Wolf quickly ran to the edge of a field of crops, and simply questioned a werewolf farmer. Suddenly, while they were speaking, the farmer let out a piercing howl, and all the nearby werewolves surrounded him. They glared at him, holding their hoes, sickles and such.
From the crowd a werewolf yelled, “Kill this traitor of werewolves!” His voice rang out across the valley, even at this distance, we could clearly hear him.
Observing the situation, I hurriedly called out, “Wolf, don’t harm them! Hurry back now!”
I turned to Mink and ordered, speaking softly, “Hurry! Go down there, and take Black Dragon with you, he’s too conspicuous. No matter what happens later, you must not come out until I give the order to do so. If I leave this area with them, stay here in Sasi, I will definitely come back for you.”
Mink nodded and said, “Young master, please don’t make me wait for too long.” After speaking, he pulled Black Dragon with him and left.
Black Dragon was just too conspicuous, nobody in the Beast Clan could ride a horse, and if the people of Yuna saw Black Dragon, they would instantly become suspicious. So I left Black Dragon with Mink. But neither of us thought that our parting would last for a couple of months.
Wolf was unarmed, and after hearing my order, he enveloped his body with chi and forcefully squeezed out from the crowd of werewolves. When he finally came back, he was truly in a “sorry state” His clothes were torn, and there were even blue and green marks all over his face.
Before I could ask him what happened, the crowd of farmers had gotten dangerously close, brandishing their sickles and pitchforks high in the sky.
I bellowed coldly, “Nobody is to make a move unless I say so!” I then turned towards the farmers who were rushing angrily at us, welcoming them with a smile.
“Everyone… uncles, please let us talk this through, let us not resort to violence.” Someone once said, ‘nobody would slap a smiling face’. And true to this saying, the werewolves ‘friendlily’ stopped after seeing my smiling face, though they remained alert.
I turned to Wolf and angrily scolded him, “Wolf, how dare you have the gall to offend these uncles! Quickly, come here and beg for their forgiveness.”
An elderly farmer shouted, “We have no need for your apologies! Why have you come here? We do not welcome outsiders here. If you are sensible, you will leave this place and never come back.”
I faked a long sigh and earnestly said, “Uncle I’m sorry, I didn’t know about your rule concerning outsiders, so when I saw how fertile your farmlands were, I was greatly envious, and I asked my friend of mine to go and inquire about your success. Honestly, we all come from different territories, we are starving but we don’t wish to become bandits. We only seek a place where we may settle down. Please look, we are all young and strong, we can endure hardship and work. Could you please consider letting us stay here?”
The elderly farmer looked as with disdain, “Don’t try and make a fool of me, if you guys want to pull something funny, you have found the wrong place. We do not welcome outsiders. Hurry up and leave! Don’t take one step into our territory, take a detour if you have to, understand? I’m warning you, if you reveal anything about what you have seen today, our Wolf God will surely lay judgment upon your souls!”
I thought furiously, How has this fertile land escaped the ears of the Beast Emperor for so long? This large scale farming territory is in the middle of an almost arctic tundra, secrets this large are almost impossible to keep… Anyway, I have to enter Yuna to take down the mysterious ‘God’ of the werewolf tribe. And looking at this situation, killing my way in would be a bad option… I guess I can only…
The elderly werewolf raged, “Why haven’t you left? Do you have a death wish? If the patrol comes, you won’t be able to leave even if you want to!”
Pu tong!
I knelt onto the floor, barely managing to squeeze two tears from me eyes, as I said, “Uncle, please take us in, there’s really no other way to stay alive, if you let us work here, we naturally will not tell others what we’ve seen today.” Since I had knelt down, the escorts could only kneel down beside me.
The elderly werewolf was still rather kind. Seeing our pitiful situation, his face softened, “We cannot let you stay. However, we still can give you something to eat.”
I literally begged, “Uncle, giving us something to eat can only temporarily solve this critical situation, what should we do afterwards? We can’t possibly come here for food every time we are starving! Please just do a good deed and take us in please. Let us have a place we can eat long-term, our requirement is not high, we just need something that can fill our stomach.”
A forty-something years old werewolf beside the elderly farmer said, “Uncle Karma, you cannot promise them, if the patrolling team knows about this, we are finished.”
Uncle Karma murmured in a deep voice,
“Sike, look at them, they are indeed refugees from other territories, and we are all Beastman, let’s help them while we still can. I’ll discuss this matter with the patrolling team, they can be quite reasonable.”
Sike thought for a while, looked at us again, and then sighed, “Nowhere besides our Yuna can feed people well. Those feudal lords are just shams, useless pieces of trash. The only wise one is our Lord Wolf God. Alright, but you can’t go meet the patrol, you are too old, I’ll go instead.” After he finished speaking, he ran in the direction of Yuna.
Uncle Karma turned back to me and said, “Brats, whether you stay or not is not my decision. This man just left to find the patrolling team, if they say we can take you in, then you may follow us back to the village. Until he returns, wait here.”
I almost felt like I had returned to the Dragon Empire as I spoke to these werewolves. I was surprised that there were people among the beastmen who I could easily converse with, it was completely incomprehensible.
I flattered Uncle Karma with a thousand thank you’s, but he seemed to be a little annoyed. He gruffly turned to the other farmers and shouted, “Everyone go back to work! We must eliminate all the bugs today. I can handle this area.” Following his call, the farmers all dispersed to the surrounding fields, continuing with their work.
When I saw that all the other farmers had left, I probingly asked the elderly farmer, “Uncle, why do your crops grow so well?”
The elderly farmer was extremely flattered, and felt as sprightly as a fairy. His caution gone to the wind, and he answered my question without hesitation, “That is thanks to the holiness our Wolf God, and with the good government of the feudal lord. Actually, it’s not that crops cannot grow in your territory, it’s just that your feudal Lords are too incompetent. I heard that a few days ago, the Beast Emperor has issued a decree stating that every territory has to implement some sort of cultivation. But what is the point of only issuing a decree? All the other territories work differently than here in Yuna. Their feudal lords only care about entertainment. Do you believe that any of them would do something for the sake of their tribe?
