Chapter 540 – Big Chess Board

At this time, Zhao Hai was focusing his attention on the Purcell Duchy. Naturally, he wouldn’t disregard the state of the Aksu Empire.

Presently, the Aksu Empire was studded with people from the Radiant Church. Zhao Hai had also seen that the recent Emperor was already dead. The one sitting on the throne right now was Boris. However, he held zero power in court, the true people controlling the Aksu Empire were from the Radiant Church.

This development was both expected and unexpected for Zhao Hai. He thought that no matter what the did, the Radiant Church would still keep the Emperor’s life. Making him into a puppet was a good idea. Zhao Hai didn’t expect that they would actually kill the Aksu Emperor.

For several days, Zhao Hai had been looking at the arrangements in the Purcell Duchy. It seems like the crisis of the Duchy was deliberately made. The Empire wanted the Beastmen to ravage the Duchy first before their armies swoop in and eliminate the Beastmen after.

It looks like the Radiant Church wanted to show the continent that they can lead a war as well as rule a country.

And aside from establishing their reputation, they can also openly eliminate the Purcell Family as well as severely wound the Beastmen. When the Radiant Church’s reputation soars, sending missionaries to other nations would become much easier.

Their ambition was big, and their plan was good. But they had underestimated Zhao Hai’s ability. It was impossible for them to know that Zhao Hai was already aware of their entire plan.

The Rosen Empire also intended to help the Aksu Empire. However, the Aksu Empire wasn’t relying on their help in the first place. They wanted to repel the Beastmen independently so that they can establish their might in the continent.

After Zhao Hai found out about these things, he wasn’t worried about the Rosen Empire but instead he was thinking about the Beastmen. Fortunately the Beastmen were still in transit towards the border, when they arrive, Zhao Hai would then go and tell them.

The Radiant Church had a lot of things that they prepared in order to deal with the Beastmen. The church had sent some experts to lie in ambush inside the Purcell Duchy. They weren’t there to kill the Beastmen, but instead to deliver poison. Even if this poison was not lethal, it can make its victims weak, losing their ability to defend. This was Radiant Church’s trump card against the Beastmen.

From the conversations that he heard, Zhao Hai knew that this plan hasn’t been going on for a day or two. When the old Emperor was alive, this plan was already underway. The elimination of the Buda Clan was only part of it. They haven’t even thought about eliminating the Purcell Family in the past. But since Zhao Hai had become too great of a threat, they changed their plan and decided to destroy the Purcell Family.

On the other hand, the poison was made by a long-term research conducted by the Radiant Church. This stemmed from the observations made by the Human Merchants while they were trading in the Prairie for a long time.

Zhao Hai also heard that if the poison was taken alone, it wouldn’t have any effect. It would need to be use along with another drug. In preparation for this day, the Radiant Church had been using the other drug on the food that they had been trading in the Prairie all these years. This drug was something that reacts with the poison and only then would they weaken the victim. The effect would only show itself when those two are present.

The Radiant Church did it this way because they knew that the Beastmen would be bringing Witch Doctors along with them as they marched on to war. When they stop in a place, the Witch Doctor would sample the water supplies present. Once they confirm that the water is safe, only then would the other Beastmen consume it. The Beastmen decided to do this because of their previous fight with the Humans. In that battle, the Humans used poison which crippled a large number of beastmen.

Although the Radiant Church cannot do this again and have the Beastmen take both of the poisons at the same time, but one shouldn’t forget that the Beastmen were already eating one of the poisons for years. As time goes by, the Beastmen would have this drug accumulated in their bodies. As long as they consume the other poison, they would certainly have a reaction. Even if the poison cannot kill them directly, it will still sap them off of their fighting strength. After that, the Radiant Church would be able to slaughter as many Beastmen as they want!

This plan of poisoning the Beastmen as well as controlling an Empire was already carried out by the Church more than a decade ago. This dedication was truly scary.

In this plan, the Aksu Empire, Rosen Empire, and the Beastmen became the chess pieces of the Radiant Church. If Zhao Hai didn’t appear, the Radiant Church would’ve been in a better situation than now.

In truth, although they were enemies, Zhao Hai had a huge admiration towards the Radiant Church. If the two of them didn’t have any enmity, Zhao Hai might’ve even considered joining the Radiant Church.

This was an organization that would resort to all means and has the patience and perseverance to get what they want. No wonder they became one of the most powerful influences in a short period of time. They were quite diligent in everything they did.

From Zhao Hai’s perspective, the Radiant Church was evil. But in the eyes of the Radiant Church, they were not. In their minds, they needed to eliminate any threat to the church in order to ensure their safety in future.

But it was unfortunate that Zhao Hai was enemies with them. Although he admired the Radiant Church, he needed to destroy all of their plans. Otherwise, Zhao Hai would be the one to suffer bad luck.

After knowing about all of these, Zhao Hai made his move. He secretly snatched the two poisons from the Radiant Church and then brought them to Iron Mountain Fort. After that, he handed them over to Shun’s mother, making her help analyze them.

Shun’s mother, Suju, was an expert in poisons. While she was in Iron Mountain Fort, she continued on with her research. Now, her skill in making poison has become very good.

After a couple minutes of investigation, the ingredients of the two poisons were already identified. It was true that ingesting them individually wouldn’t have any effect. But once they were used together, they would become a strong poison.

After using Spatial Water, Suju confirmed that it did have an effect as an antidote. However, curing the poison would still take some time. Normally, it would be fine to wait, but in the battlefield, time is of the essence.

