Chapter 487: Persuasion
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
The mercenaries in the White Mountain City were immersed in excitement. Comparatively, soldiers in Blackwater City were in a much more down mood, even though Manstuly and elf pharaohs tried hard to boost their morale. The uprising of the League of Mercenaries and the death of Scarlet had caused anxiety and fear in the Blackwater City's people.
Manstuly enjoyed a high reputation among the wolf druids. If he were compared to the top powers on the Pan Continent, he was not even as good as the archmage Michael from the Ellisen Empire. If Anfey could kill archmage Michael, it made sense that people believed Anfey definitely could kill Manstuly no matter how Manstuly argued about it or denied it. Even the wolf druids were pessimistic about it.
In the valley about 40 miles away from Blackwater City, a patrol was walking over the fresh green grass. The spring breeze was warm and the snow on the ground had melted away. The whole plain and hills had put on a new green dress and looked lively.
There was a saying: "It did not seem like work if men could be paired with women to work with." This patrol was composed of three female elves, four male elves, and four mercenaries. They talked and laughed as they travelled. They were more touring than on a mission. Elves were very proud, especially those three female elves. They were nice to their peers but only exchanged a few conversations with the mercenaries out of courtesy.
When they walked out of the valley, Blackwater River laid in front of their eyes. A male elf, who looked like the leader of this group, raised his voice, "Okay guys, we have to go back after taking a quick tour."
"The view here is breathtaking," a female elf said with a smile. On the other side of Blackwater River was an endless prairie, like a pure and clean green carpet. The elves used to live in the forest and had never had the chance to see how grand the prairie could be. They felt so refreshed.
"It would be great if we could stay here forever," another female elf exclaimed.
The third female elf was not in the mood to appreciate the prairie. Her eyes were fixed on something above her. A man in a white magic gown stood on the tree branch, glaring at them coldly. He had a gigantic ax in his hand and looked at them without any emotion. He seemed to treat everyone like a rock.
"Who are you?" the female elf raised her voice and asked.
The others all turned around to follow her eyes. A swirling ax flying down at them with rushing element currents in waves became their answer. The warm spring breeze became chilly. The freshness of the spring air was replaced by blood.
The element currents disappeared in the blink of an eye. Eleven people in the patrol died before they could do anything about the element currents. They did not even have the chance to send out magical help signals. The power difference between Anfey and themselves was huge.
Anfey quietly watched the blood beads drip from the ax. He looked like he was waiting for something or thinking deeply. After a while, he thought out loud with a frown. "Manstuly, you don't plan on being a chicken, do you?"
Anfey intensified the element currents on purpose so that Manstuly would sense it since he was only less than forty miles away from Blackwater City from here.
However, within his sensing range, about eight different patrol teams went the opposite direction from him. They all retreated to Blackwater City. Obviously, they were told what to do when they found anything wrong.
Anfey employed the strategy that had been used in the war between the human league and death spirits. This strategy used senior warriors to strike the opponent with their highest flexibility. This strategy looked simple but had many different small variations in it.
Sometimes, an archmage would suddenly show up in the sky above death spirits and leave right away after releasing large-scale destructive magic.
Sometimes, two master swordsmen would be busy killing death spirits and forget about leaving the battle, but they would leave from a suddenly-opened Dimensional Door once necromancers came to help the death spirits. A group of top powers would force the reinforcement necromancers to stay where they were forever with their magic.
Sometimes, a group of top powers attacked the end of the death spirits' army. When necromancers hurried over to help, those top powers would suddenly fly away before they even reached the end of the army. More top powers would attack the front of the death spirit army. Those necromancers would suddenly realize they fell into those top powers' trap and would immediately allocate necromancers to help the front of the army. The necromancers sent to help the back of the army would be sent back, but the back of the army got attacked again. Those top powers would employ the Vacuum Time so they could release a few Forbidden Spells with casualty and left without any hurry.
Human wisdom was so powerful that the strategies they developed were varied. They always seemed to be able to have new ideas. Anfey decided not to employ many strategies. He only wanted to lure Manstuly out.
It was risky for Anfey to sneak into White Mountain City. However, it was different than before. Once Anfey had entered the level of Da Dao, he became a saint. Before he reached the level of Da Dao, he was just a human. When he practiced with Suzanna before, he had to try really hard to be her match, but now he could definitely feel he was a lot better than her.
