Chapter 430: Darkness and Opportunity
Ramiro quickly left with a few companions after confirming the location.
Regarding the powerful undead Daoist Lingyang mentioned, they didn't give it a second thought. In the many years they led the Holy Church, they'd killed countless undead and were more than familiar with this.
'Just how powerful can an undead possibly be?'
With several Crusader commanders joining forces, they could even take on a half-god lich.
After the Church of Light's former troops left, Xue Ren's figure slowly appeared next to Daoist Lingyang. ''Sending them to their deaths? You really are two-faced."
Daoist Lingyang smiled coyly. "There are still quite many people in the Church of Light, and it would be too ugly to kill them directly... Sending them to their deaths is a small matter. The undead that can fight Karina to a standstill, on the other hand, is a much bigger matter."
Towards the end, his expression subconsciously turned serious.
The intelligence report Daoist Lingyang was reading when Maria entered with her group just now was precisely news about the emergence of a powerful undead fighting the Wrestling Goddess Karina in the Garden of Spirits.
"This was Gu Nan's doing, wasn't it? He really stirs up trouble wherever he goes." Xue Ren revealed an amused expression as he shook his head.
He knew who Karina came along with, so it certainly wasn't difficult to deduce Gu Nan's involvement.
"If Gu Nan was the one who lured out that undead, then that's a good thing." Daoist Lingyang also smiled.
To him, it was a good thing as long as the situation wasn't created by the Dark Empire itself and was instead an unexpected crisis the empire had to deal with. This was because his ultimate goal had always been to create a crisis the empire couldn't handle.
"I'm just afraid the commotion will be too big and will inadvertently alert the enemy, making him more cautious," Xue Ren, however, poured cold water on their conversation as he handed over another piece of information.
Daoist Lingyang frowned as he took it. The information contained within the intelligence report caused his pupils to shrink slightly.
Clearly written on it was the sentence: "Archmage Claude is dead, and the Dark Emperor is personally heading to the Garden of Spirits."
Knowing that god-level existences were fighting and facing an existence that easily killed Claude, if one still believed the Dark Emperor would head there alone, then one would be looking down on this emperor's intelligence too much.
Daoist Lingyang took a deep breath.
He knew that his target was about to appear as well.
...
After realizing the Blacksmith God undead was stronger than he imagined and could not be killed quickly, Gu Nan was actually in no hurry to make his move.
In any case, the item he wanted would appear as soon as the Blacksmith God undead died, and he didn't care who killed the undead. More importantly, that item was probably not something other people had much use for, and it was highly unlikely that they would even fight over it.
The Blacksmith God undead would drop a blueprint used specifically for constructing a structure inside the Divine Kingdom.
That structure was something Gu Nan had a use for, but neither Karina nor Lewis—who had already reached Tier 10 and whose Divine Kingdom was close to being perfected—needed it much.
That was why Gu Nan killed Claude, hoping to use his death to draw the Dark Empire's attention.
As long as Lewis's attention was drawn this way and he noticed the existence of the Blacksmith God undead, there was a high likelihood of Lewis showing up in person. At the very least, Lewis would consider subduing this undead and putting it under his control.
However, Gu Nan didn't expect for the first to arrive to not be the Dark Empire's army, but the Crusaders.
...
"Too undisciplined. They have no sense of honor as a Crusader at all!" A Crusader commander couldn't help complaining during the march.
"They should be honored to fight for the Holy Light. They'll understand sooner or later," Ramiro, on the other hand, wasn't too anxious and said to the companions around him.
Although Daoist Lingyang didn't form the Crusaders, when Ramiro and the other commanders stepped forward, an army called the "Crusaders" was quickly formed.
Of course, the result of forcibly bringing a new army to battle was that the troops were extremely undisciplined, which was unacceptable to the several commanders.
"We're almost there. Everyone, be on your guard!" Ramiro suddenly glanced at the ground, as if sensing something, and shouted loudly.
The remaining few commanders also straightened up. As veterans in fighting the undead, they all knew exactly what Ramiro sensed.
Where powerful undead creatures exist, the death aura from their bodies tend to spread naturally, affecting the surrounding space and land.
Land eroded by death aura was especially prone to producing new undead, so every powerful undead creature often represented an undead army.
As expected, they didn't travel for too long before the Crusaders ran into a large number of weak undead, but they were easily cleared away.
"Didn't they say that the undead was just born? How come there are so many undead soldiers?" Ramiro furrowed his brows as he ordered the troops to march with more caution.
In any case, the caliber of the several commanders leading the troops was still very high, and as the Crusaders slowly advanced, more and more undead died at their hands while their casualties were quite limited.
However, the unease in Ramiro's heart grew heavier, because not only was the number of undead far beyond imagination, the size of this dead land also seemed a bit too large.
'Exactly how powerful is this so-called powerful undead?'
Ramiro soon saw him. The Crusaders didn't have to march much further before the dark giant's enormous figure appeared in everyone's sight.
A golden light was also moving rapidly near the black giant. Every time the golden light collided with the giant, it would generate unimaginably powerful aftershocks.
"What... What kind of undead is this?!" Ramiro stared at this scene with his jaw dropped. This dark giant had already surpassed his understanding of undead creatures.
"It's an undead god..."
A soft sigh rang out beside him. Ramiro turned his head suddenly, only to see a youth with gentle features dressed in a dark purple robe just standing there.
Ramiro didn't recognize the youth, but he recognized the person standing next to the youth—that middle-aged man in black standing behind the youth was someone whose appearance Ramiro would never forget in his life.
The Dark Emperor!
The founder of the Dark Empire, the man who single-handedly led countless troops and destroyed the thousand-year foundation of the Church of Light!
"Glory to the Holy Light!" Ramiro let out a roar, drew the longsword at his waist, and quickly rushed at the Dark Emperor.
As long as he could kill this man, Ramiro would gladly give his own life in exchange!
However, he was only greeted with an indifferent look from the Dark Emperor. This emperor didn't even deign to move, as he knew very well that it was impossible for the other party to come closer.
The commander began to charge, and the Crusaders naturally followed suit, but they quickly realized something was wrong.
The path in front of them darkened, and the sky above their heads and the ground under their feet also darkened further. Their charge seemed to have fallen into boundless darkness.
The purple-robed youth was just standing in place, but it was as if there was endless darkness behind him.
"Sleep for all eternity inside the darkness," the youth's soft sigh rang out, and the entire Crusader army was instantly buried in darkness.
The Dark Emperor didn't even spare them a glance. He just stared at the dark giant and asked in confusion, "Ancestor, who is this?"
"The first God of Blacksmiths," the youth in purple answered softly, a strange light flickering in his eyes. "This is an opportunity."
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