My health recovery is incredibly fast.

This gray ocean, how come I've never heard anyone mention it before?

And why is it gray?

Xia Zuo scratched his head, choosing to suppress his questions.

He did not control his blood servants to cross the gray ocean and reach the territory of the Otherworldly Church on the other side.

the reason is simple:

With the Temple's strength, building shipyards and ships and dominating the oceans shouldn't be too difficult, right?

But look, this gray ocean is empty, with no ships or seabirds, only countless gray waves, which clearly indicates a great danger.

The fact that even the infiltrating team had to cross the cliff instead of swimming across the gray ocean already indicates that there's something wrong with this ocean.

Xia Zuo now needs to find the cliff that leads to the territory of the Otherworldly Church.

After sensing the location of Rexor and the others, the 100 Blood Elemental servants quietly flew north along the coastline.

Late that night, with only three hours left for the shriveled blood vessels to recharge, the Blood Element servants finally located the cliff and flew into the anti-magic field, clinging to its edge.

This journey took a lot of Xia Zuo's energy.

To be precise, he hasn't rested since discovering the Otherworldly Church's plot the day before yesterday.

After settling his bloodline servants, Xia Zuo was about to meditate for an hour to recover his energy when a new change occurred at the headquarters of the Otherworldly Church.

.

Chapter 73 Escape Route

Nukalofa, standing at the forefront of the demons, exhaled a long breath again, dispelling the aura of forced piety emanating from his withered veins.

This time, many demons swayed and almost collapsed to the ground due to exhaustion and lack of energy.

What is Nukalofa up to now? ...Xia Zuo drank a few sips of the energizing potion with the alchemy stone and forced himself to observe the alien demon.

From the perspective of the Blood Elemental Servant, the towering Nukalofa used shadow energy to summon a time vessel and check on the situation of the temple infiltrator team.

The infiltrating team was currently preparing for the attack on the various strongholds of the Alien Group. Busy arms transport was proceeding in an orderly fashion, with batches of advanced weapons being secretly smuggled into the Rose Knights' strongholds. The entire stronghold was bustling with activity, filled with knights-warriors eager for a major battle.

There was absolutely no sign that they wanted to escape.

This was something Rexol did intentionally.

Because Ceretius was in the open and would be seen by spies, Rexor did not reveal any information about Xia Zuo to him, nor did he tell him about the delayed arrival of the reinforcements.

The identities of the two spies who infiltrated the team have been exposed, but those who knew this information chose to exercise restraint and did not execute them immediately.

Using their advantageous positions, the two thoroughly explored the Rose Knights' stronghold, gathering information on personnel and supplies. This classified information was fully revealed within the time container when Nukalofa examined it.

The images within the time container were frozen in place by Nukalofa, and more shadow energy surged from his body, flowing into the time container and magnifying the images several times over.

The main subject of this image is a battle plan. On the yellowed parchment, it is written in clear handwriting: Reinforcements are expected to arrive in five days, and the first offensive will take place the following day.

Nukalofa seemed somewhat disappointed when he saw this line of text.

He shook his head, waved his hand to dispel the time container, and slowly turned to look at the demons behind him.

Xia Zuo quickly manipulated his blood element servants to hide behind the walls of the energy pipes to avoid being caught by Nukalofa's gaze.

"Those who ascend exist outside the walls of flesh and bone, while those who are born within flesh and bone know that flesh and bone itself has no walls."

Nukalofa's voice was hoarse and deep, echoing throughout the square.

Although Xia Zuo couldn't see his face, it wasn't hard to imagine what an old man on his deathbed looked like.

"In the ancient Dark Ages, the great prophet, savior, and creator, Lady Vasaksat, descended upon this land shrouded in darkness. She dispelled the darkness, sowed the seeds of civilization, conveyed the belief in eternal life, and granted us the path to ascension to pursue the ultimate truth of the universe."

The ceremony became exceptionally solemn. The exhausted demons stood shakily in place, struggling to maintain their posture, their faces showing heartfelt worship, as if the five words "Vasaksat" could give them endless strength.

"She was kind, gentle, and loved life, and took care of this land with all her heart. At that time, all things enjoyed equality, without distinction of levels or physiological barriers, and different species could know, follow, and accompany each other until immortality."

That sounds a bit odd... Xia Zuo scratched his head.

All things are equal, without hierarchy—life levels are divided according to the maximum value of the charm attribute. Does "no hierarchy" mean that at that time, all things had no maximum value for the charm attribute, or does it mean that their maximum value for the charm attribute was uniformly a certain value?

Does the absence of physiological barriers mean the absence of reproductive barriers? Does it mean that every living thing can mate with everything else and produce offspring?

This is just too... bizarre...

And what about the "immortality" that Nukalofa repeatedly mentions? Does it mean that the vitality attribute value is infinitely large, or that the vitality attribute value is in a state of slow and permanent increase, increasing by at least 1 point every year, in order to offset the consumption of lifespan?

Xia Zuo felt his head was filled with questions.

Before he could think it over carefully, Nukalofa continued:

"The order collapsed the day Lord Vasaksat left."

"All things are no longer in harmony. They fight, struggle, invade and attack each other. Every creature tries to tear apart the path to ascension of other creatures and dominate this world."

Nukalofa paused for a moment, then said in the deepest voice:

"Just as we were about to successfully restore order, that cunning and insidious crystal appeared..."

