In the upper layer of Azura’s Lywan District, Ash and Vishi returned to the Funeral Service Office suspended on the negative 51st floor.

In the battle of Senluo half a month ago, although the four Divine Lords returned to Heaven, Ash also fell into a coma due to severe injuries and depletion of Source Power. After collecting the World Secret Domain, the immediate emergency for Sonia and the others was to leave Senluo.

The descent of Angels by the four Divine Lords in Senluo could not possibly be concealed from the Stars side, at most there’s a time difference, and it’s possible the Law of Stars and Sword Law are already on their way to the Kingdom of Senluo.

Although the team had decided on the next stop being the Kingdom of Gospel, consensus was not reached on the specific destination. Diya wanted to go directly to the Imperial Palace, using Empress Yisu’s supreme authority to govern the Kingdom of Gospel, mobilizing the power of the entire nation to support them, but Sonia, Weiser, and Vishi disagreed.

Though the Kingdom of Stars has not issued a warrant for Lissdia, it’s naive to think they haven’t recognized the Witch. Moreover, the Witch isn’t just an Empress, she holds the ’Gospel Divine Being,’ which is the foundational pillar of Gospel’s system. Once the Witch is wanted, it won’t be like ’the Yisu royal family hanging street lamps’ for Evangelists, but rather an apocalypse-level depression and collapse.

Don’t forget, just a year ago at the Weaving Festival, the Gospel List had already shown what state the country would be in without the Gospel System. The conspirator Rusted Crow fooled various powers into sacrificing citizens, the Undead King refined living people to establish the Ten Great Undead Families, demons ran rampant, disasters were endless, it was a scene of ghosts and monsters, leaving nothing but clean white space. Therefore, every Evangelist understands that the Kingdom of Gospel cannot be without the Gospel System, just like XX cannot be without XX.

Today Stars may issue a warrant for Lissdia, tomorrow Gospel Mages must think of ways to escape. If the Stars want to preserve Gospel, the correct approach would undoubtedly be to act as if nothing is happening publicly, while secretly trying to capture Lissdia to seize the Gospel Divine Being—if they cannot seize it, they must ensure Lissdia lives without damaging the Gospel Divine Being.

Because the matter of the Witch concerns not only Gospel but the stability of all five nations.

The five nations have been isolated for over a thousand years with different civilizations, apart from being able to communicate with each other, from social customs to political structures they are completely different, even their values are vastly divergent.

The Kingdom of Blood Moon’s "Bloodline Prohibition Law" is considered a bad policy by the other four nations, but the "Mixed Blood Marriage" of Earth Abyss Realm also hardly falls short. Earth Abyss has a special Magic Faction that other nations cannot touch: parasitic. Parasitic Mages merge with Void Realm creatures, allowing partial or complete dragon transformation, dragon transformation casting, possessing monster-like regeneration abilities and defenses, from silver to legendary level strong magic. 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

However, Earth Abyss Mages can cultivate parasitic factions, while mages from other nations cannot, because Earth Abyss Realm promotes the marriage system "Mixed Blood Marriage" between Void Realm creatures and intelligent races. It’s a very peculiar marriage system; simply put, everyone can marry twice, once with their own kind, and once with a Void Realm creature, so a normal couple’s family has at least four members: the man, man’s Void Realm creature, woman, and woman’s Void Realm creature.

This isn’t mandatory, but encouraged through taxes and social benefits, more importantly, after thousands of years of influence, every person from Earth Abyss sees Void Realm creatures as mating objects. The prerequisite for Earth Abyss Mages to cultivate parasitic factions is having a fully loyal Void Realm creature, which can be a spouse, a parent’s spouse, or even a family heirloom spouse. Indeed, the most powerful parasitic mages often have family heirloom spouses—Void Realm creatures also have attributes of varying levels, so good attributes are naturally passed down to offspring for continued use.

According to Mixed Blood Marriage, society also developed ’inheritance literature’, where Void Realm creatures accompany the first-generation mage spouse through life, then gradually come to like the mage spouse’s children. Since Void Realm creatures have no gender, they can change their form according to their spouse.

Mixed Blood Marriage is an inherent system for Earth Abyssians, even if they know people from other nations do not have Void Realm creature spouses, they would only think people from other nations are so pitiful to not find Void Realm mates.

For people from other nations, it’s hard to accept Earth Abyss Realm—even not mentioning the act of falling in love with Void Realm creatures, which is counted as their strange fetish, like how some people love round things; but inheriting parasitic companions from ancestors, this ethical worldview is too wild, isn’t that like your stepmother or step-uncle?

Besides the more extreme Blood Moon and Earth Abyss, Paradise, Stars, Gospel also have many societal ideologies they cannot compromise. In this situation, Stars still has to promote the "Noble Act," requiring all mages in important positions to receive Stars Blessing, elevating national and Stars interests above all else.

However, the "Noble Act" is mainly aimed at the ruling class, coupled with the four Divine Lords voluntarily stepping back, the upper echelons of the four nations have little resistance and obediently accepted it. Yet, even so, there’s still skepticism among the public at the grassroots level, with the vast majority believing the Kingdom of Stars will exploit the four nations as victorious and ruling superior races, devastating society.

Indeed, Stars you are the strongest mage throughout time, but do we have to pay more taxes, abandon past beliefs, and lose our own culture because of it?

The interests of the upper echelons, the ideologies of the grassroots level, are untouchable red lines. The Stars side could certainly force repression, but ultimately, they would only attain four continuously rebellious colonies.

But Stars’ ambition extends far beyond; she truly wants to incorporate the four nations entirely. She allows the four nations to continue using previous systems, attempting through international exchange to gradually merge the five nations into a mage civilization gathered under the cluster of stars.

At this moment, ’prestige’ and ’stability’ take precedence over everything. If the Stars side sacrifices the billions of lives in the Kingdom of Gospel just to capture Lissdia, it’s sure that other nations will sympathize, and the subsequent policies of Stars will undoubtedly face countless obstacles.

Therefore, once Lissdia arrives at the Imperial Palace, assuming the throne of Gospel, it’s akin to notifying the Angels of Law to seize this opportunity to discreetly deal with her as an unstable factor. Not to mention, her appearance indicates Ash is nearby, the Angels of Law are sure to mobilize to invite the Vice Monarch back to his loyal Heavenly Stars Kingdom.

With all these circumstances, Diya gave up on taking Ash back as a prince, offering a backup plan: Azura.

Whether for secluded healing or searching for traces of Igula and Harvey, Azura is undoubtedly the most suitable place. Since they’ve returned to Azura, the place to live is naturally the Funeral Service Office, the starting point for the Gospel adventure/Empress’s rise.