Alien Knights

Twilight City, Royal Printing House.

Emerson picked up a freshly printed book on the table, flipped through it, and looked up the contents while smelling the pungent ink smell.

Terrence was standing beside him, wearing a pair of crystal glasses, carefully comparing the provisions of the Bible with a one-armed priest beside him.

Emerson skimmed through the entire book, put down the booklet in his hand, and asked the one-armed priest, "Moore, is the printed version correct?"

Moore nodded: "The translation differences of the Bible, all the references, and the analysis of the saint's speech are all in this book. And I have read them all, and there are no mistakes."

Emerson glanced back at Huggins, who was still confused, and explained: "You still remember that more than half a month ago, His Majesty proposed to attack the influence of the church in the meeting for the future development of Muxi City. According to this strategic direction, the cabinet studied a large number of documents and consulted countless scholars, and finally found a breakthrough point. Taking this as an opportunity, the cabinet issued an order to let Muxi City's maritime merchant fleet go to the Southern Empire to buy an ancient version of the Bible."

Huggins recalled the incident and nodded yes.

"We spent ten times the weight of the book in gold and bought an oriental manuscript from the library of the Abbasid Empire, which copied the original version of the Bible 1,800 years ago." Emerson carefully pointed to a dilapidated book written on parchment on the table: "This book was originally stored in the Orthodox Church in the Holy City of the East, but it was lost to the Southern Empire during the war."

Huggins was a little puzzled: "I know about this, but does it have anything to do with the printed book?"

Emerson picked up the booklet that had just been printed, pointed to the name on the cover of the book—"Justified by Faith", and said to Huggins: "As we all know, the Bible translation used by the church comes from the Thai version 700 years ago. It has undergone seven revisions before being translated into the common language version that is common today."

"However, this version translated by the church, compared with the original version from the East, has some changes in the translation."

Emerson pointed to the one-armed priest Moore, and said to Huggins: "Moore Rupert, once a priest in Qianmu Village, is also an expert in the study of Bible doctrine. He is now the executive priest of Muxi Cathedral. He is also the first person to raise these differences to the cabinet. I will let him explain it now."

Moore opened the original Bible, pointed to a sentence inside, and read in ancient Chinese: "Δικαιωνμαστεμετηνπστη, μσωτουΚυρουμαΙησοΧριστο, μετονΘεκαι."

Huggins opened his eyes: "What does this mean?"

Moore first opened the church's version of the Bible and said to Huggins: "In the church's Bible, this sentence is roughly translated as: 'Christians must rely on their own good deeds and rituals to obtain salvation'."

He then opened the newly printed book and continued: "But according to the ancient classics I checked, the interpretation of this sentence is more biased: 'Believers must rely on their piety to God in order to obtain salvation'."

Huggins thought for a while, and tried to ask: "In other words, the church's translation of the original text is more beneficial to themselves?"

Emerson took over the conversation: "That's right. According to the church version of the Bible, if believers want to be saved, they must rely on the church's guidance and complete reasonable and effective good deeds and rituals in order to obtain God's salvation..."

Terrence took off his glasses and added: "But according to the explanations in the classics we found, as long as believers have a pious heart, no matter what their words or deeds are, no matter what rituals they have, they can approach God and finally be saved."

Huggins said incredulously: "That is to say, in the original version of the Bible, it is said that there is no need for the church to exist at all?!"

Moore nodded: "Judging from the original text, believers have established a relationship with the Father through faith. The salvation of souls is not the work of the church, but God bestows gifts on his believers. Therefore, believers do not need to rely on the church's extremely complicated religious rituals, but only rely on their devout belief in God to get their souls saved."

Huggins stretched out a trembling hand, picked up a book on the table, and said softly: "If such a book is published to the public, have you ever thought about the consequences?"

"One of the greatest doctrinal debates in history," Moore said.

Terrence said: "A Reformation unprecedented in history."

Emerson sighed: "A bloody religious war."

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Todd, who woke up slowly in bed, shook his drowsy head, trying his best to get rid of the discomfort caused by the hangover.

When he got up and looked out the window, Todd realized that the sun had risen overhead, and it was already noon.

After slowly getting dressed, Todd came to the chapel of the church, intending to find Tristan.

An elderly nobleman was sitting in the first row of seats. Seeing Todd's appearance, he immediately sat up with a smile.

"Mr. Fairchild, I have been waiting for you for a long time."

Todd gave him a suspicious look: "You are?"

"It doesn't matter who I am, His Majesty wants to see you."

"Your Majesty?" Todd's dizzy brain took a while to figure out that the person who wanted to see him was the King of the Holy Acropolis.

Looking at the royal knights standing on both sides of the door, Todd shook his head helplessly at the old nobleman: "I guess I don't have the right to refuse, do I?"

The visitor smiled and shook his head: "Don't worry, Your Majesty has no malicious intentions."

Todd turned back and pointed to his room: "I want to go back and get a few things."

The old nobleman took a step diagonally, blocking Todd's way, and his smile became softer: "Your Majesty hopes to see you immediately."

After secretly swearing a few words, Todd explained a few words to Rachel in the soul space, indicating that if she couldn't contact her after a period of time, she would start the withdrawal plan immediately.

Escorted by a team of knights, Todd stepped into the royal palace of the Holy Acropolis once again in the royal carriage.

After passing through countless corridors and countless sentry posts, Todd finally came to a shed.

The old man who played chess with him last night set up the game and sat in front of the chessboard, quietly waiting for Todd's arrival.

When he saw the latter appear, the old man waved his hand in a happy mood, motioning for everyone to back down.

Todd looked at the tall and weak old man in front of him, and asked tentatively: "You are the king of the Holy Acropolis, the lion of the heavenly father, Leoric?"

"Yes, child."

Todd glanced at the backgammon board in front of the opponent: "I guess, you didn't call me here to play chess, did you?"

Leoric smiled and nodded: "You guessed right, I was entrusted by someone."

"who?"

Leoric turned half of his body and pointed behind him with his finger.

Mary's beautiful smile like a flower appeared in Todd's sight.