Chapter 556: Chapter 66: Night Raids are Useless

Another day had passed.

Ratlan Palace convened another emergency Cardinal meeting that evening to discuss how to suppress the mutant “Spiritual Tree.”

Despite the best efforts of the Temple Knights, the number of Polluters in the city had risen from several dozen cases to nearly a thousand, most of the victims were affluent middle-class individuals who had encounters with Extraordinary Creatures and thus were unfortunately contaminated by the Spiritual Essence.

The advertising airships resumed operation tonight, broadcasting for everyone to stay home and not venture out; if anyone felt unwell, they were to immediately contact the security chief of their district.

The effect was minimal.

The Cardinals looked solemnly at the meeting materials, staring blankly at the exponentially rising lines. Some Cardinals were even secretly speculating that it seemed the Church Court might have to flee again.

Of course, it wasn’t the first or second time that the Church Court had fled. Due to the destruction of production lines by the Magic Tide, enemy nations, Barbarians, Transcendent sects, and suppressed R-class threats all liked to take advantage of this situation to cause trouble in Solomon City.

If suppression became untenable, the Church Court could only strategically retreat to a safe area, trading space for time, waiting for technology to recover before reclaiming Solomon—a traditionally practiced strategy.

“Huh, why are there so few Spiritual-contaminated persons in the Balberini district?” A Cardinal suddenly noticed that a certain city block in the center of the map was particularly light in color (the darker the color, the more Polluters there were), embedded among a cluster of dark districts, which was particularly striking.

“That’s the station of The Azure Longsword Mercenary Corps,” another Cardinal said.

“The R4 mercenary corps? Is the sister of His Excellency Bishop Valian also in there?”

“Yes, that mercenary corps. They’re reported to have cleared nearly a thousand Polluters today.”

“Now, the main Temple Knights are still equipped with gunpowder weapons, efficiency-wise of course they can’t compare to the Transcendent mercenary groups.”

“But letting Transcendents clean up Transcendents, doesn’t it seem a bit…”

The Cardinals began discussing fervently, when someone proposed:

“If that’s the case, why can’t we also hire the Transcendents in the city to clean up these Spiritual Polluters for us?”

“After all, simple kinetic weapons aren’t as effective against Polluters as Extraordinary Abilities, aren’t they?”

“Bishop Chino, are you trying to imitate the old affair of Romulus?” a Cardinal ridiculed.

Romulus, the last Emperor of the West Solomon Empire, once trusted the Barbarian General Odoacer, only to be betrayed by him and stripped of his throne. The “old affair of Romulus,” as mentioned by the Cardinal, meant “entrusting safety to dangerous individuals.”

Bishop Chino smiled faintly and said:

“If His Majesty is willing to trust The Azure Longsword, why can’t we trust these Transcendents? Besides, it’s already widely known around the city that Spiritual Polluters only attack Transcendents. If they don’t cooperate with us, can they really join forces with Spiritual Polluters to overthrow the Church Court?”

The other Bishops then began to ponder. As the saying goes, the enemy of my enemy is my friend, so perhaps collaborating with the Transcendents shouldn’t be an issue—after all, once the mutant event is over, we could simply expel them from the country.

It’s just that previous witch hunts were conducted so frequently that the Church Court’s reputation in the Extraordinary Realm was terribly bad, so even if we wanted to cooperate now, shedding past animosities, the Transcendents hiding in various parts of the city might not trust us.

“To alleviate the mistrust of these Transcendents, merely gaining trust definitely won’t be enough, so we must use incentives,” Bishop Chino proposed another strategy. “Doesn’t the medical department have lots of Magic Potions? We can request a batch as rewards, with incentives certainly bold Transcendents will risk coming out to voluntarily sign up to cooperate with us.”

“As long as the first wave of cooperation goes smoothly, producing a positive propaganda effect, inevitably more and more Transcendents will come forward. It would essentially replicate the current cooperation model with The Azure Longsword and then quickly expand it, thus suppressing the growth trend of Polluters.”

