novelAbuy Chapter 7322 Your question is not worth mentioning.
Chapter 7322 Your question is not worth mentioning.
Chapter 7322 Your question is not worth mentioning
Ma Chao carefully examined Xu You for a moment, and after confirming that the other party was not joking, he couldn't quite keep a straight face. In the past, Ma Chao didn't think that evil gods could come out of the Roman Senate, after all, the Roman Senate was such a place where demons ran rampant.
When Xu You said that there was an evil god of a high level that even the Roman Empire could not detect, Ma Chao was indeed a little confused.
"Are you kidding me?" Ma Chao asked Xu You seriously.
“No, we wouldn’t joke about something like this,” Xu You said very seriously. “In fact, if it weren’t for a coincidence, we wouldn’t have been able to be sure that the other party was an evil god.”
This is not an empty statement. After multiple composite evil gods are personified, they cannot be detected by current detection methods because such evil gods no longer identify themselves as evil gods. However, this self-identification is biased. Yuan Tan, who has slept with Stina many times, can clearly realize that Stina is not actually human.
Human emotions are real, but Stina's emotions sometimes feel simulated, appearing somewhat strange. Moreover, if Stina is left unattended for an extended period, she will exhibit a noticeable decline in her humanity.
This is also why Yuan Tan kept Stina by his side afterward. Because a normal person's decline in humanity can be self-corrected; at most, they will go from good to evil, but there is no possibility of them going from human to non-human. However, a multi-faceted evil god, once he loses his humanity, is no longer human.
In other words, no matter how human-like that evil god in the Senate may seem, it will become a problem sooner or later if this drags on. Considering its high status, if it is not detected early on and then bypasses the detection system, the problem will be huge.
That's why Yuan Tan sent Xu You to find Ma Chao and see if the latter was willing to expose the matter. After all, the Roman Empire was in such a chaotic state that if things continued to deteriorate, Yuan Tan was afraid that his Yuan family would be the first to be wiped out.
After all, such a top-tier empire would definitely try to absorb as much as possible from its surroundings before it collapses. Given Rome's current situation, apart from the Yuan family, there is really nothing worth absorbing in the surrounding area. Therefore, unless absolutely necessary, Yuan Tan does not want Rome to reach that point when he is not strong enough. Of course, if he is strong enough, then it doesn't matter, and he would even be happy to do so.
"Who is it?" Ma Chao was silent for a while, and after confirming that Xu You would not lie to him about this matter, he asked with a serious expression.
“I can tell you, but you need to relay this to Emperor Severus or the dictator Caesar,” Xu You said earnestly to Ma Chao.
Ma Chao pondered for a while. Although he wasn't very bright, his animal instincts were still very strong. With just this one exchange, Ma Chao was basically certain that the evil god definitely existed, and that it held a very high position, even higher than his own, and had the ability to influence the decisions of the Roman Empire.
On the other hand, although the Yuan family has made a judgment, they probably have no evidence and it would be difficult to detect through conventional testing. They would have to expose it themselves to attract the attention of the Roman Empire; it is even very likely that they would have to conduct a thorough investigation with a clear target in order to detect it.
"It's difficult to detect?" Ma Chao bluntly stated.
“Theoretically, it shouldn’t be detectable.” Xu You was also taken aback. He didn’t expect Ma Chao to realize this. But he wasn’t here to trick anyone; he genuinely wanted to solve the problem, so he didn’t hide anything and directly explained the difficulty of the matter.
Stina and Ji Xiang could not be detected as having the attributes of evil gods. Conventional testing methods could at most detect that they had been tainted by the aura of some evil gods, but such a thing was not a big deal to the elders of the Senate.
Even though Rome had banned the summoning of evil gods after the Senate descended into chaos, everyone knew that such behavior had never stopped in private, and there were even many hilarious incidents. Such trivial matters were not enough to bring down the powerful senators.
Normally, it's impossible to bring down someone in the middle or upper echelons of the bureaucracy for embezzlement. But when they do fall, embezzlement and bribery become serious crimes.
Similarly, the elders of the Senate could not be convicted for summoning an evil god. Moreover, Xu You had revealed a lot of information, and the other party's level was even higher than Ma Chao's. There were actually not many people left, and none of them could be brought down by the negligible crime of summoning an evil god.
"Theoretically, it can't be detected?" Ma Chao was stunned.
“Yes, theoretically it cannot be detected. Conventional detection methods are completed in an instant, while this kind of detection requires calculating time in years. In fact, the Duke of Zhongguo’s judgment is based on experience.” Xu You said very seriously.
Although it's called experience, Yuan Tan's experience in this area is truly commendable. It's something he accumulated over ten years of sleeping with Stina, something that other people would never realize.
“That would be troublesome.” Ma Chao was silent for a moment, then laughed again. “It’s alright. If it can’t be detected, then we can just pretend it doesn’t exist. The Roman Empire isn’t that fragile. If a high-ranking evil god could overthrow the Roman Empire, then the Roman Empire should have fallen by now, right?”
