Chapter 421

Dawn Fortress.

In the side hall stood three corpses.

From left to right were Alex, whose brain had been pierced; Ande, covered in wounds; and a prostitute whose chest had been pierced.

Chairman Savos of the Mage Guild examined each one, while listening to the report from the Guard's First Regiment Commander.

When he finished looking, the Regiment Commander's briefing also ended.

"Chairman, that's the whole process."

Savos remained silent.

His examination matched the Regiment Commander's report exactly.

In other words, his daughter, in a moment of impulse, committed a terribly serious foolish act.

She simply ran away, and he now has to clean up this damned mess.

"Freeze Alex's corpse for preservation, burn the prostitute's corpse. As for Ande... burn him too."

"Yes, Chairman."

The Regiment Commander did not rush away; he asked cautiously, "Chairman, that lady..."

"You go yourself, bring people and capture her back."

He hesitated briefly, Savos inhaled deeply, and added,

"You must bring her back, alive or dead!"

"Yes, Chairman!"

The Guard's Regiment Commander turned and went to carry out the order.

Savos was in a terrible mood, feeling anger, frenzy, and fear, with fear dominating, almost consuming his entire soul.

He indeed adored Natalie, for this daughter was born to him in his youth with his first wife, the only woman he ever loved.

However, he does not have only one child.

If he wishes, he can continue raising children.

Since Natalie committed an irredeemable foolish act, he can only abandon her.

The most important thing now is how to report to Count Gontkin.

Indeed, the envoys the Count sent are absurd, but they can warn him, slight him, even quietly punish him, yet they must never kill him.

That is the bottom line.

If the bottom line is crossed, an extremely terrifying punishment will be triggered, countless lives will be ended, and even the entire Grey City could be destroyed.

Thus, at this moment Savos feels like an ant placed on a hot pan.

And just as the Chairman of the Dawn Eye is frantic, a nondescript wooden house stands on the edge of Grey City.

Luosen and the Joyful Apostle Liff stood side by side at the second‑floor window, their gazes sweeping over the battle mages sprinting by.

Liff was stabbed with a dagger by Luosen, but it never hit any vital spot.

Given her constitution, she recovered within minutes, then found a freshly dead corpse in the alleys to use as a substitute.

She wasn't at all worried about being exposed, because no one would care about a prostitute's exact identity.

Luosen's part was even simpler.

Ande, the Dawn Hand's corpse was still there; following the scene's conditions, a simple handling would suffice.

"Your Majesty, without external aid, Natalie cannot get far before being captured."

Natalie's 15‑ring power is indeed strong, but as long as she carries Yueliangcheng's artifact, she can be easily tracked.

If she abandons the Yueliangcheng artifact, her power will drop dramatically, making her no match for a Guard battle mage.

Luosen, of course, knew this, smiling, "I'll go help her in a moment. As for you, when can you regain control of a brothel?"

After such an incident, the Joyful Little Bird naturally couldn't stay here and had to relocate.

Liff laughed, "Soon—no more than three days."

She paused, then asked, "Lately, a brand‑new cult has been spreading covertly through Grey City's alleys, called the End Times Church, worshipping a deity known as the 'End Times Savior.'"

"The cult's followers move covertly, yet their infiltration ability is very strong; although their current influence is modest, they are growing at a frightening rate,"

"Your Majesty, do you have any countermeasures?"

Obviously, this so‑called End Times Savior is the codename for the Oblivion Goddess.

In fact, it is the 5‑ring Supreme Deity, whose divine power is overwhelming, methods superb, experience vast, especially its brain‑washing infiltration ability, which Luosen cannot match.

Not to mention its terrifying pair of eyes like black holes, which can easily shatter a mortal's mental defenses, causing instinctive reverence.

Luosen felt that unless he equipped his core followers with Radiant Scepters, these believers would remain unsafe, potentially being turned into End Times adherents at any moment.

The only good news is that the Oblivion Goddess's true form remains in another world; otherwise Luosen would have no chance of victory.

Of course, such dire circumstances can dampen his followers' morale; he only needs to be clear about it himself.

As for his followers, he must continue to paint grand visions to inspire their fighting spirit.

So he gave a slight smile, "Of course there is a countermeasure."

He raised his hand, his fingers moving gently; as light swirled at his fingertips, another protective aura ring formed.

"I already vaguely sense the presence of primal essence and can slightly harness its power,"

"Perhaps my power is insufficient, but I possess a massive number of followers, who constantly supply me with primal essence. This allows me to forge soul‑protecting artifacts for each follower."

Liff was quite shocked, "Your Majesty, are you about to ignite the Divine Flame?"

"Almost there, just a final step. With good luck, perhaps a month; with bad luck, at most half a year."

This was an uplifting piece of news, filling Liff with great confidence.

She immediately said, "Your Majesty, I will closely monitor the development of the End Times Church."

Luosen smiled, "I will also closely watch over your soul, ensuring you never face that Great One alone."

After saying that, he stretched: "Alright, Natali is quite confused about her future; I need to guide her." Lifu immediately said: "May Your Majesty succeed in winning the bet."

