More than half a month later, as reports kept arriving that the Blood Qin army was closing in step by step, the Western Continent was gripped by panic. Amid the chaos, Lin Qi led a large contingent from the Dragon Mountain Empire back at an unhurried pace, entering the already roughly established Dragon Mountain City.
Just as he had demanded of Lin Qi, Taimus, the God of Seasons, spared no effort in massively expanding the Church's armies within the Dragon Mountain Empire. In the thousands of churches scattered across the empire, major cathedrals generally expanded their forces to divisions of ten thousand men, while even the smallest village churches housed anywhere from dozens to hundreds of Church warriors.
This god of unknown origin truly did not hold back. Not only did he consolidate the Church's forces within the Dragon Mountain Empire, but he also stretched his claws into the empire's court. A group of minor and middling nobles originally from the Vias Commercial Federation, whom Blackbeard had suppressed, sprang back to life in high spirits. With the God of Seasons backing them, they whooped and cheered as they infiltrated the Dragon Mountain Empire's military and governmental systems.
A sudden hurricane struck the southern coastline of the Dragon Mountain Empire, shrouding dozens of ports large and small in howling wind and torrential rain.
On the streets and alleys of Port Vias, great bands of robust young men in Church military uniforms swaggered through the wind and rain on patrol. Their wolfish eyes remained fixed on the pedestrians, and at the slightest sign of anything amiss, they would pounce at once and bare their newly sharpened fangs.
But gradually, the storm grew fiercer. Rain lashed the earth like mad whips, and these Church warriors—men of feeble strength who had been farmers tilling