"It vilely usurped the authority of Lord Vasaksat, obscured the starry sky with our last bastion of self-preservation, and defiled the virgin land that Lord Vasaksat left us."

"It shamelessly corrupted humanity, using its blasphemous power to ravage the human spirit, distort human cognition, and rewrite the history written by Lord Vasaksat."

Such atrocities continue to spread across this land to this day.

Nukalofa suddenly raised his voice.

"We are the agents appointed by Lord Vasaksat! We are the practitioners who uphold the order of ascension! We are the martyrs of the path of Saguma! Those who desecrate the order will pay the price!"

Nukalofa's voice fell silent instantly, and the scene became quiet.

Xia Zuo felt a little irritated, but overall remained relatively calm.

The struggles of the YS form often revolve around abstract things such as history, culture, and philosophical theories, because in these fields, who says what is not determined by whether their words are reasonable, but rather by "whose side determines their perspective"—what they say depends on which camp they belong to.

Since the Temple and the Church of the Otherworld are in an adversarial relationship, the Church of the Otherworld's negative evaluation of the Temple naturally does not need to be analyzed in depth.

Xia Zuo knew this very well.

After listening to Nukalofa's words, he discarded most of them, but there were a few points that made him have to think about them.

The first is the "Saguma Way" mentioned by Nukalofa.

Following the logic of gradually increasing emphasis and importance in parallel sentences, Nukalofa's placement of the "Path of Saguma" after the "Order of Ascension" undoubtedly indicates that the Path of Saguma is more important than ascension.

Xia Zuo could only make a rough guess as to what this thing was:

Whether it's "ascension" or "immortality" mentioned by Nukalofa, it all revolves around living beings.

Clearly, the path of Saguma must be related to living beings.

Crystals, creation crystals, elemental crystals, and the like are not living beings. They can be said to deviate from the path of Saguma, and may even be hostile to it.

If we assume that crystals and the path of Saguma are opposites, and then consider Nukalofa, we will find that what he says is actually logically consistent.

Oh, wait a minute.

There may be a subtle flaw in Nukalofa's words.

He said, "The crystal has vilely stolen the authority that Lord Vasaksat left us, and has used our last barrier of self-preservation to obscure the starry sky."

The barrier that obscures the starry sky should refer to the primordial smoke layer.

Nukalofa claims that control of the self-defense barrier should have been in the hands of the Church of the Otherworlders, but it was stolen by the Crystal.

So, once Vasaksat arrives, wouldn't it be better for him to take back the power and dismantle the self-protection barrier?

In this way, wouldn't the Temple, now freed from the protection of the Creation Smoke Layer, be completely exposed to the Starry Sky Demons? Wouldn't it be much safer and more efficient for the Demon Church and the Starry Sky Demons to attack the Temple together? Why launch a massive attack now?

After much thought, Xia Zuo could only come up with one reason:

Vasaksat cannot manipulate the self-protection barrier outside the Genesis Smoke Layer.

It's like a security door that's locked from the inside and has a bolt on it. Even if the owner has the key and can unlock the door, they can't open it from the outside—they have to go inside first and unlatch the bolt.

Security doors are like a layer of smoke from creation, a self-protective barrier.

The bolts represent the temple and the crystal.

As long as the temple can withstand the attack of the Otherworldly Demons, the Creation Smoke Layer will not disappear, and Vasaksat can only watch helplessly from outside the planet, cheering on the Otherworldly Demons on the ground.

Hmm...that's good news.

Xia Zuo nodded slowly, intending to relay the news to Rexor later and persuade him to leave the anti-magic field before his shriveled blood vessels were fully recharged.

Unfortunately... Rexor and the others didn't get their chance.

After a long silence, Nukalofa did something that caused a noticeable tremor at the headquarters of the Church of the Otherworld.

At the same time, Xia Zuo's other blood element servants were also shocked.

An unprovoked earthquake occurred in various corners of the magic-suppressing field.

The people in this area lack knowledge about earthquakes. They either stand frozen in place, watching the houses collapse and the stones roll down, or run around in panic, frantically trying to get away from their homes.

Rexol woke up immediately, grabbed his bag, darted out of the cave, and hid in the bushes.

This strange, violent earthquake came quickly and went even faster.

The commotion lasted only about five minutes before subsiding. If it weren't for the collapsed houses right in front of them, many residents would have thought they were hallucinating.

"Xia Zuo, what just happened? Did anything happen at the headquarters of the Otherworldly Church?" Rexor, crouching in the bushes, asked the girl in the red vest. Christor's curly-haired cat leaped onto a tree trunk, remaining alert.

Xia Zuo's expression was extremely unpleasant at this moment.

In that brief earthquake just now, the cliff connecting the anti-magic field to the temple territory broke.

The entire cliff shattered into countless pebbles, plunging into the grey ocean below. The surface of the water was shattered by the pebbles, splashing water everywhere. The pebbles didn't sink. They floated on the surface, their surfaces covered in grey foam. Within seconds, the stones were completely dissolved by the grey seawater.

Currently, the magic-free field is separated from the temple territory by a huge strait at least 3 kilometers wide.

The earthquake cut off Rexor and his companions' escape route.

"Xia Zuo, are you still there?" Rexor asked again in a low voice.

“I’m here,” Xia Zuo replied with a red thread. “The situation is very bad, Master. Nukalofa just interrupted the worship ceremony, said a lot of strange things, and then did something unknown, shattering the cliff passage with an earthquake.”

Rexormoso, bald, asked, "The cliff passage is gone?"