Coiling Dragon (Pan Long)

Dawn. The air was clear and fresh.

Ruskin [Luo’si’jin] was leading his two subordinates as they moved at high speed in the direction of the manor where Lampson and the others had settled into last night.

“I must make sure that we take excellent care of Lord Lampson and the others. A single word from Lampson could most likely get us all promoted.” Ruskin was feeling rather frustrated though. “Unfortunately, it seemed as though Lord Lampson is being extremely cautious. They didn’t allow a single attendant to enter the manor.”

As he was thinking these things, Ruskin walked to the gate.

“What’s going on? The gate isn’t shut?” Ruskin frowned. He knew that Lampson and the other lords were on a very important matter. They definitely wouldn’t leave the door open.

He entered the courtyard. As he did, he felt that the courtyard was a bit too quiet.

“Milords.” Ruskin called out.

But his voice echoed out in the courtyard without any response.

“The two of you, look around for me. I’ll go upstairs and see what I can find.” Ruskin had a very bad feeling about this. He immediately headed to the second floor, where Lampson and the others’ rooms had been located.

Every single door on the second floor was open. None were closed.

Entering Lampson’s room, Ruskin immediately frowned. The bed was in a used state, clearly not made. At the same time, at the head of the bed, there was a backpack.

“This isn’t right.”

Ruskin immediately entered another room. Indeed, the bed there was also in a messy state, and a backpack was on a table. As of yet, Ruskin hadn’t seen any problems…but he felt this wasn’t quite right.

“Lord Lampson didn’t even have the time to put on the backpack, and the same was true for the other lords as well. Could it be that something important occurred, forcing Lord Lampson and the others to immediately depart?” Ruskin frowned.

“Milord!” A frantic call from downstairs.

Ruskin’s face changed, and he immediately rushed down the hallway, then jumped down directly from the balcony to the courtyard.

“What is it?” Ruskin looked at his two subordinates.

“Milord, there are bloodstains here.” The two of them pointed at the wall.

Originally, Zassler had ordered his undead minions to destroy all traces of the deceased. Virtually all traces, including bloodstains, had indeed been removed. But when the Blackcloud Panther, Haeru, had smashed open that Special Executor’s skull with one paw, blood had splattered everywhere. Although those undead minions were very industrious and careful, there were still a few tiny traces remaining.

“Bloodstains. And the lords have all disappeared?”

Staring at the quiet courtyard, Ruskin felt as though an enormous boulder was pressing against his chest. “A battle occurred here. As for the lords, could it be that they are in pursuit?”

Ruskin knew how astonishingly powerful the six of these lords were. He didn’t believe that someone could kill these six lords.

Ruskin instructed his two subordinates, “The two of you, head out immediately towards the provincial capital of Basil. Report this news back.”

“Yes!”

But before the two subordinates had even reached the provincial capital of Basil, Linley’s group had already encountered the second squad mid-way.

“It’s them?” Linley, Bebe, Zassler, and Haeru were hiding in some tall, wild grass by the roadside.

Zassler looked at the four knights surrounding a carriage. Nodding, he said, “Right. It’s them. The two girls should be inside the carriage.”

“Inside the carriage?”

Linley frowned, then looked at Bebe. “Bebe, I expect that the carriage will have more than just those two girls. There should be people guarding the girls as well. Bebe, you are physically small. Your assignment will be to enter the carriage at high speed and kill those guards.”

Zassler nodded. “This squad should also have six people, all men. There should be two more men inside this carriage.”

“Did you hear that, Bebe? Kill the two men inside the carriage.” Linley laughed as he rubbed Bebe’s head.

Bebe hopped onto Linley’s shoulders, lifting his little head up confidently as he squeaked at Linley. “Boss. Have I, Bebe, ever let you down?”

Linley chortled lovingly.

“Let’s do this.” Linley said to him mentally.

Bebe immediately grew solemn as he stared at the carriage with his little eyes. And then, he quietly snuck through the tall grass, drawing closer to the carriage…

Within the carriage, there were two beautiful, jade-haired identical twin sisters. Their eyes were slightly red and swollen, and they were staring hatefully at the two men opposite of them.

“You bastards.” One of the two, the one whose eyes were slightly larger, cursed in a low voice.

The two men only smiled at them, not minding in the slightest.

“Rebecca [Li’be’ka], don’t curse anymore. Cursing these pieces of garbage is a waste of energy. And to think, we believed in the Radiant Church all these years and prayed to the Lord to bring us happiness. Who would’ve thought that they would be this vile.” The other girl’s eyes were also filled with hatred.

“Big sis.” Rebecca miserably clutched at her older sister’s hand.

Rebecca and Leena [Li’na] hailed from the 48 Anarchic Duchies. They had followed their father in believing in the Radiant Sovereign, but who would’ve thought that the Radiant Church would kill their parents, then abduct them.

With their parents dead, Rebecca and Leena were now without family.

And now, their future had turned to ashes. They couldn’t see any hope.

“Father. Mother.” Rebecca and Leena began to tremble as they thought of their parents. All these years, their parents had protected them, no matter how much chaos and war there had been in the Anarchic Lands.

But this time…

“Leena. Take your little sister and run.” Their father had tightly held onto a combatant of the seventh rank at the last moment of his life. Despite only being a warrior of the fifth rank, their father had managed to drag it out for a few seconds longer.

But unfortunately, the Radiant Church’s forces were too strong.

“God, please rescue us.” Leena was shouting in her heart. “So long as you can rescue us and give us a chance to seek revenge, I am willing to sacrifice everything, including my very soul.”

