Free Web NovelChapter 628: Chapter 358: The Empire’s Response, the Beginning of Conflict (Part 2)
"It seems like there will be a lot of trouble ahead."
"We need to return as soon as possible."
Thor sighed softly and shook his head involuntarily.
Even he could feel the magnitude of the problem.
There are issues on the Empire’s side, and problems on the Kingdom’s side.
At the same time, the entire continent is fraught with issues.
The intertwining of these matters made Thor feel a sense of entanglement that was difficult to unravel, even with the advantage of his Golden Finger.
He was unsure of what the Empire intended to do.
Nor was he certain if the Kingdom had a countermeasure.
Perhaps it did.
After all, without one, it’s hard to explain the situation clearly.
But clearly, even if there were solutions, the losses on the ground level would be unimaginable.
Maybe for the Empire, and even for the Kingdom, such losses would be within acceptable limits.
But Thor clearly did not wish for these losses to affect him or those connected to him.
Initially, he had planned to stay in the Elf Realm for a while, compared to his own territory, this place was indeed more suitable for cultivation, especially for insights into the Life Law; even though the Life Festival had concluded, gaining insights into the Life Law here was evidently more rapid.
Nevertheless, things seemed a bit off at the moment, so it was naturally better to return soon.
Thoughts swirled in his mind.
Meanwhile, the sky gradually darkened.
Thor glanced around, then collected his thoughts and began his cultivation once more.
Even though he had already broken through to the Divine Domain, Thor still did not reduce his training time.
Day after day.
The night deepened.
Until a familiar mechanical voice rang in his ears.
"Daily intelligence system updated!"
"Would you like to open it?"
"Open!"
The words sounded.
The next moment, familiar text began to flicker before Thor’s eyes.
[Daily intelligence updated]
[1: Deities from the Abyss are about to descend; the interior of the Natural Forest has turned into a sea of blood.]
.......
The refreshed daily intelligence passed under Thor’s gaze, and by the time his sight reached the last entry, he couldn’t help but pause, a hint of shock appearing in his expression.
The night gradually passed.
A new day arrived.
In the following days.
Thor did not choose to re-enter Canaan Academy but stayed beneath the Ancient Tree of Life, engaging in cultivation.
Since he had gained insights into the Life Law, the Elf Queen permitted him to remain under the Ancient Tree of Life indefinitely.
About to leave, Thor did not intend to waste time.
Especially after gaining some understanding about the upcoming tournament from the daily intelligence the previous day, there was even less reason for concern.
Time moved slowly forward.
In the blink of an eye, two days had passed.
During these two days.
Thor was completely absorbed in cultivation.
The daily intelligence also refreshed twice more.
However, since nothing had changed, these two updates didn’t contain any special matters.
By the third day.
Thor took a deep breath, stepping again into Canaan Academy.
Compared to before, Canaan Academy was undoubtedly quieter.
After the first and second rounds concluded, most people had no chance to enter the third round and left early. Only a few awaited the third round, which was a contest for the top one hundred of the academy ranking.
But evidently, they were destined to be disappointed.
For the contest for the top one hundred in the third round, it was no longer a tournament match.
Instead, a new competition mode was unveiled.
When the competition rules emerged, everyone was a bit stunned.
Of course, aside from Thor.
Two days ago, he already knew the competition rules.
"Clear out Church of Gods’ strongholds."
Thor’s whispered words carried a hint of gravity.
As he had previously anticipated, arrangements had long been made on the Empire’s side.
And he was undoubtedly part of it.
Among the top one hundred students at Canaan Academy.
Each was a Divine Domain-level existence, with strength that, even if not at the middle Divine Domain tier, was nearly close to it.
This kind of strength was not insignificant within the entire Empire, and within the Kingdoms of the entire continent, it was absolute upper-echelon strength.
With this level of force, it was enough to sweep through most of the Church of Gods’ existence.