Soon after, the two sides began to act separately.

One stayed in Grey City to continue gathering intelligence, while the other directly teleported.

In a flash of darkness then light, Luosen appeared near Natali, watching her sprint wildly through the wilderness.

She clearly knew the positioning function of the Yueliangcheng artifact, and had already thrown it away.

At this point, she fled through the wilderness relying solely on her own strength.

But she clearly overestimated her own ability.

Less than an hour had passed, and this young lady of the Dawn Eye had already lost her splendid appearance.

Her neatly combed hair became disheveled, her snow-white cheeks were stained with many smudges, her splendid dress was splattered with mud, grass juice, and blood, and many places were torn.

Although she was out of breath from running, she dared not pause even slightly, nor allow any distraction.

Running while looking left and right, her spirit was tense to the extreme.

Luosen could tell at a glance that her wilderness survival skills were far inferior to Aoliangde's.

At her current state, she would be caught by the pursuing troops behind within at most five hours.

But without enduring genuine hardship, it is difficult to forge a resolute will.

So, Luosen merely watched from the side.

Now, under the nourishment of the core divine fire, the speed of increase in his outer soul strength has greatly accelerated, and it keeps getting faster.

He has already broken through to the 21st ring, reaching the top mortal level of the 23rd ring, possibly needing less than a month.

He even worries that his power is too strong, making it impossible to remain in the mortal realm, forcing him to find a way to slow his power's increase.

Such power, to look after a mortal, is naturally effortless, consuming less than a tenth of his attention.

So, he hid in the dark watching Natalie while pondering the situation in Grey City.

Currently, Grey City has three major forces.

One is the Dawn Eye, one is the Dragon Mountain Brotherhood, and one is the Doomsday Cult.

The Dawn Eye itself is not frightening; what is frightening is the high-energy power behind Yueliangcheng.

Once high-energy power intervenes, it can easily wipe Grey City off the map.

Luosen believes that some big shots in Yueliangcheng are very willing to do that, because they would love to see all ordinary people on the ground dead.

Even a true god would find it hard to directly resist the strike of high-energy power, and can only evade its edge using arcane techniques.

Because the greatest gap between the high-energy empire and a true god lies not in the amount of power, but in the control of power.

A true god excels at fine control of power, but after all is still a living being, and cannot physically withstand the high-energy war weapons forged by state power.

So, if Yueliangcheng really wants to overturn the table with high-energy weapons, Luosen can only watch and cannot stop it.

"Now the Dawn Eye has killed Yueliangcheng's envoy; I must guard against Yueliangcheng taking action."

"How to guard against it? Luosen of course has a way."

He quietly contacted Adela, briefly introduced the situation in the city, and then asked:

"Dear, what do you think Count Gentgold will do?"

Adela replied that she would arrive immediately.

"Based on my understanding of the count, he will severely punish the Dawn Eye but will not destroy Grey City, because he needs the city's residents to gather various rare materials from the surface ruins, such as the high-energy material obsidian gold."

This answer relieved Luosen, and he asked again: "If Grey City changes hands, what will Count Gentgold do?"

"He will send family warriors to the mortal realm to cleanse the rebels, then reinstall a proxy."

"Are you sure?"

"I'm sure, because the count has done this before."

Luosen then asked: "How strong are the family warriors? Does it violate the Empress's ban?"

"Of course not, but the family warriors each have an average of 15-ring souls, numbering over 300, and all are equipped with armor forged from eternal obsidian gold and eternal essence staves capable of unleashing up to 18-ring power, a force far beyond what the mortal realm can resist."

"Although the Empress knows, she cannot say much either, after all the count has not violated the ban."

Luosen figured it out, then asked: "What does the Empress think of me?"

This time, Adela took a full five seconds to reply.

"The Empress said she wants to carefully observe your every word and deed."

"During this time, she has been observing, occasionally spacing out in thought, and has never expressed an evaluation."

Luosen chuckled: "Observing me? I think I hide well; she might not be able to watch me all the time, right?"

"Indeed, if she can see, she watches; if she can't, she waits for you to appear. After all, you haven't been hiding all the time, have you?"

"That's not bad; let's leave it at that for now."

After ending the communication, Luosen again examined the source-knowledge given by The Joyful One.

There is a lot of this knowledge; as he read, he silently verified each point in his mind, finding every piece highly reliable and usable directly.

"The Joyful One has produced the real thing; it helps me enormously, and I will surely repay her later."

This knowledge greatly saves his time, enabling him to quickly improve the structure of divine fire, forge more powerful source artifacts, and create his own core divine technique.

And these are precisely his current shortcomings, so he studies them with increasing focus.

Time passed second by second; in the blink of an eye, another four or more hours had gone by.

Natalie became increasingly disheveled, her strength nearly exhausted, she sprained her left ankle, which swelled up like a steamed bun, greatly hindering her pace.

Looking at the pursuers behind, they were less than five kilometers away and had already discovered her traces.

"It's almost time for me to appear. Wait, it seems I'm not the only one who wants this young lady."

The Goddess of Annihilation also wants her.

(End of chapter)