Inside the Baruk Royal Palace of Adis, the chaotic battle continued. In the large negotiation hall, armed members of the Savior Descends Faction and guards from the Church's special envoy group were engaged in fierce combat. The battle had now extended beyond the negotiation hall, spreading to surrounding areas. For a time, these places were engulfed in flames, filled with shouts of killing, and continuous prayers. Under the full effort of the Fire Mages, the raging inferno had now swallowed the entire opulent negotiation hall, forcing both sides to retreat to the outskirts of the negotiation hall and other areas of the Royal Palace.
The guards of the special envoy group were elites carefully selected by the Church. Not only were they all Extraordinary, but there were three of them at the Chalk level alone. This force was very powerful. In some other regions of the reverse side, it could easily wipe out a medium-sized society or dismantle the stronghold of a large society in a medium to large city. However, this time their opponents were not members of hidden societies who only hid in the dark corners of cities, but armed members of a heretical sect capable of overthrowing a country.
The number of armed members of the Savior Descends Faction was extremely large, more than ten times that of the guard team. They were well-equipped, had firm and unwavering faith under Mukhtar's precepts, and were fearless of death. Furthermore, they were not all ordinary people; some were Extraordinary from Apprentice to Chalk levels.
Although the guard team was generally more elite, their overall strength was far from enough against the armed members of the Savior Sect. After a brief initial advantage, the guard team began to be suppressed by the continuous influx of Savior Sect armed members, subsequently suffering casualties, which gradually became severe.
Although the disadvantaged special envoy guards fought bravely, killing many armed members of the Savior Sect with a high exchange ratio, for the Savior Sect armed members under the blessing of the precepts, the casualty figures were just numbers. Even if they were large, they would not affect their morale. Continuous streams of Savior Sect armed members stepped over the corpses of their comrades to continue their offensive, continuing to attack the Church guard team. When the morale factor ceased to function, and there was no sign of collapse, the advantage in numbers could be maximized.
Under the continuous assault of the Savior Sect armed members, the guard team began to show signs of collapse. Just at this moment, a flare suddenly rose into the sky outside the Royal Palace. The flare burst in the daylight sky, and upon seeing this scene, Shadi's guards, who had been standing still as if to indicate their neutral stance, seemed to have received something. The leading officer among them immediately drew his military saber and shouted to his subordinates around him.
"The others are here! Attack!"
"Eradicate those Lord Fanatics! The future of Adus belongs to the people of Adus! For Shadi General!"
Under the leadership of the officer, his previously silent subordinates also drew their weapons and charged into the battlefield, unexpectedly joining the fray. At the same time, shouts of killing also began to rise outside the Royal Palace. Finally, Shadi's Revolutionary Army soldiers, after receiving a temporary emergency order, finally rushed from their barracks located in various parts of Adis City and stormed the Royal Palace. They were targeting the Savior Sect armed members who were gaining the upper hand in the melee.
After waiting for reinforcements from outside the Royal Palace and confirming that Mukhtar had completely pursued and was no longer on the scene, Shadi's waiting guards, in conjunction with the Revolutionary Army soldiers loyal to Shadi outside the palace, launched an assault on the Savior Sect armed members. The Savior Sect armed members, who were engaged in fierce combat with the envoy guards, did not expect the originally neutral Shadi's forces to suddenly act, and were caught off guard. Although they did not completely collapse due to this under the blessing of the precepts, they suffered heavy casualties for a time.
After Shadi's forces joined, the scale of the melee began to expand rapidly. Now the entire interior of the Royal Palace was filled with chaotic fighting, with all parties combined totaling over a thousand people. After the siege of Adis that led to the demise of the Baruk Dynasty, this ancient capital once again welcomed the baptism of war. The smoke and gunpowder of gunfire spread throughout every corner of the Royal Palace for a time.
When Shadi's men joined the battlefield, the lightning strikes from the sky also became frequent again, visiting the current battlefield. Lightning struck the armed members of the Savior Sect, frequently turning people who were fighting into charcoal. The number of Savior Sect armed members began to decrease rapidly. Although the special envoy group led by Gaspare was also surprised to see Shadi's forces suddenly join the battle, they were currently facing the enemy and had no time to dwell on details. It was naturally good to have help.
Under the triple offensive of lightning strikes, Shadi's subordinates, and the special envoy guards, the originally powerful Savior Sect armed members began to quickly fall into a disadvantage, although their own casualty figures were rapidly climbing under such heavy pressure.
