"Elven Empress Harloys and You — Know — Who were assassinated at the same time. The assassins, 'Jade Flame' Sirar and 'Akaba's Wing' Venn, died on the spot, while 'Iron Emperor' Sarven escaped with heavy injuries. The Mist Kingdom has put out a warrant for his arrest …"
A new day hadn't even arrived yet, but a shocking piece of news had already shocked the entire Northlands.
Before dawn, after I reported to Renée and the others that I was safe, we began to organize the details of this assassination attempt.
For an old fox like me who had walked far too far down the path of the soul, lying to my face would be meaningless. It would only make me suspicious and vigilant. In order to attract my attention and gain my trust, Sirar, who had disguised himself as a messenger, told me nothing but the truth.
Not only had Harloys been assassinated, the assassins had been two top-level elven SemiGods. Accompanied by other Superior Elves, they had successfully assassinated the new Elven Empress Harloys' … clone.
"A SemiGod elven archer, and a transformed Druil who was skilled at binding and magic resistance. Both are natural enemies of all mages. My clone was instantly destroyed and turned into a pile of slime mud. How am I supposed to explain this to them?"
Harloys was rather frustrated. It was no wonder that she reacted so slowly. She must have been focusing all of her attention on her clone's work, and her own assassination attempt had absorbed all of her attention. By the time she returned to my side, the assassination attempt had probably ended, and she came to discuss it with me.
Both assassinations had occurred at the same time. It was obvious that the assassins had sent three veteran SemiGods to deal with me at once in order to attract my attention and distract my reinforcements.
At this moment, Harloys was still worrying about how she had exposed her slime clone. That probably wasn't important at all.
"If my clone exploded, I'll just say that it was a ninja magic technique from the East called Shadow Clone."
"It split into a slime in the end? Shadow Clone? That's ridiculous. Just say that it was a water clone, a water clone! What kind of explanation is that? Isn't it enough that you're still alive and kicking? At most, you can just show off your clone abilities. "
I felt that Harloys' worries were unnecessary. As long as she was capable of keeping things under control, there wouldn't even be a need for an explanation. If she couldn't keep things under control, any explanation would be meaningless.
Moreover, with her identity, it was normal for her to have a few life-saving abilities. Explain? Do I need to explain my life-saving trump card to you? Are you trying to murder me?
This sudden incident gave us many things to think about. The newly appointed Elf Empress had been assassinated by an elf. Harloys had many feelings about this.
"… Wasn't this done by the moon elves?"
Harloys held it in for a long time before she managed to squeeze out this sentence. Although it was a question, it was a definite tone.
"Nonsense, if those elves had the ability, they would have long since overturned the heavens."
Just because the assassins were powerful elves didn't mean that the assassins were truly the work of elves. The more they acted like assassins from the Kingdom of the Elves, the more I felt that there was someone behind them. I didn't even need to guess who the mastermind was.
"… The Holy Church."
"It's definitely him. Only they have this kind of foundation."
The Holy Church was the largest faction in the human world. Humans were the main faction, but there were also many powerful individuals from various species who were loyal to the Holy Light Faction. Finding a few elven sacrificial warriors wouldn't be a problem for them.
"However, the moon elves are also involved. Perhaps even some human domain lords were tricked by you."
"… Most likely. Let's wait for the investigation results."
We felt rather helpless. Even though we clearly knew who wanted to kill us, it was difficult to even take revenge. This was indeed quite depressing.
"… Sirar is an excellent chess piece. Not only that, he's an incredibly valuable chess piece."
There was no such thing as the strongest or invincible in this world. Every ability had its own advantages and disadvantages. The power of vengeance was an ancient and powerful power. It was said that it originated from the great demons' hunting witchcraft. Many elven rangers still practiced this secret art, and there were even special advanced job classes.
However, very few people actually practiced the power of vengeance. Although this special ability would allow the weak to defeat the strong, it was far too infrequent. It was usually reserved for unlucky individuals whose lives were just like the protagonists of a tragic story.
Every month of vengeance passed, the power of a vengeance weapon would increase, and a cultivator's Pain of Heart would also multiply. However, there was a limit to the weapon's material, and there was also a limit to a person's endurance. Naturally, there would also be a limit to how powerful the power of vengeance could be.
Logically speaking, Sirar should have long since reached this limit since he hadn't stopped using vengeance for more than one hundred years.
Sirar had forcefully killed himself, yet he was still alive. His hatred for me was as if it had just happened yesterday.
"Keeping him alive and using him as a good chess piece is truly …"
I lowered my body and suddenly swung my jade dagger down, causing blood to fly everywhere. Sirar's dagger had taken his master's life.