I doubtfully asked, “Then did the people here only start to farm only after receiving the decree? These fields are really growing too fast. I’ve never seen such a beautiful plain in my entire life. Uncle, you deserve my utmost respect.”
The elderly farmer laughed, he proudly said, “The history of farming started here 10 years ago, that is from……”
Suddenly, he stopped speaking and dryly coughed a few times, covering his embarrassment. He looked at me a little annoyed, “Why are you asking so many questions? You aren’t even a member of the Yuna tribe. Don’t stick your nose in where you don’t belong.”
I already heard almost everything I wanted to know from his mouth. So I apologized, “Sorry, sorry uncle, I was just curious.”
This elderly werewolf farmer stopped paying attention to us, he sat in a corner of the field by himself and started to smoke his pipe.
After waiting for a meal’s time of length, that Sike from before came back with a small troop of werewolves.
These werewolf soldiers were completely different from the werewolves I had seen on the battlefield, even though there were both of the same species. These seemed to be of good spirit and looked healthy. Each one of them wore some light leather armor, and carried spears with sharp points which let out an indistinctive glow. They strode forward, taking big steps, stiffening their chests and raising their heads as they saw us.
Are they really of the Beastman Race? Their appearance is even better than that of the Dragon Empire’s soldiers. This makes me even more curious of the mysterious bandit organization of the Yuna territory. If I am right, the prosperity of Yuna is very closely related to them.
The small team had already reached the slope top, pointing at the soldiers, Sike introduced the tall werewolf at the front, “This is the patrolling team’s leader of this area, Captain Shawn. You guys can talk to him directly.”
I hurriedly took two steps forwards and said respectfully, “Captain Shawn, it’s my honor to see you, we homeless people hope to be taken in by Yuna, we can carry things on our shoulders or our back, we will do anything as long as we have steady meals every day.”
Shawn looked at me from top to bottom, and suddenly stepped forward and threw a fist at me. His speed was literally equal to a crawling ant in my eyes. I was surprised, but I immediately realized that he was testing me. I completely retrieved my guarding chi, allowing him to hit my shoulder, seizing this opportunity I let out a moan and fell backwards.
Wolf hurriedly came forward to support me, and pointing at Shawn he shouted, “It’s fine if you didn’t want to take us in, but why did you hit him?”
I secretly acclaimed inside, this guy thinks well on his feet.
Shawn stepped forward and said apologetically, “Sorry, my bad, I was just testing whether you were a spy. Since you guys are refugees, and are capable of working, I represent Yuna to temporality take all of you in. However…..”
I pretended to rub the shoulder he just hit and asked frowning, “However?”
Shawn suddenly switched to a strict face,
“However, right here you must follow every single rule, if you violated our rules, nobody can protect you. If you are here as a spy, our great Wolf God will surely crush you to pieces, also, do not simply leave this territory, do you hear me?”
I acted as though i was frightened, trembling i fell to the ground and said, “We are just lowly commoners, we will definitely follow the rules of this noble territory and work well. This is such a good place, I will not leave even if sir wants to chase me away.”
Shawn nodded with satisfaction, he said, “This is for the best, for the time being you will stay at Karma’s village, this uncle will arrange your work. After some time, if your performances are good, we will consider promoting you to Yuna’s official citizen. Do not play tricks on me, understood?” He wielded his spear in his hand, and the bottom part of the spear was deeply stabbed it into a rock.
I said with fear and trepidation, “Understood, we understood, we will honestly work and strive to become a citizen of Yuna as soon as possible.”
Shawn turned his head and spoke to the elderly farmer Karma, “Uncle Karma, they will be under your care, if there’s anything you need to report, come and find me directly.”
Karma laughed and said, “Don’t worry, Captain Shawn, if they dare to stir up trouble, I will surely inform you as quickly as possible.”
Shawn spoke a few more things to Karma, turned and left with his subordinates.
Karma acted high and mighty now, he said with a stiffened chest, “From now on, all of you will listen to my arrangements, let’s go, I’ll bring you to the village and arrange a place for all of you to stay.”
I said gratefully, “Uncle Karma, many thanks, we will surely work hard.”
Our party of 20 people followed Karma to their village.
This village was better than those we saw on our way here, all the houses were made of bricks, larger streets without exception were plank bedded with bricks. The whole village was unusually lively, small traders constituted by the villagers had set up all kinds of vendor stalls along the road, we could clearly tell that they were living a well fed and clothed life.
Karma assigned us to a martial training building beside his house, this place was big enough for us 20 people to settle down in, 6 people slept in one room.
Actually, there was another reason I did not let Mink follow, it was because his weapons were too conspicuous, ours could be said that in case we meet bandits they were for self defense, but his weapons were two huge axes, may I ask, who would bring two huge axes for self defense?
I ordered Wolf to tell the others that they must not make the slightest strange movement, everyone shall await my orders. Like this, we lived a farmer’s life, at first, there were often people that came here to monitor us, but after five or six days, probably due to us being very hard working and honest, the alertness of the villagers towards us was pretty much gone.
I know, it is time for us to act, time does not wait, I cannot waste away my time any longer.
The night was as cold as water, I stealthily rose from my bed and gave Wolf a few orders, I took out Black Sable from beneath my pillow, which I had not touched for many days, and changed into nocturnal clothes, took off my wig, returning to my original look.
After hearing that there’s no sound of activity outside, I carefully exited the house. As I lightly leaped, I was like a leaf, silently landing on the high wall of the martial training ground.
Right now it was already late night, and there was ample moonlight, it had allowed me to see a very far distance, the whole village was covered in a bright and beautiful moonlight. Occasionally, a few sounds of nocturnal birds could be heard streaking across the silent space.
