Chapter 34 – A Beast of Burden?

Book 10, Baruch – Chapter 34: A Beast of Burden? Under Linley’s gaze, the Four-Winged Fallen Angel only smiled. “Lord Linley is currently a ranking member of the most powerful experts in the entire Yulan continent. I think you most likely wouldn’t lower yourself to attack me.” The Four-Winged Fallen Angel was nothing more than a mid-stage Saint, after all. Even twelve years ago, Linley and Bebe could have effortlessly killed this Four-Winged Fallen Angel. “Help me send a message to O’Casey.” Linley glanced at the old man. “Lord Linley, please tell me what you need.” The old man said humbly. Linley said calmly, “He has chosen to join forces with the Radiant Church. This is an extremely foolish act. In the future, he will definitely regret it.” The old man nodded. “I will definitely convey your words to Lord O’Casey. However, I also want to tell you something, Lord Linley. In reality, in the Anarchic Lands, the threat you pose to us is even greater than the Radiant Church.” “Oh?” Linley laughed. He understood their meaning. Right now, the only people who posed a threat to him in the Yulan continent were the Five Prime Saints. Linley’s understanding of the Laws wasn’t a match for those Five Prime Saints. After all, whether it was the Profound Truths of the Earth or the Profound Truths of the Wind, he had only reached the level of Higginson and Hayward. However, the natural abilities of the Dragonblood Warriors were simply too great. Dragonblood Warriors were ten times stronger than ordinary people to begin with. Thus, even though the Five Prime Saints had a much greater understanding of the Laws…if they were to truly fight against each other, it would be hard to say who was stronger and who was weaker. Neither the Cult of Shadows nor the Radiant Church had an expert capable of fighting Linley one on one. Linley being in such a strong position naturally filled the Radiant Church and the Cult of Shadows with fear. Naturally, these two organizations would secretly have the desire to work together. After all, no matter how much territory they held…it was the experts of the organizations that determined their fate. “I understand what you mean.” Linley suddenly felt that the Four-Winged Fallen Angel was rather amusing. “However, I don’t have much interest in territory. Your Cult of Shadows doesn’t need to fear too much if you ally with the Baruch Kingdom.” The old man shook his head. “Lord Linley, an expert such as yourself isn’t interested in worldly power, but what about your little brother, King Wharton? Even if your little brother isn’t interested, what about the successors to the Baruch Kingdom? They will continuously expand their territory and have the desire to unify the entire Anarchic Lands.” Linley was briefly startled…and then he laughed. “You are an interesting fellow.” Linley chuckled as he glanced at the old man, then turned and disappeared from the room. After Linley left, the old man secretly let out a sigh of relief. Although from start to finish, Linley hadn’t acted against him at all, even just standing there, he had given the Fallen Angel a sense of dread…he understood that the difference in power between the two was simply too great. Within the prefectural city of Cod. Right now, a large number of civilians were being evacuated. The prestige of the royal clan of the Baruch Kingdom was very high. Once the order came down, given how imminently threatening the chance of war was, these civilians all obediently evacuated. Of course, their future homes would all be arranged for. What was previously a three-story hotel had become the military command center for the prefectural city of Cod. Watts was standing in front of the third floor window, staring down at the evacuation. In his heart, he secretly let out a sigh. He understood…that the homes of these civilians would definitely be destroyed. To make the prefectural city of Cod a military fort, many residential homes had to be destroyed, and tunnels and pits were dug everywhere. Although the King had spent an enormous amount of money for the sake of relocating these civilians, for them to give up the homes they had spent twelve years establishing still deeply hurt these civilians. “Under the unifying force of the kingdom, their lives are much better than twelve years ago.” Watts looked like he was a middle-aged man, but in reality he was in his nineties. He knew exactly how chaotic the Anarchic Lands had been in the past. The orphans alone were countless in number. From this, one could see how brutal the wars had been. Suddenly, the sound of knocking could be heard. “Enter.” Watts said calmly. “Milord, the Grand Marshal has come.” The soldier reported immediately upon entering. “His Lordship, the Grand Marshal?” Watts immediately said. “Then quick, bring me to him.” The citizens of the Baruch Kingdom all naturally worshipped those talented, powerful experts who supported the kingdom. The number one person was of course Linley. After him was his Majesty, King Wharton, and then…the leader of the five wargods, the Undying Warrior Saint, Barker. Within a courtyard behind the hotel. Barker was seated, enjoying some wine by himself, when Watts ran in and delivered a military salute. “Lord Grand Marshal!” Barker raised his head and glanced at him, then chuckled, “Oh, it is Watts. Come on over. Be at ease.” Over the past twelve years, the Kingdom had discovered many talented people. Barker and his brothers normally spent their time training. They rarely got involved in other matters. Watts, however, was a very promising prospect whom Barker had discovered. “Come, drink.” Barker poured Watts a cup of wine. Watts asked, “Lord Grand Marshal, the purpose of your journey this time is…?” Barker laughed. “Didn’t I tell you last time? I told you I’d bring you over thirty magicite cannons.” Watts’ eyes immediately lit up. Barker continued, “I brought a total of thirty-six. These thirty-six magicite cannons have already been prepared.” “Already prepared?” Watts was worried. “But how would you bring them over? Lord Grand Marshal, those magicite cannons must be in a distant location. Bringing them over will take a huge amount of time. Will we have enough time?” Barker shook his head and laughed. “For the sake of these magicite cannons, I spent all day travelling.” Watts was confused. What did the Grand