The reason Ren Xiaosu’s group chose this mountain path was because it had been gradually forgotten after the smugglers were rounded up.
However, this matter should be considered the other way around. You might want to take the most secretive path on the battlefield, but the enemy’s infiltrating troops would also have the same thoughts.
Under normal circumstances, if an experienced military commander was present, they would tell Ren Xiaosu, “Don’t be arrogant and try to take any secret paths.”
That was because military troops would definitely be more precise than smugglers when it came to mapping out an area. If it were a path that was even known to smugglers, the enemy’s troops would definitely know it as well.
No matter how decadent an army or dynasty was, one should not automatically assume them to be fools.
Of course, if P5092 were here, he would give Ren Xiaosu a completely different answer. “Just take whatever path you want. No one can stop you anyway, so you can do as you like. Who knows, you might even find an unexpected gain….”
This was probably the difference between understanding and not understanding Ren Xiaosu.
Qian Weining looked at Ren Xiaosu. “Sir, do you think the enemy will approach via the mountain path as well?”
“I think so.” Ren Xiaosu nodded. “Otherwise, the falcon wouldn’t have flown over here. Before The Cataclysm, some hunters trained their falcons and sent them out to scout the way ahead before a hunt, in case they encountered ferocious beasts like brown bears. I think the Tudor family’s falcon should also have been used as such.”
“If they’re the advance guard of the House of Tudor, there should be at least 600 knights coming this time. At least half of them should be light cavalry armed with crossbows as their main weapons. The rest are lancers who are used for charging into enemy lines.” Qian Weining forced himself to calm down and said, “More importantly, such infiltrating troops will be paired with five sorcerers.”
He was a knight of the Berkeley family, and the Berkeley family had been the imaginary foes of the Houses of Tudor and Norman for 60 years. Therefore, as a qualified knight of the House of Berkeley, he would have to know how his enemies operated in war.
But now, there were only 191 knights led by Qian Weining. Including himself, the total strength was just 192.
And they may have been armed, but they did not have any armor.
If they encountered the enemy under such circumstances, Qian Weining felt that their group would stand no chance.
Therefore, Qian Weining was actually still feeling a little flustered on the inside. He looked at Ren Xiaosu, hoping to get some direction from the new master he had pledged his loyalty to.
Ren Xiaosu glanced at Qian Weining. “Continue with your study session. Stay focused.”
Qian Weining replied, “Huh?”
“Don’t worry, they won’t be able to get here.” Ren Xiaosu said with a smile, “Y’all might have some idea about my strength now, but I still have to leave a deeper impression on y’all. This is the foundation of our trust.”
Qian Weining and his men looked at each other. Considering that the enemy’s cavalry was about to arrive, Ren Xiaosu actually told them to focus on studying instead.
Qian Weining felt really weird, like he had suddenly become detached from the real world.
At this moment, it was Melgor who sighed and said, “Come on, everyone, continue learning the language of the Magi from me. I was just as terrified as you guys initially. But look, I’m used to it now.”
Ren Xiaosu cast Mel a lauding look. Meanwhile, Li Chengguo and Liu Ting lowered their heads and looked like they had accepted their fate.
“Sir, are you going to deal with that cavalry now?” Qian Weining asked curiously.
“Me?” Ren Xiaosu shook his head. “There’s no need for me to do anything.”
All of a sudden, Ren Xiaosu became even more mysterious in everyone’s eyes. Everyone suddenly remembered the rumors in Winston City that there were a total of three people who attacked the Winston Manor. One of them wore a white mask and was not afraid of sorcery.
But up til now, White Mask never once appeared before them.
When it was time for Qian Weining and his men to begin their lesson, Ren Xiaosu went off to the side to roast some mutton and ate it leisurely as though nothing were happening.
Suddenly, Ren Xiaosu sat up straight. This action startled Qian Weining and his men who were already worried about the situation. “Sir, what’s the matter?”