The villagers had long entered the dreamlands, I cautiously examined all directions. After verifying that there were no people, I lightly flipped over the wall, arriving at the courtyard of uncle Karma’s house.
Karma had a family of four, Karma, his wife, and two children. Because Karma was married quite late, the two children were only a little more than twenty years old, sleeping in the room on the left, while he and his wife slept at the right side of the main house.
Today, my goal was to get the information I wanted from Karma.
The courtyard was very tranquil, Karma and his family like all the other villagers, have long ago entered dreamland.
I softly leap up to the side of the main house, sticking my ears onto the window, sound of evenly distributed breathing came from the house. I tried to push the window, it didn’t budge even a tiny bit.
The fastener was below, I shaped my chi into a knife, releasing Mad God chi under it and lightly slashed across. A soft noise ka!
I knew, I had succeeded.
Fearing that I would wake the Karma couple from their dreams, I didn’t dare to act recklessly. I softly squatted under the window.
After a while, there was no reaction from the house, I glanced all-around, and finally reached out my hand to push open the window. My body curled up, rolled into a ball and like a leopard cat, I lightly landed on the floor of the house.
I chanted in a low voice, “Darkness condense in thy soul. To have fallen is to be freed. Awaken! Myriad of magical powers that hath slumbered in mine blood.”
I noiselessly transformed into a Fallen Angel, a thick dense black mist was continuously emitted from my body, shrouding the entire room in darkness. I added a sound-proofing magic onto the black mist. Without my permission, not just sound couldn’t pass through, even light could not reach the outside.
This way, I could stealthly carry out my plan.
I extended my hand and dotted a few times, a few strands of black air shot out, causing Karma’s wife to sink into a coma, even if I killed her now, she would not wake up.
My body let out an ice-cold murderous aura that was enveloping towards Karma, Karma shuddered. After waking up from his dreams, he rubbed his hazy sleepy eyes. As he noticed my presence, he immediately cried out in fear and then pulled back his body, covering himself with the blanket.
He said trembling, “You, you, you are a Fallen Angel. Am I dreaming right now?”
With a cold gloomy grin, a sinister ray glowed within my eyes as I said with a deep gloomy voice, “Karma, lord Demon God has sent me here to ask you a few questions. If you answer well, I shall spare your life, if not I shall slaughter your entire family.”
When Karma discovered that I was truly a fallen angel, he knew that he couldn’t fight back, he said quickly, “No! Sweetheart, honey, quickly wake up.” He stared at me firmly, as he kept shaking his wife.
I snickered coldly and said, “She is already controlled by me, only if I allow it will she wake up, else she’ll never wake up again.”
Karma clearly really loves his wife, he guarded firmly in front of her in order to protect her. Even though his voice was still shaking, he was already much calmer than before, “You, you may ask. Please do not harm my family members.”
I scanned him with my eyes, “Ok, if you cooperate, I will kill nobody, what I want to ask is: why is Yuna so wealthy, also what is going on with that strong bandit organization?”
Hearing both of my questions Karma’s whole body started to shake, and his face became even paler, “No, I cannot say. Kill me, but I beg you to let my family go.” Speaking, he rolled onto the ground from the bed and started to kowtow to me unceasingly.
Already knowing that he will answer me this way, I said with a deep voice, “Karma, look at my eyes.”
Karma blankly raised his head, and saw a pair of ice- cold and sinister black eyes. While attracting his vision, I chanted, “Oh great God of Darkness, with my soul as the sacrifice, with my life as the bridge, grant me the supreme power of magic to control mentality.”
This is a level 3 Dark Magic, called Dark Night Soul Erosion, it’s not very powerful, and it will only work on people who are a lot weaker than you, it could put people into a trance for a short time, causing the affected person to do everything that the caster orders.
Of course, one needs to successfully control the opponent. If the level of the two persons is about the same, the caster could easily be hit by the rebound of the magic. It is very dangerous.
Normally, the demon clan would not willingly use this magic rashly even with the power of the Fallen Angel.
Karma’s mentality was already completely controlled by me, the expression in his eyes turned dimmer and dimmer, slowly it turned from dim to lifeless.
I said with a gentle voice, “Karma…..”
Karma asked blankly, “Who is Karma?”
I continued with my gentle voice, “Karma is you, and you are Karma. And I, am your eternal master.”
Karma said vacantly, “I am Karma, and you are my master.”
“Right, really right, extremely right. Remember, I am your master. Now, I will ask you a few questions. You must answer me with the absolute truth.”
Karma nodded and said, “Master please ask.”
I used this magic for the first time and it was such a success, I secretly rejoiced, “Good, tell me, why is Yuna so prosperous?”
Karma muttered to himself resolutely and said,
“It all started 10 years ago, originally we people in Yuna were very poor, just like the people in the other territories, the bandits were rampaging everywhere, the people had no way to make a living. But one day our god suddenly descended.
He guided us, started to exterminate the bandits, banished people from other races, lead us continuously to clear wild areas for cultivation, developed farming and metal smelting, which continues till today. Because of this, Yuna could become wealthy and strong, in the last five years Yuna is mostly devoid of poverty, every family gets enough to eat and has warm clothes to wear.”
Hearing what he said I felt very surprised, god, the god of the werewolves, the double-headed wolf? Sasi came up with a Lernaean Hydra and here in Yuna a double-head wolf appeared, only from hearing about it I knew it would be hard to deal with. If all the territories were like this how much time would I need to pacify the beastmen tribes?
I continued to ask, “Where is your god now?”
Karma’s face flickering with holy radiance and said with revere, “Our god is currently at the Woer mountain in Yuna”
I nodded and continue to ask, “I heard that there is a bandit organization in Yuna, where are they, and who is their leader?”
There is a trace of struggle in Karmas expression, both hands covered his head, with a very painful expression, clearly wanting to avoid this question.
