Chapter 503 : Favor

Within Yadith, in the North Ufiga.

The blazing sun burned high in the sky, its fierce rays pouring down on the vast, desolate expanse of the dusty Gobi desert. Amid the endless sands, a single railway stretched into the distance, and along its track, a train billowing smoke sped forward, racing toward the horizon.

The Desert Arrow, a luxurious train that had carried the Church’s envoy delegation to Yadith for negotiations, was now once again on the move—this time bearing the delegation homeward after the talks concluded in what could be considered a relatively smooth fashion. Their destination was the port city of Kankdal, from where they had originally set out.

After the Yadith Incident ended, Shadi—now the undisputed power within the Revolutionary Army—immediately began both overt and covert efforts to reorganize the internal structure of his forces. Rather than hastily announcing a formal break with Muhtar, he first organized a grand public memorial in his honor. This served to publicly affirm his position to various regional Savior’s Advent factions and placate them. Then, using the massive power vacuum left by the deaths of Muhtar and his inner circle, he lured regional Salvationist military leaders into the capital with promises of high office. In their absence, he installed his own men to fill their roles—and once those leaders arrived in Yadith, they were greeted with nothing but empty promises of promotion, the kind that never materialized. Some would later be quietly executed when the political landscape solidified.

Using power as bait, Shadi worked to win over and divide the regional Salvationist forces. Those who questioned his authority were branded as lackeys of the Savior’s Advent headquarters abroad—traitors to Addus. Through enticement, division, and suppression, Shadi slowly took control of leadership across the nation’s Salvationist armed forces. Those he could manipulate were ordered to undergo full military reorganization, with officers replaced and a large number of dissenters quietly purged.

As for the less manageable forces, Shadi reassigned them far from their home bases to regions where his power was secure, placing them under heavy supervision. For the most intransigent factions—those showing open signs of rebellion—Shadi had already moved his loyal units into position. Unbeknownst to them, these stubborn forces had already been surrounded and were soon to be struck in a preemptive campaign.

In a country of this size, bloodless consolidation was impossible. Still, Shadi did everything he could to minimize open conflict. What could’ve been a nationwide civil war was reduced to a handful of one-sided skirmishes and numerous quiet purges. Though he would carry the stain of betrayal and ruthless brutality for the rest of his political life, Shadi—once a mere treasure hunter—had long stopped caring about such reputational concerns.

Muhtar’s death hadn’t calmed the undercurrents within Addus—it had only made them more turbulent. Shadi’s internal purge wouldn’t conclude for at least another two or three months. With no further political role to play, the envoy delegation’s continued presence would only complicate Shadi’s governance. Once the surviving guards had sufficiently recovered from their wounds, Vania bid farewell to Shadi and departed Yadith with the delegation aboard the Desert Arrow. For security reasons, Dorothy and Nephthys accompanied them on the journey.

As the long train thundered across the bleak Gobi landscape, Dorothy sat in her private compartment, watching the whirling sands outside and reflecting on the events of the past few days. Her thoughts gradually turned to the recent divination assault—another reason she had chosen to leave Yadith quickly.

After having Nephthys dress as a priestess of the Heaven’s Arbiter and summon a lightning storm in the god’s name—making the nonexistent cabal a scapegoat for Muhtar’s death—Dorothy had fully expected a barrage of divinatory scrutiny. After all, this was the reappearance of a long-fallen Revelation divine cult, and the use of Revelation spiritual power not seen in this era. She knew it would stir a storm across the mysticism world.

What she didn’t expect was just how overwhelming the storm would be.

Within three days, Dorothy and Nephthys were targeted by twelve divinations. Dorothy was forced to expend 12 points of Shadow to withstand them. The most intense wave came one morning, when five attempts hit within the span of a single hour, throwing Dorothy into panic.

Worried she might run out of Shadow, she retaliated with 10 points of Lantern, launching counter-divinations against the two most likely culprits: the Holy See of the Holy Mount and the Savior’s Advent Sect Headquarters. Only then did the attacks finally subside. Over the next two days, scattered divinations continued, costing her a total of 12 Shadow.

In her view, if she had received 12 divination attempts, the global number of divination attempts about the Lightning Judgment of Addus must have been far higher—probably over 50. Countless cults, nations, secret police agencies, and information-starved organizations like the Savior’s Advent leadership or the Holy See, with their bottomless resources, were undoubtedly pouring efforts into uncovering what had really happened to Muhtar.

Against such scale, even Dorothy’s Revelation reserves would’ve been inadequate—let alone just Shadow. She only survived this storm because of help from the Temple of Revelation Runes.

The truth was, Dorothy hadn’t generated the lightning alone. Much of it had come from the Temple’s First Dynasty legacy. It had extended her range, fed her spirituality, and cloaked her presence. As a result, many divinations inadvertently locked onto the temple itself.

For instance, "Where did the lightning come from?", "Was the storm created by the Heaven’s Arbiter?", "Did it really kill Muhtar?", "Was Shadi the storm’s summoner?"

All these questions inevitably involved the Temple—and were intercepted by its built-in anti-divination mechanisms.

Thus, all standard, direct questions about the lightning or the cabal were redirected and shielded. Only strange or abstract divinations—like “Was Muhtar’s killer male or female?”—managed to get through. These questions led straight to Nephthys, bypassing the Temple’s filters.

