Accompanied by the thunder in the sky and a long whistle tearing through the air, a heavy artillery shell fired from afar plunged into the palace from the zenith. Lightning cleared a path for it, and it fell through the hole in the shattered ceiling into the hall where a large number of the Savior Sect had gathered. Then, before anyone inside could react, the shell hit the ground and exploded.
A roar and a flash of fire, immense destructive power swept through the entire hall in an instant. The bodies of those caught in the destruction were torn apart, their remains incinerated, and the walls were blasted away. Ordinary mortal bodies simply could not withstand this destructive force. Countless people lost consciousness silently and stepped into death. Only Mukhtar, upon bearing the brunt of such power, did not completely lose consciousness immediately. He opened his mouth wide, feeling the dual collapse of his body and soul in an extremely painful posture. The impact and flames spread throughout the hall, turning every corner into hell. Only within the sturdy shield, covered and wrapped by countless metals and solid ice, created by Extraordinary abilities, could one barely survive.
After the massive roar, the heatwave and impact receded, and the dust and smoke gradually settled. The originally luxurious and solemn palace hall was utterly gone after the roar, leaving only a ruin of broken walls and debris. In the ruin was a large crater, and around the crater were numerous broken stones and mangled bodies. Further away was a large pile of broken metal scattered on the ground. These metals had, not long ago, formed a massive metal cover that even the combined efforts of the Savior Sect militants found difficult to break open. Now, this metal cover had been destroyed by the shell's explosion, returning to this large pile of broken metal.
A short while after the explosion occurred, a pile of metal fragments began to stir. After a slight tremor, the pile of fragments was pushed aside by an upward force. Then, from within the pile of fragments, a figure covered in dust slowly stood up.
Under Dorothy's control, Vanya pushed away the metal fragments pressing down on her and stood up from the ruins. After dusting herself off, she scanned the entire scene with her gaze, finally focusing on the large crater in the hall. Looking at the crater, Dorothy, hidden in the temple's spatial pocket, couldn't help but think with a sigh.
'Hit in one shot, that's quite accurate... As expected of Faloro's new type of cannon, the accuracy is very good. Although Baruk buying these weapons couldn't prevent his own demise, it helped me a great deal...'
'To deal with a precept triggered by subjective hostile actions, all you need to do is not have hostility when attacking. A large-scale, non-hostile artillery bombardment is the solution...'
Looking at the messy scene before her, Dorothy thought. After learning about Mukhtar's new precept, she quickly found a suitable method to break it: a non-hostile area attack. As long as she could find someone who didn't know about Mukhtar and, completely unaware of anything, conducted an over-the-horizon fire coverage on Mukhtar's coordinates, she could injure him without triggering his precept.
Just as happened now, Naifnis, confused throughout and unaware of Mukhtar's situation, fired the artillery shell to bombard Mukhtar's coordinates, thus taking him and his subordinates out in one fell swoop. Because she had no idea who she was hitting or what the point of firing the shell was, Naifnis successfully bypassed Mukhtar's precept unconsciously and launched the attack.
Of course, while this plan allowed Naifnis to unconsciously avoid the precept's influence, Dorothy, who guided Naifnis to do this, risked triggering the precept, as her plan was clearly aimed at Mukhtar and carried significant hostility and malice.
To mitigate and avoid malice, Dorothy broke the plan down into several steps. When it came to the crucial step of giving Naifnis the firing data to launch the shell, Dorothy leveraged the fact that firing data needs to be calculated. She made the entire calculation process extremely complex, filling her brain with massive calculations, focusing all her energy on the problem-solving process, blurring and shifting her original purpose.
This method of using a small goal to deviate from a large goal has many examples in real life. For instance, when Dorothy was a student in her previous life and took a math exam, a very difficult problem suddenly appeared halfway through the test, requiring a lot of time to solve. However, a math exam is only a little over an hour long, and exam time needs to be reasonably planned. Rationally, if you try such a difficult problem and find you can't solve it quickly, you should set it aside and come back to it after solving the other easier problems.
But many test-takers stubbornly tried to solve the problem because they couldn't solve it, their stubbornness provoked by the difficult question, refusing to give up until they solved it. They let their main goal shift from completing the exam and getting a high score to solving the problem in front of them, ultimately spending too much time on this one question and thus having no time to complete the later simple problems, leading to a low score. Another example is when drawing, some people like to meticulously focus on details, getting stuck on a small detail while neglecting the overall picture, leading to a decrease in the quality of the drawing...
These are all examples of focusing too much on certain small goals and forgetting the overall large goal, which are common in life and usually have negative effects. Here, however, Dorothy used this phenomenon in reverse. After deliberately complicating the calculation of the firing data, she expended a large amount of energy on the small goal of calculating the data, thereby causing herself to ignore the large goal of attacking Mukhtar, and thus suppressing her malice and avoiding the precept.