I was surprised, this wolf god had a very high standing in the werewolf people’s heart, which could make them struggle so strongly that I have the danger of losing control over my magic. While thinking about it, I strengthened my dark magic, under the continuous invasion of the dark magic, Karma gradually calmed down. His eyes were even emptier now.
I sunk my voice, “Karma, my servant, answer my question from just now.” I was also very nervous. If I couldn’t make him say it, I’m afraid I had to retrieve this magic, after all it’s rebound is very terrifying.
Karma didn’t let my hope die, he answered dully, “It is like this, we Yuna doesn’t have any bandit organization, the so called bandit gang is only for outsiders, it is to hide away our military forces.”
I questioned closely, “If not a bandit gang, then what are they gathering for?”
Karma said proudly, “They are the honored and glorious guardians, their mission is to protect our greatest god. We in Yuna call them the Guardian of God. Their fighting power is not under that of the Beamon army force.
Just like I thought, the so called bandit gang and the booming of Yuna is closely related, but what Karma said at the end, I don’t believe a word, he was just blindly worshiping, a werewolf is a werewolf, only if every single one of them is at the level of Wolf, else they would be no match for the at least four meter high, and invulnerable Beamon.
I asked with suspicion, “Then does that mean your werewolf tribe leader also listens to his orders?”
Karma nodded, “Of course, our god is our highest ruler, as long as one is a werewolf, then he must respect our god.”
“Then they are all on the Woer mountain. Tell me, where exactly on Woer mountain?”
The yearning expression flashed in Karma’s eyes, “ Woer mountain is about 30 miles to the west. It is a restricted area, without permission nobody is allowed to set foot on that land, even a werewolf is not allowed to do that.”
I continued to ask, “Have you ever seen the Wolf God?”
Karma shook his head ashamed, “I am just a commoner, how could I see his holiness, I only know that his holiness has two godly heads. ”
Godly heads, they aren’t anything more than two damned wolf heads. I had finished my inquiries, and achieved today’s goal, so I said with a gloomy voice, “Karma, you are tired, you are already very tired.”
Karma’s upper and lower eyelids were somewhat fighting, he murmured, “Yes master I am tired, I am already really tired.”
I said with a soft voice “If you are tired then go to sleep, after waking up tomorrow morning, you will forget everything about tonight, forget everything about tonight.”
Karma repeated what i said, “Forget everything about tonight, forget everything about tonight…..” His voice became weaker and weaker, after a short while with a thunder like snore he fell asleep.
After confirming that he is truly asleep, I retrieved the dark magic in his body, when he wakes up tomorrow morning, he will not remember anything that transpired this night.
I wiped the sweat from my forehead. I erased my control over Karma’s wife, recalled the barrier, and repaired the window as I left the room. I then spread my wings and flew back to the training grounds.
I retrieved my dark magic, and turned back to my original form, pushed the door and entered, the guards hadn’t slept yet, and were sitting in my room, waiting for my return.
After seeing me coming in, Wolf asked in a low voice, “Young master, was the journey successful?”
While taking of the nocturnal clothes I said, “This could count as a success, we will observe one more day, if there is no movement, we will take action tomorrow night”
Wolf asked a bit embarrassed, “Young master, Are we really not reporting this to the beast emperor, and ask him to mobilize the army forces?”
I sighed, “We need to finish this by ourselves. You all saw the situation here, the people all seem to be wealthy. Also the bandit gang only guards the Wolf God, and doesn’t do anything bad. If we suddenly mobilize military forces to attack Yuna, then we would make the whole Yuna territory to unite, and to fight against us.
Yuna now has elite forces and enough food to support them. And the entire Beastman Army has just lost a war at Fort Stelu. Even if we mobilize both the Beamon Army and Wild Lion army force in order to take over Yuna, we will still pay a grievous price in return. How can the Beast Empire will grow strong if we keep suffering losses. We can’t afford to take Yuna with force, we need to outwit them.”
The centaur asked, ”Outwit? How can we outwit them?”
I shook my head, “This is also the question which troubles me, I have been thinking about this for a few days. Yuna is under a strong and strict management, how can we recover it without staining our swords with blood? I thought about it for a long time, but have not a single suitable idea. We can’t shout out, and ask for negotiations with them, can we? You all can go back to rest. Let me think a bit more about it.”
The guards in the other rooms all went back to rest, and the ones in my room all crawled back into their blankets. Sitting on my bed I started to train Demonic arts, in the hope the ice cold water like feeling could give me clearer mind and help me to think of a better idea.
If we go there and ask for a meeting personally, I am afraid that we will be captured before we even arrive at that Woer mountain, after all we are only 20 men and this is their territory. What if I go and kill the wolf god alone? Lets not say whether it will be successful for the time being, even finding him alone is not easy at all. These cannot work, sigh, perhaps, I can only take a risk.
Early in the morning, I lead the escorts waking up early in the morning to do the farm work. Uncle Karma also came, but his eyes were a little dim, his face was pale. Looks like he still hadn’t recovered from my dark magic.
I walked over to him and asked him worriedly, “Uncle, is something wrong? You don’t look good.”
Karma sighed and said, “Maybe it is because of my old age, I didn’t sleep well last night, that’s why I am like this today. My wife doesn’t look good either, so I let her stay at home.
I answered, “Oh, How about this, you take a rest and I will do your work.”
Karma replied, “How could I?”
I slightly smiled and said, “This is nothing, I am young and strong anyway. Looking after you elders is my duty. Let alone, if you did not help me that time, I would not know, where I would be wandering now. Please give me a chance to repay you my debt.”
Karma laughed, “OK then, sorry to bother you. You are a very outstanding kid. Staying here is a waste. If I have the opportunity later, I will recommend you to the patrol.”
While working the field I thought, looks like he doesn’t remember anything about what happened last night, even better, now I don’t need to silence him.