I was no saint, nor did I have the habit of raising a tiger that would bring me trouble. You want to kill me for vengeance? I was more than happy to try, but be mentally prepared to die in battle if you failed.
Although I really wanted to know what had happened, I didn't intend to hand Sirar over to the interrogators. Physical torture would be nothing more than a tickle to a powerful individual who could withstand the power of vengeance.
Unfortunately, after Sirar's death, Sirar's Myth-ranked weapon, Jade Tooth, had lost its glow and turned into white jade. It was obvious that it had dropped in power level.
I could faintly sense that this dagger was changing. Just as I was carefully playing with it, Harloys glanced at Sirar's corpse, seemingly eager to try it.
"Soul search?"
"No, that's too much of a waste …"
Soul searching wasn't omnipotent. The more resolute a soul was, the more difficult it would be to analyze. There was no doubt about Sirar's willpower, but since I was the one casting the spell, Sirar's hostility would be far too strong.
In that case, rather than wasting Sirar's precious corpse by taking out some mostly useless memory fragments, I might as well make good use of it. Perhaps I could even have "Sirar" personally tell me who the mastermind behind all this was.
I directly tossed Sirar's corpse into my personal bug-like world as I began to consider how Sirar had managed to survive until today. After all, Yongye had destroyed far too many people in the Kingdom of the Elves back in the day, and the power of vengeance was no secret among the elves. It would be quite amusing if two more mortal enemies appeared.
"The simplest method would probably be to separate the soul from the physical body and freeze it in cold storage, and then awaken it when it's time to use it. That way, you can assassinate your mortal enemy before the Blood Moon of Vengeance rises in the sky to avoid dying from pain. Right, you can also use Holy Light Divine Arts to forcefully prolong your life. High-density Holy Light is just as effective as illegal drugs to make people forget pain …"
As I thought up to this point, I felt even more certain that the Holy Church had something to do with Sirar's death. They had worked so hard to maintain a "dagger" that could only be used to assassinate Yongye, not to mention that Yongye had already disappeared. Only the incredibly wealthy Holy Church would be able to do something like this.
However, I was absolutely certain that the Holy Church had forgotten about the frozen "dagger" and only remembered to use it at the last minute.
"… Roland, look at the dagger."
Upon hearing this, I discovered that the jade dagger at my waist had already shrunk by one-third of its original size, and I was actually faintly feeling pain where the dagger touched my waist.
I pulled out the dagger and carefully inspected its blade. Not only was there a crack on the blade that was stained with its owner's blood, but it was also dyed in an abnormal dark red color.
Just looking at this abnormal dark red color made me instinctively feel uneasy, as if there was an assassin watching me from the shadows.
[Five Fate Points. I'll help you appraise the dagger.]
"… It's that good?"
My System actually volunteered to help me? This was truly a rare sight. I unhesitatingly agreed. Five Fate Points was basically negligible.
[Dagger of Vengeance: Yongye's Armageddon (SemiGod Equipment)]
[This dagger was once the Jade Tooth of the legendary warrior Sirar. Not only did Sirar die to his mortal enemy, his beloved dagger was also stabbed into his own throat. In the final moments of his life, Sirar's soul attached itself to his own blood and sacrificed all of his power of vengeance to curse this dagger, creating this Legendary-level weapon.]
[Unique characteristic (Enemy of Yongye): The wielder of this dagger will instinctively loathe the undead, and will view all Undead Emperors as mortal enemies. Any undead that is hit by this dagger will have a certain chance of being instantly annihilated. Due to the curse of the previous wielder, the wielder of this dagger will have nightmares of being destroyed by an Undead Calamity every night. The wielder will also subconsciously hate the Undead Emperors named Yongye. And if this dagger hits the physical body of an Undead Emperor named Yongye, it will instantly destroy the enemy's defenses and destroy the target's soul.]
[PS: Excellent job. This is a guillotine that you personally created for yourself. You can use it when you want to commit seppuku. You'll definitely die a quick and easy death.]
I finally understood why my System was being so kind as I looked at this comment that was filled with evil intentions. It was obvious that my System was watching me make a fool of myself.
I could only helplessly shake my head. Although it was quite rare for this dagger to mysteriously be strengthened so much, and it was already a miracle that it had been upgraded to SemiGod Equipment, if this miracle had been directed at me personally, I definitely wouldn't have kept it.
As I held the dagger, I really did intend to destroy it. However, an idea suddenly popped into my mind, and I changed my mind. Perhaps as long as I used this dagger correctly, it would still be useful — very useful.
As for myself …
"Actually, I haven't been an undead for many years, and my name isn't Yongye, is it …?"
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