Chapter 751: The Holy Maiden

"Queen Tina is coming to visit in half a month?"

In the capital of the Flame Empire, Meng Ying said with slight surprise.

More than a month had passed since Meng Ying last attended Queen Tina's thousand-year birthday.

When Meng Ying left the Eternal Night Empire, Queen Tina had said she would visit the Flame Empire soon.

Meng Ying had always thought Queen Tina was just being polite.

She never expected Queen Tina would actually come.

The fox woman Qing Ling nodded and said, "Sister Meng Ying, you'll host her when she arrives—you're more familiar with Queen Tina!"

Meng Ying nodded and said, "Alright."

The crown princess was also in this room.

The crown princess said, "Queen, Holy Maiden, Queen Tina has never visited any nation in a thousand years, rarely even leaves the Eternal Night Empire—why is she coming to us now?"

Meng Ying paused, then said, "Do you think it's connected to our suspicions that night?"

The crown princess said, "It's possible. The Eternal Night Empire has recently increased its grain purchases; some eastern provincial nobles have even tried to buy weapons forged by the dwarves from us. Combined with Queen Tina's unusual behavior, it all makes me suspect something big is about to happen in the Eternal Night Empire."

She shook her head again and added, "But maybe I'm overthinking it—a thousand-year-old empire, peaceful and prosperous, strong in power, surrounded by eighteen kingdoms as vassals, allied with another top-ten empire, and on good terms with several smaller empires—how could anything major happen?"

What she said made sense.

The Eternal Night Empire was immensely powerful—even the current Flame Empire fell short in many aspects.

The simplest example: population!

Meng Ying didn't know the exact population figures of the Eternal Night Empire; Queen Tina never seemed to care about such matters and never discussed them with Meng Ying.

But even without knowing, it was obvious: given the Eternal Night Empire's size, its population must number in the billions!

Whether over a billion or several billion, the population was terrifying.

Yet the Flame Empire had only three hundred million people!

That was the issue of depth.

A thousand-year-old empire had profound foundations.

Population growth couldn't be rushed—it took time to reproduce.

It took over a decade for an infant to grow into an adult.

Of course, if this trend continued, within a few decades the Flame Empire's population could multiply several times over, easily surpassing one billion or even two billion.

With the Flame Empire's current territory and grain output, one billion people could be fully supported.

Two billion wouldn't cause too much strain.

After all, the distance from the eastern border to the western border of the Flame Empire was over ten thousand kilometers!

And under the bonus of the Title of the Flame of Civilization, the Flame Empire's grain output was terrifyingly high.

Beyond population, the Eternal Night Empire also had an immense number of powerful cultivators, and housed the Holy Magic Academy—a magic academy existing for a thousand years, which had produced not just a few Saint Domains, but even… a God!

Moreover, the Eternal Night Empire had never made many enemies; it was peaceful and prosperous, blessed by the gods, with favorable weather and few natural disasters.

From any angle, the Eternal Night Empire showed no signs of major upheaval.

Of course, this was only if comparing the Flame Empire and the Eternal Night Empire directly.

In terms of population and some foundational strengths, the Flame Empire couldn't match the Eternal Night Empire.

But in many other aspects, it had surpassed the Eternal Night Empire.

After all, the Flame Empire's philosophy was completely different from that of the Eternal Night Empire.

Queen Dingna was powerful, but she was a native of the Continent of Gods, so the Eternal Night Empire was no different from other great empires on the Continent of Gods.

But the Flame Empire was different.

Lin Yan was a transmigrator.

So every person arriving in the Flame Empire was initially shocked by its novel features; but after living there for a while, they sensed the deeper differences!

Hearing the crown princess's words, Meng Ying said, "We have too few clues—Queen Dingna's intentions will be clear in half a month."

The crown princess nodded and said, "Mm."

The gathering quickly disbanded.

The fox woman Qing Ling continued handling state affairs.

Of course, she also devoted significant time to strengthening her own power.

Meng Ying continued refining her understanding of the Flame Rule.

Lin Yan had given her much help; although his special blessing was still on cooldown, he could use ordinary blessings to enhance her magical sensitivity.

Meng Ying could study the Flame Rule more effectively.

She could even gain a flame prepared by Lin Yan through prayer, bathing in it to deepen her understanding of the Flame Rule.

Under these conditions, Meng Ying's power rose rapidly.

At a speed unimaginable to other Saint Domains, she advanced toward the peak of the First Rank of Saint Domain.

Meanwhile, the crown princess, Princess Chenxi, Luomina, and Lin Yan's other Holy Maidens all trained hard to strengthen their power.

When Lin Yan burned the divine realm of Star God Hulington, the powerful Holy Spirits within were also reduced to ashes.

Not every Holy Spirit was strong.

Some Holy Spirits were weaker than even a Third or Fourth Rank mage in daily life.

Only during large-scale divine wars did the gods empower these Holy Spirits.

Still, there were dozens of powerful Holy Spirits within.

These powerful Holy Spirits contained abundant spiritual energy.

Lin Yan channeled all of this spiritual energy to nourish his Holy Maidens and some devout temple mages.

Among all the Celestial Gods, only Lin Yan could do this—because only he possessed Abyssal Demon Flame and could freely use it to burn the Holy Spirits' souls while preserving vast amounts of spiritual energy.

So, Lin Yan's Holy Maidens have all made considerable progress recently.

His Holy Maidens generally now possess Rank 8 strength.

Even Jena, the last to join, from the Hunhe Principality, has reached Rank 7.

Additionally, Lin Yan recently gained two new Holy Maidens.

One is Anne from the Eternal Night Empire; when the Crown Princess left the Eternal Night Empire, Anne followed her to the Flame Empire and continued studying under the Crown Princess.

But after living in the Flame Empire for over a month, she suddenly decided to become a Holy Maiden of the Flame Lord!

After passing the trial of devotional sincerity, this jewel of the eastern six provinces of the Eternal Night Empire formally dedicated her life to Lin Yan and became one of his Holy Maidens.

And Lin Yan's other Holy Maiden is the Fallen Elf, Anqi!

Angesite has been in the Dark Abyss for several months now.

Under Anqi's leadership, the Fallen Elves still guard the edge of that massive fissure.

As Lin Yan left the Dark Abyss, dark creatures have begun slowly crawling up from the fissure again.

These dark creatures emerging are not as numerous as when the fissure first shifted position.

Usually, only one stronger dark creature emerges every few days.

Whenever a dark creature crawls up, the Fallen Elves mercilessly kill them.

"The power is becoming harder to suppress."

During that time, Anqi also struggled.

Yes, her power was nearly beyond her control.

Not only her, but all the other Fallen Elves as well.

Remember, they have suppressed it for hundreds of years!

Once they can no longer suppress it, the more their power grows and the more dark energy they command, the more easily their minds will be corrupted.

"Anqi, what do we do? Without the Queen, we can't hold back our power anymore."

One Fallen Elf said to Anqi.

"Perhaps we should pray to the Flame Lord again."

Another Fallen Elf suggested.

After much consideration, Anqi finally decided to pray to the Flame Lord.

Soon after her prayer, Lin Yan descended a new flame.