Chapter 017: The Fall of a Strong Man

Yet, at that very moment, Klaus suddenly raised his spear and launched a fierce attack from behind at Du Fan!
The attack came precisely when Du Fan’s whip and Abraham’s whip were entangled, and Klaus’s speed was incredibly fast! Du Fan wasn’t able to defend himself in time!
As the spear pierced Du Fan’s back, a burst of white light suddenly appeared behind him! The Absolute Protection Field blocked Klaus’s deadly strike!
After destroying Abraham’s whip with Star Picking, Du Fan immediately flew to the side, staring coldly at Klaus.
That gaze made Klaus’s heart turn cold! It seemed like the gaze of someone looking at a dead person!
“Klaus, I never expected that your Holy Church has made ambushes its habit!” Du Fan said coldly.
“Hmph, it’s just a tactic!” Klaus replied, feeling uneasy under Du Fan’s gaze.
“Haha! Tactics! Tactics! Good, good!” Du Fan laughed loudly!
As Du Fan laughed, a dazzling light suddenly emanated from his body, too bright to look at!
Moreover, the brightness of that light kept increasing!
“Attack him!” Seeing such brightness from Du Fan, Abraham shouted loudly. Hearing this, Klaus immediately raised his spear and attacked Du Fan alongside Abraham!
Abraham swung wildly, sending waves of lightning at Du Fan!
However, neither Klaus’s spear nor Abraham’s lightning could advance even one inch beyond ten meters in front of Du Fan!
“What trick is that?” Fischer said anxiously, watching Du Fan act as if he had gone mad.
Fueled by this anxiety, Fischer suddenly shouted, “Colonel Klaus, Master Abraham, retreat quickly!” Hearing Fischer’s cry, Klaus and Abraham quickly flew back!
But it was already too late!
By then, they were about a hundred meters away from Du Fan, but he had suddenly disappeared.
Soon, two figures flashed past Klaus and Abraham at high speed!
As those figures passed by, two blinding lights flashed!
In an instant, time and space seemed to stop!
Du Fan descended from the sky, moving as if stepping through nothingness.

Just as Du Fan stepped down, Klaus and Abraham in the sky seemed to be frozen in place! Both of them showed expressions of extreme pain, and soon, their bodies began to crack apart, as if porcelain slowly splitting! From each crack, streams of white light emerged, as if there were tiny suns hidden within their bodies! Those suns emitted blinding light, pushing Klaus and Abraham’s bodies apart! Soon, two explosions occurred in the sky! After the explosions, those two domain masters vanished completely! In the eyes of nearly 300,000 soldiers from both sides, these domain masters—figures whom even ordinary people dared not look up to—simply disappeared! Two of them vanished in an instant! Suddenly, the entire battlefield fell silent. Everyone’s gaze focused on Du Fan. As the court’s chief magician, Abraham was undoubtedly a legendary figure in the eyes of the Gavin Empire’s soldiers! And as the deputy commander of the Holy Light Knights, Klaus was also a person revered by all! Yet, such two legendary figures disappeared before Du Fan—leaving not a trace behind. “Warriors of the Northern Legion, carry on Lord Green’s heroic spirit! Break through all obstacles before us!” Du Fan shouted loudly. Just as Du Fan spoke these words and the Northern Legion was about to take action, a voice of extreme authority rang out. “Du Fan, you have killed Master Abraham and Colonel Klaus. Now, you too will join them in death!” With this voice, Fischer suddenly appeared from the Third Legion. Following Fischer were seven priests dressed in red. Seeing these seven red-robed priests, Du Fan’s eyes narrowed severely! What these seven wore were precisely the robes symbolizing the status of archbishops! Seven archbishops! As archbishops, their cultivation levels were all at the domain stage! A strict requirement for being promoted to archbishop by the Holy Church was to be a domain master! Legend has it that twelve archbishops serve by the Pope’s side all year round—each of these twelve archbishops being a domain master!

“Fisher! Haha, I really want to know what kind of relationship you have with that Pope! It seems like that old guy gave you everything!” Du Fan said with a laugh as he watched Fisher and the seven cardinals approaching him.

As Du Fan laughed, the seven cardinals surrounded him tightly, each holding a staff that appeared to be very old.

“Du Fan, it’s an honor for you to have us seven cardinals here with you!” Fisher said coldly.

“Third brother! The man on your left is Andelman! He’s the one who betrayed our father!” Allen suddenly pointed at one of the cardinals and shouted.

Hearing this, Du Fan ignored Fisher completely, turned his head, and focused on Andelman.

“Respected Bishop Andelman, how dare you show up here today? I want to ask—are you ready to die?” Du Fan said slowly, staring at Andelman. “I want to know which doctrine my father violated to deserve such an effort from you, a cardinal, to personally arrange an assassination!”

