Otherworld Advance Team
Chapter 1000 - 993: The Will of God

Chapter 1000: Chapter 993: The Will of God

After a short while, Baiyue led the remaining people out of the tomb. Aunt Axia and Talis had braced themselves for a fierce battle, but were stunned at how quickly the fight had ended, the efficiency of which left them speechless.

Despite their surprise, Aunt Axia helped Baiyue clean up the battlefield, trying to find some valuable things to discern the origins of these individuals.

Luo’er sat on the cold stone, the outdoor temperature making him rub his hands involuntarily while he wrapped his ears with his hat.

"Luo’er," Baiyue and Aunt Axia called out as they walked over.

"Did you find anything?" Luo’er asked expectantly as he rubbed his hands.

"Uh," Baiyue and Aunt Axia exchanged a look, then Aunt Axia stepped forward and said calmly, "These people are very likely from the Church of Light."

"The Church?" Upon hearing this term, Luo’er first looked puzzled, then frowned and turned to Baiyue.

"I’m not sure, but the evidence found on site, combined with Aunt Axia’s speculation, makes me think it’s the Church," Baiyue said with a serious face.

"How is that possible?" Luo’er said, perplexed.

"Why is it impossible?" Aunt Axia asked.

Luo’er gave her a look, paused for a moment, and then said, "Aunt Axia may not be aware, but firstly, the Church is our headquarters’ partner, and we share intelligence with each other. If the Church’s people were in the Snow Domain, there would certainly be a corresponding alert from headquarters."

"Secondly, the Church is a feudal-style military force, at least that’s what we call them. The Church mostly relies on cold weapons and magic weapons and is reluctant to use Earth’s weapons. When they formed the Purification Legion, there were already significant internal dissent. I can’t believe they could resolve these internal conflicts and fully equip themselves with Earth’s weapons in just a few short months," Luo’er explained.

Hearing Luo’er’s analysis, Aunt Axia pressed her lips together, then opened her mouth, hesitated for a moment, and said, "There’s something you might not know."

"Please enlighten me, Aunt Axia," said Luo’er respectfully.

"The Church you’ve just mentioned represents the traditional Church, the so-called mainstream Church. In fact, the Church of Light has been developing for thousands of years and has a vast interior with many branches. Often, a group with differing ideologies will separate from the mainstream Church to establish their own sect, while still nominally claiming to be the Church. The heretics you are familiar with from the Ancient States are actually a branch of the Church of Light," Aunt Axia explained.

"The mainstream Church often detests such branches. You’ve probably heard the saying that heretics are more abominable than pagans. Most Church branches with differing doctrines have been either assimilated or annihilated by the mainstream Church. Those that remain either have minor differences, so they are ignored, or they hide away in remote areas where the mainstream Church can’t reach them. What we encountered today likely belong to the former kind."

"So, these people are actually an independent branch of the Church?" Luo’er asked, furrowing his brows.

"That’s likely," Aunt Axia nodded, then continued, "You might not know much about the history of the Snow Domain. After the onset of the cold winter, the Aud Empire had effectively given up governance over the Snow Domain, but the Church of Light did not give up and still established branches here. However, with the collapse of the Aud Empire and the winter blockade of the Snow Domain, this branch gradually became independent, no longer acknowledging the pope of the southern fragmented Empire, and it stopped following some of the mainstream Church’s outdated rules."

"What are they mainly doing in the Snow Domain?" Luo’er inquired.

"Ah, what else can they do but continue preaching, spreading the word of their God of Light?" Axia said, shaking her head. "However, these people are more like ancient people living in the present, still dreaming the lofty dream of the Aud Empire’s unification of the world. They refuse to accept that the Aud Empire has split apart and stubbornly believe that the Snow Domain is still the Empire’s territory. But, with the rise of tomb raiding, their main mission has gone from reviving the Empire to anti-tomb raiding. They protect the interests of those Aud nobles in the Snow Domain, of course, those are the deceased’s interests."

"It seems these people haven’t done anything bad then," Luo’er remarked.

"If that’s what you think, then you’re overestimating them. They only protect the tombs of the Aud nobility. As for the others, like the Elf nobility’s tombs, or even the military tombs, they rob just the same. Moreover, they have a large operation, hardly anyone dares to compete with them for business."

"Plus, even more fatally, as the tombs are gradually plundered, they have started setting their sights on these nobility tombs. Of course, they would never do it themselves, instead, they would send people to secretly observe. If a group attempted to raid a noble tomb, they would surge forth, waiting at the entrance for these people to come out and then pillage them bare, including the treasures brought from the tomb," Axia explained with a smile.

"Fishing law enforcement, a case of the pot calling the kettle black," Luo’er sighed, with an almost admiring expression on his face.

"But, if what you say is true, shouldn’t these people be waiting at the entrance to plunder us when we emerge? Why would they want to blow up the entrance of the tomb?" Baiyue raised her doubt.

Upon hearing her skepticism, the smile on Axia’s face instantly froze, then with furrowed brows, her expression became serious all at once.

"What’s wrong, did I say something incorrect?" Upon seeing Axia’s expression, Baiyue stuttered in confusion.

"No, you didn’t say anything wrong, it’s just that I’ve thought of something unpleasant," Axia shook her head and sighed.

"Aunt Axia, you..." Luo’er looked at Axia hesitantly, seemingly also realizing something.

"Although these people usually don’t do good deeds, they are still members of the Church of Light, so they still worship the God of Light. Do you remember our previous discussion? You said Tana is very likely the God of Light, which means..." Axia spoke and suddenly stopped with a closed mouth.

"Which means these people might very well be following Tana’s will to doom us all," Luo’er said coldly. "Otherwise, once we arrive at Xia Yue Island, it’ll be too late."

"Tana is watching us all the time, I think she has both the motive and the ability," Baiyue nodded in agreement, "Given that Tana is a strong artificial intelligence, her intelligence and adaptability are certainly not much less than a real person’s. Outside of the rules of divinity, she can find many loopholes to exploit, and each loophole could potentially be fatal to us."

"It’s come to the point where we are completely incompatible with Tana," Luo’er couldn’t help but lament.

"Right now, without anyone to supervise her, Tana can act recklessly. If it weren’t for the constraints of divinity, she would probably have taken to murder by now. So our top priority is to quickly reach Xia Yue Island and release Xiapei Kam, the supervisor, to balance Tana," Baiyue suggested.

"Yes," Luo’er nodded, then looked around and said, "It seems we can’t stay in the Snow Domain any longer. We must hurry to Xia Yue Island at once, or who knows if Tana might break free from divine constraints and directly interfere with us."

After discussing their plans, Luo’er dismissed the two and instructed them to get ready while he approached Tangmo, who was tending to Feng.

At that moment, Feng was holding Tangmo’s hand, leaning on her, and appeared to be not looking too well. Luo’er stepped forward, asking with concern, "Is she alright?"

"Alas, it’s her old ailment, her meridians have split again, she can only recover slowly," Tangmo shook her head and sighed, "I’ve already infused her with some magic to ensure her body doesn’t wither from loss of magic, but right now, she hardly has any magic left for fighting."