Chapter 134: Conspiracy
Translator: Wuxia Dog Editor: Wuxia Dog
It might be that the knights were just generally jealous of the soldiers or that they just hated to see this. This was because both of them showed no mercy at all when they released the soldiers and the Sirens of Abyss. The sirens moaned with tender voices to seek sympathy from the knights, but who dared to have such selfish motives since Reg was also there? The louder the moans, the more violently they were punished. Some were punished to the extent that they were even lashed by whips. However, the sirens were not afraid of this at all. Instead, all of them felt rather excited. Due to the murderous expressions on the knights’ faces, the sirens finally became quiet and obediently sat together.
Guevara had also arrived at the scene, but he had just stood and watched since he didn’t know what had happened.
Han Jin walked toward a soldier who was kneeling, took out a paper parcel, and said in a low voice, “Take it.”
The soldier looked up to Han Jin, only to find a calm and expressionless face. He hesitated but still took the parcel and slowly opened it. Inside the parcel were powders about the size of a fingernail. He tentatively smelt it, but his head bounced back as if he had gotten an electric shock. “What’s… this?”
“Take it.” Han Jin didn’t reply to his question but repeated the same words.
The soldier turned his eyes to Reg but was startled by the homicidal eyes that were glaring at him. He trembled and suddenly closed his eyes, pouring the powder into his throat.
He had really tried his best to hold it in, but his stomach was out of his control. A moment later, things that were previously in his gut all flooded out, and even though his gastric acid was vomited out, he still kept retching.
“That’s not right.” Han Jin raised his head. “Come here, you guys. Hold him and feed him this.” This said, Han Jin took out another paper parcel and tore off the excess paper until it was as small as a pea.
Several knights rushed over, held on to the soldier, and nipped his nose. One of the knights stuffed the paper parcel into his mouth and then took out a leather bag, pouring water into his mouth.
After downing about half a bag of water, the soldier finally swallowed the paper parcel. He immediately collapsed and fell down onto the ground as soon as the knights loosened their hands. His chest was still heaving up and down, but he could not move his body any more.
As time went by, Han Jin and Reg patiently waited. The others didn’t know what they were doing, but none of them dared to ask anything. They just stood there, watching while waiting.
“It’s been long enough. Is it effective?” About half an hour later, Reg softly asked.
“Hold on for a few more minutes,” Han Jin replied.
A wisp of disappointment came across Guevara’s eyes. A person’s career depended on many factors, for example, patience, perception, willpower, luck, and so on. Reg’s patience was far less than enough!
Birds of a feather flock together. Those who share similar ideals and beliefs would truly value and appreciate each other. In terms of personality, Knight Conrad was absolutely one of his favorites. However, Guevara only appreciated Conrad’s knightley personality, not Conrad’s true personality. Otherwise, Guevara would not have left his only student to sneak into Black Raven City to assassinate Zaganide alone!
It would be much easier to kill Zaganide by launching a war against Black Raven City if Guevara and Conrad had cooperated with each other and won the supreme power of Beitman. However, Knight Conrad was not an ambitious schemer, and Guevara knew it. That was why he had chosen to leave quietly, as he was disappointed with his only student.
Guevara had already lived for over seventy years; half or more of which were spent on conquering and killing. More than half of the territory of Lord Kassa, his brother, was obtained by him. Twenty years ago, Guevara was the shiniest star on this continent. His ability was above anyone else. Even Zaganide tried to curry favor with him, and Dismark would flee and shiver in his own nest at the mere sight of him. Guevara had gone through everything, whether glory or failure, and even a crushing defeat. He had experienced everything, and had a much better understanding than anyone else as to what was essential to survive in this world!
People of different moral convictions would not be able to make plans together. Thus, Guevara had only asked Han Jin and Ronning out that day. He showed them his own view and opinion, and had even asked them to make the final decision. As for the others, Guevara knew that they would not have agreed with him. He was already in his seventies and only had a few years left to live. He had no time to persuade them one by one.
To be more precise, Guevara might have never even considered Conrad as his student and the heir of his hopes and dreams, but rather merely the inheritor of his fighting techniques as well as his military strategy and tactics!
Why would Guevara have spent dozens of his years on the battlefield? What had he fought for? The answer to this was never to slaughter, as all he wanted was to complete a common goal of his and his brother’s – to end the chaotic situation on the mainland and build a new empire that could control the entire continent! Thinking of this, Guevara had to admit that the ways that he had taken were too intense, and that he had been too eagerly seeking a united grand duchy.
