Volume 3, Chapter 23 – The Second Wave of Rescue

‘Huh? Where am I?’

‘Ah?’

‘My head?’

‘It hurts so much! Hiss-‘

‘Wait, this smell? This… this is horse dung!’

“Damn it!”

With a roar echoing in his mind, Abik, a squad leader of the Royal Knight Corps, instantly snapped out of his unconscious state.

Abik jerked his eyes open to see the maddening brown substance right in front of him. He scrambled to sit up and hurriedly wiped the nauseating filth from his face.

He vomited while clutching the massive lump on his head.

‘Dammit! ‘

‘Who were those people? How did they dare to attack a convoy protected by the Royal Knight Corps?’

‘Wait! ‘

‘What about the prisoners?!’

Realizing the core of the problem, Abik stopped cursing and immediately put on a look of fury. He rushed to the prisoner carriage and peered inside.

However, there were no prisoners left in the carriage. It was already empty…

“How can this be?! Where are they!”

Abik stumbled back in disbelief. As a member of His Majesty’s elite forces, he was supposed to complete the mission flawlessly and bring these sinners back to the imperial capital of Sky Dome. Yet now, these sinners had been abducted!

Someone had actually snatched people away from the hands of the Royal Knights?

“Bastards!”

Veins pulsed on Abik’s forehead as he let out an unbearable roar. He turned to look at the other Royal Knights lying unconscious around him.

“Stop sleeping! Get up! Everyone’s been taken, so what are you still sleeping for?! Get up and find them!”

His thunderous roar, infused with powerful battle aura fluctuations, washed over the knights. It caused them to gradually wake up and crawl off the ground in utter confusion.

“What… what happened?”

“You have the nerve to ask what happened? Get your weapons and find them! The prisoners escaped! Also, Xiao Te! Contact the other teams immediately and have them come for support!”

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Looking at his newly awakened team members, Abik urged them frantically.

If he could catch the prisoners, he might still be able to make up for this disgrace.

He absolutely could not disappoint the Crown Prince!

However, just as Abik was preparing to reorganize his team to rectify his failure, a terrifying force suddenly surged into his field of perception. The squad leader’s face changed instantly as an unspeakable dread rushed into his heart.

‘This… this aura?!’

It wasn’t just Abik.

The Royal Knights who had just woken up also felt a massive sense of pressure that made their breathing stop. The pressure this aura gave them was even greater than that of their own commander! More importantly, this aura was laced with a chilling, terrifying hostility…

In the next instant, under Abik’s horrified gaze, a figure wrapped in pure white energy suddenly descended from the sky, landing directly in the center of the camp. Before Abik and the others could see her face, a flash of white light swept through the Royal Knights at a speed nearly invisible to the naked eye.

Even though Abik and the others held their swords and moved into defensive stances, the opponent’s speed was so inconceivable that the swords in their hands were as useless as decorations.

The white figure bypassed the Royal Knights with ease, ruthlessly swinging her hand to strike their heads.

Thwack! Thwack!

As the white light dissipated, the knights who had been hit looked dazed.

After stumbling for a few moments, they collapsed back into unconsciousness once again…

‘No, this is bad! I have to retreat!’

Cold sweat poured down Abik’s face at the sight. Although he desperately wanted to defend the dignity of the Knight Corps and defeat the attacker, he possessed a modicum of self-awareness. The mysterious person who just attacked them was definitely not someone a sixth tier swordsman like him could oppose!

Even if a hundred of him attacked at once, it would be suicide!

That aura was holy magic!

An eighth tier existence of the light-attribute holy power.

‘Damn it! Why would a Heavenly Apostle of the Ashurmos Church appear here?! Haven’t they signed a treaty with His Majesty?!’

Roaring frantically in his mind, Abik turned around in an attempt to retreat.

However, the moment he turned, he discovered to his shock that a familiar and beautiful silver-haired girl had appeared behind him at some unknown point, watching him with a cold expression.

?!

“It’s you?! Miss Mengxi?! How could you… wait?!”

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Before he could finish, Mengxi let out a cold snort. She reached behind her and pulled out a spiked mace from nowhere.

Without a word, she slammed it heavily onto Abik’s head.

BOOM!

With an earth-shattering bang, Abik’s eyes rolled back as he frothed at the mouth and fell unconscious once more…

“How… how can this be…”

After a final groan of grievance, Abik collapsed onto the ground, his face landing squarely in the same pile of horse dung as before…

With Abik’s collapse, the Royal Knights in this camp fell back into a deep sleep after having been awake for a mere three minutes…

Looking at the Royal Knights scattered across the ground, a trace of disgust gradually surfaced in Mengxi’s pale violet eyes. The reason she detested these people wasn’t simply because they had captured Yumo. Another reason was their conduct.

