The Trial Game of Life – Chapter 52

Table of Contents | Character Guide

Chapter 52: Song of The Wind (11) 

On the ground, a battle was about to begin.

Ten minutes ago, Jin Cheng said that he would act along with Tang Cuo’s plan, so he asked Celtic to find red paint, which was the same type that was used in Lisa’s room, inferior in quality and pungent in smell.

The pain wasn’t used for any other purposes. With it, Celtic’s men painted a huge magic circle on the outer wall of the church, a painting so big that it almost covered the entire wall.

This magic circle was no different from those found by the Greenvines Alliance. Jin Cheng specially asked people who couldn’t use magic to paint it to ensure that the painting would carry no effect, and some details might even be wrong. But this red painting was so eye-catching that the moment the first stroke was laid, it effectively attracted everyone’s attention.

The commotion was breeding in every hidden corner. Countless pairs of eyes were staring at the church and this almost blasphemous behaviour from the Greenvines Alliance, each loaded with their own intention.

Celtic was sweating profusely. Although he had some authority in the Greenvines Alliance, he wouldn’t be able to shoulder whatever might be the outcome of Jin Cheng’s reckless doing. Luckily, the Greenvines Alliance was a bounty hunter organisation, not a religious cult.

But even so, Celtic’s head was getting a bit dizzy, and he couldn’t even remember how he was bewitched by Jin Cheng to agree to this unearthly plan.

“Lancelot, I’ll be penalised by the headquarters.” He couldn’t help but spit out his bitterness at Jin Cheng.

“Celtic, in order to eliminate evil, are you not willing to make a small sacrifice?” After the magic circle was drawn, Jin Cheng picked up the left-over paint bucket and leisurely trotted to the church’s attic.

“They might think that we are both evil.”

“Wow, isn’t that very interesting?”

Jin Cheng kept walking as he talked. After a few steps, he looked back at Celtic, leaned on the stairs railing and said with a smile: “Don’t worry, Celtic, I will compose a song to praise you. All the bards on this continent will sing poems about you.”

Celtic: “…Thank you.”

After a while, Jin Cheng stood in front of the attic window and opened it to look at the masterpiece on the wall. From this angle, the whole wall was spectacularly red.

But Jin Cheng still felt that it wasn’t red enough.

So he picked up the bucket and, with a “splash”, poured the remaining paint down the wall.

“What are you doing?!” Celtic was shocked to the core and hurriedly rushed to the window to look down, only to see the red paint flowing through the magic circle like a waterfall, looking like sinful blood that would send chills down anyone’s spine.

The people who were watching from downstairs were all stunned and stopped dead in their tracks. The commotion hidden in the dark suddenly exploded, turning into sparks of fire that started chaining together.

Don’t be so surprised.

Thinking of this, Jin Cheng tapped his head with his fingers, and the system shot warnings at him again. It seemed that a kind bard shouldn’t be carrying out this sort of daredevil thing that only radicals would, so Jin Cheng decided to get back to his character’s personality.

For example, after splashing the red paint on the Rose Sect, he should give them a warm and fuzzy song.

Correct — Jin Cheng was splashing red paint on the Rose Sect. He couldn’t find the door that led to the Rose Set, so he could only draw a magic circle and pour a full bucket of paint on them.

For a sect with such fanatical beliefs, this behaviour would probably be more provoking than killing them.

“In this way, your headquarters won’t think that you are evil. Those who oppose evil are on the side of light.” Jin Cheng confidently explained to Celtic.

“I feel that something is wrong.” Celtic swallowed hard.

“Don’t worry, Celtic.” Jin Cheng patted Celtic on the shoulder and said earnestly: “This church is Priest Peter’s church. Peter has sided with evil and the church must have been contaminated with it. We did this to catch them faster and prevent more people from being harmed by them.” 

They had progressed until this point, so Celtic had no choice but to believe his words.

The next second, Jin Cheng took out his harp, leaned on the window sill with one arm and hugged the instrument. He thought for a moment and eventually decided to play ‘Requiem’.

There was no need to use any sound wave attack. Let the purest requiem save the souls of those who had died.

The sound of ‘Requiem’ quickly spread out from the attic of the church. Whether it was ordinary people in the White Leaf District or members of the Rose Sect hiding in the dark, they couldn’t help but look in the direction of the sound.

They were confused, they were scared, and they were angry.

While some of them were forced to lower their heads and some of them gripped the hilt of their swords tightly, a man turned up at the attic. With fluffy red hair, he looked like Bazz from a distance.

Celtic glanced up and down at the man before asking Jin Cheng: “Are you sure this will work?”