She had watched as her parents died. She wanted revenge.

Unfortunately. God was too far away from them. How would he be able to sense the desires of these two ordinary souls?

“Slash.” Suddenly, a very strange sound rang out.

Leena and Rebecca both turned in surprise. They only saw a black blur flash by. “Slash!” The sound rang out a second time, and blood spurted everywhere.

Rebecca and Leena stared in shock.

The heads of the two men who had been guarding them suddenly slumped down. Half of their neck had been cut off. They were unquestionably dead.

“Who was it?” The twin sisters stared in shock, then suddenly were overjoyed. They knew that someone had rescued them. They looked in all directions, but they couldn’t see their savior.

“Squeak, squeak.” A sound rang out from beneath them.

Rebecca and Leena both lowered their heads, only to see an adorable little black mouse standing there, holding his head up in a very arrogant fashion. In a very human-like manner, it used its sharp claws to stroke its whiskers.

“A rat?” Both Rebecca and Leena were confused.

Bebe immediately grew angry, and he quickly jumped up while waving his little paws around wildly. He suddenly transformed into a black blur, flashing past them.

“It was the rat?” Rebecca and Leena began to understand.

Bebe had made no noise at all when he had killed those two. What’s more, the carriage wheels continually rumbled as the carriage rolled along the road. The four knights outside hadn’t noticed a thing.

“Ah!”

Suddenly, a miserable scream from outside.

“Roaaaar!” A furious roar from a beast.

Rebecca and Leena looked at each other, then immediately pushed open the carriage door. The carriage driver had already collapsed, his fresh blood staining the carriage.

Rebecca and Leena quickly turned to look at the four knights.

But all they saw….

Was four devilish flashes of violet light. The three knights didn’t have a chance to react before their heads went flying, while the warrior wearing black armor, Linley, landed gracefully in front of the carriage, the adamantine heavy sword on his back.

“Hello. You’ve just been freed.” Linley said with a smile.

Seeing the powerful youngster in front of them, Rebecca and Leena were both somewhat stunned. In their eyes, those knights were extremely powerful. But it seemed as though to this youngster, those knights weren’t even capable of resisting for a moment.

“Rebecca and Leena. Hello there.” An ancient voice rang out. Only now did Zassler stand up from amidst the grassy field.

Seeing Zassler’s bony, decrepit body, as well as his extremely long, white eyebrows, Rebecca and Leena both called out in excitement, “Grandpa Zassler!”

They had travelled with Zassler for a time under common guard, so they knew each other.

“Grandpa Zassler, who is this lord?” Rebecca and Leena both looked curiously towards Linley. Suddenly, the two sisters noticed an enormous black panther was drawing near them. The panther’s cold, eerie eyes made both Rebecca and Leena feel frightened.

“Don’t be afraid. Haeru, stop scaring them.” Linley barked.

“Arooo.” Haeru made a placating voice towards Linley, then lowered his head and moved to the side, no longer daring to go frighten these twin sisters.

“Rebecca, Leena, this is Lord Linley. He isn’t any weaker than me.” Zassler chortled.

“Truly?” Rebecca and Leena stared at Linley in shock.

It wasn’t that they didn’t believe Linley was powerful; it was that they had seen how, when Zassler was being escorted, how much the Radiant Church had valued him. His jailors had even a Cardinal in their midst. Zassler had bragged to these sisters before about how he was capable of destroying a million-man army. It was only because he was surrounded and attacked by over ten combatants of the ninth rank that he was finally captured.

“Grandpa Zassler. It was this adorable mouse who saved us.” Rebecca and Leena immediately turned their heads to look at Bebe.

Bebe was currently standing on top of the carriage. He smirked at her, and then in the blink of an eye, he scurried onto Linley’s shoulders.

“You’re talking about Bebe? This is a magical beast which Linley tamed.” Zassler laughed as he introduced Bebe. Then he looked at Linley. “Linley. Let me introduce you. The younger sister, Rebecca, has slightly larger eyes. This one is the older sister, Leena.”

Linley smiled and nodded.

“Zassler, should we send these two girls back, or…?”

In Linley’s opinion, these two girls were of no use to them. After all, no matter how pure their souls were, that didn’t mean they were very powerful.

“Grandpa Zassler, we have no place to go.” The older sister, Leena, immediately grew frantic. Begging, she said, “Grandpa Zassler, let us come with you. We know that you’ve killed the Radiant Church’s people. We also want to seek revenge for our parents.”

“Grandpa Zassler, we’re begging you.” Rebecca also beseeched him.

Zassler was planning to take these girls with him all along, with the intention of possibly inducting the twins into the dark art of Necromantic Magic. But he had to get Linley’s concurrence as well.

“Linley, let’s just take them along with us. Leena and Rebecca can both cook. We can’t always just eat roast meat in the valley, can we?” Zassler laughed.

Hearing his words, Rebecca and Leena hurriedly said, “We can do anything. We can fry, cook, clean.”

The two of them knew that without anyone to rely on, two beautiful girls such as them would have a disastrous fate. Seeing how highly Zassler seemed to value Linley’s opinion, they knew that Linley was undoubtedly an expert as well. This would give them an even greater chance of getting revenge.

Linley glanced at the two siblings. Facing their beseeching gaze, he nodded. “Fine.”

Rebecca and Leena’s eyes were instantly filled with a radiant, joyful light.

“Let’s go. We’re going back.” Linley instructed.

Linley’s group once more returned to the mountain valley, but this time with the addition of these two siblings. The four of them shared one point in common: They were filled with hatred towards the Radiant Church!