The Auditore family and Lu Xiao were originally prepared to face the stormy revenge of the Pazzi family, but contrary to everyone's expectations, until Sunday this week, there was actually no movement from the Pazzi family.
"Something's wrong."
Giovanni frowned: "Based on my understanding of the Pazzi family, they are definitely not people who swallow their anger. There must be something wrong behind this unusual forbearance."
Lu Xiao's face changed, and he gave guidance without leaving any trace: "Could it be that the Knights Templar had a bigger conspiracy? In order not to alert the snake, the top brass of the Knights forcibly suppressed the Patch family's revenge intention?"
Giovanni touched his chin thoughtfully: "This possibility cannot be ruled out. What are they planning?"
Lu Xiao gave another reminder: "Think about the fate of the Duke of Milan and the fanatical desire to take power shown by Rodrigo Borgia... Their purpose is already obvious."
Giovanni nodded slowly with a heavy face: "Do they really want to overthrow the Medici family's rule over Florence...The question is, how do they plan to act?"
"It's not that I look down on the Pazzi family and the Templars. Now the top officials in Florence are all allies of the Medici family. With the Medici family's amazing financial resources, the city's defenses are foolproof. The entire Florence City can be said to be monolithic.
.”
"How does Rodrigo plan to break through Fiorentina's ironclad defense?"
Lu Xiao sneered and said: "We have a saying in the East that a thousand-mile embankment is destroyed by an ant nest. The more complete the defense, once a gap is caught, the whole situation may collapse."
"If I were Rodrygo, I would definitely not use a forward attack against Fiorentina, which has a solid defense."
"Sun Tzu, our famous book on the art of war, says: The first step is to attack the enemy, the second step is to attack the enemy, the second step is to attack the army, and the third step is to attack the city. The method of attacking a city is the last resort."
"To explain it in layman's terms, Rodrigo is likely to adopt a strategic approach to capture the city of Florence, and... it is likely to be a strategy to attack the heart."
Giovanni's expression changed: "You mean, the Templars will instigate rebellion against high-level Florentine officials?"
Lu Xiao nodded and said: "If it were me, I would do this. What needs to be considered now is which senior officials are easily instigated by Rodrigo to rebel. It is best to give priority to those who have a grudge against Medici."
Giovanni paced back and forth in the study a little anxiously. He seemed to have thought of a certain goal, but for a moment he couldn't believe it.
As the leader of the Florence Assassin Brotherhood, Giovanni quickly discarded the influence of personal emotions on himself and said objectively in a colder tone: "I have thought of a person. Recently, I will personally deal with him.
He keeps a close watch."
Lu Xiao did not reveal any more information and silently expressed her support for Giovanni's decision.
Unlike the Auditore family, which has its roots here, Florence is just one stop on a long journey for Lu Xiao.
In order to collect more information about the Pieces of Eden, he is destined not to stay in one place for a long time.
However, this city, the origin and center of the Renaissance, is very important to the Assassin Brotherhood. Many pages of Domenico's scattered Altaïr Codex fell into this emerald city.
If the Brotherhood's power in Florence can be preserved, it will undoubtedly bring more benefits than harm to Lu Xiao.
As for Ezio, although a development that is different from history may completely change his life, Lu Xiao is sure that even if Ezio knew the truth, he would never blame him.
For the Auditore family, which values their family, Ezio would definitely rather have a complete family than sacrifice his family in exchange for the status of a legendary assassin mentor.
The collection of Altaïr's Codex is destined to be a long process, and it cannot be completed by him alone. The help of the Brotherhood is indispensable.
As for the six Assassin tokens related to Altaïr's armor, Lu Xiao was equally determined to obtain them. Before leaving Florence, he planned to find two Assassin tombs and take out the tokens buried inside.
…
Under Giovanni's serial communication, Lorenzo had agreed to the Brotherhood's plan a few days ago. He would try to disperse the monks in the church during mass to create a relatively relaxed environment for the Brotherhood to explore.