Marshal mean? Barker waved his hand in the direction of some empty space in the courtyard. Instantly, one magicite cannon after another appeared out of thin air. They were divided into four rows, with nine magicite cannons in each row. Each of them were two or three meters long, and the width of the cannon mouths were roughly half a meter. The cannons were covered with complicated magical runes. Beneath the sunlight, the magicite cannons gleamed with a mesmerizing light. Thirty six magicite cannons. “This…this…” Watts was excited. “Watts, haven’t you heard of interspatial rings?” Barker snickered. “Fortunately, mine is pretty big. It was just able to squeeze these thirty-six magicite cannons. However, for the sake of these thirty-six magicite cannons, I ran around half the Yulan continent and flew for a whole day. Only then did I manage to collect them all and bring them here.” These thirty-six magicite cannons were all large-caliber cannons. The size of the cannon mouths and the complicated runes on them were proof of the level of these cannons. Cannons on this level generally couldn’t be bought from the various Empires, but through the connections of the Dawson Conglomerate, they were able to get quite a few. Through storing them in his interspatial ring, Barker was able to easily bring them all over. “These thirty-six magicite cannons are equivalent to thirty-six magi of the eighth rank, and they have virtually limitless mageforce.” Barker laughed. Most magi of the eighth rank could only use spells of the eighth rank three times before running out of mageforce. Even if they had powerful magistaffs, they would perhaps only be able to cast them four or five times. But these magicite cannons could continue to attack ceaselessly so long as they had magicite gems to fuel them. “Lord Grand Marshal, with these thirty-six magicite cannons, if we use them correctly, they would definitely be able to match the effect of hundreds of thousands of soldiers.” Watts’ face was filled with irrepressible excitement, and then he laughed. “But of course, I would need enough magicite gems.” Magicite cannons burned through money. With each blast, it was as though gold coins were being shot out of the cannon. Without enough wealth, who would be willing to use them? “Don’t worry. Soon, the magicite gems will be brought over as well.” Barker said with certainty. “Our enemies are over a million in number. When the battle starts, these thirty-six magicite cannons will definitely use up an astonishing amount of magicite gems.” Watts looked at Barker. “Lord Grand Marshal, to bring over such a high amount of magicite gems will most likely need many people.” Barker nodded. He could store the magicite cannons in his interspatial ring, but the size of the ring was limited. If he wanted to move a large amount of magicite gems, his interspatial ring would be too small. He’d have to make over ten trips. At the magicite mines, they no longer worked under any disguises or pretenses, since the Radiant Church and the Cult of Shadows had already mobilized their armies. They were excavating at full-speed. These magicite mines weren’t like copper or iron mines. Those materials needed to be smelted. It was a great deal of work. But magicite gems only needed to be washed, and then they would be divided into grades. They were one of the easier types of minerals to mine for. The only thing difficult about them…was that magicite gems were very tough. The higher the level of magicite gem, the tougher they were, far more so than ordinary stones. Ordinary tools wouldn’t be able to dig them out at all. These miners were all specially selected. They had at least the strength of a warrior of the third rank. Their strength, combined with some special excavating tools, just barely allowed them to dig the gems out. “Clang!” “Clang!” “Bang!” …. Digging sounds rang out nonstop. Many people were here digging. Although they weren’t individually fast, all added together, the result was that bags stuffed with magicite gems were constantly being brought out, then divided by level into piles. It had been two months since they had started mining. Despite that, they had only finished digging out part of the mine. “What’s going on? They told us to bring such a huge iron chest and store magicite gems in it. Such a huge iron chest, if used to hold magicite gems, would weigh several million pounds. How would we possibly deliver them?” The garrison troops stared at those enormous metal boxes which were fifty meters long, thirty meters wide, and thirty meters tall. They were all puzzled. These boxes were very sturdy. Why use such huge iron boxes to store magicite gems? Although a single magicite gem wasn’t too heavy, a full box of them would definitely be several million pounds in weight. Several million pounds worth of magicite gems…how would ordinary troops possibly move them? It wouldn’t be so bad if they were divided into smaller shipments, but all together… Not even an interspatial ring would be able to hold such a large amount. After having mined for two months, the amount of magicite gems they had mined had finally filled this massive chest. They used a large amount of steel chains to bind the entire chest securely. Every single chain was a meter thick, and there were dozens around the chest. “Later, giant dragons will come to move the chest. All of you be quiet. Don’t cause too much of a ruckus.” The military officer’s order came out. Giant dragon? All of the soldiers stared in the sky as they waited. It was late at night. The full moon hung high in the sky. Indeed, a massive Tyrant Wyrm over a hundred meters long appeared in the sky. The soldiers below felt the world grow dark, and the natural awesome presence of the Tyrant Wyrm made the pulses of these soldiers speed up. The hundred meter long Tyrant Wyrm landed on the ground. “Master had me, a noble Saint-level dragon, to carry things for him. Jeeze…” The Tyrant Wyrm, Plaket, secretly sighed. His fiery, cart-sized eyes swept the nearby soldiers with a glance. His massive nostrils snorted, then his two draconic claws grabbed those sturdy chains. The massive Tyrant Wyrm easily lifted that iron chest which weighed millions of pounds into the air. Beneath the glow of the moonlight, it flew off with the massive chest towards the south, in the direction of the prefectural city of Cod.