Table of Contents | Character Guide
Chapter 157: Sword of Judgment (4)
Earning 10,000 points for Power of Faith in seven days surely wasn’t a piece of cake. Jin Cheng glanced in Tang Cuo’s direction for one last time. No matter how much he wanted to admire his boyfriend’s heroic looks, he regretfully had to take his leave now.
With a wave of the cane, Roger Reeds sent him out of the secret realm and told him the address of the Greenvines Alliance’s office in the Kingdom of Hundred Flowers, so that he could go there to seek help if needed.
Tang Cuo didn’t notice Jin Cheng leaving. He had already reached the edge of the battlefield and was hiding behind a broken wall to observe the situation. At this point, his main mission had been updated to ‘Kill The Rose’, with a time limit of seven days.
If nothing unexpected happened, this dungeon’s primary task was basically to take down the game boss.
But the NPC didn’t explain the path of Louis XIV’s battle, nor did he say when Louis XIV would appear, as well as whether he was already here or would only appear in the second half.
Tang Cuo had to figure out everything by himself.
He didn’t hurriedly rush forward. Instead, he quietly observed the situation for about half an hour and made a preliminary plan, which he named — ‘sharpen the knife’.
In this dungeon, he wasn’t the commander-in-chief and hence didn’t have to be responsible for everyone. He could put aside the strategy for the time being. What he needed now was to firm himself up.
Since there were both warriors and wizards here, this place naturally became a training ground for Tang Cuo. And as Roger Reeds had said, combat was the best teacher, especially on the battlefield. The pressure caused by this specific circumstance would acutely stimulate his potential.
So in this case, Louis XIV and his soldiers were Tang Cuo’s ‘whetstone’.
Of course, he wasn’t dumb enough to believe Roger Reeds’ words that he would not die in this secret realm. Perhaps the setting of the story was like this, but this was a dungeon created by Yong Ye City, so how could a death-free buff pop up so easily? Not to mention, there existed Mr. Crow, who always loved to cheat.
The trial lasted for seven days, but the secret realm was only open at night. It might be that on the second day, everything would start all over again. So in the upcoming few days, Tang Cuo should adapt to the rhythm of the battle here, accumulate experience, find out the location of The Rose, and wait until the very end to give it a try.
With a plan in hand, Tang Cuo no longer hesitated. At this juncture, a group of soldiers happened to rush out from the corner in front. Tang Cuo’s eyes narrowed slightly and he quickly swept a glance over them.
They were two elite knights of the royal guard wearing dark gold armours, two axemen, and an archer. The heavy-armoured soldiers seemed to have stayed behind to guard the King’s tent.
There were many people on the other side. Tang Cuo’s eyes flashed sharply and he climbed over the broken wall, using the night and the wall to cover himself. While the center of the battlefield was boiling, it was so quiet over here that he could hear a pin drop. If he made any sound, things might take a deadly turn.
In the shadows, Tang Cuo held his breath and quietly approached them. When the two sides were about to pass each other, he immediately dashed out from the wall behind them —
Like a leopard hunting its prey.
As the night on Tang Cuo’s side kicked off, Jin Cheng was walking onto the street clutching his small harp.
Walling Street at night and during the day displayed two different styles. During the day, it was as beautiful as a fairy tale, while at night, it was as romantic as Shakespeare’s sonnets.
The Kingdom of Hundred Flowers was undoubtedly the center of the entire Sicilit continent. Whether he was at the Forest of The Elves that was so mysterious, the Pinwheel Harbour that was so rich in gold, or the Luo Island where so many powerful people gathered, the charm of this kingdom was consistently mentioned.
Back in those dungeons, Jin Cheng could always hear the yearning for the Kingdom of Hundred Flowers from the mouths of roadside vendors, from the poems that other bards wrote, and even from the sighs of adventurers.
This southern country, where the seasons seemed to always be spring, was a blessed place. No one knew that it was once an abandoned land nourished by pain, and the remains of countless soldiers were buried under this soil.
As Jin Cheng walked, he naturally made conversations with people.
There were also many bards and adventurers on the streets of the Kingdom of Hundred Flowers, and most of the bounty hunters wore the badges of the Greenvines Alliance. These outsiders walked freely on the streets surrounded by flowers, and occasionally, when an aristocrat’s carriage passed by, judging from the salutes they gave each other, it seemed that many of these outsiders were also from noble families.
