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Heinz was the most talented among the many "Saint Crest" successors specially cultivated by the Radiant Temple. Before merging with the "Saint Crest," he was already a Sword Master with sixth-level "Moon Flame Combat Qi." Not only was he exceptional in martial arts and unwavering in loyalty, but his divine arts, magical knowledge, internal and external affairs, and military strategies were also outstanding. Therefore, even though he failed to activate the "Saint Ice Thorn Aura" to become a "Holy Grail Knight," he still firmly surpassed numerous competitors and became the inheritor of the "Holy Lance Quenelion."

Such an outstanding individual naturally had extraordinary qualities. Heinz was born with a mysterious sixth sense, allowing him to sense impending fortune or danger. After advancing to the Holy Domain, this intuition became even more acute, and his decisions were often accurate nine times out of ten. However, this time, his intuition was clouded. It seemed as if a great mysterious force was obscuring his mind, making him vaguely sense something approaching but unable to discern what it was. He couldn't even determine whether it was a crisis detected by his intuition or just a nervous hallucination. This uncertainty only deepened Heinz's tension and unease.

Ten days after leaving the "Red Glory Royal City," the dusty team finally re-entered the desert. At the border, the escort forces from the southern nations handed over the protection of the envoy to the Mercenary Empire's troops. The border garrison even dispatched a standard army of fifty thousand to escort the "Red Lotus Sword" back to the capital.

At this point, Heinz couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. Although the pressure in his spiritual senses remained unresolved, he thought that within the territory of the "Mercenary Empire," with a large army surrounding him and a Sword Saint overseeing the situation, nothing should go wrong.

However, a day later, Heinz realized he was wrong—terribly wrong.

"Mr. Heinz, there's someone blocking the road ahead," a Mercenary Empire officer reported.

"What? Could it be that the Kuta Tribal Alliance, coveting the 'Red Lotus Sword,' has finally sent someone to act?" Heinz, deep in thought on his horse, quickly asked, "How many are there?"

"One."

"What? Did Carol himself come?" Heinz was startled, knowing that even a Sword Hero wouldn't dare to face an army of tens of thousands alone. Only a Sword Saint-level expert would have such audacity.

"No, it's... a woman," the officer hesitated. "The mages with the army identified her as an orc warrior."

"An orc warrior? A woman?" Heinz was puzzled, but his expression changed drastically in an instant. His figure flashed and disappeared from the horse, reappearing over a hundred meters away, then vanishing again to appear even further. The march of a large army inevitably stretches the formation, and although desert travel doesn't require considering roads, allowing the formation to be somewhat shorter, this army of over fifty thousand still stretched for several kilometers. Heinz, originally in the middle of the formation, urgently used his teleportation ability, flashing over a dozen times in moments to reach the front of the army.

"It's... really her..."

If Heinz had been drenched in cold sweat when guessing the identity of the newcomer earlier, now he felt a chill to his bones.

The woman stood on a towering red cliff in the distance, looking down at the entire human army.

Her golden hair, glowing like a halo of sunlight, was elegantly coiled high, and her serene beauty, worthy of elven praise, showed no trace of emotion. Her sapphire-blue battle attire, paired with exquisite mithril light armor, accentuated her heroic figure. However, none of this compared to the majestic aura and proud dignity emanating from the depths of her soul, leaving an indelible impression.

She merely stood there, on a cliff hundreds of meters away from the army, and with her imposing presence alone, she made the battle-hardened vanguard soldiers dare not take a step forward.

Heinz felt himself trembling—not physically, but in his soul.

He hoped he was mistaken about her identity, but this woman was too extraordinary, too unique to be confused with anyone else. Moreover, her hands rested on a longsword, a sword that, even sheathed, exuded a sharp, intimidating aura—the holy sword "Covenant," a legendary blade said to never lose as long as its wielder refused to admit defeat.

He had never met this woman in person, but three years ago—no, many years ago—he had seen her portrait. Back then, she didn't possess the power she had today, but she was already hailed as the greatest martial arts prodigy beneath the Orc King. The Radiant Temple had never ceased its attention on her, yet could only watch as she grew, from Sword Hero to Sword Master, from Sword Master to Sword Empress, and finally, to the glorious peak of the Holy Domain, becoming the ultimate powerhouse that intimidated all of humanity.

Her name was—Katherine Blizzard Rhine, the orc's "Holy War Emperor Martial Overlord," the mistress of Fontainebleau Territory, a super expert capable of rivaling the "Supreme Dragon Saint."

A force Heinz could never hope to rival.

This was Chen Xuanfeng's trump card.

Seeing Katherine's appearance, Heinz finally understood the question that had been troubling him—who was the mastermind behind this entire event? Who would benefit from all this? When Katherine appeared, everything became clear. The entire incident was an orc plot, stirring conflicts among nations and weakening the strength of human Sword Saints—exactly what the orcs needed most. Why hadn't he thought of this before?

The young "White Night Knight" had never regretted anything more. Previously, the "Saint Crest Knights" relied on teleportation magic arrays to move unpredictably, never traveling with armies. Although the orcs had two "Emperor Martial" experts, they couldn't track the knights' movements and thus couldn't eliminate them one by one. But this time, Heinz had exposed his own whereabouts so easily to appease the Mercenary Empire's royal family. No wonder he had sensed something amiss earlier but, being in the rear of the human world, hadn't considered this layer of danger, leading him into such a perilous situation.

Every Sword Saint had their own "aura," and to conceal it from other Sword Saints at such close proximity, one would need either the cultivation of a "War Saint" like Leimen or a super mage like the Pope of the Radiant Temple to cast a spell to obscure the aura's fluctuations. Unfortunately, Katherine practiced the unparalleled martial art "Emperor Martial Overlord Art," which directly multiplied combat power without relying on any external attributes. Thus, after advancing to the Holy Domain, her "aura" was entirely different from that of previous Sword Saints. Her immense "aura," though filling the heavens and earth, was also seamlessly integrated with all things in the world, even time and space, making it impossible to discern its origin. Heinz's spiritual senses had been obscured by Katherine's "aura," but he had never encountered such an "aura" before, so he hadn't realized he was being targeted by a powerhouse several times stronger than himself.