Chapter 593

Gods in the Heavenly Realm, having to act personally is quite the losing proposition.

Once he acted personally, the power weakened tenfold while the expenditure increased tenfold; one up and one down, it was equivalent to paying a hundredfold the price.

Anyone could do this math — far too uneconomical!

But the god of the small empire had no choice.

The battle avatar used the vast amount of rules this god had comprehended as its shell, packed full of immense divine power; compared to the divine avatar of the Horton Kingdom, its combat strength was even greater.

Moreover, unlike a divine avatar, once it reached the Sanctuary realm, there would be Sanctuary experts peering at the complete rules within.

The rules inside the battle avatar were not complete, but there were many of them, so it could not attract the attention of powerful Sanctuary experts.

Incomplete rules may not even fuse with one's own power attributes — what's the use of mastering them?

But complete rules were a different story.

Moreover, generally only gods who had reached the third tier could descend a battle avatar.

The Sanctuary experts on the Continent of the Gods were still unwilling to provoke a third-tier god.

The god of the Purple Gold Empire, after ruling over the Purple Gold Empire for nearly a hundred years, had clearly only just reached the third tier not long ago.

And that battle avatar's strength was at least Sanctuary-level!

The matter of the Purple Gold Empire's god descending a battle avatar was not trumpeted far and wide.

The more powerful the god, the more cautious he was.

For the Purple Gold Empire's god, he absolutely could not afford to lose this battle, and his battle avatar was his greatest trump card — the later the trump card was revealed, the better the effect!

However, to steady the National Preceptor's heart, the National Preceptor was still let in on it.

"I never expected the Purple Gold Empire's god to be so generous. This battle looks like a sure victory. That human legendary mage is quite a prize — the Church's Holy Son cannot touch women, so I wonder if, by offering faith as the price, I could take that mage for myself…"

After feeling victory was in his grasp, the National Preceptor actually began scheming against Mengying.

"We can't escape, Bishop my lord, what do we do? My god no longer has any surplus power to descend!"

Within the Silver Sand Kingdom, an army fled in panic toward the border.

Contrary to what the Purple Gold Empire had imagined.

After Mengying and the others conquered the three great kingdoms, they did not rush to attack the Purple Gold Empire.

Instead, they were hunting down the remaining forces of the three great kingdoms.

Each of these three great kingdoms still had over three hundred thousand remnant troops, and these remnant troops were no weaklings.

After all, those who survived to the end of the war — how could the weak ones have managed it?

Among them were Church armies and royal armies, all elite troops without equal.

Mengyingbu Society would not leave them behind to cause trouble in the rear.

As for the Purple Gold Empire taking the chance to recover some strength, Mengying was not worried.

On the contrary, she actually hoped the Purple Gold Empire could gather a bit more force, so she could catch them all in one net.

This was also the plan she received approval for after praying to her god — her god, the great Lord of Flames.

Right now there was still about half a month left before the one-month deadline.

There was plenty of time, so Mengying planned to spend a few days clearing out all the hidden dangers.

While pursuing the three great kingdoms' remnant troops, the flying-ship forces revealed themselves.

The large contingent of winged-human troops in the sky could track their movements.

The flying ships split into three groups, each leading over a hundred thousand people in pursuit — more than enough.

In just two days, the three great kingdoms' remnant troops had been hunted down until only a small number of Church forces remained, darting here and there in hiding.

The rest — dead were dead, surrendered were surrendered.

And the gods of the three great kingdoms, in their clash with the Purple Gold Empire's god, had their divine power drained far too much; after descending power several times only to be easily blocked by Mengying, Sister Qing Ling and the others, the three great kingdoms' gods no longer had any surplus power to descend.

Perhaps these three great kingdoms' gods also felt there was nothing more they could do.

No choice — three kingdoms, sandwiched and attacked by two small empires; holding out this long was already impressive.

"Run, run into the Endless Desert!"

That Church army was composed entirely of Temple Knights, very fast; with the aid of concealment magic, they fled swiftly toward the Endless Desert.

