Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Mutumbu was a Cardinal, one who was favored by the Pope, and one who had just been promoted from White-robed Worshipper to Red-robed Cardinal. As long as he managed to settle a few things, he would be able to easily attain a high level position, and be promoted to a Red-robed Archbishop. Then, the most prosperous area in the East of the Delar Empire would be under his control and his family would naturally take the opportunity to benefit from it.
To gain more favor of the Pope, there was undoubtedly a great chance right in front of him!
In order to deal with Yang Ling, the influential Lord of the Magical Beasts, the Church, on the surface, seemed to be doing nothing. But in secret, they had activated many elites to take part in the mission. If he could gain intelligence about the situation in Jaboli and what was going on around Yang Ling this time round, he would definitely have made a great contribution.
“Lord Cardinal, there’s a hotel next door, are were going to stay there?” a Knight whispered in question, breaking Mutumbu’s fantasy.
“Battyer, find the cheapest hotel, and get the worst room that over a dozen can stay in. Don’t forget our current identities!” Even though he could not wait to throw the worn and dirty armor on his body into the sea, but in der to complete his mission successfully, Mutumbu had no choice but to continue with the disguise. After falling silent in thought for a while, he continued, “Keep in contact with the bunch of crazy people in the Judgement Court. Tell them that we have arrived in Jaboli!”
“Yes Sir!” The tall and strong Knight left to do his bidding. Unexpectedly, just as he had strode to the door, a black shadow rushed in with a ‘whoosh’ sound. In an instant, he was bumped into hard enough till he saw stars, and felt giddy and faint.
“Hmph, bastard is courting death!” Touching the huge swollen bump on his head, the Knight Battyer was furious, pulling his sharp long sword out with a ‘swoosh’ sound. As a Guardian Knight, he was usually the one bumping into people. He did not expect to have been bumped into and almost got his head split open today.
At first, he was already very unhappy about having to disguise a down and out trooper. Just smelling the stench on his clothes was enough to make him lose his appetite. After finding out that he had to stay in the worst hotel, and squeeze with over a dozen people in the worst room, he felt even more unhappy. After getting bumped into roughly, the unhappiness in his heart just exploded all of a sudden.
“Hehe, how can you have the nerve to take out this piece of lousy metal!” After parting the curtains, the Dark Dragon King strode in, looking coldly at the furious Battyer. Behind him, slowly strolled in Yang Ling, the Corpse Wizard King, and gang.
The Lord of the Magical Beasts Realm, Yang Ling?
Looking at Yang Ling behind the Dark Dragon King, Mutumbu got a shock. He did not expect to encounter the target of this trip so quickly. After rolling his eyes, he pretended to cough in pain. “Battyer, quick, go and see if there are any suitable hotels. Or else, we will have to stay out of the city tonight!”
Before going on the mission, Mutumbu and his party had long seen the portrait of Yang Ling. Seeing the target appear had made them nervous but a bit excited. Originally, they had still been worried about how they were going to sneak into the heavily guarded Main Residence to gain intelligence, if Yang Ling were to stay inside all the time to practice cultivation. It was good that they had immediately encountered their target not too long after hey had reached Jaboli.
“Yes Sir!”
Battyer might be furious, but he was not a fool. With Mutumbu’s reminder, he immediately noticed Yang Ling, who was behind the Dark Dragon King. While speaking, he picked up his sword and kept it, turned sideways, and walked towards the door, preparing to go outside to find a cheaper hotel. Unexpectedly, the Dark Dragon King and Corpse Wizard King stood on either side, entirely blocking his exit, full of murderous aura!
Could it be that they had discovered the identities of his party?
One event happens right after another! After seeing the murderous looks on the close guards around Yang Ling, the Knights and Spellcasters disguised as Troops tightly held on to their weapons out of nervousness. According to word on the street, there are Experts all around Yang Ling . If their identities accidentally got exposed, he did not dare think of the consequences.
