Chapter 122: The Spread of Combat Qi

“However, Your Majesty, the census you ordered us to conduct some time ago has now been more or less completed.”

Before him, Barton reported to Adis with a solemn expression.

At his words, Adis turned and looked at him. “What are the results?”

Barton stepped forward and bowed. “After Your Majesty ordered a census of the knights and priests throughout the country, the local churches cooperated enthusiastically. The figures available on the surface have now been compiled.”

“Setting aside the other knights for the moment, there are currently nine registered High Priests alone. There are no Sky Knights at all.”

He looked at Adis and continued, “However, all nine of these High Priests come from the northern tribes. Among them are the Pope and the First Knight, Kuruba.”

At this, Adis nodded, appearing reasonably satisfied.

Naturally, these figures could not possibly be completely accurate, but they were already close to the truth.

“In that case, the matter we discussed can also be pushed forward.”

At his words, Bill and Barton both straightened, realizing that the crucial moment had arrived. They listened intently.

“Several years ago, I ordered specially appointed priests to spread the faith of the God of Nature throughout the army. I also established dedicated camps where the officers selected from among the ranks could cultivate battle aura, thereby increasing the army’s strength.”

“Judging from the results, the effect has been quite good.”

He walked forward and raised his head to look outside before continuing, “But it is far from enough!”

“This problem already began to reveal itself during our previous confrontation with the Royal Court. Its knight corps is simply too vast, and new knights continue to emerge without end. In both quantity and quality, they far surpass us.”

“Therefore, if we wish to face the Royal Court directly on the battlefield in the future, or even launch an attack against the south, we absolutely cannot do without powerful knights and priests.”

By this point, Bill and Barton had gradually begun to understand.

Bill stepped forward and asked Adis, “Your Majesty intends to train the officers in the army once again?”

Adis shook his head. “Not the officers. The entire army.”

“Previously, because of the consumption of food and other supplies, as well as various other restrictions, we only had time to provide specialized training for the officers.”

“But now, we can begin teaching ordinary soldiers how to cultivate battle aura, while also sending specially appointed priests to train them.”

At these words, the two men below the dais were visibly stunned.

Bill fared somewhat better. Though surprise flickered in his eyes, he said nothing.

Barton’s reaction, however, was considerably more intense. He stepped forward hesitantly and said to Adis, “Your Majesty, would it truly be appropriate to make the precious methods of cultivating battle aura available to ordinary soldiers?”

“With such a vast number of people, if battle-aura techniques are opened to commoners, sooner or later they will spread beyond the army and be stolen by the surrounding nobles, or even by the Royal Court in the south.”

It was indeed a valid concern.

Previously, even though battle-aura cultivation had been made available to the officers, the reason those men were officers in the first place was that most of them came from noble families. The very few who did not were elites who could easily be accepted by the existing aristocracy.

Moreover, officers were still only a small minority within the army, so the matter could barely be kept under control.

But if the techniques were spread throughout the entire army, the implications would be entirely different.

For one thing, most soldiers were ordinary people, and some had even been born into slavery, making them unacceptable to the nobility. With such an enormous number of soldiers, some techniques would inevitably be lost and disseminated among the populace.

Adis merely smiled at the concern, however, appearing entirely unconcerned.

“And what if they are leaked?”

He looked at Barton. “To begin with, we naturally will not give ordinary soldiers the complete battle-aura techniques. We will only provide them with the basic portion.”

“At that level, they will at most be able to reach the threshold at which battle aura is born. They will not even be able to become knights. How attractive could that be to the nobles?”

“Once these soldiers have earned military merit, or cultivated to the current limit within the allotted period, we can grant them access to the subsequent stages. When they are promoted to Grand Knights, we can even allow them to choose a battle-aura technique for themselves and open the Earth Knight portion to them.”

Hearing this, Barton wore an unusually hesitant expression below the dais. For a long while, he seemed unable to find the right words.

Adis watched him in silence and gave a faint smile.

He understood that this order had already touched the interests of traditional nobles such as Barton.

In the past, the nobility had been noble not only because of the exalted bloodlines they boasted about, but also because they monopolized knowledge and possessed extraordinary powers.

Now, Adis intended to break that monopoly, which had endured for countless years, and spread supernatural power among the common people. Naturally, this would provoke discontent among the traditional aristocracy, even prompting them to instinctively resist.

