With the Raiders declaring a war against the Solstice Kingdom, they had no need for any hideout anymore. They chose to have their encampment on the slums, where they can show their domineering might on the townspeople.
They might be able to entice more people into joining them.
“Pardon me, but..” Fang Yu trailed as she looked at the Generals behind Wang Hao. She looked at them suspiciously as she said,
“Why does the Raiders have this many Third Stage Practitioners? This is unnatural!” Fang Yu felt that she had to clarify the situation with the Raiders.
Even the Solstice Kingdom, with its long history, only had 10 Third Stage Practitioners. Yet, a trifling rebel group managed to gather 6 Third Stage Practitioners, with their leader half-step into the Fifth Stage!
“About that…. It was actually like this.” Wang Hao then narrated on how the Raiders were formed.
The truth was that the woman leading the Raiders was actually the King’s former lover! Her name was Nathalia, and she was the daughter of the Kingdom’s prime minister. They were said to have been put in an arranged marriage after they were born.
Rumors said that Nathalia had romantic feelings for the King, but the King did not reciprocate it. Then a month before their marriage, the King saw the current Queen.
It was said that they fell in love at first sight.
The King ignored the rules and married the Queen just a week after they met. Nathalia was distraught, of course. But she did not let it affect her. She swallowed all the misgivings she had and continued to work for the Kingdom.
Then the dragon scourge began.
Nathalia was of course enraged once she discovered the King had been duped. But what made her more angrier was the fact that the King continued to protect the Queen. But, she still endured her pain and continued on supporting the King.
Then one day, some of the dragonspawn managed to kill Nathalia’s family.
This brought Nathalia past her breaking point. It was then that she gathered those who had been affected by the dragon scourge. All their hatred for the negligence of the Kingdom and their foolish King led to the rise of the Raiders of the Night.
They only have one goal actually. That is to kill the queen who plunged the Kingdom in despair.
“Wait, so Nathalia used her own sob story to gather sympathy? I’m surprised many joined her.”
Wang Hao nodded in agreement. “Actually, Nathalia was good at it. She managed to twist the story in her favor that led to more supporters. She also managed to hide the real power of the Raiders. The Kingdom just discovered their real strength with that attack earlier.”
“As for the Generals?”
“As for the generals, they were practitioners around the Immortal Continent that Nathalia had recruited. I do not know how she had done it, but they seem to be all loyal to her.”
Upon hearing this Ling Tian and Fang Yu thought to themselves that this Nathalia was another tricky one.
They started to regret coming here. They also started hating Wang Hao more.
………
The majority of the Raiders set camp in the slums. The smell of cooking food and the sound of weapons filled the air. The smell of medicinal concoction along with cries of pain were also present as the wounded and injured were being treated.
Wang Hao made sure to look grim as he passed by the injured. He was now their temporary leader, so he had to look cool.
Wang Hao then looked fearfully towards the place where Nathalia was having her breakthrough.
“She won’t get angry once she discovers what I did right?” Wang Hao made sure that once Nathalia gets out of her secluded cultivation, he had already gained control of the Kingdom.
As for killing the dragon, Wang Hao had no plans on doing that.
He knew the true nature of the dragon scourge. He knew that killing the dragon was not enough. He knew the right way to solve the situation.
But as of now, he cannot tell anyone else about his plan. Not with the detail the golden bull left him.
The truth is, Wang Hao retrieved back the memory that he and Eleanor sealed. He just did that memory sealing ploy to make Eleanor forget about what the Golden Bull said.
Wang Hao will not put himself in the dark with such info floating by.
Wang Hao then looked at the black-haired assassin who just walked behind him. Her silent demeanor and her graceful movements had Wang Hao tranced,
This woman was really a quality assassin! The only assassin capable of surpassing her in terms of beauty was Yao’er in her adult form.
Wang Hao shook his unnecessary thoughts from his head as he talked to the assassin.
“Out of all the generals here, your name is the only one I do not know. Care to tell me what it is?”
“No.” The assassin just gave this curt answer.
“Eh…” Wang Hao sighed as he realized that his charm has not yet dazzled this assassin enough.
He then turned to the other generals as he said,
“Let’s have a meeting along with the Immortal God Sect Disciples. We have to talk about our next steps. With the Skydome Family and the Solstice Kingdom cooperating together, the difficulty of our goal had risen yet.”
The Generals and the Immortal God Sect Disciples then left for the meeting room. The only one who remained outside the camp was Wang Hao, Elanor, Tang Ya and Fang Yu.
Once she was sure that nobody was near, Fang Yu hissed at Wang Hao.
“What the hell is going on? What actually happened that brought us in this situation?”
Wang Hao then narrated to Fang Yu and Tang Ya everything that transpired on his trip at the Tian Ji Empire. He of course omitted important details that they cannot hear as of now.
Fang Yu and Tang Ya stayed quiet once they heard his story. Moments passed, and Fang Yu whispered to Wang Hao quietly,
“I have been wondering Master, all you have taught me was just some martial arts. I thought I am your disciple! Where are the other thing you could have taught me?”
“Ah, weren’t those things you have right now enough for you? I will help you once you step in the Second Stage.”
“But Master! You could have just given me something to help me breakthrough! Like a mana catalyst or something….”
It was Wang Hao’s turn to get exasperated.
“Yes, I could have done that, but you must realize that the reason I do this was because Xiao Ya told me so.”
“Master Xiao Ya? When did she do that? ”
“Before I went to get the sect mission, she sent me a divine sense message. It said that if I want to fully assist you and Fang Lin, I must only do that after you step on the Second Stage.”
“Why?”
“Xiao Ya said that the Second Stage is the start of you realizing your path in the practitioner world. As much as possible, you must not get free resources from me. You must earn those resources by your own.”
“But Master, you were too willing to give me help when we first met!”
Wang Hao sheepishly scratched his head as he said, “Well, you know that I cannot cultivate. I had no knowledge on the ins and outs of the Practitioner world. Xiao Ya made me realize that such attitude was wrong.”
He then patted Fang Yu’s shoulders as he said,
“Well then, do your best to reach the Second Stage.”
Wang Hao then whistled as he walked towards the meeting room.
He seemed to be intent on avoiding that topic. Fang Yu could only grit her teeth as she followed him.
“Drats!”
