When the Saint comes, she does not collect food

#292 - Didn’t you say you would come to visit?

"I have long admired your reputation as a cultivator, it is a pleasure to finally meet you today." Leaning on his cane, Horn walked around from behind his desk and shook Martin's hand firmly. "Please, sit down."

Martin looked down at his hand in confusion. Jeanne, standing beside him, explained with a smile, "It's our new invention, the handshake. It means you don't have to bow and scrape to anyone."

"Oh, I see." Martin didn't seem too reserved, casually pulling up a cushioned chair and sitting down.

"Did Friar Martin come alone?"

Cici, who had just entered, widened her eyes. "Am I not a person? Am I even real?"

Horn turned to Martin, pointed at Cici, and the three of them burst into laughter.

"I didn't come alone. Besides Mr. Cici, I brought four companions, all devout and learned young monks from our Juanuo sect."

"That's wonderful." Horn gestured to the nearby chairs, inviting Cici and the others to sit down.

"Did Friar Martin come directly from Kaxia County?" Horn gave a look, and a small maid struggled to carry a large kettle, pouring Martin a full glass of water.

It was truly a full glass, with the water forming a convex surface above the rim.

Martin, who had been reaching for the water, slowly withdrew his hand. "No, I went to Rapid Stream City first, to visit Lady Catherine, before taking the land route to Jeanneburg."

"Is it possible to reach Jeanneburg from Kaxia County without passing through Rapid Stream City, correct?"

Martin was a little bewildered by Horn's question. "There are two main roads, one through Rapid Stream City and the other through the Iber Plateau. If you take the small paths, there are many routes, but also many bandits."

"These bandits are like grasshoppers after autumn, once our people have recovered from their injuries, it will be their day to meet the Holy Father."

Horn's voice was casual, but Martin seemed to hear the sound of blades grinding.

Martin's mind suddenly recalled a famous saying Juanuo had told him: Suffering nations often produce heroes.

Thousand River Valley has now reached an era of producing heroes.

From south to north, whether it's Catherine, Molly, or Valentine, who has risen to fame in Hotam County, and Horn, who has taken over Jeanneburg, none of them are easy to deal with.

"How long does Mr. Martin plan to stay in Jeanneburg?"

"About a week, I think." Martin thought for a moment, then took out a copy of "The Holy Path to Salvation" from his bag. "It's a good opportunity for a friendly exchange between the Holy Father Assembly and our Juanuo sect."

"I think the Juanuo sect and our Holy Father Assembly have similar beliefs, you have people but no land, and we have land but no people.

You also know how powerful our enemies are, it's better to combine our forces than to be scattered. What do you think?"

Martin shook his head with a wry smile. "I'm just an unknown little monk, how could I interfere with the abbot's decisions?"

"What do you personally think?"

"Such a complex question is beyond my ability to consider." Martin thought for a moment, then added, "If that's really the case, then I'm willing to cooperate deeply."

"How about you apply to the abbot to send some monks here to study, and we'll send a batch of monks to your place to study, how about that?" Seeing Martin hesitate, Horn said with a smile, "I'm not asking you for scholars, giving me scholars would be useless, I just want lower-level monks who can write and read and have good character."

"If that's the case, I can try." Martin said, but he felt the topic getting further and further off track, and he quickly corrected it. "Your Excellency Horn, the main reason I came to Jeanneburg was for the content of 'The Holy Path to Salvation'…"

Horn didn't beat around the bush anymore, but actually debated scripture with Martin.

Although Holy Grandson originally had no culture, he still read and studied every day even on the Blood and Sweat Long March.

Although he didn't reach Martin's level of theology, he was still able to draw on his knowledge and logical thinking from his previous life to hold his own in a debate with Martin.

So, in the process of debating scripture, Martin found that Horn's annotations on the classics were sometimes vague, but he could always pinpoint the crux of the matter.

Then he would always interpret the scriptures from a completely new perspective, with flawless reasoning, but the conclusions were very strange, and Martin couldn't find any flaws.

What surprised Martin the most was the theoretical system of the Holy Father Assembly.

He had thought it was an illogical system full of fantasy and emotion.

But after talking, he found that this system, called "Natural Theology," although crude, was actually more rigorous and logical than the existing theological systems.

Horn explained, "On Autumn Twilight Island, there is a large library left over from the ancient El era, our theological system is based on that era."

Martin suddenly understood, that made sense, after all, knowledge cannot appear out of thin air.

Compared to the theological system that has been distorted over thousands of years, the more rigorous and cautious logic of the ancient El era is clearly more in line with the style of this theological system.

"Is this great library open to outsiders?" Martin asked with a glimmer of hope.

Horn immediately took out a piece of paper. "I can write you an admission pass…"

"That's really very kind of you…"

"…but you may need to help me with a small favor." Horn smiled brightly. "After all, you're going to be staying in Jeanneburg for a week."

Sitting up straight, Martin said frankly, "I am willing to pay the price for knowledge."

"Don't be nervous." Reaching across the table to pat Martin's arm, Horn handed Martin a bound copy of "The Holy Path to Salvation."

Martin took the booklet, which had been simplified but had many unnecessary annotations added, and realized after flipping through a few pages, "Is this a handbook for novice monks to study?"

"Yes." Pulling up the Venetian blinds, Horn let the light of the setting sun shine in, illuminating the ink bottle on the table in the twilight.

"My monks are out preaching our Holy Father Assembly and presiding over land distribution to the villagers, and the training of new monks has been neglected."

"You want me to do this?" Martin was blinded by the setting sun. "But I'm not a monk of the Holy Father Assembly."

"This 'Holy Path to Salvation,' you are the co-author, and our ideas are similar, why not?"

With his hands crossed on the table, the expression on Horn's face was somewhat distorted for some reason:

"It's just letting you and your companions act as a consultant group to help us quickly train priests, I'll pay you 15 dinars a week."

Martin breathed a sigh of relief. "I see, but this is what I should be doing anyway, you don't need to pay me."

"I can't not pay, it's a matter of the Salvation Army government's credibility, what you do with it is your own business."

After writing the library admission pass, Martin carefully accepted it and put it in his satchel.

Horn tidied up the things on the table. "Time really flies when you're chatting like this, it's already evening.

How about I tell you the specific work content of the consultant group, then we'll go to dinner… don't worry, it's just a little bit of work."

Taking out a hardwood board and a piece of hemp paper from his pocket, Martin licked the tip of his quill. "Please, go ahead."

"After taking down several monasteries, I have nearly a thousand literate but not necessarily trustworthy monks, noble servants, and scribes.

They are now undergoing labor reform in the Holy Trinity Education Team, helping the villagers cultivate the land during the day and studying 'The Holy Path to Salvation' on their own at night.

In three weeks, we will assess those low-level monks who are innocent, have good reputations, and perform well, the content of the assessment is 'The Holy Path to Salvation.'

I would like to invite your companions to be chanters, giving these monks and priests a class every day, so that they sincerely believe in our ideas.

Our Holy Father Assembly currently has more than forty old monks, who have a thorough understanding of 'The Holy Path to Salvation.'

But through the investigation and recommendation of more than fifty new monks, most of them were laborers before.

They have worked in monasteries, and although they are literate, they do not have a deep understanding of theology. I hope you can give them a class every day to help them understand.

Oh right, and…"

Looking at the eloquent Horn, Martin's pen stopped unconsciously, he had filled a whole page of paper, but Horn still hadn't finished.

Is this a little bit of work?

Didn't I come to visit? And we agreed on a week, how did I become a worker in a daze?