“Oh, it’s nothing.” Ren Xiaosu dismissed Qian Weining’s concerns. Then he looked at Li Chengguo and Liu Ting and probed, “Did you two see the number ‘178’ on that sheep’s butt? From what I know, all the sheep that belong to Fortress 178 are branded on their rumps with this symbol. It’s so they can be differentiated from other herdsmen’s livestock. In the early years, there were always cases of shepherds stealing sheep.”
Li Chengguo and Liu Ting’s expressions changed greatly, but neither said anything.
Ren Xiaosu held back his laughter and asked, “Do you two… know about this?”
“No!” Li Chengguo stood up in panic. “How could we possibly know that?!”
Nearby, Liu Ting nearly cried tears of humiliation.
Qian Weining, Chen Jingshu, and the others were a little confused. However, Melgor immediately understood what Ren Xiaosu was suggesting. He hesitated for a long while before saying to Li Chengguo and Liu Ting, “I’m sorry, I didn’t know about this before. It’s been hard on you two….”
Qian Weining and his men were dumbfounded. Why were they suddenly talking about something like that instead of discussing how to deal with the enemy cavalry?
They were completely unaware that Li Chengguo and Liu Ting had spent some time being sheep, and that they had been part of the flock owned by Fortress 178.
…
On the northern mountain path, an 800-strong advance guard was quickly infiltrating their way over to Ren Xiaosu’s camp.
Dull clops came from the horses traveling on the mountain path. Their hooves were all covered with a thick layer of cowhide, and each horse had a wooden stick placed in its mouth to prevent them from suddenly neighing as they advanced.
This cataphract unit was the elite of the House of Tudor. Even though they were marching at night, their formation remained very orderly throughout.
Every once in a while, the soldiers riding at the front would slow down a little and have their other comrades take their place to lead the slipstreaming efforts.
The idea of slipstreaming was to reduce the wind resistance for the warhorses at the back of the group. By taking turns, the leading horses would not end up dying of exhaustion.
As the crossbowmen rode on, they kept their right hands on the handles of their crossbows at their waists in case anyone suddenly ambushed them.
Among them, six sorcerers were being protected by the knights. Meanwhile, there was also a group of sorcerers riding dozens of kilometers behind them who were sent by the main camp to provide support.
With such combat strength, there was no need to take Qian Weining’s group of 200 or so people seriously. Even with a sorcerer like Melgor in the group, it would still not be enough.
During the march, over a dozen soldiers in the cavalry formation kept short copper whistles in their mouths. When the whistles went off, it sounded like larks were chirping in the group. Only the members of the Knights of Tudor could understand the meanings of the signals.
The whistling was so sharp it could not be concealed by other sounds even in battle, so the Knights of Tudor used this method to relay their orders.
Especially in a chaotic, large battle, the whistles the officers used to relay their orders to each other would no longer sound like the gentle chirps of a lark but the shrill calls of a falcon.
A bird cry suddenly sounded from a copper whistle at the front of the quiet advance guard. As the whistles were relayed towards the back, the entire advance guard on horseback came to a stop in their tracks.
Everyone looked quietly and solemnly at the road in front of them. The several hundred of them went from extreme motion to extreme silence, making it an incredibly spectacular sight to behold.
Everyone looked ahead and saw a figure wearing a white mask standing in their path and slowly drawing a black saber out of thin air.
The commander of the Knights of Tudor blew the copper whistle in his mouth. They did not directly charge at Old Xu but gradually closed in instead.
The cavalry resembled a long dragon during their quick advance earlier. With fewer people traveling side by side, they were able to pass through the mountain paths faster.
Now, they had compacted their formation for a better defense.
There was only one enemy, but the St. Tudor Knight in the advance guard felt the other party wouldn’t have blocked their path by himself if he wasn’t confident.
The other party clearly knew how many people they had and their combat strength, yet he still stopped them here.
There was a sense of danger. The St. Tudor Knight could feel a strong sense of danger.
At this moment, the stars were shining brightly above their heads as the crescent moon hung in the sky like a silvery saber.