Naifnis's artillery strike accurately hit the target, causing massive casualties. Before the explosion occurred, both Vanya and Shadi were inside the metal shield. This metal shield gathered more than half of the metal in the entire palace, making it extremely thick. The gaps inside were also sealed by Shadi with thick ice, further increasing the shield's defensive power while also preventing the high-temperature airflow generated by the explosion from invading through the gaps. In addition, Dorothy set the impact point at a relatively far distance, so the shield as a whole was not directly hit. Protected by this shield, Vanya and the others successfully survived.
Dorothy controlled Vanya to walk around in the ruins, observing the surrounding situation through her vision. After walking for a short while, Dorothy discovered a broken body in a corner of the hall. It had only half a torso, had lost an arm, was charred all over, and had no good flesh. Unlike other remains and corpses, this severely damaged body seemed to be breathing weakly through its wide-open mouth, and its entire body seemed to have extremely subtle signs of life. Having become this state yet not directly dying, there was no one else in this hall besides Mukhtar.
Controlling Vanya, Dorothy had her silently watch the dying broken body in the corner of the ruins. The broken body also stared back at Vanya with wide-open eyes. Amidst his weakening breaths, he spoke his last words.
"Wh-why... were you... able..."
Without finishing his sentence, Mukhtar ran out of his last bit of strength and lay motionless on the ground, completely lifeless. As the light in his eyes faded, this Shining Light Church heretic, high-level leader of the Savior Descends Faction, and Scarlet Tier Precepts Cult Lord died on the spot. After a series of severe injuries including lightning strikes and explosions, his soul had reached its limit.
Silently watching Mukhtar's remains before her, Dorothy used spiritual threads to confirm that the other party was indeed dead, then let out a long breath. Afterward, she had Vanya begin searching the area around Mukhtar's remains. Soon, she found what she wanted among the surrounding rubble.
This was a simple stone box. In the previous battle, Mukhtar had taken out quite a few things from inside. Dorothy recognized that this thing was a magic box, crafted by high-level craftsmen of the White Stone Craftsmen's Guild. It could store things far exceeding its apparent volume, and it was an extremely rare existence in the entire hidden world. It was something even Chalk Tier Extraordinary could hardly possess. Dorothy herself only had one thanks to Aldrich.
Holding the stone box in her hand, Vanya was about to put it away, when at that moment, a somewhat weak male voice came from behind her.
"Huff... huff... Already starting to search for spoils of war? You recover really fast... Sister Miss..."
Hearing this voice, Vanya turned around. What she saw then was Shadi, who was standing up shakily while leaning on a pillar on the other side of the hall. At this moment, he was looking at Vanya's direction with a strange expression.
I really didn't expect it... we actually had a chance to defeat a Scarlet existence... Although I'm not entirely sure what happened in the end, this is truly a miracle... We killed Mukhtar and successfully survived, which is truly unbelievable, wouldn't you agree, Sister Vanya...
"Or rather... that Priest of the Judge of Heaven..."
With a subtle expression, Shadi said to the Vanya in front of him. Listening to Shadi's words, Dorothy was slightly startled, then had Vanya speak to him.
"Oh... you've already figured out that I'm not Vanya right now?"
"Yes, after all, I am a Soul Contracter. I've worked in the underground of North Wu for many years and have seen quite a few legacies of the First Dynasty. I have some experience with matters of spirits and possession, so it's not too difficult to see your current situation. After all, someone whose soul was damaged by Mukhtar's precepts wouldn't wake up so easily."
Facing Vanya, Shadi explained it this way, and Dorothy also had Vanya respond immediately.
"Yes, I am indeed currently using Vanya's body, but why do you think I am a Priest of the Judge of Heaven?"
"It's simple... In this battle, besides us and the Church, there were too many inexplicable phenomena dealing with Mukhtar. That thunder and this metal, and the final bombardment, there was a certain coordination between the release of these different forces. There must have been a single will controlling everything, and the only one who could control all of this was the Priest who attacked the Priory of Radiance at the beginning. Didn't you already reveal your identity when you were there?"
While panting, Shadi recounted his analysis to the Vanya in front of him. Listening to Shadi's words, Vanya smiled slightly, then nodded in acknowledgment and spoke.
"Your analysis is very correct. Indeed, I, who am currently controlling this Sister's body, am indeed located in the Qiwen Temple... no, the Priory of Radiance, and in this sacred place that once enshrined the Judge of Heaven, I provided full assistance during your battle just now. You should thank me..."
"Thanks are naturally due, but besides thanking you, I also have some things I want to ask you." Looking at the Vanya in front of him, Shadi said with a serious expression, and Vanya, who heard him, replied lightly.
"What questions?"
