North Africa, within Adus.
The scorching sun shone fiercely in the sky, and beneath the dazzling sunlight was a vast, desolate Gobi desert filled with sand and dust. A railway track stretched across the Gobi, piercing straight into the distance. Upon the track, a train spewing thick smoke was speeding forward, racing towards the distant horizon.
The desert arrow, this luxury train carrying the Church's special envoy delegation to Adis for negotiations, after the negotiations concluded in a relatively smooth manner, is now once again carrying the special envoy delegation back on their return journey. Their destination is Kankdar Port, where they initially departed.
After the Adis incident concluded, Shadi, who had already become the sole dominant force within the Revolutionary Army, immediately began consolidating the Revolutionary Army's internal power, both overtly and covertly. He did not rush to immediately announce a break with Mukhtar, but instead prepared a public and grand memorial service for Mukhtar to show his stance to all local Savior Sect forces and appease them. Then, using the huge power vacuum created at the top of the Revolutionary Army after the death of Mukhtar's key subordinates as bait, he lured the local Savior Sect armed leaders to the capital and had his own people take over the officer positions left vacant by those leaders. Once they arrived in Adis, what awaited them were empty promises filled with hope but with no clear date for fulfillment. Some of these individuals would even be secretly executed when the overall situation was settled in the future.
Using immense power as bait, Shadi began to win over and divide the local Savior Sect and branded the Savior Sect forces that questioned him as traitors and lackeys of foreign Savior Sect. Through enticement, division, and suppression, Shadi slowly gained control over the leadership of the Savior Sect armed forces throughout Adus. For the Savior Sect forces he could control, he immediately ordered a complete reorganization, replaced officers, and secretly executed a large number of those with strong resistance.
For the armed forces that were slightly weaker in control and difficult to directly manage, Shadi transferred them away from their original garrisons to areas where his own influence was strong, subjecting them to strict supervision. As for the troops who had seen through his true nature, were resistant to reason, and clearly had rebellious intentions, Shadi's own direct forces had already quietly moved in, surrounding these stubborn troops without them realizing it, and planning to launch a preemptive attack.
Carrying out a rectification campaign in such a vast country makes it impossible to avoid bloodshed, but the current Shadi has done his best to contain the conflict to the smallest scope. What was originally a large-scale civil war affecting the entire country will, by the time Shadi shows his true colors, only turn into a few one-sided small-scale wars and countless secret purges and executions. Although Shadi will inevitably bear countless accusations of treachery, cruelty, and cold-bloodedness afterwards, bringing a huge stain to his political career, as someone born a treasure thief, he no longer cares about these things.
After Mukhtar's death, the undercurrents surging beneath the surface of Adus did not subside; instead, they intensified. Shadi's internal consolidation to strengthen his power would not finish in less than two or three months. The special envoy delegation remaining here had no other purpose and would instead affect some of Shadi's administrative measures. Therefore, after the remaining guards had mostly recovered from their injuries, Vanya bid farewell to Shadi, took the special envoy delegation, and departed from Adis, starting their return journey aboard the desert arrow. To ensure safety, Dorothy and Naifnis also followed along.
The long train sped across the desolate Gobi. Dorothy sat in her carriage, gazing at the sand and dust blowing outside the window, pondering the various events she had recently experienced. Ultimately, her main attention focused on the divination she had undergone not long ago, which was also the reason she planned to leave Adis immediately.
When she had Neff dress up as a priest of Judge of Heaven and bring down the lightning disaster in the name of Judge of Heaven, allowing the completely nonexistent Judge of Heaven to take the blame for Mukhtar's death, she had already anticipated that she would be subjected to divination attacks from various sides. After all, this was the appearance of the 'Qi' (Awakening/Enlightenment) divine order that had fallen thousands of years ago, a reappearance of the 'Qi' (Awakening/Enlightenment) ability that had never appeared in this era. It was bound to cause a huge stir in the hidden world, and there would definitely be many societies using divination to confirm it. Although Dorothy was prepared for this, when the divination offensive truly arrived, its scale still nearly made her panic.
Within three days, there were a total of 12 divination attacks targeting Dorothy and Naifnis, whom she protected. Dorothy was forced to expend 12 points of "Shadow" to counter these attacks. The most intense divination attacks occurred on the morning of one of those days, with five divinations targeting her within just one hour, causing Dorothy to feel a wave of panic at the time.