As they changed their formation, the St. Tudor Knight hurriedly blew his copper whistle. In an instant, a group of crossbowmen who were retreating pulled their triggers while on horseback and fired forearm-length bolts at Old Xu.
But for some reason, everyone’s vision blurred. By the time they could react again, they had lost sight of Old Xu!
The St. Tudor Knight was shocked. That was too fast!
A second later, a black saber seemingly burst out of the darkness and slashed diagonally upwards across the St. Tudor Knight’s warhorse and his body.
The warhorse was beheaded, while the knight was cut in half at his waist. Blood splattered out into the night sky, but no one could tell if it was horse or human blood.
…
Qian Weining and the others recited after Mel, “A, B, C, D, E, F, G…”
But before they could finish reciting the alphabet in the language of the Magi, they suddenly saw the sky in the distance get illuminated.
“Was that sorcery?” Qian Weining jumped up in shock.
Following, it continued flaring over there like someone had set off fireworks in the sky.
However, Qian Weining and his men’s line of sight was blocked by the hills, so they could not see what was going on at all.
“Those spells should be cast quite far away from us, so we can’t hear any shouting,” Qian Weining judged based on his experience. He raised his index finger and narrowed his eyes, matching the ratio of the mountain’s height to his index finger. He continued, “I can confirm they should be about three kilometers away from us.”
After that, Qian Weining looked to Ren Xiaosu. He wanted to ask him what they should do.
However, he saw Ren Xiaosu with his eyes closed like he was already asleep.
“Should we wake him up?” Qian Weining asked Melgor.
Before Melgor could answer, Ren Xiaosu said, “Carry on studying. Y’all can take a break in another half an hour. We’ll continue on our way tomorrow morning.”
After that, Ren Xiaosu ignored the group.
Qian Weining sighed in his head. Perhaps, this was what a real big shot was like. He could remain this calm even in the face of any danger.
However, he was also sure of one thing. Their group was indeed being secretly guarded by someone, but he could not be sure how many people it was.
On that very night, not a single knight came charging into their camp. The hill two kilometers away acted like a barrier that shielded the massacre going on behind it.
Qian Weining did not sleep well the entire night. The first battle last night had ended very quickly, but a second battle broke out not long after.
Honestly, no normal person could sleep well in such an environment. Ren Xiaosu could only fall asleep because he was abnormal!
In the morning, Qian Weining, Melgor, and the others walked out of their tents with dark circles under their eyes. They rolled up the tents made from waterproof canvas and bundled them on the backs of their horses.
Ren Xiaosu greeted them in high spirits, “Morning! Why do all y’all look so listless?”
Qian Weining hesitated for a long time before suddenly asking, “Sir, what happened last night? Are we safe?”
“Yes, of course we’re safe.” Ren Xiaosu said with a smile, “As for what happened, y’all can see for yourselves later.”
Mel, Little Qian, Jingshu, An’an, and Chen Cheng became curious.
What happened last night had left everyone speculating. If they did not find out the truth, they would probably die of suspense.
After a quick breakfast in the morning, everyone set off immediately. After they navigated through a winding mountain path, the scent of the blood-filled ground in front of them stunned everyone.
Even the warhorses were unwilling to proceed any further.
Broken crossbows were scattered all over the ground, and blood was splattered across the mountain rocks like someone had drawn a grand landscape painting on them.
Qian Weining was very experienced in combat, so he only had a brief look at the battlefield and concluded, “There’s at least 800 dead here!”
Upon closer look, he also saw more than a dozen bodies dressed in sorcerer’s robes. The sleeves of the black sorcerer robes were even embroidered with the logo of a falcon.
The only difference was that the originally clean falcon was stained dark red with blood.
Overnight, the advance guard the House of Tudor had sent south were all dead, as were the two groups of sorcerers.
Even as experienced soldiers of the Knights of the Inferno, they still felt a little uneasy when they saw this scene. More importantly, they did not even know who did it.
“Sir.” Qian Weining’s trusted aide, Yao Bo, went up to him and whispered, “I’ve had a look. Other than the hoofprints and the Knights of Tudor’s footprints, I only found one other person’s footprints….”