-end-
Wolf quickly ran to the edge of a field of crops, and simply questioned a werewolf farmer. Suddenly, while they were speaking, the farmer let out a piercing howl, and all the nearby werewolves surrounded him. They glared at him, holding their hoes, sickles and such.
From the crowd a werewolf yelled, “Kill this traitor of werewolves!” His voice rang out across the valley, even at this distance, we could clearly hear him.
Observing the situation, I hurriedly called out, “Wolf, don’t harm them! Hurry back now!”
I turned to Mink and ordered, speaking softly, “Hurry! Go down there, and take Black Dragon with you, he’s too conspicuous. No matter what happens later, you must not come out until I give the order to do so. If I leave this area with them, stay here in Sasi, I will definitely come back for you.”
Mink nodded and said, “Young master, please don’t make me wait for too long.” After speaking, he pulled Black Dragon with him and left.
Black Dragon was just too conspicuous, nobody in the Beast Clan could ride a horse, and if the people of Yuna saw Black Dragon, they would instantly become suspicious. So I left Black Dragon with Mink. But neither of us thought that our parting would last for a couple of months.
Wolf was unarmed, and after hearing my order, he enveloped his body with chi and forcefully squeezed out from the crowd of werewolves. When he finally came back, he was truly in a “sorry state” His clothes were torn, and there were even blue and green marks all over his face.
Before I could ask him what happened, the crowd of farmers had gotten dangerously close, brandishing their sickles and pitchforks high in the sky.
I bellowed coldly, “Nobody is to make a move unless I say so!” I then turned towards the farmers who were rushing angrily at us, welcoming them with a smile.
“Everyone… uncles, please let us talk this through, let us not resort to violence.” Someone once said, ‘nobody would slap a smiling face’. And true to this saying, the werewolves ‘friendlily’ stopped after seeing my smiling face, though they remained alert.
I turned to Wolf and angrily scolded him, “Wolf, how dare you have the gall to offend these uncles! Quickly, come here and beg for their forgiveness.”
An elderly farmer shouted, “We have no need for your apologies! Why have you come here? We do not welcome outsiders here. If you are sensible, you will leave this place and never come back.”
I faked a long sigh and earnestly said, “Uncle I’m sorry, I didn’t know about your rule concerning outsiders, so when I saw how fertile your farmlands were, I was greatly envious, and I asked my friend of mine to go and inquire about your success. Honestly, we all come from different territories, we are starving but we don’t wish to become bandits. We only seek a place where we may settle down. Please look, we are all young and strong, we can endure hardship and work. Could you please consider letting us stay here?”
The elderly farmer looked as with disdain, “Don’t try and make a fool of me, if you guys want to pull something funny, you have found the wrong place. We do not welcome outsiders. Hurry up and leave! Don’t take one step into our territory, take a detour if you have to, understand? I’m warning you, if you reveal anything about what you have seen today, our Wolf God will surely lay judgment upon your souls!”
I thought furiously, How has this fertile land escaped the ears of the Beast Emperor for so long? This large scale farming territory is in the middle of an almost arctic tundra, secrets this large are almost impossible to keep… Anyway, I have to enter Yuna to take down the mysterious ‘God’ of the werewolf tribe. And looking at this situation, killing my way in would be a bad option… I guess I can only…
The elderly werewolf raged, “Why haven’t you left? Do you have a death wish? If the patrol comes, you won’t be able to leave even if you want to!”
Pu tong!
I knelt onto the floor, barely managing to squeeze two tears from me eyes, as I said, “Uncle, please take us in, there’s really no other way to stay alive, if you let us work here, we naturally will not tell others what we’ve seen today.” Since I had knelt down, the escorts could only kneel down beside me.
The elderly werewolf was still rather kind. Seeing our pitiful situation, his face softened, “We cannot let you stay. However, we still can give you something to eat.”
I literally begged, “Uncle, giving us something to eat can only temporarily solve this critical situation, what should we do afterwards? We can’t possibly come here for food every time we are starving! Please just do a good deed and take us in please. Let us have a place we can eat long-term, our requirement is not high, we just need something that can fill our stomach.”
A forty-something years old werewolf beside the elderly farmer said, “Uncle Karma, you cannot promise them, if the patrolling team knows about this, we are finished.”
Uncle Karma murmured in a deep voice,
“Sike, look at them, they are indeed refugees from other territories, and we are all Beastman, let’s help them while we still can. I’ll discuss this matter with the patrolling team, they can be quite reasonable.”
Sike thought for a while, looked at us again, and then sighed, “Nowhere besides our Yuna can feed people well. Those feudal lords are just shams, useless pieces of trash. The only wise one is our Lord Wolf God. Alright, but you can’t go meet the patrol, you are too old, I’ll go instead.” After he finished speaking, he ran in the direction of Yuna.
Uncle Karma turned back to me and said, “Brats, whether you stay or not is not my decision. This man just left to find the patrolling team, if they say we can take you in, then you may follow us back to the village. Until he returns, wait here.”
I almost felt like I had returned to the Dragon Empire as I spoke to these werewolves. I was surprised that there were people among the beastmen who I could easily converse with, it was completely incomprehensible.
I flattered Uncle Karma with a thousand thank you’s, but he seemed to be a little annoyed. He gruffly turned to the other farmers and shouted, “Everyone go back to work! We must eliminate all the bugs today. I can handle this area.” Following his call, the farmers all dispersed to the surrounding fields, continuing with their work.
When I saw that all the other farmers had left, I probingly asked the elderly farmer, “Uncle, why do your crops grow so well?”
The elderly farmer was extremely flattered, and felt as sprightly as a fairy. His caution gone to the wind, and he answered my question without hesitation, “That is thanks to the holiness our Wolf God, and with the good government of the feudal lord. Actually, it’s not that crops cannot grow in your territory, it’s just that your feudal Lords are too incompetent. I heard that a few days ago, the Beast Emperor has issued a decree stating that every territory has to implement some sort of cultivation. But what is the point of only issuing a decree? All the other territories work differently than here in Yuna. Their feudal lords only care about entertainment. Do you believe that any of them would do something for the sake of their tribe?
