Cyprus is too far away from Italy, and Lu Xiao does not intend to compete with the Ottoman Brotherhood and the Egyptian Brotherhood for work.
In contrast, southeastern France borders Italy directly and can be reached relatively smoothly by land.
However, before heading to France, Lu Xiao plans to complete two side missions in Italy.
Although the general whereabouts of the Holy Sword of Eden was learned from Rodrigo, more specific information still requires the help of the French Brotherhood in the investigation, and it may be difficult to obtain precise information in a short time.
The rewards for the side mission of collecting Altaïr's Codex and Assassin's Tokens are quite generous. Before heading to France, Lu Xiao plans to get these rewards to strengthen herself and pave the way for her next move.
As the Grand Master of the Templars, Rodrigo has also been arranging people to collect Altaïr's Codex. The map of the Pieces of Eden hidden in the Codex is very important to both organizations.
Forced by Giovanni's threats, although Rodrigo was very reluctant, he was finally forced by the threat to his life to reveal the location of the Codex collected by the Templars.
Counting the 3 pages collected by Lu Xiao and the 6 pages obtained early by Giovanni and others, there are a total of 30 pages of the manuscript, and the Brotherhood only received 9 pages.
The Templars benefited from the intelligence network that spread throughout Italy, and they collected more pages than the Assassins, a total of 12 pages.
Among them, five pages collected in Tuscany are stored in the Pazzi mansion in San Gimignano, the territory of the Pazzi family.
The remaining seven pages were found in Venice, a water city in the north, and were kept by the local Templar Barbarigo.
Since a greater number of pages were found in Venice and Tuscany than anywhere else in Italy, the Templars speculated that the remaining fragments of the Codex should have been scattered between Tuscany and Venice.
"Venice?" Giovanni raised his head and recalled: "Our ancestor Domenico had to dismantle the Codex because he was attacked by pirates hired by the Templars. It is logical that most of it ended up in the port area."
With the deaths of Francesco and Vieri, and the arrest of Jacob for rebellion, the decline of the Pazzi family is inevitable, and their territory of San Gimignano will also face the possibility of being annexed by Florence.
destiny.
"I will notify Mario and ask him to take Ezio to San Gimignano to recover 5 pages, but Venice..."
Lu Xiao volunteered and said: "Leave Venice to me. Anyway, there is no definite news about the Holy Sword for the time being. I plan to use the time I am waiting for the news to find the manuscript and the tokens from the assassin's tomb."
Giovanni nodded: "Okay, I will write to the local brotherhood members and ask them to assist you as much as possible."
"But you have to be careful. Venice does not have the care of the Medici family like Florence. Keep an eye on everything."
…
Rodrigo's attempt to overthrow the Medici rule was completely shattered, and Florence returned to peace. At least there will be no major crisis in the city for a long time to come.
Since she decided to go to Venice to collect the remaining Assassin's tokens and codes, Lu Xiao began to prepare for the trip after normal order was restored in Florence.
During this operation to capture Rodrigo, Lu Xiao's hidden sword and boot blade were severely damaged.
Among them, the hidden sword has been repaired under the maintenance of the Auditore family's dedicated blacksmith, but the boot blade is more troublesome.
Giovanni looked at the broken boot blade with a headache, and said helplessly to Lu Xiao: "Sorry, we lack understanding of this unique weapon of the Eastern Brotherhood, and we have no idea how to remove the broken blade and reinstall it."
Lu Xiao nodded and said thoughtfully: "Perhaps, I know someone who knows how to repair it, but I'm not sure whether he is trustworthy in the eyes of the Brotherhood."
"who?"
"You must know him, Leonardo da Vinci, one of the artists funded by the Auditore family."
Giovanni was stunned for a moment: "Leonardo? I know he is an outstanding artist and his character is worthy of the Brotherhood's trust, but... are you sure he can complete such exquisite weapon repair?"
Lu Xiao smiled and said: "Don't underestimate him, Leonardo is a genius, and his talent is not limited to art."
"Since Mr. Giovanni thinks he can be trusted, I plan to visit him soon and entrust Leonardo to make some interesting gadgets."
…
The Assassin Brotherhood kept its promise and basically stripped away all the information Rodrigo knew. Under Mario's instructions, Rodrigo was safely released by the Florentine Brotherhood.