Yao Bo was well-known in the team for his investigative and ambush skills. He was very observant and good at analysis.
The Knights of Tudor were all wearing standard-issue boots that were very easy to identify. So it was not difficult to distinguish the shoeprints on the battlefield.
“You mean to say that the deaths of these 800-odd people were all caused by one person?” Qian Weining asked.
“That’s right.” Yao Bo said in a low voice, “Moreover, I went around to check out the surroundings just now. After the Knights of Tudor were defeated, there should have been several dozen people who tried to escape. But after they split up and fled for a few hundred meters, they were caught and killed one by one from behind.”
If dozens of people who had escaped separately could get caught and killed one by one, how fast would the pursuer have to be?
There was no way of dissecting this detail any further!
Moreover, what was most unbelievable to Qian Weining was that at the moment of the massacre, he was still learning the language of the Magi a few kilometers away. He even had his lesson notes checked by Li Chengguo, the class representative.
A scene of violence and a scene of peacefulness were only separated by a hill. It was as though they had taken place in two different worlds.
As for Ren Xiaosu, when Qian Weining looked to his new master for instructions last night, his master simply said it was fine, and it really did turn out fine. He had wiped out the Knights of Tudor’s infiltrating troops in the blink of an eye.
For a moment, Qian Weining felt both respectful and afraid of Ren Xiaosu.
Ren Xiaosu urged his horse forward. “Come on, Little Qian, lead the way.”
Qian Weining went up to Ren Xiaosu and asked in a low voice, “Master, should we completely avoid the House of Tudor?”
Qian Weining had been addressing him as “sir.” But he suddenly changed the way he addressed him. As a matter of fact, this massacre had left an extremely deep impression on him.
“There’s no need to completely avoid them.” Ren Xiaosu said, “It’s best if we can get the Tudor family to send some people after us. That way, we’ll be able to collect more Eyes of True Sight for y’all.”
Qian Weining sighed. This was a truly ruthless person.
Mel walked his horse alongside Ren Xiaosu. “Why are you in such a hurry to get to Ghent City? And why did those bounty hunters suddenly listen to your orders? You’re from the Central Plains, so you shouldn’t have known each other before this.”
“It’s probably because I have some ties with the organization that the bounty hunters belong to,” Ren Xiaosu simply explained. “And the reason why I want to go to Ghent City is to find out the truth of my origins.”
In addition, he wanted to see what the reward for this mission was.
He had already found three out of four clues required for the quest, so he was looking forward to the day it would be completed.
“Origins?” Melgor asked curiously, “Don’t you know where you came from?”
“I don’t.” Ren Xiaosu smiled. “I woke up from a dark dream and forgot all about my past. Alright, there’s no point in talking about this now. What I’m curious about is what your childhood sweetheart looks like.”
Melgor thought for a moment and answered, “She’s… very dazzling.”
“You’ve told me before that the Tudor family thinks that she’s a rare genius in sorcery, so they arranged for her to get married to one of their family members.” Ren Xiaosu said, “Just how talented is she?”
“When she went to buy an Eye of True Sight with her money at 17, she got an Eye of True Sight in the first stone she opened. Speaking of luck, she’s truly someone blessed by the gods.” Mel sighed and said, “When she tried learning sorcery, the person responsible for teaching her realized she could already cast spells in the real world after only practicing it a 100 times in her inner world of meditation.”
Ren Xiaosu was stunned. “Is that what they call ‘gifted’?”
“Yes.” Mel nodded. “Moreover, this talent is reflected in various aspects. For example, her inner world of meditation is extremely large. Apparently, there’s a sword in the shape of a cross as majestic as a mountain in it. This means she has stronger willpower. If others can practice their spells five or six times a day, she can practice 30 times. If it takes others 10 to 20 years to become an archmage, she might be able to cross that threshold within three to four years.”
Ren Xiaosu was amused. “Then she’s much stronger than you.”
Mel rolled his eyes at him. “Can’t you encourage me a little?”