Moreover, unbeknownst to them, in addition to this force, the Empire also mobilized the elite members of the Dragon Knight Order, the Flying Tiger Knight Order, and the Savary Knight Order.
Additionally, hidden Divine Domain-level individuals within the Empire were also about to take action.
As for why they waited until now.
One reason was certainly to wait for all Church of Gods members to show themselves.
The other reason was these descending deities’ Divinities.
At the Imperial Canaan Academy, it was rare to take the path of gaining Divinity to become a God.
After all, such a future was almost entirely restricted.
Gaining a Lower-Rank God Divinity to become a god meant one was virtually unable to cross into the Middle Rank God status.
Unless one could wield a Middle Rank God Divinity, and it had to be sufficiently compatible.
Geniuses almost all condensed Divinities on their own.
But that applies to geniuses.
The Empire is too vast.
To ignite the Divine Fire, to condense Divinity, is an occurrence of one in ten thousand, and something must give people hope.
This is especially true within the military.
Vast quantities of Divinity are the greatest harvest for the Two Great Empires.
This time, a sizable batch of divinities was offered by deities, and they naturally had no objection to accepting them with a smile.
As for the losses at the ground level, for the Two Great Empires, they are acceptable.
After all, in a feudal era, one can’t truly expect the upper echelons to care about the life and death of the common people.
In this regard, Thor could do nothing to change it.
He even guessed this situation, thanks to the daily intelligence refresh over the past few days, otherwise, even now, he might not know these things.
"Hah!"
Exhaling a deep breath, Thor couldn’t help but sigh.
He then temporarily pulled his thoughts together, his gaze turning to the light screen before him.
At this moment, the light screen projected a large map.
On the map were numerous red dots.
Each red dot represented a stronghold of the Church of Gods.
As the third-round competition, their task was to clear out these Church of Gods’ strongholds.
A stronghold with a Sky Knight from the Church of Gods was worth one point, a Holy Sanctuary was worth ten points, a Divine Domain was worth a hundred points, a Lower-Rank God was worth ten thousand points, and a Middle Rank God was worth a hundred thousand points.
As for above the Middle Rank God, there was no display.
Evidently, they were not something they could handle, so there wasn’t even a display.
Currently, Thor’s focus was not on this, but on those red dots.
The map given by Canaan Academy was highly detailed, and even the size of the red dots varied significantly.
The larger the red dot, the stronger the strength of the stronghold, conversely, the smaller the red dot, the weaker it was.
Thor scanned over them one by one.
From the Macedonian Kingdom, across to the Sarca Kingdom, Black Rider Kingdom, Sela Kingdom, and finally, his gaze settled upon the Tulip Kingdom, the Blazing Kingdom, and the Purple Gold Flower Kingdom.
Compared to other countries, Thor was currently more concerned about these Three Northern Countries, or more precisely, the Tulip Kingdom and the Tulip Kingdom.
There’s no need to mention the Tulip Kingdom; it’s his base of operations, and as for the Purple Gold Flower Kingdom, in recent times, the Eagle Merchant Association has gradually extended its reach into the Purple Gold Flower Kingdom’s territory. Thor naturally did not wish for the Purple Gold Flower Kingdom to encounter trouble, as it would affect many of his future Laws.
As his gaze converged.
Thor couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief.
As he anticipated, the situation in the Purple Gold Flower Kingdom and Tulip Kingdom was not as dire as he had imagined.
Compared to the other densely red-pointed grids, the combined red points of the two kingdoms didn’t even exceed those of the Sarca Kingdom alone.
And the Sarca Kingdom’s red points were not the most numerous among the entire continent.
In quite a few kingdoms, the red dots almost completely blanketed their territories; evidently, these nations had been entirely infiltrated by the Church of Gods.
Of course, this was quite normal.
The chaos caused by the Church of Gods had persisted for quite some time.
Not every nation could withstand it.
