Author: 木尺素 / Mu Chisu

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

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Chapter 138

Inside the Royal City.

The fires that burned throughout the night in every household were finally extinguished, and the day was fully bright. Shops along the street gradually opened, and bustling crowds took to the streets.

The faces of the people were mostly filled with joyful smiles—they had survived, safely passing the perilous Samhain, and from this morning on, they could truly celebrate this day as a festival.

The little dragon was summoned by Zhou Qian and quietly flew out of the city. Through its eyes, Zhou Qian gathered much information—

Last night, to safely get through Samhain, the group from the Land of Silence didn’t travel overnight but stayed in a nearby town. They were now heading towards the Royal City and would arrive in about an hour.

Their procession included seven magicians and about thirty guards, all elite.

On the other hand, Gao Shan, acting as a bone spirit, went to scout both inside and outside the palace.

With his transparent soul, he could freely avoid various guards and eavesdrop on their conversations without being discovered. The only thing he had to beware of were animals in this world that could see spirits or magicians with special abilities.

After some scouting, Gao Shan found out that the kings of both countries would meet in the palace’s horse track. They both enjoy horse racing and plan to discuss state affairs while racing horses and drinking.

As for the general layout of the royal city, it had been thoroughly explored by the players before they went to the breakfast shop.

The Royal City was square, with a city gate in each of the four directions. People from the Land of Silence would enter through the east gate, follow the main road all the way to the palace, then enter the horse track directly through the west side door.

Guards were stationed at all four gates, especially at the east gate, where defenses were exceptionally strict. From the city gate, along the main road, to the west side door of the palace, not only were the guards strict, but there were also ceremonial troops specially prepared to welcome the Land of Silence.

Due to barriers set up, no ordinary citizens passed through the king of the Land of Silence necessary route from the city gate to the horse track.

In this situation, once a player walked past, they would immediately become the target of everyone’s attention.

During this time, Alayne also went out to scout.

As a citizen of the Kingdom of Words, she infiltrated and wandered around the city, bringing back a piece of news after some investigation.

“The replacements for the Day, Moon, Star, Cloud four great guard armies stationed in the Royal City are Wind, Rain, Thunder, Fire. Inside the palace, these four guard squads jointly protect it, and as for the city gates, Wind guards the east, and Rain, Thunder, Fire respectively guard the west, south, north. I inquired about the names of the four guard leaders and found something complicated…”

“These four leaders and some of their subordinates were once from Day, Moon, Star, Cloud. When I passed by the west gate, I even made eye contact with that leader. I have been reborn, so he doesn’t recognize me, but I recognized him at a glance. Back then…”

Sighing, Alayne’s eyes filled with deeper hatred. “The battle against the Red God, when I died, I fought alongside them. My squad and I all died in battle, but they survived unharmed and even became leaders here.”

Because of Amei and the golden feather, Day, Moon, Star, Cloud were expelled to become commoners. But not everyone from these four families went to Nameless Village.

After being reincarnated as Alayne, she heard the old folks mention their names and fates—they were executed.

Back then, because the golden feather was stolen, the Land of Silence waged war against the Kingdom of Words, which at that time couldn’t resist the Land of Silence. They not only had to hand over Amei but also had to punish her family sufficiently to appease the Land of Silence’s anger and avert an imminent war.

Thus, for Day, Moon, Star, Cloud, most were expelled, and a few were executed. Among those expelled to Nameless Village, no one thought there was anything unusual. They all believed that those few people had truly died.

But now Alayne realized there might be more to the story.

She thought for a moment and said, “I understand. Day, Moon, Star, Cloud each mastered a unique skill, and with these four skills working together, the king could sleep soundly. This has always been the support of the four great families. They thought that by handing over Amei, the king would definitely not harm them, but unexpectedly…”

“It seems these four betrayed their own families. They revealed the secrets of the unique skills to the king in exchange for their own prosperity. With control over the four unique skills, they reformed Wind, Rain, Thunder, Fire, which could replace the former Day, Moon, Star, Cloud in protecting the king. Then, for the former four families… the king could expel them without worry. Even…”

Clenching her fists, Alayne said, “Even further back in time, I was betrayed by them! The queen hated the four families and the king, so she became the Red God and caused chaos. But she never harmed the civilians. This I learned after dying and going to another realm, seeing the queen.”

“If the massacre of so many civilians wasn’t done by the queen, then it was most likely these people committing crimes under the guise of the Red God’s orders.”

