Chapter 551: Chapter 61 Practical Teaching

“If there really is such a thing as a Spiritual Tree.”

“Then it might cause severe destruction to Solomon City,” Valian said, “But the chances of the mutation spreading beyond Italy are very low.”

“After all, the mobility of the Spiritual Tree itself is very slow, and it does not have the Evolution Ability of the Source Tree body. As long as we confine the range of the Spiritual Essence Polluter, the destruction can be contained within Solomon City.”

“When that time comes, all we need to do is move the Church Court out of the city to temporarily avoid harm. After the restoration of the outside world’s military industrial production lines, we can return to suppress Solomon City,” Valian continued.

“Mm,” Innocent nodded, “So, what were those people who developed the Spiritual Tree thinking?”

“Since the destruction of the Spiritual Tree can’t spread beyond Solomon City as long as the Church Court suppresses it with full force, why would they still create this degraded version of the Source Tree and hastily deploy it?”

“Wasn’t it to catch up with this Magic Tide?” Valian asked, his words barely out before he started shaking his head with a bitter smile.

The moment when the Giotto Bell moved coincided with the predicted time the Spiritual Essence contamination was released. In other words, if it weren’t for these pureblood human extremists releasing the contamination, the Giotto Bell wouldn’t have even ticked.

After all, Bishop Landeng had used his authority to secretly encrypt Raphael, preventing the related clues from entering Raphael’s surveillance queue.

“There must be some other factor that caused them to decide to initiate this plan on short notice,” Valian Bishop recalled the words Landeng Bishop accused the Holy Throne of before being arrested, and suddenly he realized something.

“So, is it because of our Lixini Family?” he said with difficulty, “Because of Nora?”

“Isn’t it contradictory?” Innocent shook his head, “A pureblood who insists ‘Transcendents cannot counterbalance Transcendents,’ in the end, used Extraordinary means to eliminate the Transcendents? Isn’t this the most suspicious point?”

“Or maybe, from the beginning, they had no intention of eliminating the Transcendents,” Valian also realized, speaking solemnly, “They are deliberately creating conflict, anxiety, and hate!”

“If the Spiritual Tree causes massive destruction and is ultimately suppressed by the Church Court,” Innocent spoke dispassionately, “it proves a critical point for the Cardinals and all the major families.”

“That is: using Extraordinary Power to restrain Transcendents not only has an extremely low success rate but also carries huge uncontrollable risks.”

“Since the nature of the Transcendents is chaotic, then why should the Church Court assume that by sanctifying a Demigod of the Lixini Family, they could use her to suppress other Extraordinary Forces?”

“What if this Demigod loses control and becomes an existence similar to the Source Tree, what price would the Church Court have to pay to suppress it? This kind of inherent hostility and unfriendly doubt will swirl around like a nightmare in the minds of the survivors after this mutation event ends. And every survivor will be a powerful resistance against you and your sister’s rise to power in the future—both inside and outside the Church.”

“So that’s why you decided to suppress this mutation with all your might,” Valian sighed, “I really don’t understand, do they really have such confidence that the Spiritual Tree can ultimately be suppressed by the Church Court? What if it really spreads?”

“If it spreads, causing major destruction to the Extraordinary Forces, then hasn’t their fundamental objective been achieved?” Innocent said coldly.

Valian was left speechless.

“This is really…” he wanted to say “vile,” yet he swallowed the word back down, “So at the last Cardinal Council meeting, those bishops who opposed or were indifferent, could they be in cahoots with the forces behind Bishop Landeng?”

“Maybe there’s a connection, maybe it’s just purely for their own interests. But does it matter?” Innocent looked into the distance, “What we care about now is only the result, depending on how this mutation event concludes.”

“I believe the young people can handle the future well, while Bishop Landeng and his followers do not. Thus, they made their move, and of course, we can only counterattack. If the Spiritual Tree really does emerge and Nora and her team can suppress it successfully, wouldn’t that prove exactly the opposite of what Bishop Landeng and his followers have been trying to demonstrate—that the conservative theory of ‘Extraordinary Powers are uncontrollable’ is in fact mistaken?”

“This…” Valian started with a bitter smile. Indeed, if the Spiritual Tree appears and is then suppressed by The Azure Longsword, as long as the Church Court and the Lixini Family kick their propaganda machine into gear, The Azure Longsword Mercenary Corps, as well as Nora herself, would instantly reap unprecedented prestige.

Looking further, if Nora were indeed to be canonized, with such merits laid out before everyone, even if the other Cardinals disagreed, they wouldn’t have suitable grounds to oppose openly.

“But that’s just a ‘what if,’ isn’t it?” Even after understanding the crux of the matter, Valian Bishop still couldn’t fully relax. “What if they can’t deal with the Spiritual Tree?”

“The situation won’t get any worse than it already is,” Innocent said calmly. “They took the initiative to help Church Court, and even though they didn’t succeed, would Church Court really blame them?”

“Besides, you should have more faith in your sister.”

“After all, they are a once-in-a-millennium R4.”

“Ahem.” When everyone arrived at the deserted street, Aske cleared his throat.

Here it comes—the Squad Leader’s teaching hour!

Peggy and Eleanor, who had recently undergone training, immediately realized what was happening, while the rest of the girls suddenly shivered.

Some kind of instinct, though long forgotten, seemed to be engraved in their bones, crawling up their marrow and spine with a chill.

“Why so nervous? We aren’t going to spar with each other this time,” Aske said, seeing their stiff expressions.

Oh, right, not sparring with the Squad Leader. The girls all relaxed again.

“This time it’s live combat teaching,” Aske announced.

The girls: …

If it had been a year ago, they might have complained in their hearts: Other people’s teaching is to better deal with real combat, but why are we using actual combat for teaching?

Of course, after enough experiences, even the most bizarre situations became normal. Sigrdrifa raised her hand and asked:

“Are we going to practice on those Spiritual Essence Polluters?”

“Yes,” Aske replied. “There are two reasons for choosing them.”

“First, these monsters have slow attack speeds, simple methods, and thick skins, which make them rare punching bags.”

“Second, they are mutant creatures formed from humans who are infected. If you eliminate the Spiritual Body behind them, the Polluters can potentially be restored. So this time, you will try to attack only the Spiritual Bodies, not the bodies of the targets—as part of precision Control training.”

“Additionally, the theme of this training session is ‘tactical integration.’ Peggy and Eleanor have already taken this course, but the rest of you have not been introduced to it, so let me briefly explain.”

“After entering the Sequence level, you will have more and more varied methods of attack. Sequential Abilities, Law Skills, your own Martial Arts, Tactical Skills, and even Extraordinary Swordsmanship or Special Equipment, etc.”

“Such an array of attack methods, if you can’t refine them into your own tactical system, will inevitably lead to a situation where you have plenty, but none of them are polished. Think carefully, what is your role in the team? What situations and problems does the team expect you to handle?”

“To achieve these goals, which of your own Abilities can be put to use? This is not a question that can be answered simply. In fact, I can say that if you lack a deep understanding of yourselves or an adequate estimation of the complex situations on future battlefields, you won’t find satisfactory answers for years.”

“Level, Ability, Law, Equipment… Chasing these basics at your current stage doesn’t hold any significance anymore. Whether you can exert 100%, or even 120% effectiveness of your own abilities, is an important ladder to attaining professional status, and that is what you need to focus on studying going forward.”

The “professional circle” Aske mentioned surely referred to professional esports players; but aside from Nora and Medea, the other girls all automatically took it to mean “Professional Mercenaries,” and they nodded their heads earnestly in agreement.