CHAPTER 335: CHAPTER 165: ASCENDING THE THRONE AS AUGUSTUS (UNIFICATION)

The Age of Gods has completely ended!

With supreme royal power, Duncan has suppressed the faith in gods; whether it be Monotheism or Polytheism, the Divine Church must all submit to the supreme royal authority.

The struggle of faith will continue.

But at least for the next one or two hundred years, the conflicts of faith within the Divine Church will shift from the open into the shadows, and even Supernatural Powers will retreat to the background.

This is the rule set by Duncan: the mundane belongs to the mundane, the extraordinary belongs to the extraordinary, and they too must be restrained.

The future Meredith foresaw did not come to pass. The saints of the church did not band together to fight desperately against Duncan. The ascension of Saint Patrick as the new Pope was the result of a compromise among various factions.

With a blood sacrifice of the entire tribe of Vandals, Duncan leveled all obstacles!

Once the Pope’s coronation ceremony was completed.

The Roman Curia, under Duncan’s strong rule, was also forced to reform, with a resolution called ’Religious Reformation’ now appearing in the imperial mark’s status bar.

Everything seems to be developing for the better.

But there is only one thing that makes many people uneasy, which is that Emperor Duncan of the empire has not yet had any offspring.

It’s like a thorn in the throat of many.

It’s not just Anya who is starting to worry; even Duncan himself is beginning to have doubts. All conventional methods have been tried, and the number of companions by his side has increased, yet there is still no sign of any progress.

Now only unconventional methods can be attempted.

Duncan has gained the company of Princess Eudoxia and Princess Praxidica, but has not established a queen. Besides selections by the Crow Queen and Anya, he has tried a few more. Those who attend him now, including maidens carefully chosen from noble backgrounds, have increased to nearly two digits, yet with so many attendants, none are pregnant, which indeed causes grave concern.

The empire has relocated its capital back to Rome.

Just after the grand purge of the Imperial Senate was completed, some small backlashes also erupted. From the mouths of some ill-intentioned aristocratic remnants who survived by luck, the great Conqueror and Emperor Duncan has even been labeled with the title of ’barren.’

Such matters can be big or small, but when applied to an emperor, it’s one of the factors of instability.

Severus was nearly furious!

Before the matter even reached Duncan’s ears, Severus joined forces with Anya to start dealing with it secretly, and within a short time, at least a hundred people were arrested, with the source of the rumors, people related to the Senate aristocrats, being directly eradicated.

But the more you suppress such rumors, the faster they spread.

Before long, governors, commanders, and officials from various places began sending all sorts of beauties and secret recipes for conceiving offspring to Rome. Quintus was perhaps the most proactive, as he is now the provincial governor of Outer Gaul, especially mindful of this matter every day, having sent several groups of beauties and various precious herbs.

The Crow Queen, Triss, has also begun to restore the rituals associated with the family and offspring-related Divine Spirits.

Severus has killed quite a few people recently.

In some regions of Italy, there are church believers saying that it is because the emperor disrespected Monotheism, and therefore cannot have offspring, which led to dozens of heads rolling at the hands of an enraged Severus.

As for the present Duncan, he has become somewhat indifferent.

In his past life, he was very fond of beauty, but now, it feels like fulfilling a task, and while his body can endure, the interest is nearly exhausted.

Whether or not the women are beautiful, he is close to losing sensation.

Duncan feels it’s still his problem; he has integrated too much extraordinary bloodline, so it’s unlikely a matter of activity levels, but rather ordinary women may not be able to bear his offspring. But if speaking in such terms, even Igraine, selected by Anya, showed no sign of progress, which is indeed hard to explain.

Inside the Roman Palace.

Anya has also secretly executed over a dozen servants recently because she discovered that the source of the rumor about the emperor’s barrenness had traces pointing to court attendants.

During the reign of Valentinian III, the palace had been infiltrated like a sieve.

With such precedents, a secret organization similar to the Jinyi Guard is necessary, though currently, its scale is not large.

In order to quickly have a legitimate heir, Anya has not received Duncan’s favor for several months.

The Crow Queen, Triss, has also tried numerous methods, yet even with Hera’s blessing, everyone remains unsuccessful. Now, the Crow Queen, Triss, has gone to Great Britain to discuss with the Guardian Fairies about the possibility of reincarnation.

Simply put, it involves finding a similar supernatural existence to the Divine Spirit, directly reincarnating as Duncan’s offspring.

But doing so is also very risky, with certain hidden dangers.

Within the palace.

Duncan, expressionless, looked at the beautiful attendant arranged by Anya before him and suddenly felt a wave of disinterest. He thought, having no offspring might not be a bad thing, doing it with such a goal in mind; while his body can bear it, the intrigue is nearly gone.

It feels like clocking in to work every day, having just finished handling state affairs, a line of women waiting for him to choose at night.

Dimension Space.

Duncan, for the first time, lost much physical interest in that aspect. Previously, he only entered Dimension Space in a combative state, but this time, he entered it in a special state.

At this moment, he felt as if he were playing a VR mini-game from his past life.

Unlike leading armies in battle across the land, the projection screen was almost like a small adult game from his past life. From the perspective of God, Duncan’s five senses are weakened, and touch and pain are dulled, so it’s fundamentally incomparable to personal experience, akin to virtual game touch linkages he played with in his previous life.