"Sir, I really don't dare. I feel like I've lost all my strength when you're standing in front of me. I don't even want to draw my sword. I wasn't even afraid when that Master Parker chose me to be his opponent. But when I see you, I want to surrender. I, I don't know what's going on either … "Ying Jie Lieke said pitifully.
Damn, this old man is scared out of his wits. He doesn't even dare to fight with me. Buckingham waved his hand dispiritedly, "Forget it. You can go now."
The old man felt like he was pardoned. He bowed respectfully and left in a hurry.
The most important thing now was to deal with the leader of the slave hunters, Slov, and his cousin, Master Parker, who would be back in a few days. Buckingham was confident that he could defeat a Gold-tier Swordsman, but he had never fought with a Master Swordsman before.
He remembered that Laurist had visited Instructor Kelud before setting off from Morent City. Instructor Kelud, who had just been promoted to a Great Swordsman, was in high spirits and in excellent condition. He even said that if he were to spar with Laurist now, he would not let Laurist last more than two hundred moves like last time.
Although Instructor Kelud still treated Buckingham as an Iron-ranked fighter, Buckingham didn't need to explain to Instructor Kelud that he was still at the peak of the Overt Jing stage when they fought. Now that he had entered the Covert Jing stage, he should be even stronger. It wouldn't be easy for Instructor Kelud to defeat him. Buckingham took the opportunity to ask Instructor Kelud what was the difference between a Master Swordsman and a Gold-tier Swordsman?
Instructor Kelud thought for a while and took out a few cups. He gave Buckingham a good demonstration. First, he placed the smallest cup on the table. Instructor Kelud said that once he awakened his Qi, it would be like having this cup in his body, allowing him to store his Qi. Then, he placed a bigger cup on the table. If the smaller cup was Bronze-ranked, then the bigger cup would be Iron-ranked. Buckingham nodded to show that he understood.
Instructor Kelud then placed two bowls on the table, one big and one small. He pointed at the smaller bowl and said that it was a Silver-ranked one while the bigger bowl was a Gold-ranked one. In reality, there was no difference between Bronze-ranked, Silver-ranked, Silver-ranked, and Gold-ranked weapons other than the amount of combat energy they could store and the characteristics of each tier such as Silver-ranked sword glow and Gold-ranked sword blade. The only difference was the duration of combat energy usage. If Iron-ranked could use combat energy for 10 minutes, then Gold-ranked could use it for an hour.
Therefore, if the timing and luck were good, coupled with external factors such as swordsmanship, it would not be surprising for an Iron-ranked to defeat a Gold-ranked. Everyone would make mistakes sometimes. This was the difference between four levels of combat energy. This was the difference between a Master Swordsman and a Gold-tier Swordsman. Kelud placed a large plate on the table. He said that in terms of the amount of Combat Aura, a Master Swordsman's Combat Aura was not much more than a Gold-tier Swordsman's. Just like the bowl that represented the Gold-tier Swordsman's Combat Aura, if the bowl was filled with water, it would also fill the plate.
However, this was the difference between the two. The surface area of the bowl was small. If you were to fight with a Gold-ranked swordsman, you could fight outside of the bowl without being affected. However, if you were to fight with a Gold-ranked swordsman, you would have to fight inside the bowl. Your every move would be restricted by the bowl. Instructor Kelud placed the Gold-ranked bowl on the plate. With a push of his hand, the bowl spun on the plate. However, it was trapped by the edge of the plate and could not roll onto the table.
Buckingham suddenly understood what Instructor Kelud was trying to say. Leveling up from a Gold-ranked swordsman to a Gold-ranked swordsman was like changing the surface area of a cube to a square. The total surface area did not change, but the controllable area increased.
"What about a Sword Saint?" Buckingham asked.
"The Sword Saint should be like this table. This table is like the Sword Saint's domain. We are like the plates and bowls on the table. He can arrange us however he wants. We can't escape from his control," Instructor Kelud said in a disappointed tone.
According to Instructor Kelud's description, Buckingham concluded that the difference between a Gold-ranked swordsman and a Gold-ranked swordsman was the ability to control the situation. Instructor Kelud also said. Just like after he leveled up to a Gold-ranked swordsman, when he trained with Instructor Anfeya, no matter how Instructor Anfeya attacked, Instructor Kelud always had an understanding, or a premonition. He knew where Instructor Anfeya was going to attack. He even had a feeling that he knew what Instructor Anfeya was going to do.
