Lin Mu could see faint dots in the sky above, surrounded by dozens of golden lights.
'So they're prioritizing stabilizing the structure,' Lin Mu realized.
He turned sharply and made his way back to the teleportation gate with his beasts in tow.
"How long?" he asked the mont he arrived.
"Just five more minutes," Daoist Chu replied, not looking up. "I've locked in the coordinates, but the instability has reached fifty percent due to us overloading the formation."
"Fifty percent?" Lin Mu's eyes narrowed. "It dropped that far already?"
He rembered that the first ti they overloaded it, the instability had only fallen by a single percent.
"Since the formation masters left with the last batch, there weren't enough people left to stabilize it," Daoist Chu explained. "I barely managed to do so ergency repairs."
"Can we fix it further now?" Lin Mu asked, glancing over the flickering runes of the formation arrays.
"Not enough ti." Daoist Chu shook his head grimly. "Even a minor fix would take too long."
"Then let's activate it now. I'll handle whatever else cos up." Lin Mu pulled out his Rune Shaping Brush, its bristles already glowing with intense energy.
"Alright." Daoist Chu tapped a series of runes. "Initializing now. Coordinates are locked."
SHUA!
The formation's runes blazed to life as the array began charging, siphoning energy rapidly from a cluster of Immortal Stones.
"STOP THE HERETICS!"
A thunderous voice cracked through the air, carrying an imnse pressure.
Lin Mu's head whipped around to the sky—and there they were.
Four figures streaked toward them, each surrounded by golden halos brighter than the sun. Their auras rolled across the land like a divine tsunami.
Lin Mu's face darkened. These weren't ordinary foes.
These were the Transcendent experts of the Osteri Divine Order.
Leading them was a man clad in the most elaborate robes Lin Mu had ever seen—four distinct layers of white and gold, embroidered with thousands of holy scriptures in glowing thread.
A silver sash hung from his shoulders, inscribed with the tenets of their religion. Upon his head rested a radiant golden crown, and in his hand was a tall scepter topped with the symbol of the Supre God—a sphere of golden fire suspended within a lattice of sacred gems.
What stunned Lin Mu most was the man's youth.
He didn't look older than twenty.
So this was the Pope, the ruler of this world.
'He must be sustained by the power of faith itself,' Lin Mu thought.
Beside the Pope were three elderly n, each cloaked in three-layered versions of his robes. Though lacking sashes or crowns, their presence was no less overwhelming.
They were the Three Sages of Golden Light, the reclusive guardians of the faith.
"Sages, with !" the Pope commanded, raising his scepter high. "By the authority vested in by the Supre God, I call upon his divine judgnt!"
"We call upon the Supre God's power!" the Sages echoed, voices reverberating like thunder.
Blinding beams of light surged into the heavens, forming a massive celestial circle carved with divine scripture. It expanded rapidly, layers upon layers of radiant symbols spinning into alignnt.
The sheer pressure from the construct made Lin Mu's heartbeat spike.
'They're going to obliterate the entire place...!' he realized, adrenaline flooding his veins.
And yet—he didn't move.
Not yet.
His fingers raced over the Rune Shaping Brush, repairing fractures in the array's runes and stabilizing spatial nodes. He knew the divine ritual would take ti to finish. The power wasn't theirs—it was borrowed. Summoned. And such vast might ca at a cost: vulnerability during the channeling.
'I just need the right mont,' Lin Mu told himself. 'I've still got a trump card left.' he thought as he held a formation disc in his other hand.
Seconds dragged on like hours.
Daoist Chu suddenly shouted, "Coordinates are set! Array's fully charged!"
"Everyone in!" Lin Mu commanded.
ng Bai and Monk Hushu rushed into the teleportation circle. Lin Mu followed, disc in hand.
SHUA!
The teleportation array surged with power, runes igniting into a blinding do of blue and gold light.
Overhead, the divine construct was nearing its final phase. Lin Mu's senses scread—the spell was about to complete.
Then, just as the Pope and the Sages opened their mouths to give the final command—
KABOOM!
A massive explosion detonated in front of the ritual circle.
Two of the Sages were flung backward, crashing into the ground and skidding like teorites. The Pope stumbled but managed to shield himself with his divine artifact. The third Sage held firm, but the sudden blast shattered their concentration.
The divine ritual flickered—and failed.
"DAMMIT!" the Pope roared, panic rising in his voice. "STOP THEM!"
He knew that if Lin Mu and his group escaped, there would be no second chance.
HUALA!
A spatial storm erupted from the teleportation array.
"I won't let you leave!" the Pope shouted, leveling his scepter. A golden beam as thick as a mountain erupted from the artifact, screaming toward the teleportation building.
BOOM!!!
The entire building was consud in a holy inferno. Stone, wood, and steel were vaporized instantly, and the ruins were buried under tons of shattered debris.
"Did... did we get them?" one of the Sages asked feeling incredibly anxious, their hands trembling with unease..
The three remaining figures rushed forward, flicking away rubble with blasts of divine force.
Dust filled the air.
But when it cleared, all they found was a broken teleportation circle—scorched, cracked, and utterly unusable.
No corpses.
No blood.
Just empty space.
"ARGHHHHHHH!" The Pope scread, voice raw with fury and despair.
He hurled his scepter at the remains, unleashing barrage after barrage of attacks, his divine might shaking the air like thunderclaps.
But it was all for nothing.
Lin Mu and his allies were already gone.
A heartbeat before the rubble struck, the array had activated, whisking them away through the teleportation channel.
They were safe.
And the world the Pope sought to control forever...
...was now slipping from his grasp.
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