The more they oppose, the more it shows that I am doing the right thing

Marquis Norman spoke to Lister with an air of raging fury,

"Swear to God, if you don't place in the top five positions from the bottom in the upcoming Deacon Advancement Test in half a month, then get out of the Radiant Holy See and come back to inherit the gold mine!"

Count Karlo, with a killing aura, said to An Su,

All of them had sworn in the name of the gods, and the content of the oaths sworn before the gods carried power; this time, their fathers were all serious.

The punishment was quite severe, and the difficulty of achieving it also considerably high.

It was nearly an impossible task.

Firstly, this Deacon Advancement Test was a main plotline in the early part of the original story.

It had the most geniuses participating in any such promotion throughout history, not only were the prospective saints from the imperial capital qualified to be promoted, but also from every province of the empire, every city district, and all the saints from the regional churches who met the qualifications could come to the capital to take the test.

Moreover, a large number of cultists lay hidden among them, bringing the number of candidates to an all-time high.

Secondly, both of them were newly initiated saints who had to compete with older saints who had been in the church for several years; it was difficult to catch up in both rank and strength.

Securing a top five position was as difficult as climbing to heaven for Arthur.

Lister had it even worse and more difficult, for his father had an obsessive-compulsive disorder, insisting on exactly the third place, no more, no less.

And the most difficult was still An Su.

To aim for the bottom five was an impossible task.

An Su directly announced forfeiture, letting the players aim for the bottom ranks, something he would not do. Although taking over the gold mine was painful, he would have to bear the hardship himself.

For a moment, all three were the image of misfortune.

After cutting off the magic web connection with the borderlands, An Su, Lister, and Arthur sat around a round table.

They looked at each other, all deeply immersed in thought, as the dim night light streamed in through the window, casting their complexions in an unsettled gloom.

And the consequences of failure were not something they could bear.

If Arthur and Lister were expelled from their families, they would probably have to make a living by tricking honest people into donating during live streams, a life quite arduous indeed; if An Su was forced to inherit the gold mine, he would have to miserably make Gold Coins every day, a life extremely dull.

For a moment, the Borderland Triumvirs faced a crisis of survival.

The situation had already occurred,

leaving them no choice but to try to deal with it.

They could blame no one else, after all, they were responsible for their own situations.

An Su became lost in thought.

He was not yet of age, and as his guardian, Count Karlo had the right to apply to the church to revoke his church membership.

Their fathers had sworn to God, and this time it was certainly serious.

Must he achieve one of the last five positions?

Thinking of the content of the oath, his clever little mind spun a plan.

If he eliminated all but five of the candidates beforehand, wouldn't the top five also be the bottom five?

Once An Su shared this line of thought with Arthur and Lister,

both seemed to be struck by a realization.

Trust Brother Su to act unconventionally, truly brilliant, to come up with such a diabolical strategy.

Eliminating all the candidates beforehand was a notion more extreme than even the cultists might conceive.

Arthur looked at An Su with a hint of admiration in his eyes, for it seemed there was still much he could learn.

"But Brother Su..."

Lister pushed up his glasses, throwing cold water on the plan, "If we're to eliminate all the other candidates beforehand with our current capabilities, isn't that impossible?"

"How exactly do we implement such a plan?"

Arthur's enthusiasm waned, "Right, that's not possible to accomplish."

"It feels like spending half a month studying hard and praying devoutly to the goddess, and then passing the top five under her grace, is more credible and hopeful than this plan."

Indeed, it was an innovative idea, but the actuality of carrying it out was nothing but a pipe dream.

Better to rely on their efforts and chance to make the top five.

How could they be so deranged as to kill all the candidates? They were not cultists.

"Brother Su, since you've put forward this idea, do you have a concrete plan?"

The two asked An Su together.
Your next read awaits at empire

An Su frowned slightly; he had no clear outline yet for how to implement the specific plan, for it was simply a strategy prompted by a loophole in the oath, and he thought about it for a moment more.

An Su's advantage now was his partial knowledge of the plot; the advancement test served as a turning point and an inalterable 'plot kill.'

Chaos, suffering, the cultists of life had been lurking in the empire for months and were about to run rampant, fatally hunting the believers of the Orthodox Church. It was exceedingly dangerous. The main character group was also to suffer their first tribulation here, but the original story gave no detailed account.

Moreover, the prior butterfly effect might result in a completely different outcome.

The moonlight slowly descended behind the tree tops, and the horizon began to show traces of dawn. The day was about to break, and the deserted streets of the chaotic city were terrifyingly quiet. The three of them remained in the office of the Recovery Department, lost in thought.

The church bell tolled softly.

An Su had already envisioned a rough outline, one that could rely on the power of the cultists.

But they were hidden so secretly and scattered that it was difficult to pinpoint their exact location.

And it was not possible to infiltrate the cultists' ranks.

The office door opened slowly, and Miss Enya came in holding a thick stack of letters.

"Fan mail,"

Enya said with a look of disdain.

These letters were all from the Kavensis Knight Order, the Ri Zi Fan Club, and the Yue'er Fan Club. Although Arthur and Lister had graduated from their fathers' homes, family disgrace should not be publicized, and the news had not spread outside the capital. They had not yet met their downfall, and their popularity was even on the rise.