"I want to ask, are you... an Extraordinary of 'Qi'? Has the secret society of 'Qi' reappeared in this world? Has the Judge of Heaven... perhaps not completely fallen, and are there now signs of his awakening?"
One after another, Shadi directly asked Vanya many questions, and after asking, he waited seriously for Vanya's answer. After hearing Shadi's questions, Dorothy was slightly startled, and after thinking for a moment, she controlled Vanya to slowly answer.
"Yes, I am indeed an Extraordinary of 'Qi'. The society of 'Qi' has indeed reappeared in this world, because I am not the only 'Qi'. As for the Judge of Heaven... I can only say that he has not completely become dust in history..."
Dorothy had Vanya silently respond to Shadi's words. Hearing Vanya's words, Shadi's expression couldn't help but be moved. After quickly calming down, he continued to speak.
"So... what is the current situation of your society... your organization? What is your purpose? Why are you against the Savior Sect? What is your connection with the Church? Why did you actively help them?"
With a somewhat urgent expression, Shadi questioned Vanya intensely, and Vanya responded unhurriedly.
"You have too many questions, and many are asking too much, Mr. Shadi. Our relationship is not yet at the point where I can reveal so many secrets to you... Is this the attitude of the Adus Revolutionary Army towards those who have shown them kindness?"
"Uh... sorry, I was a bit presumptuous. After all, the news of the power of 'Qi' and the revival of the ancient god is too shocking, and I accidentally lost my composure slightly, please forgive me..." Hearing the words of the Vanya in front of him, Shadi, who realized he had been slightly out of line just now, quickly responded, and at this moment, Vanya continued to smile and speak.
"It's alright, we are not people who like to dwell on things. Your impression of us here, Mr. Shadi, is still quite good, so answering a small part of your questions is not a problem."
"Our current purpose is inconvenient to reveal too much to you, only that it is related to the Judge of Heaven. We came to Adis this time also to seek some things related to the God of Heavenly Thunder from the Qiwen Temple, and the action to eliminate the Savior Descends Faction is because they have become an obstacle to us in many things, so we plan to unite the forces of the Revolutionary Army and the Shining Light Church in Adis to remove them."
"As for the connection between us and the Church, there is actually no connection. To eliminate the Savior Sect in Adis, we need the power of your Revolutionary Army and the Shining Light Church, and because this Sister in the Shining Light Church delegation is naturally innocent and gentle, and easier to communicate with, we chose to contact her first, informed her of the Savior Sect's conspiracy to win her over, and then had her contact you. The secret transmission book she gave you that allows you to write and communicate with each other was actually originally ours. By uniting your two sides, we can have sufficient certainty in Adis to overthrow the powerful Savior Sect forces here."
Dorothy had Vanya say this to Shadi. Listening to Vanya's words, Shadi and Setuot, who had been instructing him on how to ask questions within his heart, were filled with thoughts for a moment, and they began to make various guesses.
The biggest guess among them was about the Judge of Heaven. In the minds of Shadi and Setuot, the Judge of Heaven might be slowly reviving, and using his influence to secretly form a cult, allowing it to operate in North Wu, go to various ancient ruins, and collect things and information that can help with his revival, and the Priory of Radiance in Adis is one of them. And the Savior Descends Faction, which is also active in North Wu, seems to have become an obstacle to the Judge of Heaven's revival due to some element. Is the relationship between the two sides not good?
'Master... Perhaps he has not completely fallen, is there really still a trace of his divine breath now?! After sleeping for seven thousand years, is he really starting to gradually revive?'
Inside Shadi, Setuot thought this way. At this moment, his emotions were slightly agitated, and he seemed to want to immediately appear and question the Priest of the Judge of Heaven in front of him face to face, but in the end, his reason overcame his impulse. Before he knew more about the organization in front of him, he did not choose to appear rashly.
"Alright, I've told you everything I can. Now it's time to go. I'll take Mukhtar's spoils first. After we've chosen what we need, the rest will be divided between you and this little Sister from the Church. After we leave, we will continue to help you clear the Savior Sect rebels in Adis with thunder. You have no objection, Mr. Shadi."
Holding the stone box in his hand, Vanya said to Shadi, and Shadi, who had been in deep thought, nodded in response.
"The greatest credit for defeating Mukhtar this time goes to you. There is naturally no problem with this. I am even more grateful to all of you for continuing to help us with the cleanup."
Shadi said this. Now that Mukhtar is dead, all the Savior Sect forces in Adus are without a leader. Shadi can maximize his control over the Revolutionary Army and Adus, which is already the biggest spoil of war for him.
"Heh, then we will meet again, the future master of Adus. I hope you can bring true peace to the people here. Keep the secret transmission book that we gave you through this Sister for now. With it, we can contact each other."
"Choose your future path carefully. In the near future, many past myths will no longer be buried deep in history."
Saying this, Vanya picked up the stone box and walked out of the messy hall.