Naimes understood that Gotthard had tested him countless times throughout the interaction.

He had naturally heard of Gotthard’s reputation;

for a period of time Naimes himself had been hailed as the next Gotthard.

Or rather, Gotthard had been the genius holy knight of the previous generation.

He had become famous earlier than Naimes;

by the time Naimes burst onto the scene, Gotthard had already reached Gold Seed.

However, Gotthard’s past activities had most likely taken place on the back of the Sea Blue floating whale.

The Sea Blue and Sea Azure floating whales were a pair of brothers, so they often flew side by side, and the two floating whale cities exchanged information frequently.

Anin’s family, the one Naimes was born into, had its roots on the Sea Azure’s back.

Now, the “Biqing” where Beiqi Village sat was still a fair distance away from those two floating whales.

Only certain kinds of special information would be transmitted through the grid between the core city churches on the various whale backs.

For example, someone becoming Gold Seed and what achievements they had made, or someone developing a highly practical Divine Magic, or producing a very distinctive sword technique like Naimes’s.

And unless someone cared about it—like Isabella, who had once seen that sword technique and been astonished—such things were remembered.

Otherwise, news from some other whale back, who knows how far away, would just be gossip;

no one would keep track for that long.

It was perfectly normal that Naimes, who had stayed in Beiqi Village for eight years, didn’t know Gotthard. In fact, knowing him would be suspicious.

From the start, Gotthard’s introductions were probes to test whether Naimes had other channels of information.

If Naimes showed no surprise at the matter, then it opened the possibility of overturning what Naimes had previously stated.

These tests hid in every word and action;

one careless move could lead to a mistake in response.

Gold Seed individuals exceeded ordinary people in every aspect.

In front of them, any tiny issue could be rapidly magnified.

To them, these probes were as routine as asking whether you had eaten today—sometimes even inadvertent.

But their information-processing ability utterly outclassed ordinary people, so if there was truly a problem, they would quickly see through it.

Sending a Gold Seed priest dispatched from elsewhere meant the church’s current situation was very delicate.

“A church’s Gold Seed on a whale back is basically the absolute top authority,” Naimes said.

“So they rarely transfer between posts.”

“The church has big internal problems.” Having been inside the church himself before, Naimes knew some of its rules.

Because communications between different whale backs were difficult, each whale back’s church branch enjoyed significant autonomy.

A Gold Seed clergy member was basically the local overlord on that whale’s back.

Unless a massive emergency occurred—like a large-scale Abyss invasion, or the church going to war with another god’s followers—Gold Seed personnel were not typically moved.

“Looking at Gotthard’s situation, it doesn’t look like there’s been a major event.”

“Then it’s probably an internal church problem?” Naimes knew well that the church wasn’t peaceful inside.

Before he was betrayed and became a Petitioning Angel, many factions already existed within the church.

Territorialists, Return-to-Earth advocates, Governance supporters, Opportunistic expansionists…

There were countless factions.

Predictably, after the Oath God was defeated in the astral plane by the Abyss and lost about one-fifth of the divinity number to Naimes, the higher-ups lost much of their ability to suppress infighting, so the factions below would likely explode.

“If I remember right, Gotthard’s with the Governance faction?” Naimes reflected. The Governance faction believed that after disasters struck the material plane, only the Oath God’s doctrines could properly guide people living on the whale backs. ɪꜰ ʏᴏᴜ ᴡᴀɴᴛ ᴛᴏ ʀᴇᴀᴅ ᴍᴏʀᴇ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs, ᴘʟᴇᴀsᴇ ᴠɪsɪᴛ novel✶fire.net

They wanted to lead more people to worship the Oath God, concentrating authority to govern the chaotic world with greater strength.

“And in Naimes’s impression, the mainstream faction in the Biqing Whale City had been the Territorialists?” Naimes pondered.

Territorialists emphasized extreme autonomy—each whale city was a kingdom.

The city’s church was controlled by different nobles.

They believed in the god, but prioritized family and clan interests.

They treated the whale back as their own domain, managing it as private territory, where everything belonged to both the god and themselves.

They minimized ties between local branches and headquarters, giving the branches more power.

“That’s why they carried out bloodline experiments.”

The contradictions between the two factions were intense;

one saw the other as desecrating the god’s teachings and failing to solve the world’s problems, while the other accused its rivals of meddling in their domains where outsiders had no right to interfere.

“So this situation actually benefits me.” Naimes seized the crux of the matter.

Normally, he expected the church to take him back for thorough investigations, perhaps even human experiments.

He had prepared for that: by that means, his undeniable strength would quickly draw the church’s attention.

At first he might face some constraints, but then the situation should open up rapidly.

The advantage of the Territorialists was this: a heavy sense of privilege, so once you obtained a privilege, you could accomplish many things.

That was why Naimes didn’t hide the fact that his Holy Bone had been activated;

he fabricated the story that he had learned breathing techniques and swordsmanship through Saint powers in part for this reason.

Territorialists valued bloodlines;

once they confirmed someone had partial Saint nature, marriage alliances and mutual-interest pacts would soon follow.

But now things had changed: the Governance faction’s involvement would escalate the internal conflict.

The church was no longer under the Territorialists’ unilateral rule, so procedures would inherently formalize.

Because both sides were vying for control, both would relax some conditions regarding the absorption of living powers.

Gotthard’s proactive invitation for Naimes to work with him probably meant that after returning to Breathspring City, Naimes’s examination would ease;

the Territorialists would also likely propose terms for him to work under them.

That was why Naimes didn’t hastily agree to Gotthard;

when you could play both sides, you should bargain—don’t pick a side before you understand the situation.

The next day, Beiqi Village had been mostly tidied up.

A squad of holy knights and priests would escort the villagers to Wavetail Town.

As for Naimes, he and Isabella were taken by Gotthard, flying toward Breathspring City.