Chapter Forty-Nine: The Church's Plans

Unless both sides completely fell out, there would always be room for each to back down.

Before long, Carl noticed that the leaders of several principalities were arriving in the Sky Wind Kingdom one after another. They all came to buy Magic Crystals.

And when it came to negotiating prices, they were remarkably straightforward. As long as they were given a price, they were willing to negotiate.

When the report reached her, Carl knew this was most likely the Dark Church's doing.

I wonder if they're trying to lull me into a false sense of security, or if they've really given up.

It wasn't impossible that they had given up completely, after all. They had already lost two Saint Realm experts.

But many veteran Saint Realm experts had lived for two or three thousand years. Over such long stretches of time, hardly anyone had ever dared oppose them. As a result, many of them had developed an air of absolute self-importance and couldn't tolerate anyone talking back.

"Luo."

Carl's voice sounded in Luo's mind. Back at his own residence, Luo nearly jumped out of his skin when he heard it. Once he realized it was his king, he hurriedly tidied himself up and rushed toward the Royal Palace.

By the time Luo arrived, panting, Carl had already been waiting for a little while.

"Pass down my orders. There's no limit on purchases of low-grade Magic Crystals. Don't sell too many mid-grade ones. As for top-grade Magic Crystals, either impose a purchase limit or don't sell them at all," Carl told Luo.

The energy levels of Magic Crystals ranged from low-grade to high-grade, but their strength only spanned levels three through six, so their power was naturally limited. Only a level-seven Magic Crystal, used as a power source, could easily kill a level-seven expert. A dozen or so Magic Cannons could even take down a level-eight expert.

In the past, no one else knew about them, so Carl had never sold any top-grade Magic Crystals. But now that the Dark Church knew, it wouldn't be long before everyone on the Yulan Continent found out too.

After giving his instructions, Carl left the Royal Palace. After several days of delays, he had grown impatient to get started.

He stepped through the door and returned to the cramped secret room, which was less than ten square meters.

"This time, I'll do my best to raise my comprehension of the Mysteries of Wind to one hundred thousand."

Carl checked his progress. It was already over eighty thousand.

As he focused on comprehending the Mysteries, Carl realized that his progress now increased by a dozen points each day, and sometimes even by more than twenty.

But these rapid gains had become increasingly rare. Before, he could often maintain a pace of more than twenty points a day. Now, it didn't even happen once a month.

"Perhaps comprehension will only get slower from here on."

Carl naturally knew why. His Mental Power had reached the Saint Realm, but it was only at the Saint Realm level.

If the diameter of the area covered by Mental Power represented its quantity, then how clearly one could see within that area represented its quality.

The elemental energy where Carl was now was almost visible to the naked eye. He could even sense the Laws within it. But once his comprehension of the Wind Element reached a certain point, he would run into the same problem he was facing now.

It was the feeling of seeing the road ahead clearly, yet finding it elusive when he actually tried to step onto it.

While Carl was in seclusion, the Chaotic Territory was on edge.

A Magic Crystal mine worth tens of millions of billions—at first, everyone who heard the news thought they must have misheard. But once they learned that the source was the Dark Church, the report seemed far more credible.

In the lands of the Dark Church within the Chaotic Territory stood many statues of the Dark God. People were constantly gathered around them, offering up their faith.

Beneath one of the statues, hundreds of meters underground, there was a conference room.

At that moment, the same three people—Lashev, Mite, and Ulamigier—were in the room, though none of them looked happy.

"The Pope just sent word. He said we handled this very stupidly," Lashev said, his face livid.

"What else could we do? Have us take action?" Mite clearly wasn't in a much better mood.

The Dark Church had only seven Saint Realm experts in the Chaotic Territory, and each had their own duties. Some were in charge of waging war. Though Saint Realm experts rarely intervened directly in mortal conflicts, it was common for them to serve as commanders. With their powerful Mental Power, they were like skywatching satellites: the moment the enemy moved, they knew its exact deployment.

Tactics like staying on the defensive and striking after the enemy had already acted could all throw an opponent's battlefield plans into disarray.

Others were responsible for spreading the faith, and Ulamigier was one of them.

Even if an ordinary Saint Realm expert built a statue of the Dark God, they couldn't communicate with the deity. Only angels could communicate with the gods.

Angels were gifts from the gods. So, although Ulamigier seemed to have nothing to do with anything, no decision could be finalized without his approval.

But this time, things had clearly gone wrong. They had lost two Saint Realm experts, yet the Pope had only reprimanded the two of them.

This wasn't something that could be settled with a couple of words of scolding. When the Church first began spreading its faith, angels had crossed dimensions to preach here. As a result, the Church possessed certain items that only God Level experts had a chance to obtain.

Those items had long since been used up. But as long as they continued to provide the Sovereign with a large amount of faith, the Sovereign would reward them with plenty of good things.

Lashev, Mite, and the others were counting on those rewards, hoping they might help them advance further.

"Since things have come to this, we should first figure out how to resolve the situation," Ulamigier said.

"We'll start a war. Since we won't easily intervene at the Saint Realm level, we'll let our people fight," Lashev said.

"Agreed." Neither of the others objected.

Before long, the Dark Church set its forces in motion, mobilizing troops throughout its territories in the Chaotic Territory.

Some cities could only send one or two thousand soldiers; others could send three or five thousand.

But even if each city could provide only a small number of soldiers, the sheer number of cities meant they could still assemble a massive army.

"Bad news! Bad news!"

A courier arrived in Red Sun City at full speed, carrying an urgent dispatch.

Pale-faced and completely drained of sweat after a long journey, the courier stumbled through his report to Luo.

"My lord, a huge number of troops are assembling near Kailuo City. They're packed together in a vast sea, and there's no way to tell how many there are."

"How could this happen?" Luo panicked.

"Call Kevin and the others over! Hurry!" Luo shouted at a nearby guard.

Before long, Kevin and the others arrived in a hurry. Faced with an army too large to count, even a level-nine expert had to proceed with caution.

"What's the situation now? Does anyone have accurate information?"