I doubtfully asked, “Then did the people here only start to farm only after receiving the decree? These fields are really growing too fast. I’ve never seen such a beautiful plain in my entire life. Uncle, you deserve my utmost respect.”
The elderly farmer laughed, he proudly said, “The history of farming started here 10 years ago, that is from……”
Suddenly, he stopped speaking and dryly coughed a few times, covering his embarrassment. He looked at me a little annoyed, “Why are you asking so many questions? You aren’t even a member of the Yuna tribe. Don’t stick your nose in where you don’t belong.”
I already heard almost everything I wanted to know from his mouth. So I apologized, “Sorry, sorry uncle, I was just curious.”
This elderly werewolf farmer stopped paying attention to us, he sat in a corner of the field by himself and started to smoke his pipe.
After waiting for a meal’s time of length, that Sike from before came back with a small troop of werewolves.
These werewolf soldiers were completely different from the werewolves I had seen on the battlefield, even though there were both of the same species. These seemed to be of good spirit and looked healthy. Each one of them wore some light leather armor, and carried spears with sharp points which let out an indistinctive glow. They strode forward, taking big steps, stiffening their chests and raising their heads as they saw us.
Are they really of the Beastman Race? Their appearance is even better than that of the Dragon Empire’s soldiers. This makes me even more curious of the mysterious bandit organization of the Yuna territory. If I am right, the prosperity of Yuna is very closely related to them.
The small team had already reached the slope top, pointing at the soldiers, Sike introduced the tall werewolf at the front, “This is the patrolling team’s leader of this area, Captain Shawn. You guys can talk to him directly.”
I hurriedly took two steps forwards and said respectfully, “Captain Shawn, it’s my honor to see you, we homeless people hope to be taken in by Yuna, we can carry things on our shoulders or our back, we will do anything as long as we have steady meals every day.”
Shawn looked at me from top to bottom, and suddenly stepped forward and threw a fist at me. His speed was literally equal to a crawling ant in my eyes. I was surprised, but I immediately realized that he was testing me. I completely retrieved my guarding chi, allowing him to hit my shoulder, seizing this opportunity I let out a moan and fell backwards.
Wolf hurriedly came forward to support me, and pointing at Shawn he shouted, “It’s fine if you didn’t want to take us in, but why did you hit him?”
I secretly acclaimed inside, this guy thinks well on his feet.
Shawn stepped forward and said apologetically, “Sorry, my bad, I was just testing whether you were a spy. Since you guys are refugees, and are capable of working, I represent Yuna to temporality take all of you in. However…..”
I pretended to rub the shoulder he just hit and asked frowning, “However?”
Shawn suddenly switched to a strict face,
“However, right here you must follow every single rule, if you violated our rules, nobody can protect you. If you are here as a spy, our great Wolf God will surely crush you to pieces, also, do not simply leave this territory, do you hear me?”
I acted as though i was frightened, trembling i fell to the ground and said, “We are just lowly commoners, we will definitely follow the rules of this noble territory and work well. This is such a good place, I will not leave even if sir wants to chase me away.”
Shawn nodded with satisfaction, he said, “This is for the best, for the time being you will stay at Karma’s village, this uncle will arrange your work. After some time, if your performances are good, we will consider promoting you to Yuna’s official citizen. Do not play tricks on me, understood?” He wielded his spear in his hand, and the bottom part of the spear was deeply stabbed it into a rock.
I said with fear and trepidation, “Understood, we understood, we will honestly work and strive to become a citizen of Yuna as soon as possible.”
Shawn turned his head and spoke to the elderly farmer Karma, “Uncle Karma, they will be under your care, if there’s anything you need to report, come and find me directly.”
Karma laughed and said, “Don’t worry, Captain Shawn, if they dare to stir up trouble, I will surely inform you as quickly as possible.”
Shawn spoke a few more things to Karma, turned and left with his subordinates.
Karma acted high and mighty now, he said with a stiffened chest, “From now on, all of you will listen to my arrangements, let’s go, I’ll bring you to the village and arrange a place for all of you to stay.”
I said gratefully, “Uncle Karma, many thanks, we will surely work hard.”
Our party of 20 people followed Karma to their village.
This village was better than those we saw on our way here, all the houses were made of bricks, larger streets without exception were plank bedded with bricks. The whole village was unusually lively, small traders constituted by the villagers had set up all kinds of vendor stalls along the road, we could clearly tell that they were living a well fed and clothed life.
Karma assigned us to a martial training building beside his house, this place was big enough for us 20 people to settle down in, 6 people slept in one room.
Actually, there was another reason I did not let Mink follow, it was because his weapons were too conspicuous, ours could be said that in case we meet bandits they were for self defense, but his weapons were two huge axes, may I ask, who would bring two huge axes for self defense?
I ordered Wolf to tell the others that they must not make the slightest strange movement, everyone shall await my orders. Like this, we lived a farmer’s life, at first, there were often people that came here to monitor us, but after five or six days, probably due to us being very hard working and honest, the alertness of the villagers towards us was pretty much gone.
I know, it is time for us to act, time does not wait, I cannot waste away my time any longer.
The night was as cold as water, I stealthily rose from my bed and gave Wolf a few orders, I took out Black Sable from beneath my pillow, which I had not touched for many days, and changed into nocturnal clothes, took off my wig, returning to my original look.
After hearing that there’s no sound of activity outside, I carefully exited the house. As I lightly leaped, I was like a leaf, silently landing on the high wall of the martial training ground.
Right now it was already late night, and there was ample moonlight, it had allowed me to see a very far distance, the whole village was covered in a bright and beautiful moonlight. Occasionally, a few sounds of nocturnal birds could be heard streaking across the silent space.