When Ma Chao said this, besides a touch of nonchalance, he exuded confidence in the Roman Empire.
Xu You was stunned for a moment, looking at Ma Chao, and he really didn't know how to respond to that sentence.
"I think we don't need to take this too seriously. It's just that there's an evil god among the high-ranking members of the Roman Senate, and this evil god even participated in the decision-making. But if you think about it carefully, it's not a big deal, right?" Ma Chao's mind was already racing. So what if there's an evil god? There's only one, and the decision-making direction wasn't made by the evil god, right?
"That does seem to make some sense." Xu You nodded slowly upon hearing this. With the foundation of the Roman Empire here, even if a high-ranking senator with real power was an evil god, it didn't seem to affect the actual operation much. The only problem was that this evil god might treat the senators like biscuits, but was that a problem? It didn't seem so!
The Roman Empire's existing technology could not detect that the other party was an evil god, but if three senators working in the Senate died in five days, the Senate would certainly be able to detect it by other means.
Even without empirical evidence, corroborating evidence is sufficient.
“Right? The Roman Empire won’t be defeated by one or two evil god senators. There’s no need to pay attention to this. Besides, I think the Roman Empire might know that there are evil gods among its own high-ranking officials. Maybe the Roman Senate is implementing so-called pluralism and introducing new talents.” The more Ma Chaoyue said, the more reasonable he seemed. While Xu You was dumbfounded, he couldn’t help but think that Ma Chao was indeed a talent.
“Look, Rome has brought in a group of talented people from the Kushans, a group from the Han Dynasty, and even some barbarians from Europe. They don’t seem to care much about their background. I’ve even seen a dark-skinned guy in the Senate, a real matte-black one. What does that mean? It means that the Romans don’t really care about background. You can’t limit someone’s ambition just because of their background, right? Even evil gods can aspire to Rome and become Roman senators, as long as they recognize Rome,” Ma Chao said earnestly.
Xu You remained silent for a while, then turned and left. Ma Chao wiped the sweat from his forehead. Even just relaying those words had been difficult for him. After Xu You left, Vincenzo and Theo appeared together to greet Ma Chao.
"You know?" Ma Chao asked directly after seeing Theo appear. Vincenzo was one thing, but he wasn't very bright. At most, he had a bit of political sense and knew a little about human relationships. But what was Theo? He was a superman, a god-like figure even in the Han Dynasty.
"Are there evil gods in the Roman Senate?" Theo asked with a cold smile, arms crossed.
"Tch, the Yuan family said before that Rome couldn't detect it. I knew it! Could your technology really have deteriorated that much?" Ma Chao cursed as he heard Dio's words.
“It can’t be detected.” Theo gave a direct answer. “The Yuan family must have mastered some extremely rare detection technology. I just realized that there is an evil god in the Senate, but the detection technology I have on hand cannot detect it.”
The detection technology that Theo could use was basically equivalent to that of the Roman Empire. The ones that he didn't use were all the kind that the Roman Empire would have felt bad about using.
Therefore, upon hearing this, Ma Chao's expression became more serious.
"Can you confirm who it is?" Ma Chao asked cautiously.
“What’s there to be sure about? Even if I can’t detect it, can’t I still not find the person?” Theo said irritably. “Even if the backup, details, and even deeper self-awareness are all correct, I can still be sure of subtle discernment and slight deviations in the perception of the world.”
"Who?" Ma Chao said with a grave expression. "Could it be Perennis?"
"You seem to be gloating," Vincenzo said irritably.
“I can’t tell you. There are only four or five people who know who it is right now. And what I asked you to relay earlier wasn’t a joke. That evil god does seem to admire Roman culture, is loyal to Rome, and is willing to offer advice to Rome. Of course, most importantly, I had His Majesty Severus test him with the will of the empire some time ago, and he passed the test,” Theo said calmly.
"Huh? Is that all? I remember the Imperial Will detection has loopholes. When I activate the Eagle Emblem, it can even attract the attention of the Imperial Will to a certain extent." Ma Chao was stunned for a moment and asked with some doubt. He felt that this thing didn't seem very reliable.
"That's why we came here specifically to tell you to ignore the Roman Senate's scrutiny. If they try to investigate you in any way, just activate the eagle emblem and give them a brainwashing," Theo said with a sneer. "The entire Roman Empire trusts you. They're nothing. Don't waste your breath arguing with those who might be plotting against you. Let them have their own ideas and let them influence the will of the Empire."
Ma Chao paused for a moment, then lowered his head to think. He was increasingly confused about what Luciano meant, feeling as if Loyal Claudius was up to something big.
"What are you thinking about?" Dio looked at Ma Chao with the eyes of someone looking at a monkey.
"I was thinking about Luciano's words," Ma Chao said truthfully. He was well aware of his shortcomings; in terms of intellect, he was indeed far inferior to those outstanding individuals. But that didn't matter; he had a humble heart to learn from others. So, Theo, bring it on, your brain!