On the outer battlefield, the special envoy and Shadi's side had gained an advantage, but on the core battlefield, the situation was not optimistic. Within the Royal Palace, Mukhtar, relying on the suppression of his precepts, was fiercely attacking Vanya with his strengthened body and sword. Vanya, who could neither dodge nor escape, was constantly being suppressed by Mukhtar.
Although he had the upper hand, Mukhtar, who seemed to lack explosive means, did not have the ability to end the battle in one go. Although Vanya could not attack or dodge, she managed to block and defend flawlessly with her superb Mind's Eye swordsmanship and powerful physique. Almost all of Mukhtar's attacks were parried by Vanya. Amidst the dense clanging of metal, Mukhtar was almost unable to break through Vanya's sword defense. Even if he was lucky enough to slightly wound a part of Vanya's body, Vanya would quickly heal her injuries using her powerful self-healing ability.
'Why... is this Sister so difficult to deal with?! Shouldn't she just be a diplomatic vase? Where did this sword skill come from? Can the Holy Mother Faction of the otherworld Church cultivate such a master?'
Facing the tenacious resistance of Vanya, Mukhtar thought with resentment and confusion. He had originally pursued her alone, intending to easily deal with Vanya, but Shadi's sudden entry into the fray and Vanya's difficulty were beyond his expectations. In the current situation, he could not quickly deal with Vanya, so he had to use other methods.
Thinking this, Mukhtar once again used Soul Speech to declare precepts. This time, he was not using new precepts, but rather strengthening and spreading the precepts he had already declared by consuming more Spirituality.
"Precept: Those who injure me shall be repaid tenfold. Those who injure my comrades shall be repaid two-tenths..."
Through the Extraordinary perception ability of the "Light", Mukhtar could now clearly see the situation of the battle within the Royal Palace. He also understood that after the inexplicable lightning strikes and the joining of Shadi's forces, his men were now being suppressed and would soon be annihilated if he did not intervene. Therefore, Mukhtar now chose to strengthen his existing retaliatory damage precepts and spread a weakened version of the retaliatory damage precepts to everyone in the Royal Palace who was not on his side.
In other words, at this moment, the thousands of Shadi's Revolutionary Army soldiers and special envoy guards within the Royal Palace were all subjected to Mukhtar's precepts. After being entangled by the precepts, Shadi's Revolutionary Army and the special envoy guards, while fighting, found that while injuring the enemy, they themselves would suddenly be inexplicably injured. The injured part was almost the same as the part they injured the enemy. Although the symptoms of the injury were much lighter than those on the enemy, it was temporarily unbearable and greatly affected their combat.
Under the retaliatory damage precept, causing damage to Mukhtar's Savior Sect armed members would also result in retaliatory damage to oneself. Although it was not as severe as Mukhtar's original tenfold damage, and even less than the original damage, it was still two-tenths.
This two-tenths retaliatory damage seemed slight, but for ordinary soldiers and Extraordinary without the physique of the "Cup", it was extremely serious. If they injured the opponent anywhere, they would also be injured themselves, thus greatly reducing their combat effectiveness. If they hit a vital point and killed the opponent, even with only two-tenths retaliatory damage, it would be enough to kill themselves if it landed on a vital point.
More importantly, this retaliatory damage effect would make the subsequent combat of Shadi's Revolutionary Army and the envoy guards become timid and dare not attack. This bizarre retaliatory damage would cause the soldiers to lose the courage to attack, thus greatly reducing morale and causing chaos in the army. Many people, even after being retaliated against twice and still having combat power, fled due to panic.
A collapse in one area would cause a chain reaction of collapse. Once morale is chaotic and organization is lost, no matter how many people there are or how good the equipment is, it is useless. This is the common characteristic of an army. The key is that on the other side, Mukhtar's Savior Sect armed members were constantly maintaining a state of constant morale under the precepts. No matter how they were killed, cut, or injured, their organization would not drop.
Therefore, after Mukhtar's precepts spread, the situation on the entire Royal Palace battlefield underwent a fundamental change. Under the retaliatory damage precept, the morale of Shadi's Revolutionary Army collapsed in a short time. Except for a few elites like Shadi's personal guards, large numbers of soldiers began to flee, and the battlefield situation reversed once again. The Savior Sect armed members once again gained the upper hand, gathered together, and continued to attack the remaining few envoy guards and Shadi's personal guards fearlessly.