At that time, worried that her "Shadow" would not be enough, she immediately expended 10 points of "Light" to launch a divination counterattack against the targets she believed were most likely to divine her: the Holy Proximity Mountain Church and the Savior Descends Faction Headquarters. As a result, this divination offensive barely subsided. Over the next two days, Dorothy suffered some sporadic divinations, ultimately expending 12 points of "Shadow".
Dorothy believed that although she had suffered 12 divinations, the number of divinations worldwide targeting the truth of the Adis lightning judgment incident should be far more than 12. Countless societies, countless orders, countless national secret police, plus the Savior Descends Faction Headquarters urgently wanting to know the truth of Mukhtar's death, and the wealthy Holy Proximity Mountain Church with who knows how many resources in their hands – surrounded by countless forces, a large number of divination attacks were bound to follow one after another. The total number of divinations could potentially exceed fifty.
Facing such a massive number of divinations, Dorothy felt that even her most abundant "enlightenment", let alone "Shadow", might not be able to withstand it. The biggest reason she managed to survive this wave of divinations by only spending 12 points of "Shadow" was still her reliance on Qiwen Temple.
This time's thunderstorm was not entirely caused by Dorothy's own power, but largely depended on the legacy of the First Dynasty, the result of the Qiwen Temple's power. It expanded Dorothy's ability release range, provided Dorothy with ample Spirituality, and allowed Dorothy to hide outside the present world. These were all the achievements of Qiwen Temple. Therefore, when divining the truth of the lightning judgment incident, many divinations inevitably pointed towards Qiwen Temple.
For example, if asked about the source of the lightning judgment incident's power? The truth of the Adis thunderstorm? Did the Adis thunderstorm originate from the Judge of Heaven? Did the thunderstorm kill Mukhtar? Was Revolutionary Army leader Shadi the creator of the thunderstorm? And many other questions would be blocked by the anti-divination system linked between Qiwen Temple and the First Dynasty because they involved Qiwen Temple.
In other words, almost all divination content involving the thunderstorm or the Judge of Heaven would be directed towards Qiwen Temple. However, some divinations from unusual angles would still point to Dorothy. For instance, if someone asked whether the person who killed Mukhtar was male or female, such a divination would directly point to Naifnis and had no direct relation to the thunderstorm or Qiwen Temple, so Dorothy could only reluctantly endure this type of divination.
Therefore, regarding the Adis lightning judgment incident, most normal divinations were withstood by the self-regulating anti-divination system protecting Qiwen Temple's First Dynasty. The remaining ingenious and tricky divinations were endured by Dorothy. Furthermore, some tricky divinations specifically targeting Shadi were resisted by his own anti-divination measures. After Shadi gained control of the entire Adis, he confiscated the extraordinary resources that had long been controlled by the Savior Sect and immediately rebuilt the Revolutionary Army's anti-divination defenses, reinstating himself and his subordinates, who had been secretly excluded, back into positions. This also helped Dorothy share some of the pressure during this anti-divination confrontation.
If not for Shadi and Qiwen Temple helping to share the divination pressure, facing such a large-scale divination targeting, Dorothy's own limited Spirituality would have been completely insufficient. Even so, Dorothy still paid the price of 12 points of "Shadow" and 10 points of "Light" in this wave of divination attacks, causing her Spirituality, which had just managed to become abundant, to shrink significantly, resulting in its current state.
24 Cup, 12 Stone, 10 Shadow, 15 Light, 25 Silence, 50 enlightenment.
'Whew... My Spirituality for'Shadow' and 'Light', which had originally met the requirements, went back down significantly after this wave. It's a bit depressing. Although I anticipated that such a big commotion would definitely attract large-scale divination attacks, I thought it shouldn't be a big deal with Qiwen Temple bearing the brunt. Who knew that even with Qiwen Temple resisting, my Spirituality would still drop so much...'
'The attention stirred up by this wave is a bit too much. After the divination tide, the various forces who couldn't get results from divination should directly send people to Adus for on-site investigation. Then I need to slip away first; otherwise, once their people arrive, it might be hard to even think about leaving.'
Looking at the sand and dust flying outside the train window, Dorothy thought to herself. To avoid the on-site investigations sent by various forces, she chose to quickly slip away, taking Neff with Vanya back to Kankdar by train. She would let Shadi slowly deal with those people from all sides and wouldn't get involved herself.
Although being away from Qiwen Temple meant she couldn't browse for books there for the time being, which was a bit of a shame, when she thought about her current level of ancient North Wu language, even if she could find books, it would take a lot of time. Staying there long-term wouldn't yield high returns either. It wouldn't be too late to go back to Qiwen Temple to read books once she had completely learned the ancient North Wu language.