The villagers had long entered the dreamlands, I cautiously examined all directions. After verifying that there were no people, I lightly flipped over the wall, arriving at the courtyard of uncle Karma’s house.
Karma had a family of four, Karma, his wife, and two children. Because Karma was married quite late, the two children were only a little more than twenty years old, sleeping in the room on the left, while he and his wife slept at the right side of the main house.
Today, my goal was to get the information I wanted from Karma.
The courtyard was very tranquil, Karma and his family like all the other villagers, have long ago entered dreamland.
I softly leap up to the side of the main house, sticking my ears onto the window, sound of evenly distributed breathing came from the house. I tried to push the window, it didn’t budge even a tiny bit.
The fastener was below, I shaped my chi into a knife, releasing Mad God chi under it and lightly slashed across. A soft noise ka!
I knew, I had succeeded.
Fearing that I would wake the Karma couple from their dreams, I didn’t dare to act recklessly. I softly squatted under the window.
After a while, there was no reaction from the house, I glanced all-around, and finally reached out my hand to push open the window. My body curled up, rolled into a ball and like a leopard cat, I lightly landed on the floor of the house.
I chanted in a low voice, “Darkness condense in thy soul. To have fallen is to be freed. Awaken! Myriad of magical powers that hath slumbered in mine blood.”
I noiselessly transformed into a Fallen Angel, a thick dense black mist was continuously emitted from my body, shrouding the entire room in darkness. I added a sound-proofing magic onto the black mist. Without my permission, not just sound couldn’t pass through, even light could not reach the outside.
This way, I could stealthly carry out my plan.
I extended my hand and dotted a few times, a few strands of black air shot out, causing Karma’s wife to sink into a coma, even if I killed her now, she would not wake up.
My body let out an ice-cold murderous aura that was enveloping towards Karma, Karma shuddered. After waking up from his dreams, he rubbed his hazy sleepy eyes. As he noticed my presence, he immediately cried out in fear and then pulled back his body, covering himself with the blanket.
He said trembling, “You, you, you are a Fallen Angel. Am I dreaming right now?”
With a cold gloomy grin, a sinister ray glowed within my eyes as I said with a deep gloomy voice, “Karma, lord Demon God has sent me here to ask you a few questions. If you answer well, I shall spare your life, if not I shall slaughter your entire family.”
When Karma discovered that I was truly a fallen angel, he knew that he couldn’t fight back, he said quickly, “No! Sweetheart, honey, quickly wake up.” He stared at me firmly, as he kept shaking his wife.
I snickered coldly and said, “She is already controlled by me, only if I allow it will she wake up, else she’ll never wake up again.”
Karma clearly really loves his wife, he guarded firmly in front of her in order to protect her. Even though his voice was still shaking, he was already much calmer than before, “You, you may ask. Please do not harm my family members.”
I scanned him with my eyes, “Ok, if you cooperate, I will kill nobody, what I want to ask is: why is Yuna so wealthy, also what is going on with that strong bandit organization?”
Hearing both of my questions Karma’s whole body started to shake, and his face became even paler, “No, I cannot say. Kill me, but I beg you to let my family go.” Speaking, he rolled onto the ground from the bed and started to kowtow to me unceasingly.
Already knowing that he will answer me this way, I said with a deep voice, “Karma, look at my eyes.”
Karma blankly raised his head, and saw a pair of ice- cold and sinister black eyes. While attracting his vision, I chanted, “Oh great God of Darkness, with my soul as the sacrifice, with my life as the bridge, grant me the supreme power of magic to control mentality.”
This is a level 3 Dark Magic, called Dark Night Soul Erosion, it’s not very powerful, and it will only work on people who are a lot weaker than you, it could put people into a trance for a short time, causing the affected person to do everything that the caster orders.
Of course, one needs to successfully control the opponent. If the level of the two persons is about the same, the caster could easily be hit by the rebound of the magic. It is very dangerous.
Normally, the demon clan would not willingly use this magic rashly even with the power of the Fallen Angel.
Karma’s mentality was already completely controlled by me, the expression in his eyes turned dimmer and dimmer, slowly it turned from dim to lifeless.
I said with a gentle voice, “Karma…..”
Karma asked blankly, “Who is Karma?”
I continued with my gentle voice, “Karma is you, and you are Karma. And I, am your eternal master.”
Karma said vacantly, “I am Karma, and you are my master.”
“Right, really right, extremely right. Remember, I am your master. Now, I will ask you a few questions. You must answer me with the absolute truth.”
Karma nodded and said, “Master please ask.”
I used this magic for the first time and it was such a success, I secretly rejoiced, “Good, tell me, why is Yuna so prosperous?”
Karma muttered to himself resolutely and said,
“It all started 10 years ago, originally we people in Yuna were very poor, just like the people in the other territories, the bandits were rampaging everywhere, the people had no way to make a living. But one day our god suddenly descended.
He guided us, started to exterminate the bandits, banished people from other races, lead us continuously to clear wild areas for cultivation, developed farming and metal smelting, which continues till today. Because of this, Yuna could become wealthy and strong, in the last five years Yuna is mostly devoid of poverty, every family gets enough to eat and has warm clothes to wear.”
Hearing what he said I felt very surprised, god, the god of the werewolves, the double-headed wolf? Sasi came up with a Lernaean Hydra and here in Yuna a double-head wolf appeared, only from hearing about it I knew it would be hard to deal with. If all the territories were like this how much time would I need to pacify the beastmen tribes?
I continued to ask, “Where is your god now?”
Karma’s face flickering with holy radiance and said with revere, “Our god is currently at the Woer mountain in Yuna”
I nodded and continue to ask, “I heard that there is a bandit organization in Yuna, where are they, and who is their leader?”
There is a trace of struggle in Karmas expression, both hands covered his head, with a very painful expression, clearly wanting to avoid this question.
