Chapter 593: The Discovery of a Plot

The night wind howled above the sea surface. In the dim and vast ceiling projection in the Furoh Hall, as the time moved second by second, the two gods played by the actors solemnly climbed to the peak step by step.

Zhang Lisheng looked up at all of this, and his breathing gradually quickened. Right at this moment, a repressed, angry voice resonated behind him. “Mr. Zhang Lisheng, may I know if you are an aristocrat in your hometown? If you are, please allow me to throw a scabbard at your feet.”

In the mainlander culture, when an aristocrat threw his scabbard at the foot of another aristocrat, it would mean an invitation to a duel that would not stop until one of them died. Zhang Lisheng had heard of this custom during some idly chat, so he could not help but look back in shock.

By the time he saw the face of the sturdy man with a grave expression who wore a straight blue battle attire in the masquerade that belonged to the female merchant’s lover clearly, Camano, he could not help but be taken aback. Then, he immediately realized that it must be because the conversation that happened at the dinner yesterday must have spread, so it had elicited his hatred.

If Camano provoked the young man like this during an average time, he would not mind giving him an unforgettable lesson, but since the ‘dagger’ was almost revealed now, Zhang Lisheng did not have the intention to be tangled in such ludicrous misunderstanding. He merely chuckled silently and turned his head back to look at the ceiling.

However, trouble would never quickly dissipate once it arrived. Zhang Lisheng’s light chuckle made Camano angrier. However, with his reserved nature and proper manner, the city defense officials did not lose his senses and merely held back his tumult wrath as he hissed between his teeth, “If you don’t have the identity to accept my scabbard, then it’s best to understand your place. Don’t vainly dream of getting the ‘treasure’ that you don’t deserve.”

When his words left his mouth, somebody suddenly chimed in with a disdainful tone, “Understand your place? Isn’t the level of nobility in Kattaman decided by the amount of wealth? From this perspective, I really can’t think of any ‘treasure’ that Sir Lisheng doesn’t deserve to get.”

When Camano heard this, he gritted his teeth loudly and looked at the direction of the sound. He stared at a beautiful woman wrapped with thin silk embroidered with flying flower petals, which gave off an exotic aura and asked in an icy cold voice, “Miss Nia Kayfend, then, do you want to let Mermaid Trading lose me and the friendship of the entire Horton family?”

“City Defense Officer Camano, why would you say so? I was merely stating a fact,” The girl smiled and walked up to Zhang Lisheng, “Sir Lisheng, we meet again…”

“Oh, it’s about to reach 12 o’clock midnight now,” Zhang Lisheng suddenly interrupted Nia’s words out of the blue and said faintly.

“That’s right, a new year is coming soon…” The girl smiled, nodded, and was about to probe the young man ambiguously, but all of a sudden, her words lodged in her throat after seeing the dignified and ferocious look that was gradually showing inadvertently on Zhang Lisheng’s raised face.

At the same time, in the ceiling projection of the hall, the Sea Goddess and the Emperor of the Three Seas who had already climbed the peak of the cliff held up the torches in their hands and walked to an ancient copper bell that had the height of three men covered with mottled green rusts. Together, they grasped the bell hammer tied with thick hemp rope.

Only the last few seconds left in this year. The projection on the Furoh Hall gradually stagnated. With its angle raised, it showed the coastal sea and without warning, on the dark sea illuminated by the moonlight, vague giant ships in an array that stretched out as far as eyes could see entered the image.

“W-What’s that?” Somebody cried out loud in astonishment after rubbing his eyes and realizing that it was not an illusion. When the shouts resonated, it was immediately drowned by the loud ‘dang’ sound of the copper bell being hit.

Then, a dazzling fire began to flash continuously in the entire projection. An earth-shattering rumbling sound, accompanied by the shaking of the ground, spread across Sea Haines City. The artilleries rained down on the city wall lit up the entire sky like a sea of fire.

“An attack! The enemy has attacked… No, no! That must be the army of the gods! Only the gods c-can have such a powerful, horrifying army! I-It must be the greed and ugliness of the Kattaman people who have finally angered the gods. Doomsday is coming because of this…”

“Is it the devil? Have the devils crossed the gate of Hell and come to destroy the Sea Haines City…”

“D-Dear god! This army is not something that our city defense can fight against! We need to run away! That’s right, run! We need to run now…”

Under the illumination of the blazing flame, the blurry steel giant ships in the projection finally revealed its ferocious figures. Looking at the massive guns on the ship’s side that were continuously shooting, the countless humanoid monsters riding giant poisonous insects, dragons, and beasts swarmed ashore, and the black leather ships floated on the sea surface that seemed to have a life as they broke off the shackles of the sea and rose to the air while thousands of empty mouths cracked open on their entire body and spurted out glare and acid. Most of the aristocrats in the Furoh Hall soon broke down and howled loudly.

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Upon seeing that the people who saw the chaos were about to run away soon and would probably trample on each other to death without needing the enemy to attack, the blue-robed Sea Haines City’s City lord leaped to the center of the hall and thumped his magic scepter on the ground. As it crumbled, a loud long ‘thump’ resonated at the same time.