“Du Fan, since you and your father dared to oppose His Highness Fisher, then you should be prepared to die!” Andelman said with his head bowed after hearing Du Fan’s words.

“Hahahahaha! How could I forget? Our respected His Highness Fisher is also the pope’s godson! Tsk tsk, but in my eyes, that pope seems to treat you better than the old emperor did!” Du Fan said loudly.

“Or maybe it implies that your relationship with His Majesty the Pope is even closer than that with the old emperor?” Du Fan added sharply.

“Du Fan, what do you mean by that? Don’t you know that as the pope’s godson, I will likely succeed him once he retires?” Fisher snapped at Du Fan’s nonsense.

“And besides, Du Fan, your words just offended the pope! Offending the pope is the same as offending the Great God of Light! Do you really want to blaspheme?” Fisher shouted angrily.

“If the gods are so foolish, then I’ll blaspheme to the end! Hmph, if the God of Light can’t even distinguish right from wrong, why should I worship such a worthless deity?” Du Fan said coldly.

“Sigh, Du Fan, it seems you’re truly beyond redemption!” suddenly said an old man with snow-white hair and beard among the seven archbishops in red.
“Even if that’s the case, it’s you who forced me into this!” Du Fan retorted. “Just because you forced me into this situation, does that mean I can’t resist?” he added fiercely.
“My lords, let’s act!” said the old man upon hearing Du Fan’s words. After speaking, he let out a long sigh. Then, he clasped his hands together, and streams of milky-white energy began to swirl within them.
Hearing the archbishop’s words, the other six archbishops also took action immediately!
Soon, streams of milky-white energy kept emerging from all six of their hands!
Watching the actions of the seven archbishops, Du Fan leaped into the air! His Thunder Sword was aimed straight at Andelman!
As soon as he took off, Fischer moved swiftly and appeared right in front of Du Fan.
“Du Fan, why in such a hurry? Your opponent now is me,” Fischer said calmly, standing in front of him.
“Good, Fischer. I never expected that instead of going after you, you’d come to me first,” Du Fan said coldly. “Fischer, when you ordered those eight magic cannons to be aimed at our mansion, did you ever think you’d one day face my revenge?”
“To be honest, Du Fan, when I didn’t attack you back then, didn’t your Green family think about dealing with me?” Fischer replied coldly.
“Hmph, Fischer, if it weren’t for you sending Randy to the south to take my life, I really wouldn’t have thought of dealing with you,” Du Fan retorted fiercely.
“Du Fan, it’s all because you don’t understand the mind of an emperor! Hmph, think about it—how could an emperor allow his subjects to grow stronger? It’s because you chose the wrong path!” Fischer shouted.
As they spoke, the two continued to gather energy in midair, carefully observing each other while moving around.
Even Fischer, despite having most of his energy transformed into divine power, wasn’t willing to take Du Fan lightly!
Even Fischer, even with the Great Prophecy Art, wasn’t sure he could kill Abraham and Klaus in such a short time!
But Du Fan could! Right under the eyes of 300,000 people, he managed to kill both Klaus and Abraham!

“Fisher, I chose that place in the south back then precisely to prevent you from having any ulterior motives! Was that not enough for you?” Du Fan said fiercely.
“Hmph, Du Fan, what you did wasn’t wrong! But you didn’t listen to me—instead of moving 100,000 imperial guards, you went to the south and trained your own troops! Hmph, you refused my ready-made forces and insisted on training your own. Doesn’t that clearly show you have improper ambitions?” Fisher said.
“It’s quite normal for a regional lord to train his own troops. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with what I did!” Du Fan retorted fiercely.
“Wrong! Completely wrong!” Hearing Du Fan’s words, Fisher immediately rebuked him loudly, “Du Fan, you really shouldn’t have built an army of 250,000 with just one province’s territory! You really shouldn’t have conquered nine cities in one go! You truly deserve it! Your actions only prove that at such a young age, you already possess the ambition of a wolf!”
“Haha. Fisher, saying that only shows you can’t tolerate capable officials! Your mind is too narrow!” Hearing Fisher’s words, Du Fan laughed heartily. “I helped you reclaim vast lost territories, yet instead of being grateful, you still suspect me everywhere! Fisher, I never thought you’d become so incompetent! I recovered four provinces in the north, and my father conquered the entire Icebound Alliance to expand our empire by so much. In your eyes, these are evidence of our ulterior motives! Fisher, I can only say you’re too capable and too suspicious!” Du Fan said loudly.
“Du Fan! How dare you still claim you have no disloyal intentions? For an emperor, a capable subordinate with such intentions is the greatest threat!” Fisher said. “So, I have no choice but to get rid of you!”