Volume Four: Fading from the World - Chapter 304: The Plan

"Hmm~ Be a good girl and open your sacred domain here, don't move around~"

"Yes, yes, Master... Woof!"

The Saintess, now completely submissive, was kneeling in the center of the room, her hands clasped together, seemingly in prayer. As time passed, a faint silver light emanated from her body, expanding until it formed a silver, bowl-shaped shield that enveloped her.

This is a smaller version of the Boundary Protection Saint Domain of Torres City. Each Saintess is given the divine power to open the sanctuary, but the range that one person can open is very limited.

Nid -chan, who is not good at handling matters between men and women, still did not return under the pretext of inspecting the army. Gathered here are me, Haoyue, Loxue, Uncle Brad, and Xiao.

"... Wait, Xiao, when did you show up?"

"That's outrageous! I clearly finished dealing with the orphans and came to see you a long time ago, didn't you even notice?"

"Waaah," she sobbed, looking at me with tears in her eyes, but the training over the past few days had already made my skin as thick as a city wall.

"Hmm... let's start the experiment then, Doggy, stick your paws out."

Standing outside the sacred realm, Haoyue extended her hand with a mysterious smile. The Saintess hurriedly raised her hand—or rather, extended her hand—and her delicate hand easily passed through the sacred realm's light barrier to reach the outside world.

"Good boy, good boy, here, have a bone to gnaw on~"

Haoyue actually pulled out one of those big bone sticks that only appear in comics! Seriously, where did you get that from? It looks like it's under the high slit of your cheongsam?

"Catch!"

With a gentle toss, the bone spun towards the light shield, and then—it was bounced away.

"As expected, the fundamental characteristic of the Holy Domain—'allowing objects inside to come out, but prohibiting objects outside from entering without permission'—will never change..." Loxue muttered to herself, resting her chin on her hand.

"But there must be a way to get past this barrier, right?"

"The simplest and most direct way is to use brute force to destroy it, but that only works on small holy domains with a diameter of no more than 100 meters. For super-large holy domains that cover an entire city, it's not worth the effort, since it's too much trouble."

"However..." Haoyue waved his hand, and a dark ring of the black moon appeared on the ground. "As far as I know, my Eclipse Devour has extremely strong corrosive power, and tests have shown that it is indeed effective against the Holy Domain."

"Indeed, a few substances can counteract such a powerful barrier, but the safest method is to have informants infiltrate the city beforehand to sabotage the Holy Land from within, and then coordinate with the main force to break through the Holy Land. This was the method used when attacking Torres City, but the same method will definitely be guarded against by the Holy See, and cannot be repeated in the short term."

"Yes... but is Sadington City really that difficult to conquer?"

"Believe me, although that city isn't the provincial capital, its defenses are two to three times stronger than those of the provincial capital."

Sadington City itself is not a very large city, but its garrison is larger than that of even the provincial capital.

Sadington, a strategically important city.

Located at the intersection of three provinces, this area is where three major canals, considered lifelines of water transport, converge. Its unique geographical features make it a transshipment hub for many transportation and trade routes. Coupled with its abundant resources and easily defensible terrain, it has become one of the most strategic locations on the west side of the main road.

"If we take Sadington City, we'll control the stepping stone to Gloria, and we might even be able to bring forward the final battle!"

"But how? Find a way to nullify the Sanctuary and then launch a surprise attack?"

"I've considered many options, but all of them would inevitably involve significant sacrifices," Loxue sighed. "So... in the end, I thought of you."

"Are you finally going to use me?"

"That's right. I want you and the Seventh Division, skilled in covert operations, to infiltrate Sadington City as inside agents. When the war begins, you will cooperate with us to annihilate the enemy, while the Seventh Division will guard the Great Teleportation Array to prevent reinforcements from coming through the Cathedral of the True God."

"Sounds simple... Wait, what's a large teleportation array?"

"This is a super divine spell constructed using the power of the Truth Incantation. As its name suggests, it can teleport large numbers of troops or supplies over long distances. The last time Alan was able to get from the Cathedral of the True God to Torres City was because our inside man made a mistake in controlling the teleportation array."

"So, as long as the large teleportation array is shut down, Sadington City will be isolated?"

"Um..." ←Xiao

"That's right, but everything depends on thoroughly understanding the Sanctuary's weaknesses using Torres Saintess before considering how to lure the Revolutionary Army into Sadington."

I said...

"Just like last time, we'll successfully infiltrate and then destroy the Sanctuary from the inside. Can't we just let the Revolutionary Army in?"

"Well, actually..."

"Didn't I already say that the other side will definitely be on guard against the same method? Even if we succeed, we will pay a heavy price, after all, this is also a kind of forceful attack."

"Listen to me..."

"Try to keep things as quiet as possible... that's a difficult problem."

"I have..."

"Ugh, Xiao, you're so noisy! Be quiet!"

"What I'm trying to say is! I... I have a way!"

"""... ah?"""

Haoyue, Loxue, and I stared at her with expressions of disbelief.