In the end, Zhao Hai decided to bring the mixed poison in to the Space. The Space can analyze poisons and also produce an antidote. Zhao Hai hopes that the Space wouldn’t disappoint him.

And the Space did indeed do what Zhao Hai expected. The Space absorbed the poisons, improved the Space’s insecticide, as well as having the Spatial Water cure it immediately. Zhao Hai then brought some of the Spatial Water over to Suju to study. After some time, Suju confirmed that the Spatial Water can now solve the poisons. Moreover, it was very effective.

It was just a pity that they didn’t have a microscope right now. If they did, they would be able to study the poisons and the Spatial Water much more carefully. At this time, they weren’t able to make their own antidote.

Even if Zhao Hai was somewhat disappointed, he still accepted it. After all, the poison had been solved. This was akin to rendering the Radiant Church’s trump card useless. If the Radiant Church wanted to succeed right now, they would need to go through a lot of difficulties.

Of course, the Radiant Church wasn’t entirely relying on the poisons, they had also accumulated a lot of experts and as well as the entire army of the Aksu Empire. They were going all out in dealing with the Beastmen, there weren’t even some defenders left in lifeline canyon!

The Radiant Church knew that if the Rosen Empire used this opportunity to invade the Aksu Empire, then they would become the entire human race’s enemy. Therefore, the church decided to withdraw every soldier stationed in the canyon and had them help fight the Beastmen.

In order to deal with the Beastmen, they even prepared a fleet. This fleet only had one goal; it was to transport a well-equipped army to the interior of the Beastman Prairie and have them wreck havoc there, forcing the Beastmen to retreat. As long as they managed to repel the beastmen with their own strength, the Radiant Church would win, while both the Beastmen and the Rosen Empire lost.

In such big battles, 9th ranks generally opted to not participate. Most of the experts who would fight were 8th ranks or lower. This was because if 9th ranks participate, not only would they devastate the battlefield, they would also cause a catastrophe for the continent. They may cause other races to come and participate, and in the end, it would become a war of the entire Ark Continent.

But Zhao Hai didn’t really expect that this was the case. From what he can see, as long as someone had a 9th rank expert, there would only be a small amount of things that they cannot solve. For example, in this war, 9th ranks would have already been flying all around the place. Zhao Hai didn’t think that this time, no 9th rank was willing to make a move. The strength of both armies were now dependent on the lower ranked experts.

However, Zhao Hai came to understand this arrangement. In Ark Continent, 9th ranks are akin to nuclear weapons, one cannot just use them casually. Unless a clan comes close to being eliminated, 9th rank experts wouldn’t generally go out. Just like when two countries go to war back on earth. It was simply impossible for them to use nuclear weapons.

Zhao Hai approved of this, 9th ranks cannot simply be sent out. This was because 9th ranks were very strong. An ordinary soldier would just become like an ant in front of a 9th rank’s might. If a 9th rank decides to kill ordinary soldiers, then it wouldn’t be impossible for them to kill a thousand in one attack. If 9th ranks participate, then the casualties of the war would exponentially increase.

The Radiant Church was fully prepared for this war because they had already anticipated it for a long time.

On the other hand, the Beastmen were poorly prepared. Because of how they needed to move hastily, one could even say that they were in a disadvantageous position in this war.

The Beastmen also knew about this. However, they still needed to wage war. If not for their need of food for survival, they wouldn’t be going to battle.

But they didn’t know that this war had been orchestrated by the Radiant Church from the very beginning. Each step that lead to this point was carefully calculated by the church.

If Zhao Hai doesn’t help, the Beastmen would surely lose a lot this time. They will lose a lot of warriors as well as face the problem of food shortage. At the same time, the Radiant Church was also lighting a fire inside the Prairie. This would certainly make the Beastmen lose their spirit.

The Radiant Church was playing chess on a huge board. They took everything into consideration, aside from Zhao Hai’s existence. Zhao Hai disrupted their plans time and time again. Zhao Hai had now become an annoying piece on the board. With how Zhao Hai had been meddling in the church’s affairs, he had already become a thorn on their path.

By monitoring the Radiant Church in Aksu Empire, Zhao Hai managed to find out the plans of the Radiant Church. The person who came to the Aksu Empire this time was an Archbishop, a person with a position directly below the Pope. This person was very familiar to Zhao Hai. He was Lindsey Becker’s father, the most influential and powerful Red-robed Archbishop of the Radiant Church, Lundi Becker!

In the past, Lindsey Becker went to attack Zhao Hai, only to be turned into an undead in the end. Zhao Hai also acquired a non-directional teleportation scroll from Lindsey’s body. This task has been given to him by his father. But Lundi didn’t expect his son to get killed, therefore, his enmity towards Zhao Hai was very big.

But Zhao Hai had to recognize how powerful of a person Lundi was. He was one of the key participants when the Radiant Church formulated this plan. Under his influence, the plan slowly unfolded until it came to this point. Once couldn’t deny how fierce this person was.

The Radiant Church had attached great importance to this plan. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have sent an Archbishop to Aksu Empire to assume command. The only reason why they only sent Lundi was so that the commands would go on smoothly. The Archbishops of the church weren’t exactly very harmonious. If a lot of them were sent, they would only fight amongst themselves. Therefore, handing everything over to Lundi was already enough. This also showed Lundi’s place inside the Radiant Church.

Naturally, if everything fails, the responsibility would fall into Lundi’s hands.

Zhao Hai calmly monitored the movements of the church. He now became a spectator in this game of chess. He was waiting for the right opportunity to destroy the entire plan of the Radiant Church. And this opportunity was not far away!