Chapter 186: Sicheng Hermitage?
The Priory of the Scales.

This name is quite explosive even in the secret party world.

Not to mention that they are a secret party, they are not atheists or believers in the devil, but they also believe in the enemy church.

You know, in Black Snake Bay, a reservation for fugitives and secret party members, most people are anti-Church.

In particular, many extreme secret party members even swore that they would never obtain any income from the church in their lifetime.

In a country where the church is embedded in every aspect of daily life, that means the only way to get money is through crime.

But in this atmosphere, the Sicheng Hermitage still insisted on emphasizing that they were not a secret party, but the Messianic Order, the holy party, and that you were all lost lambs...

Isn’t this exciting?
Although they have the appearance of admiring the righteous God, everyone knows that beneath that appearance, there is an extremely terrifying demon.

They are the secret party that loves to conduct human experiments and raise monsters. In the ninth place, monsters are rioting, and in the tenth place, there is the Sicheng Hermitage.

They would even kidnap witches with special abilities under the guise of knowledge, and then perform dissections and a series of cruel experiments on them. They had even gone to the Court of Flesh and Blood to kidnap vampires and ogres.

Until now, the Flesh and Blood Court has refused to provide any overseas assistance to the Sicheng Priory and has placed the leader of the Sicheng Priory on the most wanted list.

It may not be a big deal for the Priory of the Scales, as their leader is already on the most wanted list of the Church, the Empire (Monster Hunters), and the Secret Party. Too many lice won't itch.

Despite being often besieged and boycotted, the Priory of the Scales does attract some wizards.

Because the secret party members had to admit that the radical approach of the Sicheng Order had put them far ahead of other secret parties in the study of the nature of magic and monsters.

The cold wind after the rain hit Horn's face as he rode on his horse, still thinking about the affairs of the Sicheng Priory.

If the evil god on Qiumu Island is a member of the Sicheng Hermitage, then not only the hairy monsters are not strange, but even the giant spiders in the wild spider forest become reasonable.

But are there really wizards from the Priory of Sicheng on Qiumu Island?
Running out of the sparse woods, he saw an abandoned village in front of him. The barbarians in the village cautiously poked their heads out and looked towards Horn.

When Horn's sight turned, they would hide their heads behind the collapsed walls and fences, but this was only to protect their heads and not their ears; those big ears could still be seen.

Horn smiled.

According to his request, the Black Hats did not kill indiscriminately, and they ignored anyone who had not participated in the war before.

When Horn and more than a dozen cavalry guards ran past them, their iron hooves sent flying mud, which actually had some black and red spots in it.

It seems that last night's light rain failed to wash away the bloodstains on the ground.

After the rain last night, many people in the camp caught a cold again. It was not known whether it was caused by the Holy Spirit or a common cold, but Madeleine still sent some of the old, weak and sick people to the beastman village.

The fourth group of people, the last to leave, will arrive soon, and by then, there will be nearly 20,000 people staying on the road.

They desperately needed a place to live and avoid the cold.

The sky seemed to be painted with a waterless gray-black brush. Behind the gray curtain, there was a pale sky covered by wisps of fog.

The lake water reflected the sky like a mirror, and actually turned into a light gray color.

"Your Majesty, we're here." Rudilo, who came to pick up Horn, pointed to a long stone arch bridge that stretched for a long distance.

Dozens of beastman barbarians were standing stubbornly beside the long bridge.

They were bruised and swollen, wearing animal-skin robes, and they kept cursing and admonishing the black-clad soldiers standing at the bridgehead, hoping that they would not anger the blood god on the island. On the lake beach was a towering granite rock, and the bridgehead was built on the granite. Dozens of bridge piers with exquisite acanthus leaves stretched forward until they reached the Autumn Dusk Island hidden in the fog in the distance.

Autumn Island seemed to be floating in the mist.

If someone rushed onto the long bridge on horseback without knowing the reason, he would definitely not be able to see the road ahead in the thick fog and would fall into the water at the broken bridge.

According to the beastman priests, the only time the hairy monsters won't attack outsiders who come to the island is on the sacrificial day every seven days.

The next sacrificial day would have to wait another five days, but Horn couldn't wait that long. He had to finish cleaning up Autumn Dusk Island before the day after tomorrow.

These days, he has asked the beastmen of the United Kingdom to focus on fishing, while the salt wells are working hard to produce and extract brine. Horn even transferred 100 saints at once to learn peat alchemy formulas.

If we keep wasting time like this, we won’t have time to settle down before the snow falls.

"Brother, the boat is ready." After a long expedition yesterday, Jeanna did not show any signs of fatigue, but was full of energy.

Victor pointed at the broken bridge and said, "Since we have a limited number of ships, only about ten, and each ship can carry seven or eight people at most, we can only transport a hundred people to the island at a time, and the ships are relatively small, so we can't go on horseback.

We decided to go up the Broken Bridge first, walk to the broken end, and then take a boat from the bridge to Qiumu Island. The waterway in between is just over one mile or nearly two miles.

After the first group of 90 people landed, they immediately built fortifications and sent out scouts. After the second group of 100 people landed, they began to clear out the long-haired monsters along the route. The third group of 100 people continued to land as support.

"Okay, let's do as you say." After all, it was the suggestion of the front-line commander, so Horn readily agreed.

Victor quickly selected the soldiers, taking all 20 holy musketeers, 60 breastplate spearmen and 10 sword and shield soldiers.

These 90 people are all favored by the Holy One, and they can take turns firing clockwork guns when necessary.

Following behind him were the 90 soldiers, and on both sides of the long bridge were rafts and canoes slowly paddling in the water.

Horn stretched out his hand and brushed the handrail on the side of the bridge. The Pompeii-style patterns on the piers and floor tiles had become blurred. The marble handrails had long been weathered and fallen off, and the cracks between the floor tiles were covered with green grass and yellow-red moss.

This thousand-year-old bridge left over from the era of the El Empire was stronger than Horn had imagined. He stomped on it hard, but the bridge did not tremble even a little.

This is a bridge that was built a thousand years ago or even earlier. It is more than a thousand meters long and four to five meters wide.

Nowadays, stonemasons have a hard time building a 100-meter bridge. It really shows that El Technology is invincible.

Horn shook his head. The stonemason who had signed the contract earlier was the last to catch up with Horn's team. He wondered what he would think when he saw this long bridge.

Walking from the abutment to the end of the long bridge, the originally standing bridge piers gradually began to collapse, either directly falling into the water or the bridge deck falling into the lake.

"Let's get on board from here."

Jumping onto the largest rowing boat, Horn held on to the side of the boat to keep steady while dozens of small boats cut through the fog.

The Qiumu Island in the distance gradually became clearer, and even the dark shadows moving in the fog were no longer blurry.

Horn gripped the Pope's scepter tightly in his hand, inserted the clockwork key in advance, and pointed the muzzle of the scepter forward.

"Your Majesty, look." Beside Horn, Victor pointed at the Autumn Dusk Island in the mist ahead and shouted in surprise, "There is actually a dock there."

(End of this chapter)