Everyone thought the Red God was the calamity of the Royal City. Alayne, to protect the civilians, fought on the day of Samhain when the Red God appeared, exhausted her strength, and died.

But she never imagined the real culprits were her own family.

These people had long harbored the intention to betray, secretly turning their blades against their own.

When Alayne was still Beilan, she died under their betrayal. Day, Moon, Star, Cloud were expelled and became commoners because of their betrayal, and then directed all their hatred towards Amei alone, continuously framing her during her years of suffering…

At this point, Alayne suddenly felt uncertain about whom to hate.

She remembered what Amei said—the people here are too wicked, so wicked that Amei would rather stay as the Red God in the other world forever than return to the human world.

After hearing Alayne’s story, Zhou Qian quickly understood all the causes and effects.

He slightly raised his eyebrows, glanced towards the east gate, and then smiled. “I see… Then there’s even more reason to kill them.”

“So, this is another betrayal. It seems ‘betrayal’ indeed is the theme of this instance. Then, let them be our first targets.”

Having said this, Zhou Qian stood next to the breakfast table and buried his head on the desk. He put one hand on the table, drew a map with the other, and laid out specific tactics.

Finally, he spun a pen in his fingers and, with a snap, placed it on the table.

Zhou Qian turned to everyone. “Does everyone understand? Since the east side is heavily guarded, we’ll act from the west, south, and north. We’re perfectly disguised as defectors from the Land of Silence. ‘Framing’ this on the Land of Silence couldn’t be easier. Don’t forget, the solution to this problem was told to us by the people of Nameless Village—”

He Xiaowei reacted immediately, saying, “I got it! When they killed Qi Yunsi and framed us, they mentioned that the soldiers of the Land of Silence have a unique curved weapon! I’ve seen Qi Yunsi’s body. I know what that mark looks like! We can kill these betrayers and then make the wounds look similar!”

“Right. So… let’s get moving.”

Zhou Qian placed his other hand on the table with a snap, as if to boost everyone’s morale.

One after another, they left, leaving only Bai Zhou behind.

Zhou Qian and Bai Zhou stood facing each other by the window.

Outside the window was a street full of exotic charm. The morning glow’s orange light dissipated, and the sunlight began to intensify, casting a halo of hazy light and shadow around their side profiles.

Despite their days together, they had always been in the game world.

Zhou Qian had never seen the part of Bai Zhou hidden in the shadows.

But it seemed Zhou Qian never cared about that.

Now, he just looked at Bai Zhou seriously, smiling slightly. “I’m going to command you now.”

Bai Zhou smiled back and didn’t say much. He just stepped forward, took Zhou Qian’s right hand with one hand, lifted it to his lips, lightly kissed the back of his hand, then put his hand down.

“See you in a bit. Be careful.”

With those words, Bai Zhou turned and leaped towards the window, his tall and slender figure disappearing as if merging with the daylight.

Zhou Qian first looked down the long street through the window—not a trace of Bai Zhou could be seen.

Then he lifted his hand, glancing at the back of his hand a couple more times, though not spending too much time on it.

Taking a quick deep breath, Zhou Qian, with the Rib of God in hand, also took action.

He left the bed, walked down the stairs to the first floor, through the hall towards the street, “accidentally” bumping into many customers along the way.

Thus, before entering the breakfast shop, he had no money, but upon leaving, he had acquired a significant amount of currency from the Kingdom of Words.

Moments later, Zhou Qian changed into a new outfit—one that was currently fashionable in the Royal City of the Kingdom of Words—and arrived at the west gate.

His task was to kill the leader of Fire, who was in charge of this location.

The reason he took on this task was simple—when he passed by here earlier, before dawn, he noticed a few soldiers gambling with cards at the base of the city wall.

Although the cards held by the soldiers of the Kingdom of Words and their way of gambling were very different from what he was used to in modern society, the principles were the same. Zhou Qian, with a good memory and proficient in gambling, had figured out the game after watching just three rounds.

When Alayne came here to scout earlier, she coincidentally encountered the Fire leader arriving at this location to assign tasks to the soldiers stationed here.

From a distance, Alayne was able to recognize him as someone from the former four great families.

Alayne had described in detail the appearance and clothing of the Fire leader, which Zhou Qian had memorized thoroughly.

Now, after walking around the inside of the city gate, Zhou Qian found that the Fire leader wasn’t here.

The four great guard armies of Wind, Rain, Thunder, and Fire were responsible for the security of the entire Royal City, both for guarding the city gates and the palace. As the leader of one of these four branches, the Fire leader would likely patrol back and forth between the city gate and the palace to check if his subordinates were slacking off.

