Chapter 638 (1/2)

While the Church of the God of Knowledge was actively going about to preach, the Church of Void Mask had also carried out its own preaching activities within the Mifata Federation. Of course, they would not intentionally snatch any of the followers from the Church of the God of Knowledge, but if they did meet with anyone sharing similar ideals and principles, appropriate preaching was naturally permitted as a matter of course. Or rather, it would seem inconceivable for a clergyman to not carry out his preaching when an appropriate opportunity was presented to him.

Not only that, the Church Union of the gods, consisting of the God of Medicine and the God of Healing, was also going about to preach. Although the influence of their preaching was not that obvious, the number of their followers was indeed increasing.

About half a year later, this wave of preaching activities gradually passed. The gaps in belief that originally emerged upon the fall of the various gods from the Mystery God System had been remedied and divided amongst the various churches. The religious arrangements of the Mifata Federation had undergone some massive transformation too.

At this point in time, something, that was both surprising, yet somewhat within expectation, happened.

Grey Tower City, which was once almost considered to be the Holy City of the God of Scholars, openly declared that the belief of the God of Knowledge and Culture would henceforth become the local, official belief. The city also declared that it would be absorbed into the Republic of Northwest and become an enclave of the Republic of Northwest.

In fact, this meant nothing at all. According to principles of law, the Mifata Federation was not considered a country, but an alliance formed between a certain number of cities built around a mage tower. The Mifata Federation was loosely structured, so the various cities were free to join or quit as they pleased.

Back then, the establishment of the Duchy of Thunder and the Dhaka Commercial Association was accompanied by a situation where several cities had cut ties with the Mifata Federation. It was only later when the Federation finally decided to convert these two countries into their own vassal after trying out various means and ways did they manage to play down the impact of that incident.

But now, with the Grey Tower City openly announcing that it would be seceding from the Federation to join the Republic of Northwest, this incident re-surfaced and once again, became the topic of discussion.

The key to why the Mifata Federation could stay so stable and united over the years was because they had the great founder of the new Spell System, Master Ymirjar Le-Peyroux, as their spiritual leader. With the passing of Master Le-Peyroux, the capable leaders still heading the Mifata Federation did not wield that same powerful influence and appeal as Master Le-Peyroux. A country with them as the core would not have a natural form of divinity as when it was led by Master Le-Peyroux.

So following Grey Tower City’s declaration of their intention to secede from the Mifata Federation, quite a handful of cities also started to make alternative plans for themselves.

It was long before Grey Tower City announced its secession from the Federation and began its journey as an autonomous city.

Not too long ago, Grey Tower City had completely shifted its belief over to the God of Aristocracy and became a territory of the Church of the God of Aristocracy, thus making it difficult for the Mifata Federation to issue orders over at this city. Now, the Federation had come to the point where it was merely left with the last step to take, which was to tear down that final layer of fig leaf that was protecting its very last shred of dignity.

Two cities gaining independence from the Federation successively was more than enough to anger the higher-ups. More than one higher-up had proposed that they take a military approach to resolve the problem, where they would suppress the two cities by force and eliminate these separatists.

However, when the time came for a meeting to be held to discuss whether they should use force as a solution, all these great mages began to hesitate again. The use of force was no trifling matter as it concerned the fate of an entire country. Not only did it require a tremendous amount of money, material resources, and manpower, it would also bring about great damage to the country and people.

More importantly, if the use of force could enable if to win the battle, then there was nothing much to worry about. But if the Mifata Federation was still unable to win by using force, then it would lose the final governing legal principles that it held over the two cities and could no longer stop them from gaining their independence.

This was a responsibility that was difficult for anyone to shoulder.

So they discussed it over and over again, from different perspectives and all, and yet, after more than half a month of discussions, they were still unable to reach a final decision.

Quite a handful of higher-ups even felt that perhaps it would not be all that bad to let the matter drag on like this. Anyway, so long as the Mifata Federation did not acknowledge their independence, then these two cities would not be considered as truly and completely independent. If there was a chance in the future, the Federation could still force them to give up their autonomy.

This was obviously wishful thinking on their side. They were too naïve in thinking that this would work out because it would not take long for another city to show signs of wanting to gain its independence from the Federation.