"Holy Maiden, how are things on your end?"

In the sky, Mengying flew while asking through a magic message.

These armies had scattered in all directions; without flying ships, pursuing them would not have been easy.

To finish them all off as quickly as possible, even the legendary-tier Mengying personally took the field to pursue.

"Basically all caught. I just asked the Eldest Princess's side — they've also caught nearly all of theirs."

The fox-woman Sister Qing Ling sent back a reply.

"I still have a few small bands of troops here. You all first use the flying ships to transport the prisoners back to the Flame Empire; once I finish these off, we can move against the Purple Gold Empire."

Mengying said.

The two women ended the communication.

Mengying soon caught up with another army of several thousand; under the threat of high-powered magic, this Church army finally stopped fleeing and came to a halt.

The reason the Silver Sand Kingdom took a bit more time was that its high-end strength had been preserved relatively intact, and when fleeing for their lives, they had split into many small bands scattering in all directions, increasing the difficulty of pursuit.

Mengying chased them all the way like this, spending the better part of a day, and caught up with two more bands of troops.

"One more band."

Mengying murmured to herself.

That was the last band, and also the strongest; though few in number, if left to exist, even just one or two thousand of them could cause a great deal of trouble when the Flame Empire and the Purple Gold Empire clashed.

Just like how the thousand-strong force Mengying once led had caused havoc on Lion Tribe territory.

"Reporting to Her Majesty the Queen, my people detected magical fluctuations on the road toward the Endless Desert — they should be fleeing toward the Endless Desert under the cover of a powerful mage."

At this moment, a female winged human came to report.

"They fled toward the Endless Desert!"

Meng Ying flew toward that direction.

While Meng Ying flew toward the Endless Desert, much of the day passed, and this powerful force had already penetrated deep into the Endless Desert.

"My lord, what should we do? Should we cross the Endless Desert?"

A temple knight asked.

The Guodezhu Sect's bishop gazed at the boundless yellow sands and said, "We have no choice. Beyond the Endless Desert lies a backward orc nation—we can seize it."

"My lord, I've heard the depths of the Endless Desert are Full of Dangers. Are we truly going deep inside?"

At this moment, another temple knight spoke.

"It's just a desert—what danger could there be?"

The earlier-speaking temple knight rebutted.

The bishop looked at the endless yellow sands and said, "Ordinary armies still have a chance to survive, but if we're caught by our pursuers, we have no chance at all. So this is our only option. My magic bag holds enough food and water. Anyone unwilling to cross the Endless Desert with us may leave."

After speaking, he glanced around.

Those around him were all the church's core members—few in number, barely over a thousand.

No one wished to leave.

"Since no one wishes to leave, let's go. Don't travel in a straight line—avoid giving our pursuers a trail."

After speaking, the bishop led the way forward.

The Endless Desert was vast; the Three Kingdoms had once sent Seventh-Rank mage-tutors flying over it from the sky, taking considerable time to reach the other side, so they knew beyond the Endless Desert lay a backward orc nation, and beyond that orc nation lay a human kingdom.

With the strength of the Three Human Kingdoms, they still could not cross the Endless Desert to conquer that orc nation.

Remember, even the Xiling Kingdom had been blocked by the Misty Mountain Range.

And the Endless Desert was far more dangerous than the Misty Mountain Range.

Thus, though they knew of it, they never entertained any thoughts of the orc nation.

Now, it was a desperate last resort.

This force of over a thousand was powerful, mostly Third-Rank temple knights, with some Fourth-Rank temple knights, and the bishop himself possessed Seventh-Rank power.

If they crossed the Endless Desert and the orc nation remained as it had been over a year ago, they might truly conquer it.

Unfortunately, they could never have imagined that the orc nation on the other side was no longer the same as before.

Under the bishop's leadership, the army constantly altered its course.

In the desert, once the wind blew, no footprints remained.

In such a vast desert, Meng Ying chased them for three full days yet never caught up.

With the strength of this army, their marching speed was extremely fast—they had now penetrated more than a thousand kilometers into the Endless Desert.