Chapter 35

Translator: Exodus Tales

Editor: Exodus Tales

Fang Zheng didn’t take the matters of Connie to his heart, not in the least. He already knew that the other party’s injuries were heavier than his, and Marth and the remaining templars weren’t that proficient in healing. In fact, the priest responsible for their team had been killed in the previous ambushes. And this was the reason why Marth and his team in the rear fought with such difficulty. Had it not been for Fang Zheng quickly healing them, perhaps they wouldn’t have been combat-ready by now.

Despite the altercation with Connie, Fang Zheng and Shidon had successfully completed half of their mission, in any case; they had already found the last of those templars here. As a matter of fact, all these troubles could be solved as long as they brought them back. However, neither Marth nor Shidon seemed to have any intention of leaving.

Marth knew that it was because of that lich’s conspiracy. And while Shidon might not have known what had happened here, but he did notice that there was something wrong. As a matter of fact, when Shidon arrived here, he, Connie, and Miss M discovered undead here. And not only that, but they had seen with their own eyes some undead taking those templars into the quarry. To investigate what these undead were really doing and to save his colleagues in distress, he had originally asked Connie to go back and give Miss M a message so that the poor lady would not make any blind and disorderly conjectures. But who would have thought that she would run into Fang Zheng and then… Sigh, somebody just tell me what the hell this is!?

“We don’t have time to waste now. The lich must have noticed all the commotion here.”

Shidon warned, glaring at Connie and Fang Zheng angrily. In the face of his glare, while Connie lowered her head, uttering not another word, Fang Zheng, on the other hand, just shrugged his shoulders, assuming the pose that this had nothing to do with him. Shidon, looking at their reactions, rolled his eyes helplessly before turning to Marth, again.

“What do you think? Marth!?”

“…”

Having been asked by Shidon, Marth pondered for a moment before looking up at Shidon, again.

“Are you sure my colleagues are still alive?”

“At least they were when they were dragged in, as for now… I can’t guarantee it.”

“…”

This time, Marth was silent for a lot longer. Then, he glanced at the others; he seemed to have come to a decision as he started speaking next.

“Shidon, I need your help with something.”

“Tell me.”

“I hope you can attract the attention of the lich, meanwhile, we will find an opportunity to charge in and see if we can reduce our companions. And if possible, maybe destroy the dark ritual they want to finish in one fell swoop…”

At this point, Marth turned to look at Connie.

“This girl is also my request. She is seriously injured and isn’t ready for combat. If we take her with us, she will just be a burden. It’s better for her to stay here. If we can’t come back, then please take her back to the church.”

“You…”

Shidon froze for a moment upon hearing this. Even Fang Zheng had his eyes wide open, staring at Marth. He wasn’t a fool; of course, he knew what Marth meant. Marth’s request might have seemed a bit unreasonable to ordinary people if they heard it, but as long as one gave it a second thought, they would have found that this request wasn’t that stressful for Shidon and Fang Zheng!

Because Marth only asked them to attract the lich’s attention as bait. Frankly speaking, it wasn’t that difficult; they weren’t in that much danger. On the contrary, it was Marth and his team who were walking deeper into the trap. After all, Shidon and Fang Zheng were only responsible for protecting the boss, and once they pulled him out, they could run. Whereas Marth had to go deeper into the core area. Although Marth had said that they were going in to rescue their colleagues, Shidon and Fang Zheng weren’t stupid; since the lich had gone to such great lengths to carry out the dark ritual, the core area was definitely filled with crisis. Marth and his team might have been saying that they wanted to destroy the enemy’s plan and rescue their companions, but they were certainly not coming back. 

Fang Zheng furrowed his brow, but looking at Shidon, he didn’t say anything. To be honest, Marth and the others were really worthy of the title, knights templar. He did not have the heart to watch the other party taking the road toward their own doom. But now that Marth had already made a decision and Shidon didn’t seem to have any intention of stopping him, it wasn’t appropriate for Fang Zheng to interject in this matter.

“…Alright!”

Finally, Shidon heaved a long and deep sigh.

“Marth, come back alive. I’m still waiting for you to invite me to drink.”

“Don’t worry, I won’t die that easily.”

Having said this, Marth waved at Fang Zheng and Miss M with a smile before turning around and leaving with his companions. Fang Zheng was left completely speechless, looking at Marth’s back….

The red flag behind your shoulder is already three meters tall. Great Knight Marth, is this the so-called ‘how can I save you’? And Shidon, you have positioned the flag in a very refreshing manner. Can’t you show your colleagues some mercy? Don’t you know the meaning of maintaining a cordial relationship for the rainy days? You can’t just burn the bridge! If you put all flags like this, will the people still treat you fairly after they survive? 

