Chapter 438: Ancient Agarwood
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
With Klive’s explanation, Yang Ling was slowly beginning to understand the history of the Dark Association. As he looked at the hopeful Elder Klive, he realized little by little the main motive behind all his stories. For the past hundreds and thousands of years, the Dark Association hadn’t been able to break through the Iron Edge Castle. Relying just on their strength, the hope of saving the Three Major Heads of the Dark seemed to be diminishing. It was evident that after he had misunderstood Yang Ling’s strength, Elder Klive was hoping to borrow the strength of his Magical Beasts Territory to help them fulfill their thousand years long and hopeful wish.
The enemy of your enemy is your friend. If they could save the Three Major Heads of the Dark, it would definitely decrease the pressure on the Magical Beasts Territory that was coming from the Church by a great amount. However, the problem was that if the Dark Association couldn’t fulfill their wish for the past hundreds and thousands of years, it would be easy to imagine how heavily guarded the Iron Edge Castle was. Where would he find such an immense amount of strength needed to help him save the Three Major Heads of the Dark?
After seeing the Corpse Wizard King, who appeared as Fabris, Klive had assumed that Yang Ling had the protection of other powerful Divine-level Experts apart from Elder Brent. However, it was clear in Yang Ling’s heart how strong he really was!
“There’s something I don’t understand, Elder. Since the Dark Association’s then Great Elder, Great Priest and Great Commander of the Dark Calvary were captured, why didn’t the Church just get rid of them but instead spent so much effort to seal the energy within their bodies and to imprison them with the guard of many soldiers?” Yang Ling let out his curiosity as he avoided Elder Klive’s motive.
“At the beginning, I thought that the Church was worried about attracting the attention of the King of Darkness if they were to kill the Three Major Heads of the Dark, or that they wanted to force them to reveal the whereabouts of the Staff of Dark!” Klive had a heavy expression on his face. He continued after pausing for a moment, “However, after a large number of elites perished in the Iron Edge Castle in the attempt of saving the Three Major Heads of the Dark, I understood that this was just the Church’s evil scam to continuously wear out the strength of generations and generations of the Dark Association!”
Klive gritted his teeth in hatred as he thought of the Church’s vicious scam. The elites that the Dark Association had spent so much effort to groom had mostly perished in the Iron Edge Castle over the hundreds and thousands of years, and the strength of the association was declining rapidly. What was most hateful was that while they knew of the Church’s plot, they had no other choice but to attack the Iron Edge Castle over and over again in hopes of saving the Three Major Heads of the Dark, so as to completely revive the Dark Camp.
The Great Elder of the Darkness was the only one who could fight against the Church’s most extreme expert, while only the Great Priest of the Darkness knew exactly how to use the Dark Staff divine weapon, and only the Great Commander of the Dark Cavalry could create an unformidable troop of Dark Cavalries. In order to revive the Dark Camp, the young Dark Knights and Spellcasters had no other options!
Ruthless. They were indeed cunning and vicious!
Yang Ling shook his head after understanding the real reason why the Church was keeping the Three Major Heads of the Dark captive. Only the Church that pretended to speak of good while being secretly bloody and despicable was able to come up with such a cunning and shameful plot to force the Dark Association elites to their deaths knowingly. They were also the only ones who would splurge and build a castle that was worth countless Crystal Coins just to keep three enemies captive.
“The Church would always be the Church, and they are indeed cunning. However, I still don’t understand. Since they had already gained the upper hand over the hundreds and thousands of years, why didn’t they gather all their armed forces to destroy your Dark Association completely?” Yang Ling was filled with questions as he couldn’t understand the reason why the Church would go through so much hassle.
Without the Divine-level expert to anchor the Dark Association, who would be able to go against the Church’s powerful Templar Knights, and who would be able to go against Fabris, who had already advanced to the Divine-level then? Since the Church already had the ultimate advantage, why would they still want to spend this much effort? It couldn’t possibly be that the generations of popes were actually all old perverts or sadists!
“Humph, the Church is only a small branch of the thousands and millions of Physical Dimensions that the City amongst the Clouds supports. Except for devising cunning plans and sneaking despicable attacks, they wouldn’t dare to destroy our Dark Association completely even if they were given a huge amount of courage.” Klive let out a cold snort as he spoke slowly.
As it turns out, the backbone of the Church was the City amongst the Clouds, which was also known as the Angel Dimension. While the Dark Association was supported by the King of Darkness from the Death Dimension. They were intolerable towards each other and supported their own powers in many dimensions to suppress their opponents’ area of power with all their might.
The Church could summon the angels to befall from the City amongst the Clouds through the Holy Spell Formation. The Dark Association could also summon the Dark Knights from the Death Dimension through the Dark Soul Altar. However, as compared to the vast and endless Core Dimension, the Tailun Continent was only a tiny Physical Dimension without a stable energy wave. When it befalls, no matter whether it’s the angels in the City amongst the Clouds or the Dark Knights from the Death Dimension, they would all trigger a violent energy wave. The stronger the befallen, the more powerful the triggered wave. The Space Crack could collapse in a careless moment and destroy the entire dimension.
To prevent triggering any violent instability of the Space Turbulence, and also from destroying the entire Physical Dimension in a careless moment, the angels and Dark Knights could only befall in the form of their physique projection. They would only have one out of a hundred of their original strength, or even one out of a thousand. Hence, neither the Church nor the Dark Association could rely on their supporting power. It’s also the reason for the Church to create a powerful chapel, and the Dark Association to form a powerful Council of Elder.