His absence meant he had probably gone back to the palace to inspect the defensive arrangements there after assigning tasks at the city gate in the morning.

The Fire leader would surely return.

And his absence provided Zhou Qian with an opportunity to deal with him.

Aside from the temporary absence of the Fire leader, there were also no civilians near the west gate at the moment.

Hearing that people from the Land of Silence were coming, most had crowded to the eastern side of the Royal City. The east gate area had several taller buildings, like inns and bookstores. Unable to go to the streets, they resorted to this way to join in the excitement and catch a glimpse of the king of the Land of Silence.

Zhou Qian managed to catch a passerby and talked him into playing cards with him.

Of course, the cards were also bought with the money he had “borrowed” at the breakfast shop.

The place where Zhou Qian gambled with the man was very close to the west gate.

Because it was quiet due to the absence of people around, the noise from their spot easily reached the west gate.

The civilian Zhou Qian had randomly grabbed and coaxed into gambling with him was a young man in his early twenties, with delicate features and dark green eyes.

Now, he was regretting his decisions, unable to stop exclaiming, “Why could you win ten times in a row against me?”

“That’s not right. Your cards were so small at the beginning, how could you bet you would win? Do you have x-ray vision?”

“Are you cheating?”

“No, no, let me shuffle!”

……

“Oh my god… Impossible! How did I lose again?”

“Who exactly are you? Are you a magician? If so, I’m going to have someone beat you up! Magicians aren’t allowed to gamble. That’s a rule everyone knows! Everyone will help me beat you up! Be careful!”

“You’re a foreigner, aren’t you? I’ve never seen you before! You definitely can’t beat my people!”

“Anyway, I’m right no matter what!”

The young man’s ramblings were interrupted by Zhou Qian’s action—

He simply took off his shirt.

“You…?”

“You were suspicious of me hiding cards, right? Now, I can’t cheat. Oh, and you were suspicious of me using magic? You can search me to see if I’m hiding anything. Magicians need tools to cast spells, and I definitely don’t have such things.”

The young man indeed inspected Zhou Qian from head to toe, even grabbed his hair a few times, and found that he indeed had nothing on him that could be used for magic.

Finally, seeming confident, he said, “Then, then I’m raising the stakes!”

Zhou Qian replied, “Great! I could tell you’re a rich man from your clothes!”

“If I lose again, I’ll give you all the money I have on me!”

“I was wrong before. You’re not just straightforward. You’re really bold! I love playing cards with people like you.”

During this time, the soldiers at the west gate had their eyes and ears focused in this direction.

They were all muttering among themselves—

“That guy doesn’t use magic or hide cards, yet he won so many times in a row. He must be a real pro. Is that guy with green eyes an idiot for raising the stakes?!”

“But how does the pro do it? I’m really curious…”

……

Meanwhile, they were extremely curious about whether the young man would lose all his money to Zhou Qian.

Five minutes later.

The young man lost another five rounds and sat on the ground, actually starting to cry.

Zhou Qian patted his shoulder. “Hey, don’t be so sad. Consider this my good deed for the day. Or how about I teach you?”

“You-You’ll teach me? If you do… Can I be like you…”

“Of course. I guarantee it.” Zhou Qian nodded affirmatively. “You’ll be the next gambling god of the Kingdom of Words. You’ll win a lot of money! But—”

Zhou Qian nonchalantly stood up shirtless, casually draping his shirt over his shoulder, and turned to walk into a nearby alley. “But this place is too public. It’s not convenient. My secret technique is not to be shared. Come into this alley. I’ll tell you secretly.”

At that moment, all the soldiers’ eyes showed greed.

“Should we follow?”

“Who’s going to guard the city gate if we do?”

“But if we don’t follow, we’ll miss this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!”

“How about we pick someone to follow, and he can teach us when he comes back?”

“Who do we pick? We know each other too well. We’re a bunch of gamblers—who would really teach us if they learned this skill? I don’t believe it unless you send me!”

“Fine, let’s all go together! Fire boss went to the horse track to assign tasks! He won’t be back anytime soon!”

“Actually, today’s matter doesn’t concern us. It’s all about the east gate’s task. Let’s go! Let’s go!”

“Agreed, we won’t have this chance again!”

With his back to the crowd, Zhou Qian stepped into the alley.

The backlight outlined his lean and muscular upper body as he smirked, revealing a familiar smile of pleasure on his face.

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