Li Chen really took every benefit for himself! (Please subscribe and vote with monthly tickets)

Li Chen also knew how to seize the moment. Every so often, he appeared before his carriage in an arcane witch robe, his face shrouded in a mysterious halo-nothing more than a simple little spell-and offered a few ceremonial words about "protecting the faithful" and "ending hostilities." This drove the masses into even greater excitement, and the Power of Faith converged in a frenzy.

The scene hardly resembled two enemies locked in a life-and-death struggle. Instead, it looked as though Heavenly Strategy, a hegemonic power, was expressing the utmost recognition and respect for another deeply revered sage, the Witch Ancestor!

Because of the "Witch Ancestor," even the lands and people under his protection had gained a temporary peace.

Watching from the shadows, Ivan and Romanov saw events veer completely off their script. Their expressions shifted from initial anticipation to shock, then turned livid, before finally becoming deathly gray.

The clash of two tigers they had envisioned, a battle in which only one could survive, never happened. Instead, it became a one-sided display of "courtesy" and "recognition" toward the "Witch Ancestor" by the Heavenly Strategy Army!

The overt scheme they had painstakingly devised, believing it impossible to counter, now looked utterly laughable and clumsy. Not only had it failed to harm the "Witch Ancestor" in the slightest, but it had also handed him vast swaths of land for nothing. Though Heavenly Strategy occupied them for the time being, they were already the Witch Ancestor's fief in name.

Worse still, it had vastly enhanced the "Witch Ancestor's" prestige among the people, cementing his status as their "guardian deity"!

They had truly lost the wife and the troops-no, lost the wife and given away the land!

At that thought, Ivan tasted sweetness in his throat and nearly spat blood.

Every calculation they had