Chapter 62: Damage Transfer Formation

After Kelaosuna and Jisi Ke made their move, Bishop Ignatius, who had long since overdrawn his physical strength, finally collapsed and fell. After the few of them sealed him into an iron coffin that had been prepared long ago, they set fire to the St. Nuofan Cathedral and, pretending that nothing had happened, quickly left the Fanguenuo Plane and returned to the Viceroy's territory on the Red Moon Plane.

Regardless of which plane it is, there are only a few ways in, and they are often strictly guarded; the ways out, however, are numerous. The plane's will seems very unwelcoming to forces that do not belong to it, and one can squeeze out through any small rift, which is not the case for entering.

Before leaving, Sakavi specifically instructed to leave a few Holy Knights as mouthpieces. If everyone were killed, then his crime of unauthorized looting of the Church of Light cathedral and killing clergy would be confirmed. With a few people to prove that he was sent by Seninede, then this matter could not bypass the Luo Sen Empire.

Whether this Archbishop interfered in the internal affairs of the Luo Sen Empire is not yet known, but he has interfered quite a bit in the Duofeng Republic, which is a well-known fact. With the current situation where both sides look at each other with displeasure, wanting to jointly investigate this matter or demand that Seninede punish Sakavi is not very realistic.

Regardless of what Seninede thinks, if he really dared to agree, the hardline persona he has built would inevitably collapse, and the morale he has worked hard to improve for so many years would likely be exhausted.

But then again, the situation in the Luo Sen Empire has now stabilized, and after years of effort, the army has been rebuilt, so there is absolutely no need to bow to Leader Luodeman.

In the days to come, Sakavi only needs to do two things: closely monitor the movements of the Luo Sen Empire to see how they will handle this matter. The second is to heal his wounds. The damage caused by holy light to a necromancer is not like an ordinary attack; this belongs to attribute suppression and is very difficult to clear, even with the troll's regeneration furnace.

According to the unremitting exploration of his predecessors, a complete set of methods for clearing the influence of holy light was finally summarized. At this time, it was the turn of the Kuo-toa to appear. If there is any creature that satisfies both high enough soul and physical strength, and can be used by Sakavi without any psychological burden, it is none other than the Kuo-toa.

When Sakavi returned to Aguerike, he went directly into the laboratory and ordered that no one should disturb him unless there was a special situation, and everything was to be decided by Kelaosuna. As an old hand at robbing houses for years, the number of fish-men in the water prison had never been lower than three digits. There was no way around it; this creature was too useful—it had intelligence, yet could not be enslaved or effectively communicated with.

On an altar in the laboratory, Sakavi extended his intact dragon claw, forcing out a viscous liquid mixed with dragon blood and necromantic magic from his fingertips. This liquid, as if possessing life, wound and flowed on the ground under his claws, outlining a precise and eerie formation.

The main body of the formation was a twisted inverted pentagram, symbolizing the subversion of conventional order and the reverse transmission of power. In each angle and embedded circle of the pentagram, it was filled with ancient dragon language runes representing "pain transfer," "life link," and "contract fulfillment." The entire formation emitted an ominous, oppressive aura mixed with dragon might and the special fishy smell of the murlocs.

And beneath the altar, where a groove connected to the base, a larger but relatively simpler subordinate formation was depicted. This formation was drawn with cheap but highly magic-conductive Abyssal moss mud mixed with Kuo-toa blood, presenting a murky dark green color.

The formation structure consisted of multiple repeating, twisted chain-link symbols, filled with general slavery runes representing "life," "connection," and "bearing," as well as the rough evil emblems of the Kuo-toa community. Its main function was to bind, amplify pain, and extract life.

Dozens of Kuo-toa were restrained by thick black iron chains at various nodes of this subordinate formation, moving uneasily, instinctively feeling fear.

With the low chanting of ancient dragon language, the runes on the entire obsidian platform lit up one by one, the dark green light flickering like breathing. The drawn lines seemed to come alive, beginning to pulsate like blood vessels. A powerful energy field was established, closely connecting Sakavi in the center of the formation with the terrified Kuo-toa on the secondary formation through the groove.

"Contract... effective!" Sakavi let out a low dragon roar, taking the residual holy light power belonging to Bishop Ignatius that was raging in his body and the severe trauma on his flesh as a "curse concept," and through the amplification and transformation of the formation, along the invisible soul contract channel, forcibly guided it into the Kuo-toa's bodies!

