, it was merely anxiety for now.

It was still far from the point where the Floating Whale would swim in utter frenzy due to greedy over-mining.

Once it reached that disastrous stage, less than one in ten of the people surviving on the whale's back would make it out alive.

The current situation might affect the Floating Whale's future lifespan, but if they could not even survive the present, the future held absolutely no meaning.

At this point, Isabella could accuse Nemus of breaking rules, violating laws, and betraying the Azure Sky Whale's grace in carrying them, but she found it hard to condemn him on any other grounds.

She even had to help cover up his smuggling operations to some extent.

Stepping out of Nemus's office, Isabella was fraught with worry.

She felt that she, too, had changed somewhat.

In the past, though not rigidly pedantic, she had always firmly believed that right was right and wrong was wrong.

But over this recent period, she had witnessed far too many impossible dilemmas.

In these extraordinary times, simply finding a way to maintain the city's stable order was already an arduous task. As for the flaws in this method, those would have to be dealt with another day.

Merely finding a firm footing in this torrential mundane world was difficult enough. Hoping for a perfect solution that satisfied everyone was nothing short of a naive fantasy.

Isabella had originally thought she could hold onto her true self and steadfastly uphold the truth.

Now, however, she realized that she wasn't quite as noble as she had imagined.

"Has her heart begun to waver?" Nemus murmured, his eyes flashing with anticipation as he watched Isabella's retreating back.

"Such emotional turbulence is completely normal."

"Only in the deepest valleys can one see their true face and achieve genuine sublimation." At this moment, Nemus even felt a certain twisted joy in nurturing her development.

During this period, Nemus's personal growth was still in a phase of rapid development.

The Attribute Value of Nels Dartmenerly's body had already been developed to sixty-five, nearly four times faster than initially estimated.

Originally, raising the value to sixty-five would have taken more than two years.

In half a year, he should have only been able to reach a value of around fifty.

However, supplemented by Whale Products such as whale meat, Nemus's development of his Attribute Value had proceeded incredibly smoothly.

Nemus estimated that he would be able to reach a value of seventy within this year.

That said, the restorative effects of Whale Products would slightly diminish once his value surpassed seventy.

He predicted his cultivation would still be about three times faster than practicing without any external aids. In other words, progressing from seventy to eighty points would take just over eighty days per point, down from the original two hundred and forty-three days.

Going from a value of eighty to ninety, however, would require more than two hundred days for a single point.

'To raise my value to ninety right now, I will need approximately nine years.'

Nemus silently calculated his own progress.

'To be on the safe side, it will take ten years to complete the preparations for advancing to the Golden Rank.' Even someone like Nemus, who lacked no resources and possessed decent aptitude, needed a full decade when fully supplied.

As for others, unless they possessed earth-shattering talent or carried the Heavenly Mandate, they essentially had zero hope of ever reaching the Golden Rank.

'Looking at it from this perspective, Rhine is truly terrifying.' Nemus pondered the intelligence he had on Rhine.

Rhine appeared to be only in his thirties, but he was actually in his late forties, bordering on fifty. He only looked so young because he maintained himself impeccably well.

The current estimation of his strength came from Angel A. When Angel A had quietly approached, Rhine had faintly sensed the intrusion.

Thus, it could be roughly deduced that Rhine's value was somewhere in the high eighties or just scraping ninety, and the traits he possessed were certainly nothing to scoff at.

'This alone shows that Rhine's progression speed is only marginally slower than my current rate.'

'I wonder if the crucial metamorphosis Isabella brings me will allow me to reach the Golden Rank a step faster?'

At this moment, Nemus could faintly feel the underlying thrust of Fate.

The Historical Trajectory revealed by the Book of Ages, coupled with the Revelation brought by the Breath of Holy Precepts.

Add to that the fact that Nemus himself had observed a passage of the Maxim of Destiny.

Right now, Nemus could practically masquerade as a clairvoyant prophet. He could vaguely observe the destinies of Ordinary Persons and deduce a general outcome for their futures.

Standing up and walking over to the window, Nemus gazed outside.

While he couldn't see the entirety of Tail Fin Town, he could still take in a good portion of it.

The teeming masses lived their lives along the Tail River, their pasts, presents, and futures tightly intertwined.

Slowly, Nemus sensed a sliver of the impending Historical Trajectory.

'It still revolves around the Church,' Nemus noted as he saw a bit further, realizing that for the next few decades, the Historical Trajectory of Tail Fin Town would remain firmly in the Church's grasp.

But the most crucial point was...

'Finback Mountain?'

'The Fortune of Tail Fin lies in Finback?' Nemus looked perplexed. Ever since he had walked out of Finback Village, he had assumed he would no longer have any significant ties to Finback Mountain.

He never expected the Historical Trajectory of Tail Fin Town to be so intimately connected to that mountain.

Nemus briefly pondered his past experiences in Finback Village, trying to figure out if he had overlooked anything.

However, he came up empty-handed.

The resources on Finback Mountain were notoriously scarce. Aside from some Herbs growing at higher altitudes, there was nothing else worth mentioning.

'Unless the old pastor left something behind that we failed to unearth.'

'And this hidden item is capable of influencing, or even dictating, a town's Historical Trajectory for decades...'

Nemus carefully recalled his interactions with the old pastor, particularly the words the man had spoken during his final days.

Suddenly, a flash of insight lit up Nemus's eyes.

He remembered a specific phrase the old pastor had screamed right before his transformation—"I still have sins left to atone for! My experiment is not yet complete! The Saint Child has not truly been born!!"

'The Saint Child?'