Chapter 826: Chapter 493: The Pope’s Wisdom! (Supplementary Update)

[How many days has it been since Abuzan captured Yilin City, and now it’s been massacred? This is too much of a coincidence.]

However, even though Alice was very angry, she did not directly use her title as Pope to forcibly kill Abuzan.

In her eyes, Abuzan was already a dead man, but how he should die was a matter of great importance.

The news of Abuzan conquering Yilin City had already spread far and wide, and it was too late for Alice to try to block the news.

Countless clergy, seeing how easily Abuzan established his achievements, began to harbor their own little schemes.

It seemed that the Twilight Legion was nothing but a paper tiger, since someone as lowly as Abuzan could successfully ambush it, then surely their divine soldiers could easily eradicate these rebels?

For a time, countless battle requests flooded Alice’s desk through the Thunder Church’s intelligence network.

The clergy asking to join the battle had a very simple thought: before dealing with external threats, one must pacify internal ones first.

With the Thunder Legion’s formidable presence, those rabble of the Twilight Legion would surely surrender at the sight.

Such a weak Twilight Legion wouldn’t take much time to destroy.

Once the rear is settled, they can even make it to the war with the Daylight.

Good, what Alice wanted was their arrogance.

She did not obstruct them in the slightest and agreed to all the battle requests, seemingly because of Abuzan’s battle achievements, feeling that reclaiming South Roland was within easy reach.

[Alice appointed Abuzan as the deputy commander-in-chief to eradicate the Twilight Legion.]

What? You ask who the commander-in-chief is?

It is, of course, the most wise Pope Adoma.

Thus, Abuzan became the de facto front-line commander.

Bear in mind, before ambushing the rear of the Twilight Legion, Abuzan was merely a lowly bishop in a small city, and he had borrowed the military force to capture Yilin City from the surrounding cities’ churches.

Now, Abuzan has ascended directly and suddenly become the most important influential figure in the Thunder Church.

With such personnel arrangements, the clergy under Abuzan, coming from Roland City and the great diocese, were certainly unhappy.

How dare a lowly bishop like Abuzan sit atop their heads?

At this point, Alice could actually wait for the crusading army to fall into internal strife, and those arrogant high clergy would definitely decapitate Abuzan.

But Alice felt it was not enough.

Because Abuzan’s encouragement was too effective, causing the Thunder Church to dispatch highly formidable troops to South Roland, Alice worried that the ordinary Twilight Legion might not be able to withstand the assault of this crusading army.

Therefore, Alice had to weaken this crusading army slightly.

Thus, shortly after Abuzan assumed the role of deputy commander-in-chief, Alice, as the commander-in-chief, issued an order:

"First, you must control the Demon Beast Forest in the hands of the Thunder Church."

From the Thunder Church’s perspective, this was an absolutely right decision.

The Demon Beast Forest is a treasure trove of magical materials and must not fall into the hands of the Twilight Legion.

The Twilight Legion also understood this truth, hence they stationed heavy troops around the four cities surrounding the Demon Beast Forest.

After Abuzan was promoted, his enthusiasm skyrocketed, and soon he submitted several combat plans to Alice.

Alice did not express a clear stance but vetoed Abuzan’s proposed plans one by one.

Finally, when Abuzan suggested to cross the Demon Beast Forest and again launch a surprise attack on one of the cities, Alice agreed to this plan.

This was also the plan Alice wanted Abuzan to choose.

From the surface, this plan seemed perfectly fine, and Abuzan had verified the feasibility of this tactic through actual battles.

Alice had Abuzan make this choice for one reason only: she had left large quantities of miniature puppets in the Demon Beast Forest.

Miniature puppets were not the key; the polluted soil they monitored was the crucial issue.

Due to the high greening coverage rate in the Demon Beast Forest, many places remain sunlight-blocked all year round. This condition keeps the explosive agents continuously activated, and to avoid unnecessary troubles, Alice had thrown some miniature puppets there to monitor. Unexpectedly, they came in handy.

As Alice had already used explosive agents in the Demon Beast Forest once, she did not mind bombing it again.

Things indeed unfolded as Alice anticipated; when the Thunder Legion turned back to the Demon Beast Forest, they were caught in a sudden attack by explosive agents, with one-third of the Thunder Knights directly exploding after drinking polluted water.

Unfortunately, Abuzan was not among the dead.

This army was indeed elite; despite the attack causing casualties, they maintained high combat effectiveness, and despite the cities near the Demon Beast Forest having received the attack news early and being fully prepared, they were still breached by the Thunder Legion.

Goodness, they truly were formidable.

Alice, whilst marveling, immediately issued new orders, giving no respite to this army.

Despite being thousands of miles away, Alice maintained control over this army, primarily due to Abuzan.

As a lowly bishop, he could not suppress the troublemakers within the army through identity or status alone, so he had to use Alice’s papal status to restrain these people. Consequently, almost all of Alice’s reasonable orders were fully accepted by him.

Although Alice intended for the Thunder Legion to perish, this task needed to be carried out with some technical skill.

Hence, Alice’s micromanagement was meticulously and carefully designed, all issued orders were reasonable, and the cities targeted, either held important mineral resources or symbolic significance, or were simply territories of certain bigwigs from Roland City.

However, if you drew a circle on the map, you’d find that under Alice’s micromanagement, the Thunder Church’s crusading troops were progressing toward the theoretically locational city of Hozerville, but the advance speed was drastically slowed down.

While Alice used orders to delay the Thunder Legion, she also synced this message to Anna.

The battle in Elm City was merely a show, and naturally, Anna had no pressure here.

Upon receiving Alice’s letter, Anna immediately took action, selecting the most elite Twilight Legion soldiers who hadn’t appeared publicly, and set off discreetly to the largest city in South Roland, preparing to wear down the Thunder Legion there.

A few days later, Anna, lying in wait, encountered the exhausted Thunder Legion and immediately delivered a heavy blow.

Although slightly detoured by micromanagement, overall, this Thunder Legion was still highly successful, achieving dazzling victories, which also obscured the issues of Abuzan’s lack of command authority.

However, after being struck by Anna’s blockade and suffering a major defeat, dissatisfaction toward Abuzan indeed arose within the Thunder Legion.

With Abuzan’s prolonged unsuccessful assault on the city defended by Anna, internal dissatisfaction within the army escalated.

Although not witnessed firsthand, relying on reports returned from various sources, Alice had already gained a general understanding of the situation.

Senior clergy’s dissatisfaction towards Abuzan had accumulated to an extreme.

At such a time, as the supreme leader, Alice only needed to express slight dissatisfaction towards Abuzan, and someone would naturally assist in completing the task of killing Abuzan.

Indeed, shortly afterwards, Abuzan suddenly died within the army, cause unknown.

[Ding! You have obtained a Spell Card: Borrowed Sword Killing]

[Ding! You have obtained a Spell Card: Emperor’s Heart Skill]

Alice’s lips curved upward.

Excellent, the Twilight Legion’s counterattack could almost commence.

Alice reached out to Oshana.

So on the front lines of the standoff between Daylight and Thunder, the Daylight Church suddenly launched a massive offensive against the Thunder Church.

Alice took the opportunity to cut off the Thunder Legion’s supply in South Roland under the pretext of emergency frontline warfare.