Some of the more radical Assassins were very critical of Mario and Giovanni's decision. They believed that they should take the opportunity to get rid of Rodrigo and greatly reduce the power of the Templars throughout Europe.
Moderates believe that killing Rodrigo will completely ignite the hatred between the Templars and the Assassins, attracting endless revenge from the other side, and may even completely offend the Catholic Church.
Both sides had their own reasons, and it was difficult for anyone to convince the other. The final decision was made by Mario Auditore, the leader of the Italian Assassin Brotherhood.
Mario may seem reckless, but he is actually a rough-and-tumble man. After weighing the pros and cons, he decided to follow his brother Giovanni's advice and release Rodrigo.
Standing outside the south gate of Florence, Rodrigo looked back at the city where he had been humiliated with complicated eyes. His mentality had undergone some changes during his capture.
The Knights Templar, who were in internal turmoil, received the news of Rodrigo's release and immediately arranged for elites to come to pick him up.
Rodrigo left Florence, escorted by a large number of Templars, and headed south back to Rome, the headquarters of the Holy See.
At the same time, Uberto, Jacob and others were convicted of treason and hanged in the square in front of the Church of Santa Maria del Fiore. The crisis in Florence was finally officially lifted.
The fate of the Auditore family members also underwent important changes during this turmoil.
After conquering San Gimignano with the help of the Florentine army, Mario and Ezio successfully obtained the pages of the Codex stored in the Pazzi mansion. Ezio and Petruchio took these undeciphered pages with them.
Return to Florence.
After experiencing this turmoil that could shake the foundation of Florence, Federico, who had always been careless in the past, became much more mature and steady.
Although he still likes to make some harmless jokes on a daily basis, his dedication and focus on his work as an assassin has obviously increased a lot.
In view of this, the pleased Giovanni decided to make his eldest son completely independent and placed him in the goodwill mission sent by the Medici family to Siena to protect the main member of the mission, Giuliano Medici.
Claudia has been feeling a little depressed recently. Because Claudia, who received a traditional education since childhood, refused to have sex with her fiancé Duccio before marriage, Duccio, who couldn't control his lower body, cheated on her before marriage. Fortunately, she was caught by Federico.
Ke was hit hard.
The sinister Federico did not expose Duccio on the spot, but suppressed his anger and arranged for his entourage to go home and call his sister and parents. The whole family gathered to watch the hungry Duccio flirting with a fat ugly girl.
pretty.
Needless to say, the result was that an extremely angry Giovanni ignored Duccio's gentlemanly etiquette, grabbed Duccio, beat him up, and announced on the spot that he had terminated Claudia's engagement with him.
Ezio soon learned the news after returning to Florence. The angry Ezio rolled up his sleeves and planned to rush out to teach Duccio an unforgettable lesson. In the end, Claudia, who was depressed, stopped him.
"That humanoid seeder has nothing to do with me anymore. Don't let me think of him again."
After Giovanni's deciphering, the encrypted contents of the five pages were finally presented to the Brotherhood.
The pages of this book contain many pictures, among which Codex 25 is a portrait Altaïr drew of his wife Maria Thorpe... I have to say that Altaïr's painting skills are quite good.
In addition, Note 15 is the source from which Rodrigo learned the whereabouts of another golden apple. This page depicts a complete map of the island of Cyprus.
Codex 16 and Codex 18 are pure text records, respectively describing Altaïr's doubts about the future vision shown by the Golden Apple, as well as his disputes with his fellow assassins and the insights he gained from it.
The last page, Codex 22, is the most important page among the harvested pages. On this page, Altaïr drew an incomplete map of the world, which marked the whereabouts of multiple Pieces of Eden.
Although the American continent is missing, considering the era Altaïr lived in, it is amazing enough that he could draw this map.
Asia, Europe, Africa, and even Oceania are included in it. This should be the fragment of knowledge that Altaïr obtained from the golden apple.
When Lu Xiao and Giovanni had related discussions, they said with great interest: "I am very much looking forward to what the complete version of the world map will look like after gathering the pages, and this is only recorded by the Apple of Eden owned by Altaïr.
A corner of the glacier."
"How many artifacts from the first civilization are still preserved in this world? I really hope I can find them all one day."
'In order to complete the task...but considering the time cost, this is just a good wish after all.'