Chapter 47: Survival After the Disaster

To Master Laurie’s relief, the Lord was still safe and sound.

At this moment, the handsome, dark-haired young noble was kneeling with his head bowed in the middle of the main road. Beside him lay a Mercenary Knight with a blood-covered face and a broken neck, long dead. Judging from the sabre tightly gripped in the corpse’s hand, he had likely tried to ambush the Lord amid the chaos. After all, dressed in fine clothes that clearly marked him as high nobility, Xiahou Yan was far too conspicuous a target in the commotion. However, Zombie Dave, squatting obediently to the side like a hound with a mouth full of blood, along with a bloodstained cast-iron crowbar, made the cause of this unlucky mercenary’s death unmistakably clear.

Master Laurie, Alice, and Clement paid little attention to the mercenary’s corpse on the ground; their eyes were immediately drawn to the petite figure cradled in the Lord’s arms.

It was a young girl with long flaxen hair, dressed in a maid’s outfit. A gaping hole had been pierced through the center of Anjie Rendall’s neck by the sharp tip of a cavalry lance. Blood was still gushing from the wound, soaking the Lord’s robes. Yet, her expression was incredibly peaceful. Lying in the Lord’s arms, the young girl looked as if she were in a deep slumber, having a sweet dream.

Near the maid’s hand lay a piece of Purple-leafed Ginger that had rolled onto the ground. The massive plant root had already been sliced a few times, revealing its pale pink, fleshy cross-section. When the convoy was attacked, Anjie had been preparing to slice the ginger to brew tea for the Lord. But that violent and brutal thrust of the lance had thoroughly stolen this young girl’s life.

"Lord Eliot?" Master Laurie opened his mouth but said nothing. Instead, it was Alice Comstock who called out softly.

Xiahou Yan lifted his head from Anjie, his eyes bloodshot. As far as his vision could reach, all he saw was red—the red of blood, the red of life, the red of anger, death, and destruction.

"Who are they?" the Lord asked hoarsely, staring intently at the cavalry corpse on the ground.

"I don’t know..." Master Laurie said, pursing his lips. "...Perhaps they’re highwaymen..."

"Highwaymen armed with cavalry lances and sabres, wearing standardized light armor, and capable of launching an organized charge?" Xiahou Yan revealed a cruel smile. "Who are the opponents of these ’highwaymen’? The Demon Race?"

Master Laurie fell silent.

It was the experienced Thorn Knight, Clement, who spoke up in a deep voice. "They should be Mercenaries. Their combat stances don’t resemble the uniformly trained Imperial Regular Army, yet they clearly belong to the same military organization. Therefore, they’re probably from some Mercenary Corps in the southern Wilderness."

"Mercenaries..." Xiahou Yan chewed on the word, his gaze growing increasingly icy. "So, someone must have ’hired’ them, right?"

Clement silently nodded.

Master Laurie and Alice exchanged a glance. This sudden ambush on the main road was far too abrupt, far too bizarre, and its timing was far too perfect! This group of Mercenaries lying in ambush by the roadside must have been tracking the Igor Family convoy’s movements all along! If there wasn’t someone secretly plotting this behind the scenes, not even Zombie Dave would believe it!

In fact, the names of several political enemies of the Igor Family had already surfaced in the minds of Master Laurie and Alice.

Xiahou Yan didn’t seem to think too much about it. He simply and gently laid Anjie Rendall’s corpse back onto the ground. He then rubbed the Illusory Bracelet on his wrist, turned to Zombie Dave, and softly said, "Eat something. Don’t starve yourself."

Zombie Dave joyously pounced on the mercenary corpse on the ground and began tearing into its flesh, gnawing on it as if it were an Easter turkey. A chill ran down the spines of the surrounding crowd.

"Gather all the bodies here," Xiahou Yan ordered, his tone perfectly calm.

Knowing that the Lord was going to use the Resurrection Technique again, the surviving crowd quickly obeyed and ran toward the scattered corpses. Soon, the fallen members of the Igor Family from this battle were gathered on the blood-soaked ground in front of the Lord, while the corpses of the Mercenaries were haphazardly and resentfully piled to the side by the territory’s people.

Mayor Joel, whose arm had been slashed and wounded by a sabre but had luckily survived, wrapped a bandage around himself while reporting the casualties to the Lord. "Lord, there are one hundred and seventy-four bodies here in total..."

Xiahou Yan took a deep breath. In truth, the ambush hadn’t lasted very long. After being met with a head-on counterattack by Clement and Alice, the Mercenary Knights quickly lost the will to fight and fell into a rout. But even so, their initial collective charge and the subsequent sabre combat had still claimed the fresh lives of nearly two hundred people of the Igor Territory. The majority were killed by cavalry lances and sabres, but a significant portion were crushed to death by overturned carriages or trampled under horses’ hooves.

