In the Name of Empress

Chapter 666 378: Pulling Back from the Brink

Although it was just speculation, Roland vaguely felt that this was very close to the truth, and he even thought that the fourth line of the prophecy poem referred to this hidden Divine Punishment Legion.

Unlike Christine's wishful thinking, Roland's conjecture was well-founded.

Although Christine considered herself devout, there were countless others who were more devout than her. The path of fanatics was the most competitive in this era, without even needing to add more to it.

Roland remembered the world before he crossed over. Even without gods, there were still people who would give everything for faith.

The Theia Plane truly had gods, and when real zealots became fervent, even Christine would be afraid.

The line in the prophecy, "In the Divine Hall, devout believers sing epic hymns," might not necessarily refer to Christine.

Roland didn't know if this was a good thing or a bad thing, but he knew that if the devout believer in the prophecy wasn't Christine, her psychological defenses would certainly collapse.

He had to find out the answer first.

Let's first determine the location of the Divine Punishment Legion.

Roland and Lisa left the Ogaden Region, heading southward, crossing the Oga River, and entering the South Continent in the true sense.

This was the territory of the centaurs.

Although Roland had seen this magical and distorted race in the foreign legion of the Jin Yuan Kingdom, and witnessed their heroic bearing galloping across the plains, compared to the native centaurs of the South Continent, the centaurs of the Jin Yuan Kingdom still seemed overly civilized.

Just as they entered the South Continent, Roland encountered centaurs blocking the way.

Hundreds of centaurs came roaring, trampling the knee-high grasslands with earth-shattering force.

Roland and Lisa curiously poked their heads out of the carriage to observe these reckless creatures.

They didn't care about these creatures, only curious about the marching style of the native centaurs.

After a brief observation, Roland revised his evaluation of them from "disorderly" to "wild beauty."

They didn't maintain cavalry formations while running at high speeds, more like wildebeest herds galloping across the prairie.

Chaotic yet without collision, loose yet not affecting speed.

They achieved the best effect with the most chaotic formation.

Filled with the wild beauty of nature.

Roland marveled silently, thinking of an inappropriate example: the centaur mobile units raised by the Jin Yuan Kingdom were like domesticated and specialized large dog breeds, impressively combative but unable to survive in the wild.

If the centaurs of the Jin Yuan Kingdom were sent back to the vast grasslands of the South Continent, they would also not survive.

They had become accustomed to living with humans, merely returning to a half-cooked barbaric lifestyle would make those urbanized centaurs suffer terribly.

No fireplaces in winter, no pools to cool off in summer, it was simply unbearable for them.

These centaurs were different; they wore simple burlap and pelts to cover their bodies, while the high-status chieftain centaurs wore a set of tattered chain armor scavenged from somewhere.

Compared to the urbanized centaurs, their equipment was as shabby as beggars.

But Roland vaguely felt that an equal number of urbanized centaurs simply weren't a match for these wild centaurs.

A wild tribe losing its wildness loses its most significant characteristic.

Roland curiously observed them, and Lisa was also scrutinizing these fellows.

The Centaur Leader raised his hooves, preparing to launch a deadly charge when he suddenly saw the unicorn horns atop the four white horses pulling the carriage.

He hesitated, abruptly halting his hooves and at the same time commanding his clansmen, who were charging forward, to stop.

Although he didn't recognize unicorns, intuition told him that these horned white horses were not to be trifled with.

The white horses were not to be trifled with, nor were the northern humans who could harness the white horses.

The Centaur Leader raised his hands to stop his clansmen and, after a brief hesitation, swiftly approached Eden.

He raised his empty hands and let out a powerful, resonant cry to indicate he bore no hostility.

Roland was somewhat surprised. These fellows clearly initially intended to intercept, so why the sudden change of heart, for what reason?

It certainly wasn't to give face to him and Lisa.

In the eyes of these wild tribes, isolated humans who strayed into their territory were like sheep delivered to their doorsteps, with no reason not to be robbed.

The only thing that can civilize barbarians is power.

"It seems it's because of the unicorns," he murmured softly, suddenly realizing.

Bloodline suppression is ingrained in life's bones.

A big dog would also fear a little tiger, roughly in this way.

Ordinary centaurs' intelligence is between that of humans and animals, but Centaur Leaders often possess intelligence close to humans.

They are not fully enlightened, but under the guidance of the tribe's wise men, they barely touch the edge of human civilization.

The Centaur Leader chuckled, trying to shout to Roland.

Unfortunately, Roland only understood a little of the centaur language, not enough to communicate.

Seeing the communication barrier, Roland had a flash of inspiration and shouted in Jin Yuan Language.

"Friend, can you understand what I'm saying?"

The Centaur Leader's smile froze on his face. Clearly, he understood, but the Jin Yuan Language struck a sore spot.

In that brief moment, many images flashed through Roland's mind.

There were many special groups raised by the Jin Yuan Kingdom that came from outside the Rodinia Continent, including centaurs.

Roland had perused notes left by Alina's father, Mr. Carlo, which only briefly mentioned the taming of centaurs, with no detailed process.

Yet even these simple records inadvertently revealed much conflict of interest and bloodshed.

For dogs, being with humans is a step backward, but for wolves, it is a leap in status.

Dogs are wolves with rank, wolves are dogs waiting to come ashore.

This is reality.

Well-fed human writers often love to extol the beauty of wildness, unaware that the greatest wish of intelligent wild life is to eat every meal to satiety and sleep peacefully every night.