After leaving Adis, Dorothy began to carefully consider how to proceed with her next actions. First, her current goal had shifted from simply severing the threads of spirits to preparing the materials for the Crimson Tier promotion ritual. This promotion ritual required six types of divine artifacts; she only had one, "Cup", and needed to plan for the other five.
'At this stage, I haven't figured out the specific channels for obtaining divine artifacts for'Shadow' and 'Light', so I can put that aside for now. This is North Africa, and underground there are various undead tombs, perhaps I can find clues for the'Silence' divine artifact. So I can start with'Silence'. Coincidentally, Neff's promotion ritual also needs to be held in an underground tomb with rich'Silence' Spirituality, which can be a combined goal.'
'Kankdar Port is one of the most prosperous cities in North Wu, attracting people from all walks of life. Once there, I can start gathering information in this regard and try to find some clues. Since I've come to North Wu with such difficulty, I naturally can't just go back immediately.'
'Also... for the 'enlightenment' divine artifact, either I find a way to create divine artifacts using the system myself, or I find a way to find the divine artifact of Judge of Heaven, and North Wu is the most suitable place to look for this.'
'Finally, there's the'Stone' divine artifact... for this item, there's only one channel...'
Thinking this, Dorothy then took out her magic box, from which she took out the "wen hai hang zhi". After opening it, she turned to a communication page within it. After pondering for a while, she picked up a pen and wrote on it.
"Hey, are you there?"
"Yes, I've been waiting for you to contact me for a long time, esteemed earthly agent of the Judge of Heaven."
After Dorothy finished writing, a perfectly neat printed reply appeared on the page almost instantly. Seeing this reply, Dorothy was slightly taken aback, then picked up her pen again and wrote.
"Have you heard about the Adis matter?"
"Of course I've heard. In fact, I heard about it almost the same evening you caused the trouble at noon. Don't underestimate our intelligence capabilities."
"To be honest, although I had some expectation that you might stir up some news by going to North Wu, I didn't expect it to be this big. This wave of yours has alarmed quite a few people, even some old folks who haven't concerned themselves with worldly affairs for thousands of years have been stirred."
Beverly replied to Dorothy on the "wen hai hang zhi" like this. Seeing Beverly's words, Dorothy couldn't help but feel a little surprised, then wrote.
"Old folks who haven't concerned themselves with worldly affairs for thousands of years? Who are they?"
"I can't go into detail about that~ In short, you just need to know that the commotion you caused this time is quite significant. I hope you can handle it. Doing business with you is quite interesting. By the way, are you contacting me for some business or to ask for information?" Beverly wrote back to Dorothy on the book like this. Looking at Beverly's reply, Dorothy couldn't help but focus her mind, then continued to write.
"It's business. By the way, do you have any divine artifacts blessed by the'Stone' divine being?"
"A'Stone' divine artifact? Of course we do. If we don't have this item here, no other place will. What? Are you interested in divine artifacts this time?" Beverly replied on the "wen hai hang zhi", and Dorothy also quickly picked up her pen to respond.
"Something like that. If I wanted to borrow one of your divine artifacts for a while, would your higher-ups allow it?"
"Ah... you want to borrow a divine artifact, not buy one? Tsk, that's a bit of a shame. But borrowing is certainly possible. We have a complete rental procedure for sacred artifacts and even divine gifts. As long as you can afford the price, we have a rich selection of various divine artifacts for you to choose from."
Beverly replied on the page like this. After seeing that the other party had a tradition of renting out divine artifacts and even divine gifts, Dorothy's eyes lit up, and she then continued to write.
"So how is the price determined? I want to rent the cheapest'Stone' divine artifact for a period of time. How much would that cost?"
Dorothy immediately wrote down her request, and it wasn't long before she received a reply.
"Regarding divine artifacts, our minimum rental period is half a year, and the rental fee for the cheapest divine artifact for half a year is thirty thousand pound." Beverly stated her price. Seeing the number on the page, although Dorothy was mentally prepared, she still couldn't help but gasp and hold her breath, but she didn't expect that even more shocking numbers were yet to come.
"The rental fee is thirty thousand pound, but because it's a rental, we also collect a deposit. The deposit is above the item's true price, so it's ninety thousand pound."
"However, considering that you helped us deal with Garib last time, we still owe you a little something. We can give you a bit of a discount on both the deposit and the rental fee. How about this, you only need to give us ten thousand pound for the rental fee, and the deposit is thirty thousand pound. Is that okay? This is a huge discount~"