Also, Theodore was the Duke’s younger brother. He was born an orthodox knight and travelled throughout the continent as a bounty hunter. This was a tolerant and open land. Even in the Kingdom Hidden In The Moonlight, which was trapped amidst the golden sand, everyone still worked hard for their life.
As he walked further, Jin Cheng reached the fountain square he passed by during the day. A young bard was playing the harp. Next to him, his female companion was chanting the story of a female knight along with the harp’s melody.
Standing in the crowd, Jin Cheng listened for a while and felt quite impressed. He found a place to sit on the ground under a deserted street lamp, took out a feather and a piece of parchment, lowered his head and scribbled something.
Not long after, the tip of his feather pen came to a stop.
Jin Cheng raised his eyebrows, with a hint of surprise in his eyes. He originally planned to take references from other songs. It was because time was limited and he himself wasn’t a professional, so he had to rely on world-famous musical pieces. But who would have thought that as he wrote, the melody automatically came to his mind. He was very sure that he had never heard this melody and that he didn’t come up with it by himself.
Then it could only belong to Lancelot.
Blinking a few times, Jin Cheng admitted that this dungeon was really special, for this specific setting was particularly rare. Lancelot was no more than an NPC, yet the system had created so many musical scores just for him.
Several music scores were found at Little Jack’s place in the Kingdom Hidden In The Moonlight, and he made another score for Bazz at the Principality of Flange in [Song of The Wind], and now there were even more. This character was so vivid and full of energy, as if he actually existed.
Shaking his head, Jin Cheng crossed out everything he had just written on the parchment. While humming a melody in his mind, he jotted it down in detail.
At the same time, in Yong Ye City.
Leng Miao had been in a cold war with Rong Yi for many days. Needless to say, this could almost be considered a single-sided war from Leng Miao. The specific exhibition of this war was that he refused to talk to Rong Yi. But Rong Yi remained the same as before, which only made Leng Miao feel like a bigger fool.
The same thing was happening today.
Leng Miao had a gut feeling that Rong Yi was hiding something from him, but he didn’t bother to ask, for he knew Rong Yi wouldn’t answer anyway. Because if he had answered the question, he wouldn’t have hidden anything. It was that simple.
Rong Yi seemed absent-minded from time to time. This behaviour probably started after meeting Lin Yandong. Now he even wanted to go to Zone G again and entrusted Leng Miao to find Zheng Yingying and watch her.
“Why?” Leng Miao finally opened his mouth and asked.
“I’m afraid that if Zheng Yingying keeps holding onto the [Nameless Dagger], something will happen sooner or later.” Rong Yi frowned slightly, his face suddenly filled with sadness: “Since I’ve sensed the danger, I have to stop it.”
“What is it that you really know?”
“A tragedy.”
Saying that, Rong Yi rubbed his eyebrows, smoothed out the wrinkles and patted Leng Miao on the shoulder with relief: “Don’t worry, I’m really just thinking about the team that tried to kill God. I’m afraid history will repeat itself. There are many things hidden in Yong Ye City. We can’t just see through the secrets one by one, and we simply can’t defeat them.”
Leng Miao: “What is this so-called secret?”
Rong Yi raised his head: “Let’s talk about the most obvious thing. Do you know where the end point of that magic train is?”
Now it became Leng Miao’s turn to be questioned. He followed Rong Yi’s gaze and looked up. In the distance, the magic train happened to fly across the sky. The clanking sound was hard to hear from far away, but the scene of it passing through the clouds was something that every player in Yong Ye City was familiar with.
Above the clouds, the end point of the magic train was the true core of Yong Ye City. This was a truth that all elite players had agreed on.
But had anyone really been there?
Perhaps not.
A long while later, Leng Miao came back from his thoughts and said: “You are too pessimistic.”
“Maybe.” Rong Yi smiled wryly, then said with a serious tone: “It’s not a bad thing to prepare for a rainy day.”
In the end, Leng Miao agreed to help Rong Yi to keep an eye on Zheng Yingying. Rong Yi asking for his favour was one thing, but Leng Miao himself was also a little interested in Zheng Yingying and the [Nameless Dagger]. Meanwhile, Rong Yi came to the gate of Zone G once again. He looked at the large iron gate of the prison, but still, he didn’t go in.