"People of the Igor Family," Xiahou Yan spoke slowly as he stood before this makeshift morgue. His voice wasn’t loud, but it was enough for everyone to hear. "I’ve actually always been hesitant." He glanced around at the faces covered in soot and blood, eyes still lingering with undissipated fear, and licked his dry lips.

"There is a reason Necromancy is classified as a taboo. Even the Resurrection Technique I use completely disregards the wishes of the dead, crudely turning them into living corpses without body heat or a heartbeat, privately tampering with their way of existence," the Lord said, articulating every word clearly. "In the infected zone, to obtain necessary combat power, I took it upon myself to resurrect several Guard Team members, and to this day, I remain deeply apologetic for the state of their bodies."

Alice, standing to the side, softened her gaze.

"I also once decided that after leaving the infected zone, I would no longer use Necromancy. From then on, I would respect the natural cycle of birth, aging, illness, and death, and respect the will of fate!" Xiahou Yan gritted his teeth, thrusting his hand fiercely toward the pile of mercenary corpses not far away. "However, someone does not respect the lives of my people! Someone does not respect their fate! Someone chose to hire this bloody pack of mercenary highwaymen to bring this unprovoked, catastrophic disaster upon the heads of my people!"

A fierce, burning rage likewise ignited in the eyes of the crowd. The battle, the slaughter, and the deaths they had just witnessed had branded an indelible mark on the hearts of these commoners that would last a lifetime.

"Therefore..." Under the shocked gazes of the crowd, their Lord fell to both knees, bowed his head, and gave a deep, solemn bow to the corpses before him. "I, Master of the Igor Family, former Lord of Eagle’s Rest Castle, and Eternal Guardian of the Igor Territory, Eliot Igor, shall apologetically bring you back to this world! As a price, I swear to tear the culprit behind this disaster to pieces, bringing you vengeance and justice! Likewise as a price, I will spend my entire life doing everything in my power to find a way to restore you back to normal people!"

Amidst the dead silence, Xiahou Yan slowly stood up straight and then unhesitatingly began chanting the Spell for the Resurrection Technique. In the obscure tones of the Ancient Iolaian Demon Language, the colossal phantom of King Yama manifested in the air once again. Only this time, the phantom seemed to linger for an exceptionally long time.

The phantom of King Yama, with its deep, distinctly Eastern eyes, slowly swept its gaze over the field of corpses on the ground. Even though the somber face hidden behind the beaded tassels of the crown was expressionless, it seemed to carry an indescribable, profound sense of compassion.

The Magic Spell came to an abrupt halt, and the Divine Spirit phantom shattered into dust. One after another, the wounds on the corpses rapidly healed as they sat up from the ground. Master Laurie realized, without much surprise, that the Lord had just cast an ultra-large-scale Group Resurrection Technique...

However, not all the victims were resurrected. Among the one hundred and seventy-four people, some were too severely mangled, while others could not be revived because their severed limbs were lost. They would forever lie on the ground, their souls completely returning to the Netherworld. The fortunate victims who were resurrected, including Anjie Rendall, experienced a brief moment of confusion before being tearfully embraced by their surviving family and friends.

Xiahou Yan leaned against a tent nearby, silently watching the scene unfold before him.

"Lord Eliot!" Clement suddenly called out from the side. "Over there, it looks like there’s one who hasn’t breathed his last!"

Following the Death Knight’s pointing finger, Xiahou Yan indeed spotted a Mercenary Knight’s "corpse" suddenly begin to wriggle slowly. Judging by this mercenary’s exceptionally exquisite attire, he seemed to be the leader of this group! Yes, Vice Commander Tebili of the Desolate Wind Mercenary Corps had merely been knocked unconscious by Clement’s Rune Giant Sword. He was not completely dead yet!

"Excellent. It just so happens I have a few questions for him," the Lord said expressionlessly. "We won’t rush to travel today. Find a sufficiently hidden spot nearby to set up camp, and be careful not to expose our tracks. Make sure you throw this bastard into my tent. When I interrogate him, no one is allowed near!"

Mayor Joel and Clement accepted their orders and left, while Xiahou Yan turned to Master Laurie. "Master, I know you must be skilled in this area, so could you help me prepare some tools for interrogating a prisoner?"

"Would you like whips, iron rods, steel pipes, small knives, hooks, or pepper spray?" Master Laurie quickly asked.

"I’ll take all of them," the Lord replied without a shred of hesitation.