This was the result Mukhtar wanted. He spread the precepts throughout the field so that his men could quickly deal with the envoy guards and Shadi's Revolutionary Army, and then have them immediately transfer to support him. He alone could not temporarily break through Vanya's defense, but the situation would be different as long as his many subordinates came to support him.
Through the perception of the "Light", Mukhtar could clearly sense that the enemies on other battlefields in the Baruk Royal Palace had already collapsed. Countless people were shouting, throwing down their weapons, and running out of the Baruk Royal Palace. The situation had now reversed. He only needed to wait a little longer for his subordinates to deal with those who were still resisting before they came to support him.
However, while this action successfully gave his subordinates an advantage on the battlefield, it also made it easier for Dorothy to verify the counter-damage mechanism of his precepts.
Located within the hidden space of the Qiwen Temple, Dorothy sat cross-legged on the ground, controlling countless corpses on the battlefield from a super long distance, making them Corpse Puppets. Dorothy originally planned to have these Corpse Puppets attack Mukhtar in the main battlefield to verify the counter-damage mechanism, but after seeing that his subordinates suddenly also had counter-damage ability, she decided to use these easier targets for verification.
In the chaotic battlefield, Dorothy controlled the corpse of a soldier who originally belonged to Shadi's Revolutionary Army to stand up. She made him take out a military dagger from his waist and pounce towards a Savior Sect armed soldier who was focusing on shooting. Before the Savior Sect soldier could react, the Corpse Puppet used the dagger to stab the opponent's arm, while also tightly covering his own arm, ready to use Spirituality threads to transfer the damage at any time.
On the battlefield, Dorothy's Corpse Puppet soldier pierced the right arm of the Savior Sect soldier with a dagger, and at the same time, a deep wound suddenly split open on the soldier's own right arm. Then the stabbed Savior Sect soldier immediately shouted and fought back, but the Corpse Puppet controlled the counterattack to be dodged, and then used the dagger to pierce his abdomen. A wound appeared on the Corpse Puppet's abdomen at the same time, while Dorothy's body was completely unharmed.
After seeing this scene, a faint smile appeared on Dorothy's lips. She then had the Corpse Puppet endure the damage and plunge the dagger into the Savior Sect soldier's chest, piercing his heart and killing him. Watching the soldier's corpse fall to the ground, Dorothy also made a judgment about Mukhtar's counter-damage precept in her heart. Then she directly triggered a low-power heavenly lightning to strike other Savior Sect soldiers, knocking them unconscious without any harm to herself.
'This counter-damage precept... it seems it doesn't counter me. When using a Corpse Puppet to injure someone, the counter-damage is on the Corpse Puppet. When using lightning to strike someone, nothing happens to me. Although I'm still not sure what the judgment mechanism of his precept is... it seems things are simple now...'
'Also, earlier that Mukhtar issued a precept that no one could leave the Baruk Royal Palace to stop Vanya. Now a large number of deserters have run out without suffering any damage from the precept. I used Corpse Puppets to test and was not injured, which proves that this precept has failed.'
'From this, it can be seen that the number of precepts that Mukhtar can maintain is limited. If he issues new precepts, some other precepts must be abolished, otherwise they cannot be used. Now the number of precepts he maintains are absolute discipline for his own people, and counter-damage and prohibition of escape for the enemy, a total of three precepts. If I attack now, it is highly probable that he does not have any other hidden precepts to trick people, right?'
After confirming that she, located in the hidden space, would not be affected by the counter-damage precept, she immediately controlled a group of Corpse Puppets to run towards the Baruk Royal Palace garden. At the same time, she also began to gather lightning in the sky again, waiting for the right moment, and struck directly at Mukhtar, who was confronting Vanya. Since the opponent was constantly moving, her lightning was not charged.
As the dazzling lightning struck, Mukhtar was directly hit, smoking all over, and was struck flying far away, falling heavily to the ground. Mukhtar, directly hit by the lightning, used his sword to stab the ground, trying to struggle to stand up, but Dorothy, without hesitation, sent another lightning strike, knocking him down. Mukhtar fell to the ground again, completely disheveled, his heart filled with resentment.