Jin Cheng said, “He doesn’t look extremely similar, but he only needs to act a bit at this window. Once the seed of doubt is planted, it will quickly take root. The only thing to worry about is ― if the enemy that comes later is too strong, how do we get out of this alive?”

That aspect was exactly Celtic’s strength. He thumped his chest and said: “Don’t worry, I’ve arranged magic circles and traps everywhere. Unless someone the level of Aesop The Rebel or The Red Priest comes, they will definitely not escape our hands.”

Hearing so, Jin Cheng suddenly remembered something: “You said His Excellency Roger Reeds is tracking down Aesop?”

“Yes, Aesop is probably more dangerous than two Red Priests combined, but he can’t be detected easily. His Excellency Roger Reeds finally catches his tail this time, so of course he won’t give up.”

Because Jin Cheng had come into direct contact with Aesop before, Celtic didn’t feel the need to hide such information. He also carefully observed Jin Cheng’s reaction when Aesop’s name was mentioned in order to ascertain which side Jin Cheng was on.

Jin Cheng felt relieved when he heard this. If Aesop was stopped by Roger Reeds, at least he wouldn’t jump out suddenly, but what about The Red Priest?

Jin Cheng hoped he wouldn’t appear at the tunnel.

Just when these thoughts surfaced in Jin Cheng’s mind, The Red Priest was thinking of him in a wine vineyard outside the city. The top of his head was scorched by the sun, and he was curling up on the ground, coughing and covering his throat, his red robe covered in dirt and blood.

His face had long lost its original appearance, his cheeks swollen and his mouth missing a few teeth.

“Hahaha!” The ugly and funny-looking magic puppet was laughing, jumping vigorously on his suffering body and constantly poking him with the black umbrella in its hand.

The owner of the magic puppet was sitting under the pavilion in the yard, with his chin in one hand and a wine glass in the other. His tassel earring swayed with the wind, exuding a golden luster under the sun.

After a while, The Red Priest took in fewer and fewer breaths, so the puppet owner put down the wine glass and slowly stood up, walking to the priest with the umbrella pointed on the ground. He bent down to look at the priest and said with a smile: “Do you now know what will happen if you offend me?”

“You, Aesop… Don’t be so full of yourself… Master Bishop won’t let you go, cough, cough…” The Red Priest opened his eyes with much difficulty and said, his words breaking: “If you do this, you’re clearly trying to rebel!”

Aesop smiled: “I’m Aesop The Rebel, am I not?”

“You, you’ll be punished…”

“So what? Have I warned you not to interfere with me? Because of you, all my plans have been disrupted. Assassinate the Grand Duke? Do you actually think that if you kill him and support that prince whose brain is only as big as a needle, you can control Flange in the palm of your hand? How foolish are you? You dare to make a move right under Roger Reeds’ nose, what a joke.”

The Red Priest continued to gasp for air, unable to speak.

Aesop continued: “I know what you’re planning. You know that my experiment has been successful, so you want to make the first move and snatch the credit to get your share of benefits, right? I know you people have always regarded me as a heresy and even wanted to get rid of me. Master Bishop told me long ago that I shouldn’t care about you all.”

“But why didn’t you listen?” Aesop feigned a puzzled look and his smile turned sinister. The tip of his umbrella was heavily pressed on The Red Priest’s heart, so he just needed to make a slight move to pierce through it.

Life and death could be determined with just one thought from him.

“If you kill, kill me… Master Bishop won’t let you go!” The Red Priest thought he would go crazy soon, his bloodshot eyes fixed on Aesop, himself engulfed in both hatred and fear: “Aesop, sooner or later, you’ll be nailed to the cross!”

“I hate it when people threaten me.” Aesop pushed the tip of the umbrella and The Red Priest screamed, his whole body shrinking in pain. But at this point, Aesop suddenly turned around.

“Roger Reeds.” He called out the name.

Annoying.

Really, he couldn’t get rid of this man.

At the same time, Tang Cuo led Bazz into the depths of the passage. They had made a few turns and were slowly walking deeper into it, straying further and further away from the main route. The temperature around them was slowly dropping.

But Tang Cuo nailed the path they had walked into his mind, automatically creating a mental map in his brain. If he was drawing the map correctly, they should still be wandering around the White Leaf District.

Ten minutes later, the four entered the vicinity of the church.

Tang Cuo calmly pretended that he didn’t know anything and frowned: “Where are you taking us?”

“You’ll know when you get there. Be patient, we have to walk for a bit more.” The wizard was walking in front of them. The further ahead he walked, the faster his steps were. Although this increase in speed wasn’t obvious at all, it couldn’t escape Tang Cuo’s eyes.

This was a dead end, where a solid wall stood ahead of them. When the wizard approached it, as expected, a passage popped up on the right wall.