“Everyone, calm down and stand in the same place!” Salero’s calm voice resounded loudly. “Look at the speed at which those monsters march! No mounts in the Sea Haines City can escape their pursuit at all. It’s equal to committing suicide if you leave the city now. Our city has the protection of magical formations and alchemy towers. Even if the real demon god army has come, it will not fall so easily! Such a huge scale siege warfare will surely alarm other city-states. As long as we persist, I believe reinforcements will soon come. The most important thing now is to not throw our own ranks off balance. Now, I order all the city defense officers in the Furoh Hall to be divided into left and right based on where I’m standing at as the center point. Those on the left, call your troops to maintain the order of the city. Those on the right, go to the city wall to reinforce the defense!”

The firm, tenacious, but calm voice amid a crisis of the strong person-of-authority gradually settled the hearts of everyone in the big hall. As the city defense officers shouted, “Yes, Lord!” in unison, nobody fled in horror anymore.

As one of the city defense officers, Camano naturally no longer had the intention to pick any trouble with Zhang Lisheng at this time. He clenched at the long sword at his waist and showed a determined look on his face. He turned around to walk outward but suddenly saw a figure he had been yearning for day and night walking into his sight.

Stopping in his track and smiling drily, the city defense officer sauntered up to Yaj and whispered, “I’ve been looking for you throughout the entire celebration but, but… Forget it, I should first apologize to you for being too impulsive just now. I may have brought trouble for your trading company, and I know that it’s not right, but I really can’t hold myself back, I can’t hold back…”

“Come back alive…” The female merchant placed both of her trembling palms over Camano’s mouth as she whispered.

“You’re always so proud and always think of yourself as someone important,” The city defense officer showed ease and poise as he replied, “I’m not so vulnerable as to seek death just because I lost you…”

“Come back alive. Please, I only ask you for this matter…” Yaj continued to ask in a stupefied manner.

“I really want to say ‘yes.’ I really want to say ‘yes’ to everything that you ask of me,” After a few moment of silence, Camano reached out a hand and wiped the tear off the corner of the female merchant’s eyes and said with a smile, “But I’m a soldier, a soldier who will fight with the fiercest enemy to defend our homeland, so I can’t give you that answer. I’m sorry, Yaj…”

Then, he turned away and strode away.

Yaj’s body stiffened as she stood like a statue for a moment. Suddenly, her body trembled as she gradually fell to the ground.

“Oh my poor Yaj…” immediately, many tearful girls around her went up to her in sympathy.

In the face of this, Zhang Lisheng, who was not far away, of course, did not give a damn at all. When the female merchant and the city defense officer were acting out their ‘tragic love drama,’ he looked up at the projection and saw that a sudden abstruse five-colored formation had suddenly lit up under the ruins of the collapsed city wall. As though they were bestowed with life, the gravel began to roll and stack together once again.

The Wizard Li warriors who raided the city drove their ‘partners’ into the formation. Their movements immediately slowed down twice the speed while the ‘shell’ wrapped around their bodies was significantly weakened. At once, casualties and deaths began to appear in the battle against those heavily armored city defense army who were not afraid of death.

However, in the increasingly fierce battle-and-deflection, Wizard Li’s expeditionary army still occupied an absolute advantage. Even when batches of inanimate alchemy warriors who were like robots continued to reinforce the Sea Haines City’s city defense army, the mainlanders were still doomed to be unable to turn their defeat around.

However, even so, the fact that he could not shatter the city in a single blow and occupy it still made Zhang Lisheng frown, “Just a mainland city-state alone is already so difficult; just how powerful is the strength of a mainland military power like Yassen and Fran Kingdom then? No wonder even a powerful civilization like Atlantis dares not easily set off a battle between worlds…”

While he was muttering to himself, he suddenly heard somebody spoke with a slight sadness behind him, “Sir Lisheng, the love story between Yaj and Camano is really so touching that even an ironman would shed tears as well. Sir Lisheng, it’s really too cruel of you to split up such a pair of lovers.”

“Seliya, I’ve already said that things are not as what you think,” Zhang Lisheng returned to his senses and looked at the Princess of Fran with his lips curled. He slowly walked up to the pale female merchant who was encircled by her people and said, “Yaj, do you still remember what I said to you? As long as you obey me, all your troubles will be gone. Now is the time to choose.”

“Why me? Why do you always have to seduce and force me? I’m only the daughter of a merchant, why? Tell me, why?” Yaj stared straight into the distance for a moment in silence before suddenly shouting hysterically.

“Because in my hometown, the first condition for conquering a foreign race is to find a surrenderer who has sufficient influence,” Zhang Lisheng replied calmly and unscrupulously, “Your lineage and talent allow you to have such influence in the Sea Haines City while Sea Haines City has a pivotal position in the Kattaman City State. Kattaman, on the other hand, is a big country in the Green Leaf Mainland. If you’ve played a game called ‘Domino’ before, you’d know that the first card that you push wouldn’t have to be strong, it only needs to hit the second card in the right way.”