“But what does any of that have to do with me?”

Adis turned and quietly walked toward the throne standing behind him.

“At present, a powerful army can help me defeat formidable enemies and unify the world. From the perspective of the gods, powerful believers can strengthen the deity they worship by feeding power back into it. From the perspective of the world, powerful living beings can strengthen the world itself and condense more source power.”

“Since this benefits me from every possible perspective, why should I hesitate?”

As he thought this, his mind gradually settled.

In truth, this was also a matter of differing perspectives and heights. People like Barton could see only what lay before them. Adis, however, considered matters from the standpoint of gods and the world.

In his view, the reason this world appeared so decrepit was closely tied to its old order.

In the past, the ancestral gods had stood above the city-states. They occupied lofty positions and enjoyed blood sacrifices, while simultaneously consuming countless living beings within the world. The power expended over thousands of years was beyond imagination.

The actions of the nobles had likewise left the people destitute. By restricting the spread of supernatural power, they had also prevented the world from progressing.

After all, the power of a world was ultimately the combined strength and accumulated potential of all the living beings within it. From this perspective, although the ancestral gods and the nobles had, in one respect, resisted the erosion of the outside Demon Gods, they had also hindered the world’s advancement and prevented it from ascending.

As his thoughts continued to turn, the power of the world around him began to tremble faintly. It seemed that a new source of power was descending, carrying killing intent, accompanied by the indistinct cries of countless dead souls.

The moment he sensed that source power, a familiar feeling swept over him, startling Adis slightly.

“The world’s source power is fluctuating. Does it want me to go forth and purge all those who obstruct its development?”

As he sensed the source power gradually spreading through his surroundings, this was what he thought.

Within his body, as the source power slowly surged inward, several fragments of his Slaughter Divinity suddenly shone brightly. They directly absorbed all the surrounding source power and condensed it into a divine office that appeared somewhat illusory and incomplete.

It seemed to be responding to the world’s killing intent, preparing to unleash a calamity of slaughter and wipe out all those who obstructed the world.

…

That very day, following Adis’s command, a new decree was issued.

Adis ordered the establishment of academies for battle aura and divine arts. Veteran knights and priests would be stationed there to provide specialized instruction to the soldiers of the army.

When the order was announced, cries of shock immediately arose throughout the Duchy of Adis. Nearly every noble opposed it with furious determination. The uproar was even greater than that caused by the previous major rebellions, and news of it reached the Royal Court in the south.

For a time, the rebellions that had only just begun to subside erupted once more, igniting a new wave of unrest.

Yet throughout the turmoil, many nobles remained silent.

After Adis had suppressed them repeatedly and even forcibly disbanded the existing armies, the power of the nobility within the Duchy of Adis had already grown extremely weak. Following the suppression of several earlier rebellions, they no longer possessed the strength to resist him.

Because of this decree, however, the number of nobles fleeing south into the territory of the Royal Court increased considerably. In turn, Adis confiscated another vast number of their estates.

Several months later, autumn arrived.

Countless people were astonished to discover that this year’s harvest had nearly doubled, and in some places had even tripled, compared with previous years.

This was because large numbers of churches had been completed during the year, allowing many priests to take up residence throughout the various regions and preach among the people. With the cooperation of local officials, the priests had used divine arts in the fields, including spells that enhanced fertility, communicated with plants, and accelerated their growth.

Although such divine arts had little practical value in battle, their extraordinary effectiveness became fully apparent amid the great construction projects of the present day.

Under the influence of these arts, the insect infestations and crop diseases that had plagued previous years vanished almost entirely. Even the fertility of the soil increased substantially, so the yield naturally far exceeded that of the past.

Compared with the households in surrounding regions that had not received the blessings of the Nature Priests, these results left the people utterly convinced. They fell to their knees and prayed frenziedly to the God of Nature, causing the faith to spread at an astonishing rate.

This was especially true in the eastern and western regions. With the Nature Priests stationed there, vast numbers of the local populace converted and began worshiping the God of Nature.

Although these new believers were not as devout as the original faithful, their belief would gradually deepen as they continued to pray. Moreover, with so many new believers joining at once, the power of faith accumulated at a furious pace, causing the true body of the God of Nature in the void to grow considerably stronger.