“Don’t feel bad. I’m not saying you’re worse than her,” Ren Xiaosu said with a smile.
“Oh?” Mel’s interest was piqued. “I’m not worse than her?”
“Of course. You have me to help you.” Ren Xiaosu comforted him, “This is more effective than her working hard her entire life!”
Mel snickered.
“By the way, how did she get engaged to a member of the Tudor family?” Ren Xiaosu asked.
“Originally, she was supposed to be posted to the border as a junior sorcerer like me. But when the Tudor family discovered her talent, they immediately approached her family to propose a union.” Melgor said, “At that time, my family was already in decline, and her family was afraid to provoke the Tudor family, so they accepted the proposal.”
“No wonder the Tudor family wants to kill you. So it’s not a matter of jealousy, but rather, they want this genius sorcerer to become a true Tu family member,” Ren Xiaosu said with a nod.
From the look of things, Melgor was even more like a protagonist now. The person he liked was noticed by other clans due to her talent, so Melgor, together with his biggest benefactor, went back to kill them all.
Next to him, Melgor ridiculed, “They’re called Tudor, not Tu.”
“That’s not important.”
…
In Winston City, the Berkeley family’s patriarch was standing quietly on the red carpet in the cathedral. He was adorned in his shiny silver armor.
Someone brought a brazier before him. The flames in the brazier were extremely enchanting, like it was performing a crazy dance.
The House of Tudor was well-known for their Ice Rend spell, while the Berkeley family was known for their Song of Flames spell. It was as though these two clans were naturally incompatible and had never stopped waging smaller conflicts against each other over the years.
The House of Berkeley even supported the House of Winston so that they could deal with the House of Voss, which was backed by the House of Tudor.
Both clans had mastered mystic techniques related to ice and fire and continued researching them separately on their own paths.
The Berkeley family’s patriarch was holding his gold Eye of True Sight in his hand. The flame in the brazier in front of him gradually turned into a humanoid. The tips of the flame were the other party’s hair, which continued swaying uneasily, making it look strange and mysterious.
The person in the brazier opened his mouth and said, “The advance guard of the Knights of Tudor have been killed. The enemy is continuing northwards and moving into the Knights of Tudor’s area of activity.”
“What were the losses of the House of Tudor?” the Berkeley family’s patriarch asked.
“They lost 12 sorcerers, and one of them was even a rookie archmage who had just been promoted. Even their 12 Eyes of True Sight are gone,” the person in the flames answered.
This brazier-and-flame method was how the House of Berkeley transmitted their messages.
This method of transmission was relatively convenient. As long as a fire could be started, they could communicate with each other. Moreover, compared to the House of Tudor’s method, the greatest benefit was that this could be done at no cost of their sons.
The Berkeley family’s patriarch was in an extremely good mood.
His friend from the distant Wang Consortium had not lied to him. As long as the House of Tudor provoked that young man, that young man would weaken the Tudor family’s strength for him.
Humans were just this strange. Although the Berkeley family’s patriarch had also suffered greatly at the hands of Ren Xiaosu, when he realized the House of Tudor was also beginning to get affected, he was able to move on from his anger. He even hoped that his enemy, Ren Xiaosu, would live longer and not bump into the Tudor family’s patriarch so early on.
In this way, Ren Xiaosu could continue hurting the House of Tudor.
In the eyes of the Berkeley family’s patriarch, even though Ren Xiaosu was powerful, he would not be a match for the Tudor family’s patriarch if he were prepared.
He said to the person in the flames, “Be careful to hide your whereabouts. Let me know as soon as you have any news. Additionally, if there’s a chance for you to influence the House of Tudor to see this group of people as foes, I’ll place you into the family tree. After your death, your soul can return to the Heavenly Kingdom.”
The man in the flames became excited. “That would be an honor for me.”
The Berkeley family’s patriarch decided to end this talk. “Flame be with you.”
“Flame be with you.”
After that, sparks burst out of the brazier, and the figure inside disappeared.
The flames returned to their previous agitated state as though nothing had happened.
