Book 8, The Ten Thousand Kilometer Journey – Chapter 39, Time Passing Slowly

The O’Brien Empire restricted the worship of other religions within its borders, and so the Radiant Church and the Cult of Shadows were forced to keep their forces in hiding. If and when their forces were discovered, the O’Brien Empire would mercilessly stamp them out.

This attitude of the O’Brien Empire had caused the Radiant Church to never have the chance to expand its influence within the Empire’s borders.

In important places such as the imperial capital or in the provincial capitals, the Radiant Church still managed to place quite a few forces in hiding, but in prefectural cities, they would have at most a few dozen people.

As for those ordinary cities, some places had a few people, others had none.

And the towns? No need to even mention them.

The density of their web of influence wasn’t very high. Thus, the Radiant Church’s forces which had been sent to locate Linley couldn’t find any trace of him. They had no idea where this Linley had run off to.

Even though they didn’t know where Linley was hiding, the Lyndin’s team of six experts still departed from the Sacred Isle and headed towards the O’Brien Empire.

Outside Northwest Administrative Province’s provincial capital of Basil. Cloudpeaks Village.

Linley, Zassler, Barker and his brothers, Rebecca, and Leena were all living here quietly. Aside from their training, Rebecca and Leena spent their time making sure Linley and the others were all fed.

The explanation...