After some thought, Hel felt that Niv's reasoning made sense. If Imshi truly had some grand plan in the future, it might indeed interfere with her own efforts to collect the remaining authorities.
In that case, she couldn't allow Imshi's plans to proceed too smoothly.
So Hel changed her earlier decision.
"Take them with us for now. If it really doesn't work out, I'll turn them into undead. Once Imshi's faction and the Book Witch's faction beat each other to the brink of mutual destruction, I'll send them back to take over this mess again."
"This…"Niv couldn't help but feel that Hel's idea sounded a little unreliable.
In her view, even forcibly controlling the two of them with soul-devouring worms—and gambling on whether the worms or Imshi's corrupted magic was stronger—felt more dependable than having them step aside to watch the fight from the sidelines.
If Imshi took advantage of Rowan III's disappearance to aggressively win over his subordinates and consolidate popular support, wouldn't that simply hand her the Gordon Kingdom's throne on a silver platter?
By then, even if Rowan III returned, at best he would only be able to annoy Imshi a little.
Perhaps Master has some other plan in mind,Niv could only think to herself.
At the same time, she made up her mind to deploy more undead flying insects to keep Gordon City under close surveillance, just in case they ended up too passive.
"Alright, enough about that. Clean up the battlefield. We're heading back."
"Clean up the battlefield?"Niv watched as Hel tossed Rowan III and the other man into the undead space, utterly confused about what Hel meant.
At this moment, Hel had already stepped onto the altar.
She looked at the glaringly obvious entry hovering above it, and the corners of her mouth curved into a smug smile.
[Life-System Mind-Image World · Blossoming Forest (Red)]:A mind-image world that has existed for over five thousand years. After the death of its original owner—a top-tier Saint—his descendants used secret techniques to forcibly anchor this world here.After hundreds of generations of accumulation, this world has reached the absolute limit of the Saint tier.
"No wonder York was so covetous of the Sealed Land of the Kingdom of Chui-de back then. So this was the reason."
Reading the feedback from the entry, Hel couldn't help but sigh in amazement. It seemed that this was the greatest harvest of their trip.
There was nothing more to say.
Hel immediately reached out to the altar and plucked this precious entry away.
And at the very instant this mind-image world disappeared—
Far away in the Ymir Empire's capital, inside the Ymir Grand Cathedral, an elderly cleric burst into the Grand Archbishop's office in a panic.
Just like half a month ago, he shouted at the archbishop in terror:
"Bad news, Your Grace! The Sealed Land of the Gordon Kingdom has disappeared as well!"
"What?"Hearing this, the archbishop shot up from his chair, staring at the old man who had rushed in, disbelief written all over his face.
"What did you say? Say that again."
"The Sealed Land of the Gordon Kingdom has also disappeared."
"That's impossible. The Gordon Kingdom had Knight Spur stationed there. How could the Sealed Land disappear? Wait—Spur?"
At that point, the archbishop's expression turned uncertain.
If there was anyone in the Gordon Kingdom who could break through Spur's defenses and forcibly merge with the Sealed Land, it would only be Spur himself.
But he couldn't understand it. Given Spur's status within the Church, was it really necessary for him to forcibly seize the Sealed Land of some minor country?
If he wanted one, the Church could easily provide him with something better.
Could it be that Spur was forced to absorb the Sealed Land due to some unforeseen incident? Did he encounter a powerful enemy, or was his lifespan nearing its end?
For a moment, the archbishop couldn't figure out what had happened.
But he knew one thing clearly: the disappearance of a Sealed Land was absolutely not a trivial matter.
Otherwise, he wouldn't have been able to use it as leverage earlier to pressure the archbishops of the other two nations into signing a joint wanted order for York before the investigation was even complete.
"Damn it… damn it all! In just a little over a year, first the Netherworld Witch of the Free Nation seized control of a Sealed Land and escaped by force.Then those lunatics from the Supreme Church took the Sealed Lands of the Ocean Nation, North Mountain Nation, and South Mountain Nation.Before things even settled for a few months, a Papal Envoy showed up and forcibly merged with the Sealed Land of the Commercial Nation.And now you're telling me that the Sealed Land of the Garden Nation is gone too?
Out of the ten nations of Ymir, six have already lost their Sealed Lands! I knew it—I knew we should've taken all the witches to the Holy See back then. Leaving these idiots of the three great empires to guard them was practically inviting the enemy to steal them!"
The archbishop clutched his head and roared in near despair. He didn't even dare imagine what kind of punishment awaited him once his term ended and he returned to the Holy See.
Meanwhile, not far from him, a nun who had been quietly handling documents frowned upon hearing the old man's report.
The Sealed Land of the Gordon Kingdom is gone? Who did it? And why?
Imshi recalled the intelligence shared among her avatars and began to speculate endlessly about the cause.
At the same time, in various corners of the continent, young and beautiful women were also deep in thought.
Some were princesses of nations.Some were heads of great noble houses.Others were renowned scholars, or leaders of elite adventurer groups.
Though their appearances differed, every single one of them stood in positions of power—figures capable of deciding the lives and deaths of millions with ease.
As for the eldest princess, who had only recently left the Sky Garden, she immediately turned back upon receiving the news, without the slightest hesitation.
Her earlier departure had been because she believed that, after the Church noticed Rowan III's abnormalities, following too closely would easily arouse suspicion.
She was also worried that exposing this avatar might disrupt her arrangements within the Garden Nation.
But now, things were different.
Even the Sealed Land had vanished—something truly extraordinary must have happened.
That was no longer something that could be explained away by Rowan III's exposure alone.
Unlike the archbishop, Imshi had a clearer understanding of the situation. One of her avatars had once been Spur's subordinate, so she knew his character well.
She knew that Spur had always been perfecting his own world—one fundamentally different from the Sealed Land of the Gordon Kingdom.
Because of that, he would never merge with this Sealed Land and contaminate his own world.
Which left only one possible explanation.
A far more powerful being had forcibly broken through Spur's defenses and seized that world.