Chapter 775 - To the Darkness Shrine (1/2)
The dusty hut was just like a rubbish dump which contained plenty of books scattered all over the place, giving off an aura of decomposition. Lin Li stared at everything in the hut in shock and disbelief. According to the clergyman, no one had opened the hut for hundreds of years. It was not because of any bans, but because there were plenty of new copies of those books that could be found outside. Hence, no one would bother going to the hut to read them.
However, Lin Li’s eyes glistened when he heard that no one had opened the hut for hundreds of years. Perhaps what he was looking for was in that pile of old papers. Lin Li sent the clergyman away, and began to get engrossed in the books all by himself. He rummaged through each book carefully. In fact, it wouldn’t take him too much effort to do it, since he had basically read all the books outside anyway. He just had to look for the ones he hadn’t seen before.
“d.a.m.n it, no wonder this matter got erased from the records in the later eras. So this is what happened.” Lin Li’s efforts paid off. After a painstaking session of rummaging, he finally returned to his room on the Holy Mountain with a torn and tattered scroll.
He dismissed Englos and the other people who came to ask him about pharmaceutics under the pretext that he had gained some insight into Holy Light Magic. He then carefully closed the door and laid the scroll on the table, only to be greeted with lines of blurred words.
There was another unexpected reason for Lin Li’s failure to find any information about Rodhart despite having searched for such a long time. It was because Prophet Willen, who was known as the Son of the Holy Light, and the notorious Retribution Knight Rodhart were actually twin brothers!
Lin Li had actually heard some legends and rumors about what Rodhart had done. The information recorded had more or less confirmed the legends. Legends had it that Rodhart was an orphan who got adopted by the Brilliance Shrine as a child. That was true, except that his brother Willen was adopted together with him. In fact, Willen becoming the Son of the Holy Light perhaps had something to do with Rodhart getting adopted by the Brilliance Shrine.
Just like the other orphans adopted by the Brilliance Shrine, Rodhart and Willen had received strict education, imparted to them by the Brilliance Shrine ever since they were children. When Rodhart was 15 years old, he joined the Court of Heresy with several other teenagers who were as outstanding as him after pa.s.sing the Court’s a.s.sessment. At that time, his younger brother Willen had also become a disciple of the pope because of his incredible talent.
When Rodhart was 32 years old, he entered the Legendary-realm and took over the position as the Chief Judge, after which he gradually began to rise in Anril. Together with the actions carried out by the Court of Heresy, the dominance that the young Referee of Heresy, Rodhart, had shown as well as his astonis.h.i.+ng abilities made him get labeled as the strongest Paladin since the establishment of the Brilliance Shrine. Rodhart could be considered to have reached the pinnacle of life, and he had even become more famous than the pope. Countless people in the entire Brilliance Shrine idolized him too.
During this period, Willen, who was far more talented than his elder brother, was less known even though he was the pope’s disciple. However, it was obvious that the Brilliance Shrine was deliberately trying to help him keep a low profile because of his ident.i.ty as the Son of the Holy Light in order to keep him safe until he grew to adulthood. At that time, the Darkness Shrine had yet to fall, and was still an opponent that the Brilliance Shrine dared not belittle. In fact, it was even more powerful than the Brilliance Shrine back then, and Willen could be considered the hope for the rise of the Brilliance Shrine. If the Darkness Shrine had found out that he was the Son of the Holy Light, they might’ve really killed him.
Afterwards, Rodhart suddenly resigned as the Head Referee, and gradually vanished from sight. The next time he appeared was 100 years later. However, at that time, he had already become the controversial Retribution Knight who commanded a powerful legion of Death Knights that bulldozed through the entire Breezy Plains. During that disaster, the population of the Breezy Plains declined sharply by more than a third, and the bustling cities turned into ruins because of the Death Knights.
When Rodhart disappeared as a Paladin, his younger brother became a prophet of the Brilliance Shrine, and the people in Anril gradually knew him as the Son of The Holy Light. At that time, Willen was said to have possessed Sanctuary-level power, and his attainments in Holy Light Magic had even surpa.s.sed those of the pope of the Brilliance Shrine. Although there was no witness during the battle between Willen and the Supreme Council arbitrator Apophis, Apophis admitted later that Willen was invincible and that he admired him greatly. It was also because of that battle that the presence of Prophet Willen greatly improved the reputation of the Brilliance Shrine. Even the Supreme Council was suppressed.
Hence, when Rodhart became the Retribution Knight and commanded the Death Knights to wreak havoc in the Breezy Plains, the two brothers finally met again. However, this time, Rodhart’s younger brother Willen had already been tasked with purifying his brother who had become a Retribution Knight.
There was no information about Rodhart even in the doc.u.ment that Lin Li had found. However, after the battle, the disaster in the Breezy Plains finally ended, and Prophet Willen also disappeared for some unknown reason. He never appeared in the Brilliance Shrine again. All of a sudden, Willen was no longer around to succeed the papal throne and guard the glorious Brilliance Shrine. Hence, they immediately got attacked by various forces. There was huge damage to their power, and they even almost got subdued again by the fallen Darkness Shrine.
After reading the information, Lin Li was both surprised and disappointed by the content because there was no record of the battle between Willen and Rodhart. Hence, there was no way Lin Li would know about the powers of the Retribution Knight Rodhart.
However, Lin Li discovered a secret message in the data. Before Rodhart fell, he actually went to the Darkness Shrine once. At that time, Willen actually went together with Rodhart. There was no information about the reason for their visit to the Darkness Shrine, but not long after they left, there was a major change in the Darkness Shrine. The Darkness Shrine, which could initially go toe-to-toe against the Brilliance Shrine, almost fell apart overnight, and never rose again since then.
What exactly did Rodhart and Willen do, and what happened to the Darkness Shrine? Although Lin Li found out some things from the information, he had even more doubts. Lin Li vaguely felt that the answer seemed to be in the Darkness Shrine. Hence, he reckoned that it would be necessary to go to the Darkness Shrine.
However, despite having made a decision, Lin Li didn’t leave the Brilliance Shrine immediately. There were very few opportunities for him to get some pointers from a powerhouse of the Sanctuary-realm. Lin Li had no idea what was awaiting him in the Darkness Shrine; hence, he naturally wouldn’t let go of any opportunity to improve his abilities.