Four Split Personalities

When the puff of black mist that Yu Chen had flung suddenly dispersed and merged into everyone’s bodies with a bone-chilling coldness, everyone instinctively shuddered, and then they found that their physical strength had inexplicably recovered by at least fifty percent. Even their mental states, which had been worn down to the limit, eased significantly, leading to sheer astonishment.

It was known that the Church of the Dawn’s middle and low-rank Divine Techniques mostly focused on healing, and those that could rapidly restore physical strength were even rarer. This wasn’t exceptional—whether through Divine Arts, magic, or other restorative means, replenishing physical and spiritual power had always been a challenging barrier. This was simply because these aspects were not only difficult to "overdraw" from but also hard to replenish directly through external means. It’s like we can transfuse blood to someone who’s deficit, but it’s hard to make a person who is physically drained or has sore muscles suddenly run energetically and still be able to throw a couple of solid iron balls afterward.

Thus, in this world view where it was easy to detoxify, stop bleeding, heal wounds, or even replenish life itself, replenishing physical and spiritual strength was not so simple, especially without overdrawing. Even the clergy of the healing goddess Paksy found it difficult to find such measures in the Divine Techniques below the advanced stage, and as for the Justice Sect which even focused their Divine Techniques on team strategies to break the enemy mentally, there were just few high-level Divine Techniques that could restore physical and mental energy.

Of course, people at Xia Lian’s level might have many ways, but if she could use Divine Techniques, there wouldn’t be so many issues, and in her prime, the Dawn’s foremost saintess alone could annihilate the monsters of Misha County.

As for other forms with a high degree of general utility and relatively strong effects...

One was Alchemy Potions, such as Lin Qi’s Special brew•Lizard liver essence type or Lion’s Pride, crafted by Luna, but the materials were generally difficult to gather, requiring at least a dozen high-quality materials and a long preparation time, which inevitably made their production quite limited and the cost extremely high. In short, they were expensive and scarce; not that it was a question of money—mainly because a couple of days per bottle production put a constraint on their availability.

As for other forms, excluding talents and some rather non-mainstream special skills, there were primarily just some self-serving methods left, such as violently plundering others’ vitality or using sacrifices to replenish one’s own condition, generally seen as unorthodox or unethical methods.

For a moment, several knights from the Holy Church Union and some locals from Misha County were all caught in a disordered state, without exception.

The former mercenaries and adventurers who hadn’t dealt much with Divine Arts weren’t thinking too much but they too sensed something off about their Highness the Saintess...

It wasn’t hard to see, after all, a girl bearing the title of ’Dawn Saintess’ surrounded by a vast amount of black mist, with dark, chilling Shadow Energy filling the air around her, didn’t quite fit the image.

"I will protect you~"

The stunning Yu Chen simply smiled softly, her clear eyes devoid of any impurities, and whispered gently, "Even if I have to use some methods that might cause a little trouble..."

The second Shadow Covenant was triggered, and the chilling Shadow Energy around Yu Chen seemed to grow even denser. She awkwardly thrust out her right hand, and a flash of black light burst out of nowhere several meters away, directly blowing away several mutants, with two close to the center of the impact even having half their bodies eroded away, dying instantly.

This was not the [Enhanced Holy Cure] handled with Dark Interference, but a genuine piece of Dark Magic—[Enhanced Dark Impact]!

With the Shadow Covenant activated, this powerful shockwave was even stronger than some Mid-level Divine Techniques, and the corrosive properties unique to Shadow Energy further enhanced its destructive power, almost rivalling the strength of a heavy hammer swung by Snow Mane, an Advanced Holy Knight, with sixty percent of his strength. As for the cost... after a 50% reduction by her talent, it became negligible.

Members of the royal guard had seen this move before, but because Yu Chen had activated [Light Incarnate] at the time, all skills came with a limited edition, shiny glow making them look just like a powerful Holy Light, so nobody paid it much attention; but when this skill showed its true form, and was also doubled in potency, it definitely felt completely different.

"This is..."

The previously mentioned elf High Order Righteous Knight again exclaimed, instinctively crying out, "Dark Impact...ugh!"

"Impact your bloody head!"

Snow Mane released the half of his colleague’s face he had been covering with his hand, his eyes full of wary glare as he shouted to everyone, "Are you all rested yet? If you are, then protect Her Highness the Saintess now!"

"Yes!"

The others, as if awakening from a dream, re-engaged in the battle, much to the relief of Snow Mane and Tero, who had been guarding Yu Chen’s side all along.

These two were the first to sort things out and had some speculations—Snow Mane, a somewhat learned and relatively decent small team leader among the Advanced Holy Knights of the Justice Sect, had dealt with sects worshipping the Goddess of Darkness directly, and anyone capable of opposing her had to be at least a fellow Holy Knight or a bishop-level clergy. Thus, whether it was the previous [Shadow Vortex] or Yu Chen’s auxiliary combination of [Vitality Absorption] + [Shadow Diversion], and even just now that [Dark Impact], she almost immediately recognized them and then... made every effort to pretend she hadn’t.