Immortal Creed

After a period of marching, the Rebel Army retreated to where they had camped last night.

Although this location was a bit too close to Baker City and not a sufficiently safe camp, there were many injured who urgently needed treatment, making it unsuitable for further marching.

"How is he?"

Isabelle once again lowered her hands, which emitted a milky white glow, and frowned slightly as she asked about Liens's condition.

"My body is fine; my internal organs and bones have been completely repaired.

Although the newly formed tissues are still somewhat fragile, they don't affect basic movement, and I should fully recover after a few days of rest."

"My weakness isn't a physical problem, but rather an excessive expenditure of power.

It's not merely spiritual; your understanding of it is insufficient, so you can't enhance its recovery speed through divine arts."

"So there's no need to waste any more effort."

Liens explained to Isabelle.

Based on Liens's current experience, the Heavenly Light divine art seemed to him like a form of enhancement—an enhancement of various things, even various concepts.

For example, "healing" was the enhancement of an individual's recovery speed.

The clearer the caster's understanding of the treated individual's condition, the better the divine art's effect.

This was clearly different from the principles of healing magic and Healing Potions; both magic and potions transformed into Life force to replenish the injured person's Life consumption, thereby indirectly restoring injuries.

This was also why Healing Potions could heal most injuries: they weren't essentially healing your wounds, but rather making you more resilient.

"Liens, how long do you think it will take for you to fully recover?"

Balder interjected, asking.

"It will take at least seven or eight days to fully recover my power, but to simply remove the weakened state, four or five days should be enough."

Liens pondered for a moment before responding.

"Then what do you think the situation of Liens, the Sword Saint, is like now?"

Balder continued to ask, his expression very serious.

He knew that the power Liens spoke of referred to the power related to the Grandmaster Realm; otherwise, Isabelle, as a Heavenly Light Bishop, wouldn't be unable to remove Liens's weakened state.

And Alfred clearly also possessed that kind of power, so he wanted to know what kind of state Alfred would likely be in after the previous battle.

Could he still exert that almost invincible strength?

"I don't know." Liens shook his head.

"I understand your meaning—to take Baker City while Liens, the Sword Saint, is weakened.

This idea certainly has a possible feasibility, but it's too much of an Adventurer."

"Liens, the Sword Saint's state is indeed not at full capacity, and he might even be unable to use that giant sword move for a short period, but our state isn't much better."

"In our current state, if Liens, the Sword Saint, wanted to charge into our military formation, we might not be able to stop him."

"And currently, besides the military formation, we have no other way to defeat Liens, the Sword Saint.

Even if he's not in good shape, he's much stronger than us; everyone should have deeply felt this."

Liens expressed his view, disagreeing with another Adventurer offensive.

After the battle this morning, he vaguely felt that Alfred had gone easy on the Rebel Army.

Although he wasn't entirely sure why Alfred did that, based on his performance on the battlefield, the opponent actually had enough strength to break through their interception head-on.

If Alfred had gone all out from the beginning, they wouldn't have had a chance to wait for the military formation to activate.

Therefore, he did not recommend that the Rebel Army provoke Alfred before they had sufficient strength.

"What are everyone's opinions?"

Balder looked at the others, asking for their thoughts.

"I also don't recommend continuing to Adventurer... It's not because I'm afraid of death; I'm already old, and since I chose to join this war, I don't care about living a few years less."

"The reason I don't recommend it is because I believe our chances of success are very small."

"Those who directly besieged Liens, the Sword Saint, should more or less have that feeling... he held back against us."

"Except for Liens, he has a deep understanding of the rest of us.

This might be his Grandmaster ability, or it might be that he became familiar with our combat techniques after multiple engagements."

"Given his strength, it wouldn't be too difficult for him to exploit our weaknesses and kill us or severely wound us with a single sword, but each of his strikes seemed to intentionally or unintentionally avoid our vital points."

"I don't understand his reasons for doing this; perhaps he was wary of Liens..."

At this point, Robert glanced at the three priests of the God of Absolute Fairness standing by, then continued: "Or perhaps it's for some purpose... In any case, my intuition tells me he seems to be waiting for something."

"Intuition, huh?

It seems Liens, the Sword Saint, also has his own plans."

Balder murmured to himself.

As a Bishop of Adventurer, Robert's intuition often contained the truth, because the authority of Adventurer was destiny.

"Does everyone else also not support continuing to Adventurer?"

Balder continued to ask the others, and his question indirectly expressed his own view; the word 'Adventurer' indicated that he also did not recommend continuing to attack Baker City.

The others understood his meaning, and with Liens and Robert both having expressed their views, the others also successively expressed their opposition to continuing the attack.

"Since everyone is against continuing the attack, then we will execute the backup plan: retreat to the rear and engage in a long-term war with the royal capital, launching an attack only when we have accumulated enough strength."

Balder issued the final conclusion, and Lucrezia also timely explained the "backup plan" to Liens through a sound transmission.

Overall, it was similar to the situation with Baker City: setting up a pass in an important city in the rear, blocking enemy invasion into the rear, while vigorously developing and continuously strengthening their forces.

They would follow the path of "building high walls, accumulating vast provisions, and slowly claiming kingship."

It sounded good, but whether the enemy would give them a chance to accumulate strength, and whether they themselves could withstand attacks and seize development opportunities, remained uncertain questions.

It was just that they had no other better options at the moment.

The brief but important meeting ended, and Liens returned to his temporary tent to rest.

Not only him, but also Balder and others who had directly faced Alfred and suffered more severe injuries, although they were no longer in serious danger after Isabelle's treatment.

However, they still needed a good period of rest, and the best and simplest rest was sleep.

Maintaining good rest was a relatively good measure for both physical and mental recovery.

Now, among the high-ranking members of the Rebel Army, probably only Lucrezia, Isabelle, and a few others were still awake.

Although Lucrezia's consumption in battle was also considerable, she didn't suffer any significant injuries, and she herself had better recovery methods, so she took on the duty of standing guard at this time.

Isabelle, on the other hand, had to cooperate with other physicians within the Rebel Army to treat other wounded.

After a battle, both the Rebel Army and the Royal Army suffered many casualties.

The soldiers who had already sacrificed themselves for the revolution could not be brought back, but if even the wounded were not diligently saved, would anyone still believe in the rebellion and be willing to continue following the Rebel Army?

Therefore, Balder and the others also formulated strict regulations regarding the military merit system and casualty compensation, ensuring that the rights and interests of ordinary soldiers were genuinely protected.

Furthermore, these rights not only concerned the soldiers themselves but would also benefit their families.

This was to let the soldiers know that the Rebel Army wasn't just shouting about ideals, but was genuinely working to secure benefits for ordinary people and strive for hope for the masses.