Now, Reg, the son of his only student, had also disappointed him by acting indecisively when dealing with the Cavemen. Such decision-making abilities could make Reg a territory owner at best, but it would be far from the one that could make his dreams come true.
However, as Ronning knew the Cavemen’s characteristics and the ambitions of the race of the abyss, he had made the decision resolutely, and Han Jin had done the same. “Then kill them.” Guevara could still remember Han Jin’s expressionless face when replying. This was something that he truly appreciated and valued.
Of course, Guevara didn’t know that Han Jin had considered the Cavemen as some kind of low-status creatures. From the perspective of a cultivator, Han Jin didn’t mind killing all of them.
Guevara curiously fixed his eyes on Han Jin. What was this young man going to do?
Almost an hour had passed. Reg looked up at the night sky and again asked in a low voice, “It’s still not effective?”
“Look.” Han Jin showed a bitter smile and exclaimed. “How malicious the conspiracy is!”
Reg was puzzled. He approached the soldier after a quick movement, and under the light of torches, he could clearly see the black spots on the soldier’s face that were the size of a needle-tip. Guevara had also appeared beside the soldier with an even faster speed. “What’s this all about?”
“I was too careless.” Han Jin said while smiling bitterly. “You once told me that one hundred Abyssal Sirens had the ability of ten thousand soldiers. Although there weren’t many soldiers in Nuremberg, we still managed to capture over three hundred sirens, and they had not resisted at all. I felt that it was strange at that time, but… I didn’t think too much about it.”
“You mean… the sirens released the curse?” Guevara asked.
“Who else could it be? The Touch of Corrosion is really hard to prevent.” Han Jin swept at the soldiers. “And the curse would not show any effects until now, all thanks to the Titan of Amorphophallus! This plant allows the curse to come into effect in advance! Otherwise, almost all of our soldiers would have been cursed once we reached Black Raven City. How many of them would survive? Hundreds? Thousands?? Humph…”
“So the paper parcel had a piece of the Titan of Amorphophallus?”
“Yes.”
Guevara gasped. He had thought that Reg was randomly making a fuss just now. It was understandable for soldiers to seek fun, but he had never thought that there would be such a terrible conspiracy! If what Han Jin had said was true, there must be lots of Sirens of Abyss in the Rhine City which was right in front of them. Zaganide could collapse an entire army just with those sirens! And by that time, they would not have any power left to attack Black Raven City!
“Young Marshal, you mean… we are all cursed?” asked one of the soldiers with a shivering voice.
Reg glanced at him coldly but didn’t reply.
The soldier suddenly jumped up from the ground, rushed to the Abyssal Sirens, and started roaring. The other soldiers followed. Han Jin shot out a flame ball towards the back of the soldier. With a loud scream, the soldier turned into a huge ball of fire and rolled on the ground while struggling and screaming.
“All of you, sit down!” Han Jin roared.
The knights came to their senses and picked up their spears, coldly looking at the soldiers. They stood still for a moment and then flopped down, their faces all turning pale.
“Young Marshal, is this… true?” a knight suddenly asked with a trembling voice.
“Did you…?” Reg turned while glaring at the knight.
“Young Marshal!” The knight let out a cry and rolled down from his destrier, kneeling on the ground.
“How dare you…” Reg was trembling all over due to anger. He then suddenly pointed to the Abyssal Sirens. “Kill…”
But before he could finish his words, Han Jin pulled his arm and slightly shook his head at him. “What we should do is to find a way to break the curse, instead of killing them to vent your anger.”
“Break the curse?” Reg was suddenly enlightened and glanced around.
“I talked with General Paul several times before, and I know that he was a decent man. If even he could not control himself and got himself cursed, then what about the other generals? How many are you sure are not cursed? And the other squadron or platoon leaders?” Han Jin slowly said. “Now, we must strictly guard the prisoner camp and forbid anyone from leaving! If this news starts spreading, the whole army will be in major chaos.”
“As you say.” Reg nodded. “What should we do next?”
“Rest assured.” Han Jin showed a smile. “We should let those who have done it undo what they have done!” He strode over to the Abyssal Sirens, but his heart sank when he saw the nervous and blank expressions on their faces, as if they had totally no idea what had happened or what they were talking about. If only one siren were to act like this, she was probably acting, but it was weird that hundreds of sirens were showing the same expression. Did they really not know what they had done?