"... Reading too much has finally damaged his brain?"

"They were already useless, so pitiful..."

"Should I call a medic to take a look at you?"

"What am I supposed to say?! Why was I suddenly labeled as 'useless' for no reason?!"

"Isn't that right?"

"I cried... No, no, let's get down to business! Ye, have you forgotten about my upgraded ability?"

"... Turning books into cushions or something?"

"It's being transmitted between books!"

"... ah!"

So, I did experience that once back in the capital! It's been so long I'd completely forgotten she even had that feature! (Author: cough I almost forgot too.)

"So, as long as you take a few of my books with you when you infiltrate, as teleportation terminals, and I stay here as the starting point, we can directly send the army into the city... probably."

The world suddenly spun around.

My head is spinning.

It died and then came back to life.

"Ugh... Waaaaah..."

I collapsed to the ground in agony, vomiting up everything I'd eaten that day, even the acid. My throat and stomach burned like fire. Ugh, my head is so dizzy... I feel like I'm going to throw up again—ugh!

Holy crap! I... no, I mean, I'm now the Supreme Blood Emperor Dragon Pride, so why can't I overcome my old motion sickness from Earth... It's so painful...

"Little Xiao Ye, what are you doing—"

"I'm okay... Ugh!"

"That's not good at all, Black Moon—"

"Wait a minute, Miss Tartaglia! Don't unleash your ultimate move over something so trivial!"

"You dare say that Xiao Ye's morning sickness is a minor issue!?"

"Morning vomit my ass--ugh!!!"

"Look, look, he threw up again! Who the hell did this?!..."

"She's just dizzy, calm down!!!"

"It's okay, don't worry about me... Waaah! Anyway, the experiment was a success!"

I am currently inside the Sanctuary, next to the bewildered Saintess.

Beside me was an open book.

There was also an open book next to Xiao.

Just now, Xiao had the Saintess temporarily open the Sacred Domain, put a book inside, and then closed it again. Using Xiao's special ability, I, on the outer layer, entered through the book on the outside and exited through the book on the inside, successfully crossing the Sacred Domain!

Although that dizzying feeling was like hell... oh my god, I feel like throwing up again.

"But this is fantastic!"

"Uh... Eh? Eh?"

After finally calming down the agitated Haoyue, Loxue pounced on her and hugged Xiao tightly, her face beaming with joy.

"I never imagined such talent existed! This makes things much simpler! All we need are books—"

"No, no, that's not right! Not just any book will do! I can only transfer people or objects between books that have passed through my hands and that I've read. Books that haven't even been touched can't be used as mobile terminals! Besides, if we need to move a large number of troops, we'd need at least a truckload of books!"

"I see... So, how fast are you at reading?"

"It'll be quick if you just flip through it once..."

"Let's start looking now! I'll be in charge of collecting the books, and you'll flip through each one! As long as we can get the books into the city..."

"This... cough cough... I, I have a way," I swayed as I stood up and walked out of the Sanctuary, dodging Haoyue's flying hug. "After the questioning just now, I learned that the Sanctuary has a special entrance for vehicles. As long as you pass the security check with divine magic, you can get through... So all we need to do is get a big truck full of books, disguise it as a book delivery, and Haoyue, Xiao Wu, and I can hide in the truck and sneak in..."

"But how do you get through security... ah!"

"Didn't the dog... oh wait, Miss Saintess, say that guards usually don't board the car to check, they only question the driver and then use divine magic to scan the car for any living people or contraband that shouldn't be there? I think 'meat' and the like shouldn't be considered contraband, right?"

"Then I'll get two trucks, one to transport the books Miss Xiao has read, and the other to transport fresh meat and other ingredients. You can use your special ability to hide in the meat truck."

"As expected of Loxue, she understands very quickly. But I have a question."

"Please speak."

"Why are you in such a hurry to capture another city? To be honest, Torres hasn't fully stabilized yet."

"On the one hand, there's the issue of striking first or second. If we spend too much time on the cities we've already captured, the Papacy will definitely take the initiative and send troops to retake the province, putting us in a passive defensive position. So it's better to strike while the iron is hot. On the other hand—and most importantly—is the timing."

"Opportunity?"

"That's right, soon it will be the triennial event for Sadington City and the surrounding area."

"A scaled-down version of the Olympics, held every three years?"

"What's the Olympics...? It's the Holy Spirit Festival! It's similar to a carnival, but much, much grander. Although security will definitely be tighter throughout the city, the chaos of the festival will still be the perfect opportunity for our raid! And every Holy Spirit Festival will definitely have a Saintess or Archbishop from a neighboring province in attendance. If we're lucky, we might even capture one alive!"

"I'm going to be busy again..."

"Oh, right, there's something I forgot to mention. The Rakshasa Divine Sect people will arrive in a couple of days, just before you set off. You'll have a good chance to meet them. As a high-ranking member of the Revolutionary Army, don't forget to show your face then!"

"!!!"

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There will be an extra chapter today!