A mage's journey begins with a battle mage.

Chapter 555 Blasphemy against the Priest

Although he really wanted to go find Tessa Mei right away, Jiang Shuzhou still had to deal with a huge mess of troubles in the Empire.

Only after the entire empire came under Jiang Shuzhou's rule did he realize how difficult it was to manage government affairs.

"Professor, you can't rest yet. If you're tired, you can lie down on my lap."

De Nuozhi said that since then, he has become a legend and has become much more confident. At least when he speaks to Jiang Shuzhou, he is no longer timid and submissive.

Jiang Shuzhou made no response to this, and he was busy handling government affairs.

Fortunately, a management system was implemented, so even in such a vast territory as the empire, Jiang Shuzhou was able to process most of the government affairs in the fastest possible time.

It's very simple, just like playing a game. You just give the command, and it will be executed immediately. There are no middlemen taking a cut, so it's quite intuitive and simple.

Finally, after issuing dozens of reform plans, Jiang Shuzhou had completed his political duties for this period, and all that remained was the internal management of circulation.

As for where the money for those reform plans will come from?

Aren't there still so many nobles? These are all ready-made money bags. With nothing better to do, they can confiscate their property and exterminate their clans, gaining both a good reputation and a pile of money—a win-win situation.

These nobles were arrogant and domineering during the Auvi Empire, and some of them didn't even respect the emperor. Getting them to hand over anything was harder than climbing to heaven.

But things changed when Jiang Shuzhou arrived.

He immediately became obedient, giving money and people whenever he asked.

Those nobles who attempted to rebel had long been purged by Jiang Shuzhou.

The imperial street is trampled with the bones of high-ranking officials, and the imperial treasury is burned to ashes.

This is a true reflection of the empire today.

Before long, no one in the entire empire will dare to oppose Jiang Shuzhou.

Nodding in satisfaction, Jiang Shuzhou had dealt with the politics; now it was time to get down to the economy.

The first, of course, was a variety of reforms, including subsidies for farmers to qualify them for magically modified food seeds to grow.

Of course, as everyone knows, Jiang Shuzhou's stuff is never exactly normal.

For example, wheat that can sing, and meat fields that can grow into meat.

These are all items that Jiang Shuzhou is going to promote this time.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

Old John was a farmer, a landowner in a way. He owned some land, not much, but enough to live a comfortable life.

But now, everything has changed.

"Farmer John, head to Block B1 to plant the meat field!"

This is where things are different now compared to the past.

Now, almost everything has to be notified through the system. The kind of face-to-face management that used to exist is almost non-existent under Jiang Shuzhou's leadership.

Unfortunately, times are changing, and we're now in the era of sophisticated online management. The old management methods are outdated.

"Sigh, what a pity for old Tom. What a terrible idea! He's actually planning to leave. This place is so much better!"

For these farmers, order or disorder doesn't matter; as long as they can survive, everything else is meaningless.

When I went to work in the fields, everything was as usual.

However, they are living a better life.

There were no exorbitant taxes, no oppression from nobles, only cold, mechanical voices displaying the tasks he was to complete.

Old John's movements became a bit easier.

It's so great that I don't have to deal with those officials.

As for exposing privacy? What's the use of privacy? Can you eat it?

Besides, that person is extremely busy; how could he possibly have time to look after him? Worrying so much is just needless anxiety.

Old John's ideas reflected the thoughts of the entire empire's lower classes.

Living a good life is more important than anything else. This is Old John's idea, and it is also the idea of ​​the common people within the empire.

An empire needs time to recuperate and rebuild.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

The empire is recuperating, and so is Jiang Shuzhou.

The continuous battles and the constant tension were indeed making Jiang Shuzhou feel somewhat uncomfortable.

Perhaps it's time to treat myself to some research.

It should be noted that Jiang Shuzhou possesses a considerable amount of material of research value.

However, since the next stop might be the Alliance of Saints, Jiang Shuzhou still planned to study the legacy of the Blasphemous Priests first.

This thing can steal the divine arts of the gods and use them for its own purposes.

Originally, many people knew how to do this thousands of years ago.

However, nowadays, they are almost gone.

The reason is simple: the gods would naturally punish such thieving behavior severely.

Naturally, after the Holy Alliance's frenzied persecution and systematic eradication, the lineage of the blasphemous priests was broken.

I never expected that the empire would still have one hidden away.

Holding the thick book in his hand, which recorded the lineage of the blasphemous priests, Jiang Shuzhou couldn't help but feel a sense of emotion.

After reading it, Jiang Shuzhou quickly grasped the general meaning.

It's very simple; to put it bluntly, it's just packaging one's soul, disguising one's own soul as that of a believer.

This would cause the gods to misjudge the situation, thus allowing them to successfully steal the divine magic.

Jiang Shuzhou was naturally prepared to extract the essence and discard the dross from these.

Some of these things are a bit too outdated.

This knowledge requires some experimentation for innovation and transformation.

Fortunately, the empire was in dire need of rebuilding, so it was easy to find scoundrels.

Most of them were sentenced to death, but some were thrown into laboratories.

They will give their lives in the pursuit of truth.

as always.

Inside the room, Jiang Shuzhou relentlessly poured a massive amount of information into the minds of the criminals.

This information was so vast and complex that it even overwhelmed their reason.

But that doesn't matter; their will is unimportant.

The important thing is what Jiang Shuzhou will do next.

With a thought, he summoned these blasphemous priests, transformed from criminals, and they began to pray.

Or rather, stealing divine magic.

Soon, a flash of light appeared; this was the effect of the Holy Light spell and a sign of the successful theft of the divine spell.

However, that's not enough.

Jiang Shuzhou is about to do something even more blasphemous.

That is, their personalities were artificially created to split.

Their personalities are split into two: one that believes in the gods and is a priest of the gods, but has no control over the body.

The other one, naturally, is loyal to Jiang Shuzhou.

Soon, the experiment began.

At the beginning, the experiment encountered some problems. If the priest was given too much freedom, it would lead to the person's suicide, or if the freedom was too little, it would prevent the other party from using divine magic.

In conclusion, after hundreds of failures, Jiang Shuzhou finally figured out the optimal ratio.

And that's not all. Now, Jiang Shuzhou is preparing to use a false soul to thoroughly deceive the gods.

It's very simple; just transform the test subjects from criminals into flesh-and-blood creatures you create.

Soon, under Jiang Shuzhou's guidance, new flesh and blood creatures were born.

This is a creature with two heads. One head does nothing but pray silently, while the other is responsible for fighting.

Of course, it's a battle fought out of loyalty to Jiang Shuzhou.

Jiang Shuzhou named this creature the Blasphemous Priest.