Anfey's aim was to kill as many senior level druids and elves as possible by himself. He hoped he could run into Manstuly and kill him in the fight. There was another reason that he did not bring Suzanna with him to Blackwater City. It had something to do with his advancement to a Saint.
Anfey wanted to have the supreme power, but he refused to evolve his emotions into the emotionless "Dao" level, which was contradictory to the principle of Da Dao. He did not want to kill the patrol, which had nothing to do with civilization or humanity. It was only because of his laziness and aloofness. Maybe he would only be passionate about a fight if there was someone as good as him. Anfey knew well the reason he had these emotional changes was because of the influence of Dao. He did not think it was right.
People usually did not know what they had until it was gone. Anfey had already had a taste of this. When his parents had been alive, he did not practice hard. The only reason he practiced was that he wanted to impress his friends and classmates. He did not understand how precious it was to have parents urge him to learn every day until his had passed away.
Anfey had Suzanna in his life now. He had been picturing their future. If he could not change his emotions, he would end up as a person with no emotions. He could give up anything in this world, including Suzanna. If this were the case, it would be pointless no matter how powerful he became.
Anfey was terrified of loneliness. It might be because he had been by himself for so long. No one understood what Anfey had to fight against— not only the seductions from women, but also his own heart.
A group of mercenaries, about forty of them, all rode horses and rushed into Anfey's sensing range. They rode very fast towards Anfey. Their appearance seemed out of nowhere. Other patrols had retreated to the station, which showed the city master's conservative attitude. The appearance of this group of mercenaries definitely shocked Anfey, especially when there seemed to be no top powers among them that Anfey should pay attention to.
Anfey suddenly remembered something. He took out a paper scroll from his Dimensional ring. There were a dozen faces painted on the scroll. The head of that group of mercenaries was one of the faces. Anfey had gotten very few pieces of information from Blackwater City since Manstuly and elves took control of it, but he still had previous information about Blackwater City. For example, the paintings of Mourtta and Hotchbini's children.
"Is he the youngest son of Hotchbini, Beach? He came at the right time," Anfey thought out loud and smiled.
Anfey's sensing range had already reached dozens of miles now so he had to wait a while for those mercenaries to ride their horses over the hill. Luckily it did not take them too long with the help of the horses. "Ashley, Ashley," a worried voice suddenly stopped at the Blackwater river. Over forty mercenaries all focused on the bodies lying everywhere on the ground.
"Hi, everybody." Anfey had to say something to remind them of his existence. He looked up to check the time. "Good afternoon, everyone."
The mercenary in the front stared at one elf's body. He jumped off the horse and rushed at Anfey. Luckily, his fellow mercenaries were not that focused. A few mercenaries immediately held him back and then looked at Anfey in alarm.
"You did not kill them, did you?" The mercenary in the front had not noticed Anfey until now. He yelled in anger.
"Are you Beach? Do your parents know you are here?" Anfey asked in a low pitch without answering Beach's question.
"I asked you if you killed them!" Beach was so furious that he pulled out his sword backhanded.
"Go back and tell Hotchbini." Anfey pointed at one mercenary. Beach did not answer Anfey. "I know Hotchbini has been busy lately. I do not want to cause any inconvenience for her, but I have no other option. You come at just the right time, don't you? Help me pass my apology to Hotchbini."
"I am f*cking asking you. Did you—" Beach's yelling was interrupted by his peers. The mercenaries stared at the ax in Anfey's hand. The cut-off limbs everywhere on the ground seemed to be enough evidence to prove what kind of weapon the killer had used. In addition, there was blood on the ax.
A few mercenaries dragged Beach back while more mercenaries pulled their swords out and surrounded Anfey. One mage had already started to chant. A big fireball appeared in the sky and shot at Anfey. One middle-aged mercenary yelled as he rushed towards Anfey: "Protect our lord and leave!"
The vicious-looking big fireball suddenly stopped when Anfey casually waved his hand. The fireball was like a well-behaved basketball and fell in Anfey's hand. Anfey weighed it and tossed the fireball back at the mage.
The mage almost popped out when he saw this. The next moment, the fireball he released hit him.
"You can only leave with my permission." Element currents suddenly prevailed around Blackwater river again after Anfey said it.