“Battyer, why don’t you quickly apologize to His Lordship?” After getting over his nerves, Mutumbu gave Battyer a meaningful look, striding over while speaking. “His Lordship, we are Troops from the Delar Empire. As we had not gotten much rest while on the road, our brothers are all exhausted, and accidentally bumped into His Lordship. I beg His Lordship to forgive Battyer’s rashness!”
Mutumbu was all smiles and personally apologized to Yang Ling. With his signal, the usually brash and impulsive Knight Battyer had no choice but to tuck his tail between his legs and apologize obediently.
“Oh, so it’s like this. A misunderstanding, just a misunderstanding!” Yang Ling smiled, paused then continued, “I’ll like to welcome all to the Magical Beasts Realm. But all of you do not look familiar. It must be your first time to Jaboli!”
“Yes, yes, yes. It’s all just a misunderstanding!” Seeing that Yang Ling had signaled to the Dark Dragon King and Corpse Wizard King to get out of the way, Mutumbu let out a sigh of relief, and unobtrusively wiped the cold sweat off his forehead. After pausing for a while, he continued “We are all active within the Delar Empire. We had received a mission this time round, and are preparing to go into the Amazon Forest to hunt and kill a Blue Lion Beast. As we are short on time, we had rushed all the way here!”
“The Blue Lion Beast is wild and savage by nature. You must be careful! But, I don’t understand. Since this is the first time all of you are here in Jaboli, how did you know that I’m the Lord when we had just met?” Yang Ling looked at Mutumbu beside him while smiling, but the cold glint in his eyes grew harder and harder.
With his own capabilities, he had no problem killing of this bunch of Church fellows in front of him. But, if he were just to kill them off, it would be letting them off too easily. So way before they left, he had already thought of a perfect idea. He wanted to do it in a more exciting way, or else he might as well not do it!
“This…” Looking at the hidden dagger in Yang Ling’s smile, Mutumbu silently cursed himself. He did not expect to accidentally let slip what he knew.
What to do?
Could it be that he had to fight his way out?
On the surface, Mutumbu had no reaction, but silently, he was bitterly complaining non-stop. Yang Ling was simply too powerful. Not mentioning if his party and him had the ability to fight their way out, even if they got lucky and managed to escape with their lives, they would definitely get severely punished after they returned to the Church. Not only would he lose the chance to be promoted to Red-robed Archbishop, he might not even get to keep his newly promoted position of Red-robed Cardinal that he had just managed to get his hands on.
After falling silent in deep thought for a while, and looking at the huge Main Residence not too far away, and looking at the Troops and tourists who had stopped in their tracks to look, Mutumbu had a sudden thought. “His Lordship, many wandering poets had been all over, singing about the exploits of you defeating more than a hundred Golden Giant Dragons, and had even drawn many portraits of you. You might not know about us, the insignificant Troops, but which trooper and adventurer on this continent does not know the famous you?”
Smart and sly!
Seeing the fast reaction from Mutumbu, Yang Ling’s smile grew even more brilliant. After Yang Ling snapped his fingers, the Corpse Wizard King immediately unrolled a portrait they had just rushed to make. “Sir Troop Team Leader, recently, pirates have been ravaging the sea areas near Jaboli. This man is the so-called Great White Shark, the Pirate King Swift. Can you tell me where exactly this man is?”
The Great White Shark Swift?
Even though he had vaguely heard of the name of the Pirate King Swift, and knew that his men would all have a savage looking great white shark tattooed on their chest, Mutumbu had never seen the man himself before, not to mention knowing of his whereabouts. But, when he saw the portrait that the Corpse Wizard King had unrolled, he was in a state of shock for a while.
The man in the portrait had long eyes, high nose, and sharp eyes. He actually looked exactly like Mutumbu himself!