The Cardinals discussed again and concluded that “it might be worth a try.” So, everyone turned their inquiring gazes towards Innocent.

“It is possible,” Innocent spoke indifferently, “Let’s give it a try.”

As Pope, when it came to decisions agreed upon by the Cardinals, he generally wouldn’t easily use his veto power. Moreover, Innocent had no reason to reject this proposal.

However, Bishop Valian sensed that the Holy Throne might not be optimistic about this idea. Thus, after the meeting ended, he once again approached the departing Innocent.

“Your Majesty, do you not favor this plan?” Bishop Valian asked.

Seeing that there was nobody around, Innocent readily admitted, “Yes.”

“I think Bishop Chino has a point,” the Valian Bishop subtly expressed his opinion.

“That’s precisely why I agreed to let him try,” sighed Innocent. “In fact, what The Azure Longsword can achieve, other Transcendents might not be able to accomplish.”

“Why?” Realization dawned on the Valian Bishop. “Because they are R4?”

While the bishops were still working through the night, the people on Fire Island in another dimension had already gone to bed one by one.

Aske turned over in bed, only to suddenly find himself embraced by a soft body.

Bang! He slapped the person out of the bed, only then seeing Medea, dressed lightly, getting up from the floor and exclaiming incredulously,

“Are you a Devil?”

“Did I enter the wrong room?” Aske instinctively looked around.

No, it was indeed his room’s decor.

“You entered the wrong room,” he matter-of-factly said.

Medea: ……

“I didn’t enter the wrong room.” She sat down by the bed, not daring to directly flirt with the Squad Leader anymore, just playing with her burgundy hair, “I came to chat with you.”

“Chat about what?” Aske was somewhat speechless.

“How to grasp the skill of Manipulation Law,” Medea said with a smile.

“Haven’t I told you already?” Aske said, “There are two paths: either use intense emotional fluctuations for inspiration, but the downside is the skills you inspire might not be what you want.”

“Or through targeted learning, deepen your understanding of the Law. I am on this path.”

“But the former is faster, isn’t it?” Medea surreptitiously moved her bottom, getting a bit closer to him.

“Fast comes with a price.” Aske continued to explain and suddenly noticed that something was off about the distance between them—Medea was almost clinging to him.

“In fact, you really shouldn’t be so anxious.” He grabbed Medea’s fragrant shoulders, under her expectant gaze, and turned the Enchanting Demon lady away from him, “There’s compatibility between Laws and Transcendents themselves, generally visible from the speed of Transcendents’ Law Condensation ceremony.”

“That you could perceive the Manipulation ceremony so quickly shows that you are inherently an old fox… an old sage; thus, mastering skills will surely not be slow for you.”

“But I still want to be faster.” Medea coquettishly turned back around, her voice carrying a whining tone, ramping up her seduction of the Squad Leader, “Why do Peggy and Eleanor have several skills, and I have none? Isn’t it because you’re biased, Squad Leader?”

“I’m not!” Aske replied irritably, deciding to find an excuse to send her away, “Mastering skills is a long-term process, not something you can shortcut with a night raid.”

He got out of bed, wrapped his arms around Medea’s waist, then lifted her horizontally and threw her out the door.

“Aske!” Just as he opened the door, there was Peggy, standing outside, saying embarrassedly, “The Magic Tide limit is already Lv.20, so I was thinking…”

Before she could finish her sentence, Medea had already been thrown onto her.

Aske closed the door, casually locked it, and went back to bed.

“One by one, none of them are focusing on the right things…” he thought rather helplessly, silently pulling up the blanket to block his ears.

Outside, the arguing voices of the Enchanting Demon and the young lady from the Blood Clan began to carry over. The crisp and angry voice was Peggy’s, while the seductive and impatient one was Medea’s, quickly waking up the other girls in the nearby rooms.

Meanwhile, Aske, the main character of all this commotion, had already fallen asleep in his room.