Just like what happened previously, the passage always appeared suddenly like this. But their current position alarmed Tang Cuo, because it was almost directly under the church. Was it true that this spot was only some distance from their destination?

Was the front really their destination, or was the wizard lying to them?

Thinking of this, Tang Cuo quietly opened the Skills panel and took a look. He glanced at the [Nightingale] ring on his hand, a few thoughts flashing by his mind.

He stopped, turned to look at the swordsman following behind, and said coldly: “You walk ahead.” 

The swordsman frowned, “Don’t try any tricks. We’ve shown our sincerity by bringing you here. “

Tang Cuo ignored him completely and tightened the sword in his hand. Pain surged through Bazz and his face became even paler.

The swordsman turned blue with rage, but he still remembered the instructions given by the leaders and had to walk in front as Tang Cuo had told him to. The wizard exchanged a look with him, his eyes glared with gloomy darkness.

By this point, Bazz was almost numb from fear. He stared at everything in front of him, the wound on his neck was still bleeding, and pain was the only thing that kept him conscious.

Yes, he still believed in Theodore.

He told himself over and over again that Theodore wouldn’t harm him, so he stepped forward boldly.

At this moment, Tang Cuo’s deliberately lowered voice rang in his ears: “As soon as I let go, run to the back.”

Hearing this, Bazz wanted to answer, but Tang Cuo immediately gave a warning to stop him: “Don’t move, don’t say anything.”

Bazz closed his mouth and didn’t dare to move.

Tang Cuo looked at the front again, his eyes icy cold.

The wizard had already stepped into the passage and the swordsman was standing at its entrance. Tang Cuo couldn’t see what was inside the passage from his angle.

“What’s with you? Can we go faster?” The wizard reminded him.

“How would I know if there’s no ambush ahead?” Tang Cuo said.

“If we were to do it, we would’ve done it long ago, not to mention —” The wizard looked at Bazz: “He’s still in your hands, isn’t he? You’re really the most special knight I’ve ever seen, daring to use even your companion to threaten the enemy. Don’t worry, my companion will never be like you.”

Tang Cuo was silent for a moment before he and Bazz stepped forward.

Only when the wizard and swordsman saw Tang Cuo and Bazz finally moving that they started walking. Soon, Tang Cuo was at the entrance of the passage, and at this moment, he suddenly let go and pushed Bazz back.

Remembering Tang Cuo’s words, Bazz didn’t even dare to look ahead and just ran with all his might. But the moment he turned around, he caught a glimpse of densely packed figures in the passage and the dazzling light of magical circles stacked upon each other.

His heart thumped and he had to desperately press down his shock to make himself not look back at Tang Cuo.

Tang Cuo just raised his hand.

“Boom―” [Nightingale] shined brightly and a wave of magic rushed into the passage, sweeping away all the shadows that were stupefied by the sudden attack. In a blink, the brilliance of the moonlight overwhelmed the light of all the magic circles.

Whether the magic circles carried a crimson shade of fire or a sapphire shade of water, they all vanished under that graceful moonlight. The entire crowd of figures turned into dust even before they could let out their screams.

Moonlight Tide.

Tang Cuo had never intended to surrender and become an undercover agent working for the enemy. It was Jin Cheng who had the love for acting, not him. He had always been a warrior who preferred carrying swords and slashing people.

The cooling time of Moonlight Tide was 24 hours. 24 hours ago, Tang Cuo escorted the Grand Duke through the tunnel and used it for the first time. 24 hours later, the cooling time was over, and he happened to be in the tunnel again.

Perfect.

“Theodore?” Hearing that there was no movement from this side, Bazz cautiously called him from a distance away.

“Wait a moment first.” Tang Cuo wasn’t sure if there were still any enemies in the passage, so he raised his sword and examined the place. It seemed that all the enemies had come into this passage to wait for him, and he found no more of them after walking for a few minutes.

At the end of the passage was an open circular chamber. Paved with black cobblestones, the whole place was illuminated by a single magic lamp, its entire ground engraved with a giant magic circle.

A high platform stood in the center of the magic circle, where a person was lying quietly.

Tang Cuo came closer and looked at her. Based on her outfit and appearance, he had reasons to suspect that this was Lisa, whom Jin Cheng had encountered in the side mission. She left a letter to Priest Peter before she died.

As he glanced around, there were many iron cages stacked on the wall. There was a corpse in every iron cage, stiff and about to rot, but some of them seemed alive for some reason, with pale faces and a growling softly like zombies.

Was this what the wizard meant by “The Undead King will give them the blessing of eternal life”?

This Undead King, isn’t he a necromancer? Tang Cuo thought.