Despite being called Royal Knights, they did not strictly follow the empire’s knightly code. Everything revolved around Xue Tian’ao’s commands. Although Xue Tian’ao was now the Emperor and the knights had to follow his orders, these guys didn’t act like knights possessing honor. Instead, they seemed more like brainwashed fanatics…

They were probably on par with those fellows from the Divine Punishment Holy Church.

Hmm.

Strictly speaking, many people around Xue Tian’ao, especially his confidants, seemed to have this kind of temperament…

‘Boring…’

Mengxi snorted coldly.

At that moment, a streak of white light rushed to Mengxi’s side. As the white light faded, the Heavenly Apostle Bai Yanluo appeared before her, holding a “crowbar” and sporting beautiful long white hair.

“How was it? Did you hit his Hunyuan point ¹ (混元点, hùnyuán diǎn), energy core inside the body ?”

Looking at the pathetic Abik on the ground, Bai Yanluo spoke slowly.

Mengxi nodded slightly in response.

“Yeah.”

“Oh, that’s good. According to the recent research from that crap academy, hitting that spot effectively helps erase memories of the two or three minutes before the fainting. That way, they won’t know it was us. By the way, Mengxi, you can throw away that mace you snatched from the goblins. Don’t you find that thing dirty?”

“Sigh, it doesn’t matter.”

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After a soft reply, Mengxi released her grip on the mace. The weapon fell in a free fall and slammed into the back of Abik’s head once again.

CLANG!

The sound made Bai Yanluo flinch slightly.

She looked at the silver-haired girl with a bit of helplessness.

It seemed Mengxi really was protective of that child. This guy who had spoken insolently before was being thoroughly tormented by Mengxi…

‘Really, what am I thinking? If she wasn’t protective of that child, Mengxi wouldn’t have dragged me here to save her…’

Sigh.

‘I, a dignified Heavenly Apostle, actually came here to kidnap someone?’

Speechless.

“By the way, that girl…”

“She’s gone.”

Looking at the empty interior of the prisoner carriage, Mengxi’s mood plummeted as if a ton of ice water had been poured over her. She had guessed that Yumo would likely pretend to be Xia’er and go to the imperial capital, so she had come directly to “rescue” her…

In any case, Yumo probably wouldn’t have resisted for the sake of her disguise.

However…

‘Where is she?’

Not seeing the pink-haired girl, Mengxi couldn’t help but clench her fists.

Judging from the mess at the scene and the dazed state of the Royal Knights, a battle must have occurred here earlier.

Did Yumo escape on her own?

But there was no Shadow Essence at the scene?

Mengxi couldn’t help but frown. After absorbing Yumo’s Shadow Essence every day, she had become extremely sensitive to Yumo’s power. If Yumo had made a move, she would definitely be able to sense the released Shadow Essence.

It wouldn’t just be the small trace left inside the carriage.

In other words…

‘Sister Yumo didn’t escape by herself…’

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However, the people here had clearly been easily neutralized. If Yumo didn’t do it, then who did?

People from Windward City? No, with their strength, it was impossible for them to deal with Xue Tian’ao’s Royal Knight Corps.

At the same time, the conversation between Yumo and that super-strong loli during the time she was “unconscious” resurfaced in Mengxi’s mind, causing her to knit her brows.

‘Is it the Blackrose Family?’

If it were them, they might have the strength.

While Mengxi was deep in thought, Bai Yanluo, who had finished checking the surroundings, walked over to her side thoughtfully.

“Strange…”

“Hmm? What is it?”

Bai Yanluo’s words caught Mengxi’s attention. After all, it was rare for Bai Yanluo to sound so surprised.

In response to Mengxi’s question, Bai Yanluo pointed toward the positions of the other Royal Knight squads further ahead.

“If you look closely, this escort team’s path deviated. It deviated by a lot, directly opening up such a large distance from the other squads. Perhaps that’s why they weren’t discovered for so long after being attacked. But, haha, these knights sure are careless.”

“Huh? You mean they deviated, Bai? Did these knights get lost?”

“Unlikely. An elite unit like this wouldn’t make such a low-level mistake… Furthermore, there are traces of magic in the nearby forest. I suspect someone deliberately made them deviate.”

Hearing this, Mengxi was momentarily stunned.

“They can make the Royal Knights deviate? Bai, do you know what kind of magic it is?”

“The lush forest nearby… hmmm…”

Bai Yanluo rested her chin on her hand, adopting a contemplative expression.

“As far as I know, the only thing that could achieve this is the sanctuary magic unique to the Elven Race, the Wandering Forest…”

“The Elven Race?”

Mengxi’s expression became one of utter confusion.

Weren’t the elves always neutral?

Why would they suddenly come to help “rescue” Yumo?