Under normal circumstances, the angels and Dark Knights wouldn’t be able to befall onto the fragile Physical Dimension in their original form. However, there were also exceptions.
When the Dark Association or the Church were faced with the threat of extinction, or when they have accumulated a sufficient number of believers for a sacrificial ritual, they could possibly attract the attention of the King of Darkness or the Core Deity of the City amongst the Clouds. They can then borrow their immense Divine Power for protection such that the powerful angels and Dark Knights would be able to befall onto every faraway Physical Dimension personally!
The Church had such powerful strength that had driven their long-time opponent – the Dark Association – into a corner in the South for over hundreds and thousands of years. However, to prevent the Dark Association from facing mutual destruction, they didn’t hesitate to sacrifice the souls of many believers as a price to attract the attention of the King of Darkness. They wouldn’t dare deploy their troops to attack the Dark Association’s supreme headquarters without absolute confidence. In response, the Dark Association wouldn’t be able to bear torment anymore in order to ensure the continuity of their generations. They couldn’t sacrifice the few remaining believers to exchange for the King of Darkness’s attention and help when they couldn’t even afford to summon the powerful physique projection of a few Dark Knights.
Hence, both parties came to a deadlock for the past hundreds and thousands of years. The Church calculated every step and swallowed the Dark Association’s area of power little by little, while the Dark Association dealt painfully against their opponent with the deeply rooted supreme headquarters. The Church wasn’t able to swallow the Dark Association entirely while the Dark Association couldn’t launch a significant retaliation!
“Yang Ling, due to the instability of the Space Turbulence, the Space Crack on Tailun Continent would become unstable every other five years. This year is coincidentally the fifth year of the cycle. The Space Cracks in all corners would start becoming unstable by the latest half a year or quickest a few days later. In order to secure their current benefits, the Church had already deployed their elites to stand guard at all corners, and the defense of the Iron Edge Castle is now at its weakest. This is a great opportunity, an opportunity that comes only once every five years. You definitely have to help me. After we succeed, the Dark Association will forever remember your kindness, and we will forever be a dependable ally of the Magical Beasts Territory!” Klive looked at Yang Ling anxiously. If they were to miss this opportunity, they might never be able to save the Three Major Heads of the Dark and revive the Dark Association.
“It’s a pity, Elder. Due to the instability of the Space Turbulence, my family had met with some problems. The guard of my family must leave the Tailun Continent tonight, and even Fabris, who I had just tamed, would be no exception.” Although he wasn’t clear what exactly was the instability of the Space Turbulence, he quickly found an excuse as he heard Elder Kilve’s words. He pretended to be in a dilemma and said helplessly after deliberating for a moment, “It’s not that I’m unwilling to help, but I just don’t have the ability to so…d*mn the Space Turbulence!”
It was evident that the Church’s defense on the Iron Edge Castle cannot be underestimated if the elites of the Dark Association couldn’t charge their way even after thousands of years. Yang Ling was not willing to become a scapegoat for someone else unknowingly and to send his Magical Beasts Army to their deaths. Although he wouldn’t miss the chance to defeat the Church, it wouldn’t be worth it to sacrifice with his main powers while doing so. It would be easier if the low-level magical beasts were the ones that perished, as he would be able to supplement quickly through the Magical Beasts Base in the Wizard Pagoda’s Space. However, if he were to lose a large number of Chimeras, Two-legged Flying Dragons, or other high-level Magical Beasts, it would still be a loss even if they were able to kill off a large number of Church Knights and Spellcasters.
It’s definitely not a wise decision to kill off a thousand enemies in exchange for eight hundred casualties on their own side. The name – Iron Edge Castle – already sounds like a castle that was easy to guard but hard to attack. Yang Ling doesn’t wish to drain too much of his military strength there.
“Yang Ling, according to reliable sources, the Church had deployed a large number of elites away from the Iron Edge Castle to deal with the danger that could be brought about by the instability of the Space Crack. There’s only a group of normal angels and Guardian Knights in the castle now. Without any divine-level experts to guard the base, even if your Warrior Guards and Fabris were not involved, we have a hundred percent confidence that we will be able to break through the castle’s door with just your Magical Beasts Army and the help of Elder Brent!”
Elder Klive swallowed his saliva anxiously as he saw how Yang Ling tactfully refused to take part in the battle. After deliberating for a moment, he used all his strength to pull out a pale yellow wood from the Space Ring. “Yang Ling, if we are able to save the Dark Association’s Great Elder, Great Priest and Great Commander of the Dark Cavalry, it would also benefit the Magical Beasts Territory greatly whereby we can deal with the powerful Church together. This is an Ancient Years Agarwood that the Great Elder had unintentionally found in the Northern Glacier thousands of years ago. After swallowing a small part of it, it would not only help to balance the clash of energy in your body, but also increase the speed of practice. The result is even more evident on Magical Beasts. The Magical Beasts in the Northern Ice Field had relied on the few Agarwood that was passed down from their ancestors to mutate a few Behemoths successfully, and for its ability to turn frenzy and increase in speed!”
Ancient Years Agarwood?
It could balance the clash of energy within the bodies of the Magical Beasts, and allow them to mutate and advance into a Natural Spirit Treasure successfully?
Yang Ling’s heart fluttered as he thought of the Beast Soul Priests Augustus, who had been busy for a period of time, the large amount of premium Crystal Ores that had been consumed by the Wizard Pagoda’s Space, and the Beast Soul Altar that was about to be completed soon. He received over the heavy Ancient Years Agarwood without ceremony from Elder Klive’s hands.
