Chapter 40: Two Steps Together in a Blind Game of Chess
In the Rose Cathedral dungeon, Sloy had already dealt with the remaining few guards. He found the keys to remove his shackles, and after regaining his magic power, a bolt of lightning soon pierced through the dungeon and disappeared.
Using grappling hooks, he quickly left the Rose Cathedral’s territory.
By the time anyone discovered this, it was too late, and now Bai Li himself wasn’t in the castle either.
“What the hell?” He opened his cabinet to see that Frost Moon replica. He hadn’t expected Vivian to leave him this thing.
“The craftsmanship is better than before. It’ll have to do.”
Our protagonist Bai Li had already left this place. He knew Herta wouldn’t act so quickly, and he believed this judgment wouldn’t be wrong.
He knew the breakthrough lay in creating conflict between Clement and Herta, stirring up some trouble—he was good at this.
As for who would take the blame, since news of his survival would spread sooner or later anyway, he might as well use his own reputation directly. After all, in the Empire he was already either dead or a traitor.
According to the map, in this northern snowfield region, Bai Li wore a white cloak. Fortunately, he had set up teleportation coordinates here before, saving considerable travel time.
Unfortunately, all coordinates in the Empire had been blocked, otherwise he could have escaped directly through a teleportation array back then.
He dispersed the blizzard. In such harsh weather, visibility was very low—basically a no-fly zone. Fortunately, as an ice attribute user, this blizzard was nothing to him.
Crossing here would lead to Dark Night Cathedral territory. This snowfield formed a natural barrier hundreds of miles around, cutting off communication between many forces and the Dark Night Cathedral.
Traveling through the snowfield, without snow blindness affecting him, he constantly observed his surroundings. At first, he found nothing unusual.
But soon, he spotted a piece of fabric on dead branches ahead—it looked like a fragment from a cloak, probably torn off accidentally when passing through.
“Strange, what person would come here for no reason?” He picked up the fragment, feeling its texture, but quickly found he couldn’t determine anything.
Bai Li gripped his sword. He knew that if he encountered whoever this was, they definitely came with ill intent. He closed his eyes, sensing the fluctuation patterns nearby. In this environment, he didn’t need to worry about lacking magic power.
“Nothing at all?”
Maybe he really was being paranoid. Bai Li stood up and continued toward the Dark Night Cathedral to see how Clement was positioning himself.
…
This place was always shrouded in darkness, with withered branches, fallen leaves, and wilted flowers everywhere. Walking out of the snowfield, this environment soon connected seamlessly—quite reasonable, since the snowfield was basically all blizzards with no visible light either.
Bai Li stood on a nearby mountain slope where the forest had withered. He put away his white cloak and observed the distant dark purple cathedral.
Crows’ shrill cries occasionally echoed around, particularly eerie. Bai Li shook his head as rustling sounds behind him caught his attention.
He bent down and found a broken bone on the ground—it looked like a human arm bone that had been dead for a long time.
“Seems this guy found quite a few live subjects for developing forbidden techniques.” He pocketed the bone. This seemed to be a mass grave in the outskirts.
Originally, he had been somewhat photophobic, but this place was an ideal environment for blood clan—just a bit too dark, like some sunless sewer.
The sound of a small cart came from ahead. Bai Li quickly concealed his presence, hiding behind rocks to see what was happening.
Those were two soldiers in purple robes with uniformly pale complexions, carrying scythes about as tall as themselves.
The cart contained white bones—hard to imagine what these lives had endured before.
“Strange, do you feel very cold?” One soldier looked at his companion, only to see an ice sculpture.
A hand pressed on his head, and soon he too lost his breath.
“This move is enough.” Bai Li directly activated his mental network, forcibly invading the brain to extract memories. “Need a token to get in?”
He searched the corpse’s belongings and found a black stone—apparently you needed this thing to enter.
But the other soldier was dead. Two people couldn’t go out and only one return, right? He couldn’t control corpses like Clement.
He put on the purple robe, which looked rather awkward. His face compared to these generic guys… the recognition factor was definitely obvious.
He picked up the scythe, imitating their lifeless walking style. The bones in the cart were basically all human bones, which caught his attention.
“The Empire and Dark Night Cathedral don’t directly border each other. Where did he find so many humans?”
A terrifying thought suddenly occurred to him. If through maritime smuggling and trafficking… the noble class controlled the shipping routes, and these profit-seeking people doing such things wasn’t impossible.
The northern coastal port near the fortress was unlikely—that place was basically unmanaged. Bai Li shook his head. Now wasn’t the time to dwell on these things.
The fog that suddenly rose around him interrupted his thoughts.
Soon, Bai Li directly froze this area of water vapor. The person in the fog had nowhere to hide, and countless ice crystals flew at him from all directions.
“Come out. What are you exactly?”
He shattered the remaining fog, leaving only some ice shards and a pool of blood on the ground. He touched it with his finger—this blood gave him a very appetizing feeling.
“…Kind of want to taste it. This should be a human, right?”
What person would come to this godforsaken place? Really bizarre. This guy ran very fast and had completely left Bai Li’s perception range.
“Damn, if my mana could be a bit more, I’d seal this place with ice spikes and he couldn’t escape.” Bai Li cursed silently. The commotion here had been quite large—Dark Night Cathedral’s pursuit troops should arrive soon.
Better to use this to his advantage and sneak in by taking down one of them during the chaos.
The plan worked. Bai Li hid, having already cleaned up the ice shards and blood traces, waiting for someone to take the bait.
…
“You think His Highness the Prince isn’t here right now—did he desert?”
The spear-carrying blood clan soldiers chatted. After Bai Li arranged the defense plan, he hadn’t appeared, couldn’t be found anywhere, and the Empire prisoner in the dungeon had escaped too.
“I don’t know, but his arrangements were indeed good. The overlapping defensive zones can basically provide mutual support, and those of us veteran soldiers with some magic power don’t need to worry about friendly fire.” Another soldier adjusted his helmet.
Therese stood on the dome. Bai Li had told her before that he had business to handle and said not to worry about the Empire’s movements.
Until now, Herta hadn’t reacted at all, which put Therese at ease. Thinking of the unconscious Vivian and missing Bai Li, with Wensa still in the Fog Capital trying to get aid, there wasn’t a single person in charge of the entire Rose Cathedral.
Surely they couldn’t expect her to do it?
Remembering their pinky promise that day, she felt Bai Li wouldn’t break his word.
The windmill he’d given her continued to spin.