“Alright, we should get into action as well.”

And of course, Shidon was oblivious to the fact that Fang Zheng was criticizing behind his back. He just watched peacefully as Marth left before turning to look at Fang Zheng.

“As you know, our task is to attract the lich’s attention. Fortunately, that fight between you and missy caused enough chaos that the lich might have already noticed that something isn’t. We just need to draw that lich out and keep it busy here.”

“Drag it out? And how are we going to do that?”

Fang Zheng was flabbergasted by Shidon’s order; he kept gawking at his mentor with surprise. Frankly speaking, Fang Zheng had a good understanding of Shidon after having spent so much time with Shidon. In his opinion, this great knight was more like a general who led the vanguard with his soldiers; he wasn’t good at strategies and plans. Because of this, Fang Zheng had a rather bad feeling upon hearing Shidon’s order.

In response to Fang Zheng’s inquiry, Shidon clenched his fists and gave Fang Zheng a hearty smile, revealing his white teeth.

“We would charge right in, of course!”

“…”

Fang Zheng, for the first time, felt that he should have changed his mentor… Marth might be a good choice!? 

Meanwhile, another scene was taking place in darkness, deep under the dark quarry.

In the huge underground cave, a dark blue flame was dancing left and right. Right in the center of the cave was an array drawn from blood shimmering with a faint glow. And floating right above the array was none other than the lich wrapped in a black robe. At this moment, he raised his head as a scarlet gleam flickered in his hollow eyes. The lich looked at the skeleton soldiers around him and ordered in a low voice.

“You guys, go outside and check what’s going on.”

The skeleton soldiers that were armed to the teeth saluted the lich before turning around and leaving in unison upon hearing the lich’s order. They used to be brave warriors when they were alive, but now, these soldiers had become undead slaves and were unable to rest forever. All they could do was helplessly submit to the power of darkness and death.

Yes, only death and darkness were the true essence of this world. 

Thinking of this, the scarlet flames in the lich’s eyes burned fiercely as he gave orders.

“Bring the offering.”

Very soon, two tall and robust undead giants dragged a restrained templar, following the command of the lich. The templar appeared very young and seemed to be heavily injured and weak at this moment. He kept glaring at the lich before him, flames of anger burning in his eyes.

“You damn undead, your conspiracy won’t succeed. Everything you have done will be judged justly!”

“Boring!”

The lich only let out a light snort in response to the young knight’s proclamation. Then, he raised his hand and pointed a finger at the young knight. Soon, a dark beam shot out from the lich’s fingertip, shooting straight into the young knight’s chest.

“Ahhhhhh… Ahhhhhhh…!”

The young knight immediately turned pale after being struck by this dark beam, wailing in agony. He started quivering and immediately after, bright red blood began to gush out the young knight’s mouth, nose, eyes, and ears like a waterfall. The young knight seemed to be in a horrid amount of pain. He instinctively opened his mouth to scream, but before he could let out a scream, the blood gushing out of his throat stopped him.

“Wooo…. wooo!!!”

The young knight’s eyes widened even more so at this moment. He grabbed his throat with his hands like a drowning man struggling to breathe, but no matter how hard he struggled, he could not breathe even a wisp of air. Because the ‘water’ that was drowning wasn’t coming outside but from inside his body instead!

“—!!”

In the end, the young knight’s body began to twitch frantically. He waved his hand and opened his mouth like a madman, but he couldn’t make any sound. Only blood mixed in with bubbles kept gushing out of his mouth, flowing down along his body to the ground. Finally, the young knight’s figure came to a standstill; he was nothing more than a corpse now.

He had drowned in his own blood!

Although the young knight was dead, blood kept pouring out of his body; it didn’t stop just because he was dead. Slowly, the young knight’s corpse began to shrivel like a balloon leaking air. In the end, his corpse resembled nothing more than a skinny corpse. As for his blood, it slowly painted a huge red magic circle under the effect of some mysterious force. And the moment this magic circle was finished, a transparent figure suddenly emerged from the middle of the magic circle, waving its hand desperately as if it was trying to escape this evil land. But in the next moment, the silhouette seemed to have been dragged back in and disappeared into the magic circle like a dog with a chain.

Immediately afterward, a sarcophagus in the center of the magic circle shook briefly before it sunk into silence, again.

“It’s not enough…”

The lich let out a cold snort and issued an order, looking at the magic circle in front of him.

“Next.”