In an instant, those Kuo-toa restrained by chains let out shrieks of extreme pain that could not have been emitted by any creature in this world! On their slippery skin, large patches of charred and cracked burn scars identical to those on Sakavi's body appeared out of thin air, as if invisible holy fire was burning their souls and bodies.

At the same time, a reversible change also occurred on Sakavi's body; those charred scars peeled off rapidly, revealing the newly grown, even darker scales beneath. On the tattered dragon wings, the bone wings accelerated their healing under the infusion of life energy. His weak aura stabilized and strengthened at an astonishing speed, and his soul fire burned again.

Sakavi, having regained his strength, did not intend to show himself now. Behind every seemingly accidental event, there is a deeper game. Releasing the news of his serious injury "accidentally" could allow him to see the reactions of the personnel within his territory and the various forces of the Red Moon.

Since he didn't know who leaked the situation of Gelapu, he might as well muddy the waters to see who would be the first to lose their composure. The Drow elves within the territory who were already restless and newly surrendered could also take this opportunity to be properly disciplined, so that if something really happened one day, they wouldn't be playing various small tricks behind his back.

One day a month later, the door to the laboratory was suddenly kicked open. Sakavi, sensing someone, hurriedly pretended to be sickly. "Stop pretending here, who are you trying to fool?" Seeing that Sakavi was still covered in burn marks and half-dead, Kelaosuna slapped him with a claw.

"How can you little girl be so heartless! Didn't you see I'm about to die? You actually beat a dragon who has suffered such heavy injuries. I'm going to report you to the Dragon Queen!"

"Is that so? Do you need me to send you there right now? Your gold coins will just belong to me."

"Daring to have designs on my gold coins, I guarantee I'll twist your head off. Is there any news from outside?"

"Yes, the Luo Sen Empire has sent people, asking you for an explanation. I said you were seriously injured and couldn't see anyone. The Black Forest side and Puge Lin have also sent people. Besides asking about your injuries, Ms. Ruiedena also had someone send healing potions, which are said to be made from the liver of a druid who failed to ascend to demigod, and the effect is very good."

"Kelaosuna, what do you think about this matter? Which forces are active within the territory?"

"Ruiedena's attitude feels like she doesn't want anything to happen to your side. Puge Lin just came to see the situation. There were some cities on the Drow elf side that were causing trouble, but they have already been suppressed. The Black Forest currently seems to support us in this regard."

"I think the biggest problem is the Black Forest side. Don't trust anyone too much in anything. Without a relationship of interest, no one will be that attentive. Is there any news about Gelapu recently?"

"It is said that Gelapu's execution time has been delayed, and the specific day has not been found out yet. I suspect someone intends to use this matter to plot against us, or this was a trap from the beginning."

"It seems our reaction exceeded some people's expectations, but that doesn't matter, they will always take the initiative to find us. Alright, I'm going to continue sleeping. If people from Duofeng ask you, you just insist that the old man is in Shattered Skull City, and say you don't know anything else.

Also, monitor the management personnel within the territory well. I want to see who intends to take the opportunity to defect to others or intends to donate money and run away while I am in a bad state. I will clear these people out one by one later. We are no longer short of management personnel now, and some people should make room."

"Then you are going to have a major reshuffle, because except for those who graduated from Aguerike Academy, others have quite a few small tricks, especially those gray dwarves in the Dragon Spine Mountains. It has been so many years, and there are still quite a few low-level believers who are influenced by Diluoke and constantly launch various small-scale rebellions, which is a headache."

"Those guys who are even disliked by the gray dwarves themselves can't cause any big trouble, don't worry about them. Focus your attention on the Drow elves; they have deep connections and interest entanglements with Drow elves in other places, and I'm afraid they are going to plot some conspiracy during this time."

After coming out of Sakavi's laboratory, Kelaosuna had to go to deal with Prince Luduonuofu of the Luo Sen Empire again. He expressed great dissatisfaction with burning people's cathedrals under the name of his own brother.

Regarding the matter of Kelaosuna handing over Bishop Ignatius, the two sides had negotiated dozens of times, but there was still no progress. Luduonuofu stated that Luo Sen had no obligation to clean up the mess Sakavi caused, and it was even more impossible to spend money to redeem this captured Bishop.

In fact, Seninede was also under great pressure, unable to hand over the person, and did not dare to really tear his face with the Duofeng side, and could not drag it on. But fortunately, the various forces on the Red Moon Plane did not welcome the strong leader Luodeman, and in this matter, they were basically willing to support Seninede, which could be considered good news. ===== CHAPTER 63 =====