In short, most divinations were blocked by the Temple, the weird indirect ones tanked by Dorothy herself, while divinations related to Shadi are handled by Shadi’s own anti-divination system, rebuilt after he took full control of Yadith.

If not for Shadi and the Temple sharing the divination heat, Dorothy’s own reserves would’ve been utterly insufficient. And even so, she still spent 12 Shadow and 10 Lantern, leaving her spirituality down to 24 Chalice, 12 Stone, 10 Shadow, 15 Lantern, 25 Silence, and 50 Revelation.

“Hah… my Shadow and Lantern were both above the threshold before. Now they’re back down again. I knew there’d be backlash, but even with the Temple bearing most of it, I still lost this much…”

“This mess caused too much of a stir. Once the divinations fail, the next step for these groups will be to send people here to investigate in person. I need to vanish before that happens.”

Watching the sand whip past the train window, Dorothy made up her mind. She, Nephthys, and Vania boarded the train and left before the world’s investigators could arrive. Let Shadi deal with the aftermath.

It was a shame to leave the Temple—she had barely begun exploring its archives. But given her current level in ancient North Ufiga, even finding usable texts would take time. Better to wait until her language skills improved, then return and study properly.

With Yadith behind her, Dorothy turned her attention to her next goal. She had moved beyond merely cutting her spiritual threads—now she was preparing for advancement to Crimson-rank. That ritual required six deity-blessed artifacts. She only had one, for Chalice. The other five, she now needed to begin planning for.

𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

“At the moment, I haven’t figured out any concrete channels for acquiring deity-blessed artifacts for Shadow and Lantern, so I can put those on hold for now. But here in North Ufiga, the underground is riddled with all kinds of necropolises—there might be leads to a Silence deity-blessed artifact, so that’s a good place to start. Coincidentally, Nephthys’s promotion ritual also requires a Silence-rich underground tomb, so we can target that as a joint objective.

“Kankdal Port is one of the most prosperous cities in North Ufiga, with all kinds of people gathering there. Once we get there, I can start collecting information on this topic and hopefully uncover some leads. It’s not every day I get to visit North Ufiga—naturally, I can’t leave right away.

“As for Revelation, I’ll either have to figure out a way to craft a deity-blessed artifact through the system, or try to find one blessed by Heaven’s Arbiter. And this too is best pursued in North Ufiga.

“Lastly, there’s the Stone deity-blessed artifact… and when it comes to that kind of thing, there’s really only one source…”

Dorothy mused to herself, then pulled out her magic box. She took out the Literary Sea Logbook, opened it, and flipped to a communication page. After a moment’s thought, she picked up her pen and wrote.

“Hey, you there?”

“Of course I am! I’ve been waiting forever for you to reach out, O’ Esteemed Earthly Envoy of Heaven’s Arbiter~”

The reply came back almost instantly in a perfectly neat printed font. Dorothy blinked in surprise at the swift response, then picked up her pen again.

“You heard about what happened in Yadith?”

“Of course I did. You guys stirred things up around noon, and by evening I already had word of it. Don’t underestimate our intel network.”

“Honestly, I expected you’d make a little splash heading to North Ufiga, but I didn’t think it’d be this big. You really rattled the place. Even a few old geezers who haven’t cared about worldly affairs for over a thousand years got shaken awake.”

Beverly wrote back in the Literary Sea Logbook. Reading her reply, Dorothy couldn’t help but be surprised. She wrote again.

“Old geezers who haven’t stirred in a thousand years? Who are you talking about?”

“That I can’t tell you~ Just know that the waves you stirred up were no joke. Hope you can handle the aftermath. Still, it’s fun doing business with you. So, are you here for a deal? Or looking for intel?”

Seeing Beverly’s tone, Dorothy focused and wrote again.

“Business. Say, do you guys have any divine artifacts blessed by a Stone-aligned deity?”

“Stone divine artifacts? Of course we do. If we didn’t have them, I doubt anyone else would. What’s this? You suddenly interested in divine artifacts?”

“Sort of. If I wanted to borrow one of your divine artifacts for a while, would your higher-ups allow it?”

“Ah… you want to borrow, not buy, huh? Tsk, bit of a shame. But sure, borrowing is fine. We’ve got a complete rental process for deity-blessed and even deity-bestowed artifacts. As long as you can afford the price, we’ve got a wide range for you to choose from.”

Beverly replied on the page. Seeing that her side even had rental systems for deity-blessed and bestowed artifacts, Dorothy’s eyes lit up. She quickly wrote again.

“So how’s the pricing work? Say I want to rent the cheapest Stone divine artifact for a short period—how much would that run me?”

She sent off her request, and shortly after, Beverly replied.

“Minimum rental term is half a year. The cheapest divine artifact costs thirty thousand pounds for six months.”

Dorothy had been mentally prepared, but still winced at the figure and held her breath. And then came the real kicker.

“The rental is thirty thousand pounds, but since it’s a rental, we also require a deposit. The deposit is based on the full market price of the item—so that’s ninety thousand pounds.

“But! Considering you helped us deal with Garib last time and we still owe you, we’ll knock some off both the rental and the deposit. Let’s say… one tiny little payment of ten thousand pounds for the rental, and thirty thousand pounds for the deposit. Sound fair? That’s a massive discount~”