I was surprised, this wolf god had a very high standing in the werewolf people’s heart, which could make them struggle so strongly that I have the danger of losing control over my magic. While thinking about it, I strengthened my dark magic, under the continuous invasion of the dark magic, Karma gradually calmed down. His eyes were even emptier now.
I sunk my voice, “Karma, my servant, answer my question from just now.” I was also very nervous. If I couldn’t make him say it, I’m afraid I had to retrieve this magic, after all it’s rebound is very terrifying.
Karma didn’t let my hope die, he answered dully, “It is like this, we Yuna doesn’t have any bandit organization, the so called bandit gang is only for outsiders, it is to hide away our military forces.”
I questioned closely, “If not a bandit gang, then what are they gathering for?”
Karma said proudly, “They are the honored and glorious guardians, their mission is to protect our greatest god. We in Yuna call them the Guardian of God. Their fighting power is not under that of the Beamon army force.
Just like I thought, the so called bandit gang and the booming of Yuna is closely related, but what Karma said at the end, I don’t believe a word, he was just blindly worshiping, a werewolf is a werewolf, only if every single one of them is at the level of Wolf, else they would be no match for the at least four meter high, and invulnerable Beamon.
I asked with suspicion, “Then does that mean your werewolf tribe leader also listens to his orders?”
Karma nodded, “Of course, our god is our highest ruler, as long as one is a werewolf, then he must respect our god.”
“Then they are all on the Woer mountain. Tell me, where exactly on Woer mountain?”
The yearning expression flashed in Karma’s eyes, “ Woer mountain is about 30 miles to the west. It is a restricted area, without permission nobody is allowed to set foot on that land, even a werewolf is not allowed to do that.”
I continued to ask, “Have you ever seen the Wolf God?”
Karma shook his head ashamed, “I am just a commoner, how could I see his holiness, I only know that his holiness has two godly heads. ”
Godly heads, they aren’t anything more than two damned wolf heads. I had finished my inquiries, and achieved today’s goal, so I said with a gloomy voice, “Karma, you are tired, you are already very tired.”
Karma’s upper and lower eyelids were somewhat fighting, he murmured, “Yes master I am tired, I am already really tired.”
I said with a soft voice “If you are tired then go to sleep, after waking up tomorrow morning, you will forget everything about tonight, forget everything about tonight.”
Karma repeated what i said, “Forget everything about tonight, forget everything about tonight…..” His voice became weaker and weaker, after a short while with a thunder like snore he fell asleep.
After confirming that he is truly asleep, I retrieved the dark magic in his body, when he wakes up tomorrow morning, he will not remember anything that transpired this night.
I wiped the sweat from my forehead. I erased my control over Karma’s wife, recalled the barrier, and repaired the window as I left the room. I then spread my wings and flew back to the training grounds.
I retrieved my dark magic, and turned back to my original form, pushed the door and entered, the guards hadn’t slept yet, and were sitting in my room, waiting for my return.
After seeing me coming in, Wolf asked in a low voice, “Young master, was the journey successful?”
While taking of the nocturnal clothes I said, “This could count as a success, we will observe one more day, if there is no movement, we will take action tomorrow night”
Wolf asked a bit embarrassed, “Young master, Are we really not reporting this to the beast emperor, and ask him to mobilize the army forces?”
I sighed, “We need to finish this by ourselves. You all saw the situation here, the people all seem to be wealthy. Also the bandit gang only guards the Wolf God, and doesn’t do anything bad. If we suddenly mobilize military forces to attack Yuna, then we would make the whole Yuna territory to unite, and to fight against us.
Yuna now has elite forces and enough food to support them. And the entire Beastman Army has just lost a war at Fort Stelu. Even if we mobilize both the Beamon Army and Wild Lion army force in order to take over Yuna, we will still pay a grievous price in return. How can the Beast Empire will grow strong if we keep suffering losses. We can’t afford to take Yuna with force, we need to outwit them.”
The centaur asked, ”Outwit? How can we outwit them?”
I shook my head, “This is also the question which troubles me, I have been thinking about this for a few days. Yuna is under a strong and strict management, how can we recover it without staining our swords with blood? I thought about it for a long time, but have not a single suitable idea. We can’t shout out, and ask for negotiations with them, can we? You all can go back to rest. Let me think a bit more about it.”
The guards in the other rooms all went back to rest, and the ones in my room all crawled back into their blankets. Sitting on my bed I started to train Demonic arts, in the hope the ice cold water like feeling could give me clearer mind and help me to think of a better idea.
If we go there and ask for a meeting personally, I am afraid that we will be captured before we even arrive at that Woer mountain, after all we are only 20 men and this is their territory. What if I go and kill the wolf god alone? Lets not say whether it will be successful for the time being, even finding him alone is not easy at all. These cannot work, sigh, perhaps, I can only take a risk.
Early in the morning, I lead the escorts waking up early in the morning to do the farm work. Uncle Karma also came, but his eyes were a little dim, his face was pale. Looks like he still hadn’t recovered from my dark magic.
I walked over to him and asked him worriedly, “Uncle, is something wrong? You don’t look good.”
Karma sighed and said, “Maybe it is because of my old age, I didn’t sleep well last night, that’s why I am like this today. My wife doesn’t look good either, so I let her stay at home.
I answered, “Oh, How about this, you take a rest and I will do your work.”
Karma replied, “How could I?”
I slightly smiled and said, “This is nothing, I am young and strong anyway. Looking after you elders is my duty. Let alone, if you did not help me that time, I would not know, where I would be wandering now. Please give me a chance to repay you my debt.”
Karma laughed, “OK then, sorry to bother you. You are a very outstanding kid. Staying here is a waste. If I have the opportunity later, I will recommend you to the patrol.”
While working the field I thought, looks like he doesn’t remember anything about what happened last night, even better, now I don’t need to silence him.
-end-