'It's that lightning again... that mysterious lightning-summoning Extraordinary again... Why! Why can that guy attack me so continuously? Isn't he afraid of precept punishment?! Could it be that my precepts don't cover him?'
With surprise and confusion, Mukhtar continued to stagger to his feet. At this moment, he knew that he absolutely could not be struck down like this again. If he were struck by seven or eight more lightning bolts like this, he might not be able to hold on.
Gritting his teeth, Mukhtar also extended the order precept that restrained his subordinates to himself, allowing himself to fear neither death nor pain. After being hit by the third lightning bolt, he forcefully endured the severe pain and numbness in his body with the precept, did not fall, and forcefully moved to float up and rush into a building next to the garden, crashing through the window and rushing in. After entering the room, his entire figure disappeared from Dorothy's bird's-eye view, and although Dorothy had also placed small Corpse Puppets in that building, she couldn't cover all areas, so she temporarily lost sight of Mukhtar and couldn't use lightning strikes blindly.
Seeing this situation, Dorothy immediately manipulated her Corpse Puppet army to surround the building. The small Corpse Puppets also flew towards the direction Mukhtar had entered to find his whereabouts. As long as Dorothy regained control of Mukhtar's position, she could control the lightning to penetrate the roof and strike him.
At this time, Mukhtar, inside the building, was floating inside, panting heavily. At this moment, he had to rely on this brief moment of respite to regroup.
Unaffected by the counter-damage precept, the mysterious Extraordinary who could infinitely control lightning strikes... Facing such an existence, Mukhtar's ability as a Precepts Cult Lord seemed powerless to cope, but as a Scarlet Extraordinary who had lived for hundreds of years, what he relied on was far more than just simple abilities.
"Cannot be affected by precepts... that means I cannot sense him... If that's the case..."
While floating, Mukhtar took out a small stone box. After opening the box, he took out a crystal that emitted a yellow light and was crystal clear. Looking at this crystal, Mukhtar felt a pang of heartache before crushing it. Then he widened his eyes and sprinkled the powder on his eyeballs. After closing his eyes for a moment, he opened them again. At this moment, Mukhtar's pupils began to emit a dazzling yellow light.
'Illuminating... seeing all things...'
Mukhtar turned around and scanned the surroundings with his glowing eyes. Immediately, his vision penetrated all barriers, encompassing the entire Baruk Royal Palace, the entire Adis, and all the areas around Adis. Everything, all traces of Spirituality, and all signs of the Extraordinary were exposed to his eyes.
Using his radiant eyes to scan Adis and everything around it, Mukhtar still didn't see what he wanted to see. In this situation, a conflicted expression appeared on his face. After hesitating for two seconds, he took out another yellow crystal, crushed it into powder, and sprinkled it into his eyes. After closing his eyes for a second, he opened them again.
When Mukhtar opened his eyes again, at this moment, not only his pupils, but even the whites of his eyes began to emit yellow light. Using these even more dazzling radiant eyes, Mukhtar scanned the surroundings again, and this time, what he saw was not just the scene of the present reality.
Mukhtar's gaze penetrated the boundaries of realms, penetrated the surface of reality, and saw the deeper part below reality, the reverse side. He saw the uppermost foundation that constructed the world of reality, saw the souls of those who died in battle sinking towards the Youhe, saw the thin strips of paper extending from the Dream World, saw the scattered points of molten rock permeating from the fire realm in the elemental world... and saw the hidden spaces hidden within these shallow realms.
In these gazes of Mukhtar, he saw that in the western part of Adis, where the Priory of Radiance should be located, there were strange traces of Spirituality intensely active. After seeing through all the easily defeated hiding places, Mukhtar saw the Extraordinary who was manipulating these strange Spirituality within that strange space.
'I found you... the one who commands lightning...'
Seeing this scene, Mukhtar sighed in his heart. Immediately at this moment, a sound of footsteps suddenly came from the end of a corridor beside him. Following the footsteps, a Corpse Puppet soldier wearing a Revolutionary Army uniform and searching came out. Upon seeing Mukhtar, he did not hesitate, raised his gun, and shot at Mukhtar. As the gun fired, Mukhtar was shot in the chest and staggered backward from mid-air.
Meanwhile, on the other side, within the hidden space of the Qiwen Temple, Dorothy, who was sitting cross-legged on the ground, widened her eyes, and traces of blood flowed from the corner of her mouth. Her clothes on her chest were stained red with blood.