"Luciano?" Theo looked at Ma Chao with some curiosity, gesturing for him to follow him to the residential area first, and asked as they walked.
Ma Chao didn't hide anything and simply explained what had happened in Midia City to Theo. There was nothing he couldn't say, and Ma Chao didn't think he had done anything wrong. He even repeated his complaints to Luciano and his suggestion to add Claudius to his name.
"There's nothing wrong with him. He just told you to be careful and think things through. He just didn't expect you to be so clueless and not realize any of this." After listening, Theo gave a brief summary. Although he used to be lazy every day, with Pompiannis's death, he and Herodian had to hold the line and prevent those gods in the Senate from self-destructing. As time dragged on, Theo's laziness had almost completely disappeared, and even his style of speaking and acting had changed.
"Is that so?" Ma Chao was not angry at Dio's evaluation; in fact, he was somewhat proud. That's just how he is, so what!
“Anyway, there’s censorship. Just let them talk to the will of the Roman Empire. If they can’t talk to the will of the Roman Empire, then you can censor them in return. As for those who can provoke the will of the Empire to censor you, let me tell you, that would almost mean the split of the Roman Empire.” Theo said with a hint of sarcasm. “So there’s no need to worry.”
"By the way, is that evil god in the Senate really alright?" Ma Chao couldn't help but ask again when they arrived at the residential area.
"The other party is working hard, very hard, much harder than before. He is a worthy pillar of the Roman Empire, more important than me," Theo said with a half-smile. "Sometimes, there is no need to investigate one's background or dwell on it. What one does is the most telling thing. Let him be an evil god."
Upon hearing this, Ma Chao seemed to be deep in thought. It felt as if the way the entire Romans spoke had changed after Pompiñus died, now carrying a sense of yin and yang.
"You can stay here for now. Someone will pick you up and take you to Pompiñus later." After settling Ma Chao in, Theo indicated that he had a lot of things to do and couldn't linger here, so he left first.
"Okay." Ma Chao didn't think much of it and watched the two leave.
“Let’s go and report back to His Majesty Severus,” Theo said to Vincenzo, who was much quieter this time. “There are no problems with Chao, and he is trustworthy.”
"Theo, is the investigation over just like that?" Vincenzo asked with some doubt.
"Do you want a more detailed review? There's no need. Ma Chao's heart is still with Rome, that's enough. Besides, can someone like Ma Chao be ranked in the top thirty in terms of potential problems within the Senate?" Theo asked calmly. Vincenzo thought about it and agreed. Even with Ma Chao's current issues, he was not worth reviewing in the Senate.
Putting everything else aside, the Roman Senate doesn't have much serious business to do, but it does plenty of frivolous things every day. So far, the eastern provinces represented by Ganassis have reported more than a dozen Parthian bandit counterattacks and are working hard to suppress them. The problem is, where did these Parthian bandits come from?
"At this stage, for Rome, compared to issues like the presence of evil gods in the upper echelons of the Senate, the collapse of Duke Nigel's Atlantic expansion plan followed by the organization of a rebellion, occasional bandit uprisings in the eastern provinces, the massive beast tides in North Africa, the top henchman under the new Duke of the northern border, Gordian, the Twenty Eagle Legions' years-long involvement in the shadow world of Great Britain, and the Duke of Eastern Europe's attempts to create trouble, the route is the most critical issue," Theo said with utmost seriousness.
Rome now has four dukes, but none of them have done anything worthwhile. Nigel's Atlantic expansion plan has caused damage to South America, and now he's rumored to be in a Spanish port, doing nothing. Anyway, the rebels in the Spanish region just can't be wiped out, not even the Eagle Legion could. Nobody knows why, but that's the fact.
As the Duke of the Eastern Frontier County, Ganassis was involved in the annual bandit suppression and daily smuggling operations in the Eastern Province, which was common knowledge, so it wasn't anything special.
Duke Goldian had just taken office when his main force, the Eagles, went to Great Britain to explore the so-called Shadow World. After so many years of exploration, nothing came of it, and no one paid any attention to it. I heard that there was also a rebellion in the north, and Duke Goldian was trying his best to suppress it.
As for the dukes of Eastern Europe, needless to say, they're probably all studying how Rome died right now.
Then the question arises: how serious were the things these four dukes did? To be honest, they were serious enough that even an ordinary person of lower rank might be furious just to know about them or see them. But for someone of Theo's caliber, it was nothing special. Wasn't this happening every day in the Roman Empire for hundreds of years? And it didn't explode, right?
It's not a big deal that the Duke and the central government have a conflict.
The real issue is what to do next: continue down the path of Pompiannis, reverse it and follow Claudius as Rome, or take a more neutral and realistic path, that is, Rome for the citizens of Rome is the true Rome.
These three paths must be chosen in a very short time!
The problems that Yuan Jia and Ma Chao faced were no problem for Rome at this point.