508 Slowly chasing Part 2 (1/2)
The five-hundred wardens clad in black armor were all fanatic believers. These people had varying abilities, with the weakest being a beginner swordmaster. In order to capture Lex, the inquisition had deployed the strongest people they could recruit at the highest speed, but they were still one step behind.
Back at the Stone Statue Castle, a patrol team from Tanggulasi's second-tier army had discovered Lex's tracks and reported them immediately. The intelligence could not be confirmed, so the inquisition only deployed a black deacon. Lex's team was traveling too quickly, so the black deacon did not find anything. At this point in time, the Agares family had received news that Bifano was in trouble.
The Agares family leaked information about Lex's movements. At the periphery of the pink army's base. Men from the Agares family discovered Lex and her party, but Bifano's army was nowhere to be seen. Due to an intelligence error and miscommunication, the people guarding the periphery of the swamp also did not stop Lex.
Once these men initiated contact with the family, it was discovered that Bifano had already sent out a distress signal.
Lex had managed to escape through this crevice. By the time everyone reacted, she and Saleen had already arrived at the perimeter of the Purgatory Desert. The Agares family immediately deployed people to enter the swamp, but the temple's entrance could not be located. Bifano no longer transmitted information, so they knew that something bad had happened to him.
Five-thousand elites and the first son of the Grand Duke of Titan had died, this was a massive loss. Lex had correctly predicted the actions of the Agares family, they intentionally leaked information to the Tanggulasi Empire.
The inquisition then followed up by dispatching Black William. Black William only brought along one-thousand blood knights and a few assistants for the trip. The imperial capital of the Tanggulasi Empire was in a lot of trouble, so the upper management of the Holy See did not leave. In the end, Black William got tricked by Saleen. By the time wardens from the inquisition arrived, they could only find some remnants of Lex.
The disciples of the three head inquisitors held the rank of adjudicators in the inquisition. It was a rank just inferior to an inquisitor. They were the most able assistants to the head inquisitors, and were groomed to be their successors.
The weakest out of the six of them was a grade-7 professional; Black William. The other five were all grade-8 professionals. The fact that the inquisition deployed such a powerful person meant that they looked up to Lex. Even though a holy master's offensive power was lower than that of a mage, this statement only applied when a holy master did not have any equipment and was at the same grade as the mage.
Once a holy master's grade was superior to a mage, they would still possess overwhelming power.
Number two adjudicator Delase and number four adjudicator Fanyin were grade-8 holy masters. They were already absolute high level powers in the Holy See. When they saw that the number five adjudicator, who owned a partial godly weapon,was killed, they became wary.
Black William was a smiling tiger, he was ruthless and had many tricks up his sleeve. If he used the partial godly weapon, neither of them would be his match. Judging by the marks left behind by the battle, Black William was killed in a single move, it would be strange for Delase and Fanyin not to be fearful.
They did not know that Saleen did not even give Black William a chance to wield the partial godly weapon. If Black William used that partial godly weapon, Saleen could still have killed him, but Saleen would also have died or sustained serious injuries.
Five-hundred wardens paved the way ahead. The word ”warden” was just their label, they were the backbone power of the inquisition. Their powers were similar to that of the guards protecting the Tanggulasi emperor.
The wardens forged ahead cautiously. The people walking at the very front pointed their lances downwards. They were oracles who possessed mighty mental strength, so they could detect any approaching danger.
The speed of progress was very low, but Delase and Fanyin never rushed their subordinates. They simply followed behind slowly. This group of people traveled in this manner until deep into the night when the temperature got horrifyingly low. The two of them then allowed the wardens to come to a halt.
The starlight in the sky was dim while the desert was black. The lifeless taste of the air almost drove these people, who had had close shaves with death, crazy. No magic beasts emerged to attack them, even the most renowned sand scorpion was nowhere to be seen. The more quiet it was, the more psychological pressure everyone felt.
The Purgatory Desert was not named to frighten people. Before it became a forbidden land, countless adventurers had died in it.
”Let's set up camp.” Feeling that the wardens were very exhausted, Fanyin decided to bring it up to Delase.
”Okay.” Even before Delase's voice faded away, the wardens at the front began screaming frantically.
”Sand scorpions!”
”No need to yell!” Delase admonished, and there was no more chatter. In this pitch black night, hundreds of colossal sand scorpions had gathered. These sand scorpions were not smaller than a washbasin like how the myths had depicted them, they were actually bigger than a wheel. This was not including the three-yard long tails the sand scorpions had.
”Damn it, stay together, don't fall behind!” Delase and Fanyin wielded their equipment at the same time. In the face of hundreds of sand scorpions, they were not confident of limiting the number of casualties.
The sand scorpions swayed their tails. At the end of their tails was a bone thorn which gave off a frosty glow. This bone thorn had unparalleled toxicity, and as long as it drew blood, it would kill a person in half a second.
Lex and her party had also ran into trouble. Even though they traveled slowly, their speed was still several times more than that of the wardens who walked on foot. Her team first met the sand scorpions, but this batch of sand scorpions was small in size. In two hours' time, the ten swordmasters had killed all of them. After cracking the skulls of the sand scorpions, they only obtained level-3 magic nuclei. These magic nuclei had unmatched pureness, Lex had never seen a magic nucleus with better quality than theirs.
This made Lex and Saleen come to realize a serious problem. There were no plants in the Purgatory Desert. In the knowledge base of a mage, when magic beasts preyed on one another, there had to be a humongous basic community. This community usually fed on plants for survival. The sand scorpions were also obviously evolved magic beasts. It must be noted that the elements were in some kind of chaos in the Purgatory Desert. Other than Saleen and Lex, the rest of the mages who left the magic chariot could hardly cast a spell stably.
The magic nucleus of a sand scorpion was abnormally pure in order to adapt to the desert's environment. No matter how one looked at it, the environment of this desert could not support too much life.
Saleen and Lex were not afraid of facing individual powerful magic beasts, they were fearful of meeting hordes however.