However, Lorenzo gave a time limit, and he could only help delay it for half an hour at most. Any more than that might arouse suspicion.
It was many years ago that Lu Xiao cleared Assassin's Creed 2, but when he personally sneaked into the Church of Santa Maria del Fiore, he quickly recalled some fragments of information based on the familiar scenery.
'I remember that the assassin's tomb in this church seems to be at a high place, right?'
Squatting on the beam above the church, Lu Xiao looked up at the semicircular church dome that reflected the sunlight. Lorenzo and several high-status priests were bowing their heads in prayer devoutly in the church, completely unaware of the people above him.
The vault of the Church of Santa Maria del Fiore is very high, and it is not easy to climb to the top. This 30-minute time-limited infiltration operation is undoubtedly an important test for Lu Xiao's free running skills.
After sneaking into the church, Lu Xiao did not rush into action. Instead, he squatted on the beam and observed carefully, trying to plan the most suitable route.
The hymn BGM sung by the priests below the church added a bit of fun to Lu Xiao's climbing journey.
But as the height of the climb increased, Lu Xiao's mood inevitably became more and more nervous.
As Giovanni and La Volpe have repeatedly mentioned, the most important thing about free running is to overcome the nervousness about heights and avoid the lack of coordination of hands and feet under the influence of emotions, which may lead to crises.
"Breathe~blow~"
Lu Xiao took a deep breath and whispered the same words repeatedly to hint to herself: "Don't look down, don't look down, never look down!"
Using his strong legs to clamp on a metal crossbar in mid-air, Lu Xiao tried his best not to look at the extremely high ground, and tried to focus on his higher destination.
Domenico obviously had careful consideration when designing this assassin's tomb. During the climb, Lu Xiao would always find suitable points of strength at necessary locations.
It is basically impossible for ordinary people to complete these dangerous actions to climb to the top, but assassins who have received systematic training can greatly increase the chance of success.
It can be said that this hanging tomb was originally designed with reference to the assassin's abilities.
Standing on the narrow metal beam to steady his center, Lu Xiao suddenly used his legs to jump forward, just reaching a horizontal railing extending from the opposite side.
However, whether it was due to the disrepair of the mechanism designed by Domenico or some other reason, the railings that were supposed to be stable suddenly made a harsh and unpleasant twisting sound.
Lu Xiao's expression changed, and before the heavily rusted railing broke completely, he used the strength of his waist and abdomen to quickly swing his body to generate centrifugal force, and threw himself further into the sky.
Lu Xiao tried his best to stretch his body in mid-air, and finally managed to cling to the edge of the highest platform with great difficulty.
"Crunch!"
The end-of-life railing finally broke and fell from the air, hitting the church ground with a harsh sound.
The rather quiet church was originally filled with the chants of the priests, but the sudden noise startled everyone present.
Lorenzo Medici, the Lord of Florence, remained calm in the face of danger. He reached out his hand calmly to stop the priests behind him, and took the lead in looking up to the heights.
At this time, Lu Xiao had climbed to the last platform, and a marble sarcophagus appeared in front of him.
Lorenzo squinted his eyes as he looked at the empty church dome: "Father Romania, it has been less than five years since the construction of this church was completed, right? How could there be such badly corroded metal pipes?"
"this……"
The white-bearded Romanian priest was stunned for a while before hesitatingly said: "The Church of Santa Maria del Fiore was built on the basis of the Saint Reparata Church built in the 4th century."
"Perhaps... there are still some decaying remains of the old church in some parts of the church."
Lorenzo nodded noncommittally: "For the sake of the safety of the believers, I will soon hire people to inspect and renovate the church from the inside out. I will also ask Father Romania to help arrange the time."
Father Romania was also startled by the rusty metal pipe falling from the sky. He could not imagine the consequences of such a thing happening when a large number of believers gathered. He hurriedly lowered his head to express his gratitude: "Okay, I will arrange manpower to cooperate."