He was hesitant to. Clenching both hands into fists, he seemed a little nervous.
A long time later, he still failed to take that step. Instead, he turned around and returned to his residence. He drew the curtains, closed the door, took out a black card that looked like an invitation and knocked into the air a few times.
It was clear that he was knocking on an empty space, but a sound really reverberated: “Thud, thud.”
He waited for a moment, and a silverish-white door engraved with a complex pattern of a maze appeared in front of him. As he pushed the door open, inside was a circular space filled with bookshelves.
K, who was standing on a ladder to arrange the bookshelf, turned around and greeted him, as though he was very used to this. He caught a glimpse of Rong Yi’s solemn expression and asked: “What could make The marvellous Time Master show such an expression?”
Rong Yi didn’t answer. He walked directly to the huge chessboard in the center and looked down at the game of chess on it.
K slowly came down from the ladder, waved his hand to summon a pot of hot tea, poured a cup and sent it to Rong Yi through the air: “Sit down.”
As his words fell, a floor cushion appeared at Rong Yi’s feet.
Rong Yi took the tea and sat down on the cushion, and the two continued staring at each other across the huge chessboard. Rong Yi finally spoke: “I sense a familiar aura from Lin Yandong.”
K: “Huh?”
Rong Yi: “Are you certain that when you made the deal with Xiao Tong, you had hidden all the information that should be kept hidden?”
K chuckled: “Are you doubting me?”
Rong Yi’s eyebrows furrowed.
The changes in Lin Yandong happened after he entered Zone G, either because of Xiao Tong or because of the dungeon in Zone G. In any case, they must have something to do with Xiao Tong. Regardless of whether Lin Yandong was involved in the release of Scarlet, he was killed and sent back to Zone G. He must have intended for it to happen.
He deliberately went to Zone G, and after that, a noticeable change could be seen in him. It was obvious that he had a plan.
“Three or four years have passed since the transaction. Why are you trying to settle old debts now?” K gave Rong Yi tea, but he himself was drinking wine. It was so strong that he had to drink it in large gulps.
Raising one hand to wipe away the wine on his lips, he continued: “When I made the deal, I concealed your name and the matter of the team that killed God just as you had requested. The only thing Xiao Tong knew was that rule. Xiao Tong should believe it, that is why he has been looking for a successor for the past three years. At first, it was Jin Cheng, and now it’s Zheng Yingying. He seriously plans to leave Yong Ye City. Under such circumstances, do you think Lin Yandong and he are on the same side? Although the two of them had known each other for long, the conflict between them goes very deep. It’s an old grudge that can’t be cut off even in decades, otherwise, they wouldn’t have stopped seeing each other for ten years.”
Rong Yi: “Now they’ve met again.”
K shrugged and poured himself another glass of wine: “You said Lin Yandong has a familiar aura on his body. Who is it from the team that killed God?”
Rong Yi: “I’m not sure.”
K: “Would you like to make a bet?”
“This is not a joke.” Rong Yi immediately became serious.
“Tsk.” Not intrigued, K took another sip of wine. As he admired the smell of the wine, he shook the glass and narrowed his eyes, saying: “It’s really not nice that you put the blame on me whenever something happens. I’m merely an intel dealer. Lin Yandong is an old fox. If he wants to know about the team that killed God, he’ll naturally have his way, such as —”
“Such as?”
“Such as Yan Ye. She could divine that the 2nd Movement was with you, so how can she not be able to divine the matter of the team that killed God? A fortune teller can’t lie about the results of divination. No matter how much she hates Lin Yandong, she can only tell the truth.”
Translator and reviewer at Strictly Bromance blog. In essence, she lives to indulge in plot-driven stories sprinkled with camaraderie and slow-burn drama-free romance, especially more so if they belong to adventure, mystery or supernatural genre. A trope that she always thirsts after: “Comrades who go through life and death together”.
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Hm? Both Rong Yi and K describe the team as "the team who *killed* God", not "the team who almost killed God"?👀 Wonder if it's a clue or if I'm overthinking
Thanks so much for the stellar translations, Michelle! I really enjoy this story and it's wonderful to see it back again:)