Armipotent

It was the same as what Rene told him. The only thing missed was that Rene did not say the creatures were armed. They had pauldrons on their shoulder, belt, and steel wrist. Of course, they also had a weapon, mainly a saber, and spears, with some of them also having shields.

Ten of the wolf creatures guarded the entrance into the mine; four of them had shields on their back. The one with a saber would have a round shield on their backs. Four of them stood on guard right at the entrance while the remaining six were sitting around the campfire.

[Kobold — Level 872] [Kobold — Level 861]  [Kobold — Level 876]  [Kobold — Level 882]

The wolf creature was a kobold, and this was Tang Shaoyang's first time encountering a Kobold. He thought the wolf creature was a lycanthrope since it was a wolf evolution creature.

"The people in the village say that their earing number indicates their status in the horde," Rene added while pointing at the big earring on the creature's ears.

If not for Rene telling him that, Tang Shaoyang would not notice the earing. He indeed found big earing in their ears, and all of them had the same number, two earrings on their right ear. He assumed there was a weaker group than the guard, which had one earring.

Tang Shaoyang nodded and took out the paper, which was supposed to be a map. He said it was a map, but he actually just created a line with his pen. He marked the path he took from the city to where he was currently. Then he drew a cave on the paper; at least, it was supposed to be a cave, but he just made a circle. Then he wrote "Wolf Mine." Satisfied with the writing, he put the paper back into his inventory.

"Do you want me to attack the mine, Your Majesty?" Maldros asked. Even though the Kobold might outnumber them, it should not be an issue for his Master to take over the mine by himself.

"No. They are too weak for me. Let the Tarrior take care of them." Tang Shaoyang shook his head. "Let's head to our next destination."

Masmatic Valley was quite far from the mine. It took them two hours of journey to reach the infamous valley.

"I don't expect the valley to look ominous like this." The valley was covered in green fog, and the green fog was a red flag. This one was out of his expectation for sure. He thought the valley was full of poisonous plants, not the valley itself was poisonous.

Tang Shaoyang took out his hand-made map and started to draw a line from the mine direction. Then he drew a skull symbol on the map and added, with the final touch, "Masmatic Valley." He was satisfied with the map while nodding, proud of himself for making a map.

"Let's head back to the city." He stayed overnight outside, but he received no communication call from his people. He assumed nothing happened in the starter city or to the group that went in his opposite direction. "I hope Lu An's team discovers something better than what I discovered."

Tang Shaoyang headed back to the city with the siblings, while Maldros returned once they got near the city. He thought it would be a while until the Divine Church or the Giteron Dynasty would bother him again. However, he was wrong about it, wrong about the Divine Church.

Ten people with black armor guarded the gate with another squadron of white-armored knights behind the ten black-armored knights. "Are you Tang Shaoyang of the Tang Empire?" The black-armored knight stopped and questioned him.

"I am not!" Tang Shaoyang lied straight to the knight.

"Don't lie! Answer truthfully!" The knight raised his voice.

"How do you know whether I am lying or not?"

"Because I know you are Tang Shaoyang!" The knight screamed back at him.

"Then why do you ask if you already know?"

Swoosh!

The knight sheathed his sword and slashed it down toward Tang Shaoyang without saying anything. Of course, the sword missed the target as Tang Shaoyang jumped backward the moment the knight's hand reached the sword. The sword hit the ground and split the ground.

Boom!

"You dare to mock the Executioner Knight of the Divine Church!"

"Tch, it seems the Divine Church does not bother to hide the fact they hunt me." Tang Shaoyang was quite annoyed. He was annoyed because he felt like the hate was undeserved. He did not know what he did to the church to earn their resentment like this. That was right; it annoyed him because he did not know the cause. "What do I expect from a bunch of fanatics? I should expect this from them. Should have killed them all from the start."

"It's my time to shine!" Avyn was quite excited that Tang Shaoyang summoned her. However, Tang Shaoyang had another job for her. "I will allow you to fight them, but you must deliver them inside safely first." He was talking about the terrified siblings in his embrace. The knights did not care about the children when they attacked him.

"What? Can't you do it yourself? I want to fight them! Look at those black knights. They were quite strong." Avyn strongly expressed that she wanted to fight.

"This is order, Avyn. I am being serious, not in the mood to joke around!" Tang Shaoyang frowned. "Do you think they will let me enter the city? No, they will use everything to stop me from entering the city. That will put the kids in danger! Get into the city and send them to my territory; then, you can join the fight!"

He then smiled at the kids. "She is Sister Avyn. You will go with her, and I will catch up later, okay? I need to punish some bad people." The siblings nodded. It was not the time for them to be picky, even though they would rather go with Maldros.

Avyn kept her mouth shut and did not talk back to Tang Shaoyang anymore. She received the kids from Tang Shaoyang and retreated to a safe distance. She would get into the city once Tang Shaoyang started to fight.

[??? — Primordial Rank] [??? — Primordial Rank] [??? — Myth Rank] [??? — Myth Rank] [??? — Myth Rank] [??? — Myth Rank] [??? — Myth Rank] [??? — Myth Rank] [??? — Myth Rank] [??? — Myth Rank]

Two Primordial Ranks and eight Myth Ranks. Those were the black-armored knights, and Tang Shaoyang was quite surprised by force sent by the Divine Church. How strong these people were, showed how determined the Divine Church was to kill Tang Shaoyang.

'I need them to focus on me, so Avyn can sneak into the safety without fighting them. Let's open this shit with a big opening, no? Do you ready for some action, Zowen?'

Tang Shaoyang planned to use [Integration] with Zowen and opened the fight with a powerful magic attack. It had been a while since he integrated with the Lightning Grand Magus.

[Kuhuhuhu….] Zowen laughed [I am ready, and I have a move to teach you for this one move.]

"Surrender yourself, heretic!" The black-armored knight raised their sword toward Tang Shaoyang. "Surrender, and we will forgive your people!"

Tang Shaoyang answered the black knight with integration with Zowen. His eyes turned blue while his hair grew longer, and his body sparked in light as magical power surged out from Tang Shaoyang. At the same time, his body floated in the air as the sky suddenly turned dark. The sky was suddenly covered by a dark cloud, covering the sun as well.

The cloud suddenly made a rumbling noise. All the knights sheathed out their weapons and shields. They realized that Tang Shaoyang intended to fight them, something they also did not expect. At the same time, his body released lightning balls around him. The lightning ball was at the fist size, floating around Tang Shaoyang in the air. There were hundreds of them.

"Get ready, Avyn!" After saying that, Tang Shaoyang's motioned his hand to the dark cloud. He made a movement of pulling down, and at the same time, lightning struck down from the dark cloud. The lighting was aimed at the white-armored knight on the back. Tang Shaoyang pulled off dozens of lighting, striking down the Holy Knights.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

"It goes as you planned." Tang Shaoyang muttered when he saw the ten black knights rush toward him instead of protecting the Holy Knights. The ten black knights avoided the lightning ball, surrounding him from all directions.

"Since what you want is death, then we will grant your wish!" The black-armored knight who attacked Tang Shaoyang earlier kept blabbering.

"Kuhuhuhu! I don't think rank determines how smart you are. You just come at me without thinking." Tang Shaoyang grinned ear to ear as he made a welcome motion. "Welcome to my lightning domain!" After that, Tang Shaoyang clapped his hand once, and the lightning balls exploded.

The lightning burst out from the lightning balls. The area suddenly filled with lightning, as if there was no space without the lightning. The lightning explosion blinded everyone, with a sizzling and rumbling noise from the lightning.