“Swift, you disguised yourselves as a bunch of Troops on land, in an attempt to plunder Jaboli city and assassinate His Lordship. Now do you still deny the charges with the evidence against you?” At Yang Ling’s signal, the Corpse Wizard King clapped his hands, and immediately, soldiers carrying the Pear Blossom Crossbow streamed into the bar, entirely surrounding Mutumbu and his party. The crossbow arrows gleamed black. With one look, one obviously knew that they were covered in fatal poison.
A couple of days ago, when Ashnamov was patrolling the seas, he unintentionally caught a big fish, the Great White Shark Swift. At first, Yang Ling intended to make him an example and behead him in public, but seeing that Mutumbu and him looked similar, he had a sudden thought of secretly substituting one for the other. The Church had always seen themselves as emissaries of God, and were always talking about compassion and mercy. Losing a bunch of Knights and Spellcasters would be nothing to them, but any damage to their reputation would hit them where it hurt the most.
“Heavens, the Pirate King Swift?”
“Kill him, kill that bastard!”
…
After being sent out of the bar by the soldiers and understanding what was going on, the people exclaimed in surprise. Slowly, the onlookers crowding around grew more and more. There were people who called for them to be killed, and others who were doubtful. The Great White Shark Swift was known as the sly fox of the sea. After travelling on the seas for a few decades, why would he come to shore on impulse?
“His Lordship, this is a misunderstanding , definitely all a misunderstanding!” Looking at the swarms of Pear Blossom Crossbows surrounding them, Mutumbu’s heart sank even lower.
“Word don’t prove anything. How can you prove that you are not a pirate?” Yang Ling smiled coldly. With a wave of his right hand, the first row of soldiers immediately released the first wave of crossbow arrows. Even though Mutumbu and his party were prepared, but still, more than a dozen men fell in a pool of blood. After their wounds got infected by the deadly poison, their bodes turned black, and in a blink of an eye, they stopped breathing.
Faced with a threat to his life, a Spellcaster panicked and cast the Holy Shield to protect himself, without any regard for the consequences, exposing his identity carelessly. As the others saw that their identities were no longer secret, they all began casting the Holy Shield in panic. Nobody wanted to die by being hit by the terrifying Pear Blossom Crossbow.
“His Lordship, actually, I’m a Cardinal of the Church, in charge of pursuing and capturing a heathen who had escaped into Jaboli. This is my token of order, which can prove my identity!” After seeing that there was no point in hiding anymore, Mutumbu simply just revealed his identity.
There were countless followers of the Church on the continent, including in the Magical Beasts Realm. If he declared that they were here in pursuit of a heathen, he did not believe that Yang Ling would be able to slaughter him and his party in broad daylight, with so many people watching. After all, if news got out that Yang Ling had slaughtered a group of the followers of the Church, it would definitely put immense pressure on Yang Ling. Then, the Church would be able to openly move the Guardian Army, and launch and offensive attack on the Magical Beasts Realm. In the interest of his Domain, the Lord Yang Ling would definitely not dare to act rashly.
“Hehe, good, very good!” After looking at Mubuntu’s token of order, Yang Ling carelessly threw it on the ground, and then ruthlessly stomped on it with one foot. “In this day and age, even Pet Cards can be faked. Who knows if this thing is real or fake?”
The soldiers in the bar were all elite and loyal Beastmen. The closest the people outside the bar could get, was no more that a few dozen paces away. They could not see in detail what was going on, at all. Yang Ling knew that no matter what, this time round, Mubuntu and his party would not be able to escape the palm of his hand. But, while it might be easy to kill them, it was more important to use this as a pretext to deal a blow to the Church’s reputation.
If he could lead people to believe that the pirates were now all disguising themselves as members of the Church and going onto shore the gather intelligence and plunder cities, it would definitely cause a sensation if the news were to spread. According to his intelligence, the Church and Dark Association were fighting over a few Southern territories by the sea. Those territories all had long coastlines, and the problem of the pirates wreaking havoc was most severe. If this news spread, he believed that it would be a serious blow to the Church’s plans to spread the word of God. It was much better than just killing a few dozen insignificant Knights and Spellcasters.