In other words, a Gold-ranked swordsman's ability to control the situation was similar to Buckingham's Dynamic Vision. However, a Gold-ranked swordsman's ability to control the situation was more general. It was mainly a sensing ability. It was not like Buckingham's Dynamic Vision, which allowed him to see specific things. For example, when a sword attacked, a Gold-ranked swordsman would sense where the sword was going to attack and react accordingly. On the other hand, Buckingham would be able to clearly see the sword's shadow and know the speed and power of the sword.
Elik had also said that he had fought with the Gold-ranked swordsman Parker before. He believed that he could deal with him in a hundred moves. Thus, Laurist was not afraid of fighting a Great Swordsman. He believed that the Great Swordsman would at most be able to fight him to a draw. However, since he already knew that a Great Swordsman was stronger than a Gold-tier Swordsman in terms of crowd control, Laurist made a decision. He was prepared to compete with that Great Swordsman in terms of crowd control. He wanted to show that Great Swordsman another kind of crowd control ability.
--- Dividing Line ---
Laurist went to the balcony. This was the highest balcony of the manor's main building. From here, he could see everything that was happening in the manor clearly. It was said that this was the place that Commander Slov liked to hang out the most. Perhaps standing on this balcony would give people the feeling that the entire manor was in their hands.
In the small plaza below the main building, Dorais was commanding twelve ballistae to move around in circles. Although a ballista could be operated by only three people, Dorais had recruited five people for each ballista. The reason was that the ballistae were larger, and five people could easily fit inside. The extra two people were holding a large shield and a halberd. Not only could they increase the defense and close-range attack of the ballistae, they could also be replaced if the members of the ballistae were injured, ensuring that the ballistae's long-range attacks would not be interrupted due to a lack of people.
On a small hill not far away, Terman and the other fourteen Silver-tier Knights were teaching their twenty-eight Black Iron Squires how to charge behind them. More than forty warhorses were constantly charging up and down the hill, stirring up a cloud of dust.
There was an even larger training ground in the distance. That was where Bodefinger had ordered his men to flatten ten acres of grape fields as a training ground for the armored soldiers. Black plate armor, black helmets, and black square shields. Looking from afar, the black square formation of six hundred people had already taken shape. It was like a black monster, giving off a silent and dangerous feeling. Laurist was very satisfied. Bodefinger was indeed a captain of the armored troops. It had only been a few days, and these six hundred armored soldiers had already been trained to the point of perfection.
This time, the two thousand slaves that had been rescued from the slave hunters' camp and the one thousand slaves in the manor were very eager to join Laurist's family's army. Aside from a hundred slaves who were homesick, most of the young slaves and their families had joined the army northward. Including the original slave soldiers, Laurist was both surprised and delighted. Almost nine hundred of them had Black Iron Combat Aura, and more than four hundred of them had Bronze Combat Aura.
Thus, Laurist decided to expand the ranks of the army. First, the armored soldiers were expanded from five hundred to six hundred. Next was Dorais's convoy. There were sixty-five people in total, twelve carriages, and sixty people. There were also Dorais and four messengers on horseback to command the convoy.
Terman did not want to increase the number of knights, but the twenty-eight Black Iron Attendants he chose were all Three-Star Black Iron strength. As for Yuri, he expanded the light cavalry scout team to eighty people. They were all equipped with chain mail and gray leather armor. One man, two horses, two barrels of javelins, twenty-four arrows. One crossbow, a quiver of twenty-four arrows, a shield, a longsword, and other equipment like flying axes and fishing nets. Even Bodefinger was very envious. He said that this light cavalry scout team's equipment was even more complete than the White Lion Legion's scouts.
The soldiers who joined these four divisions were all Iron-ranked soldiers. The remaining hundred or so Iron-ranked soldiers were recruited by Aire into the main camp's guards, along with seven Silver-ranked swordsmen who had no choice but to become slaves because of their families. Thus, Mons Malek formed a team of 420 crossbowmen, all of which were Bronze-ranked slaves. The remaining dozens of Iron and Bronze-ranked slaves joined the 1,200-strong spearman brigade that Ross commanded. This made Ross complain about how unfair it was. His spearman brigade seemed to have the most people, but it just so happened that they were the weakest. They were armed with spears and wore leather armor. They were even weaker than the guards of some lords' territories.
Laurist was very sorry. The purpose of forming the spearmen team was to maintain order and vigilance for the convoy and its people on the road north. The actual ones to go into battle were the armored soldiers, chariots, knights, and light cavalry. Apart from building up their momentum, the spearmen team was also cleaning up the battlefield.
In fact, the most suitable person to be the commander of the spearmen was Erik. This old man had been the commander of the city defense and was very experienced in commanding troops like the spearmen. However, this old man had not submitted yet, and Laurist was worried. He planned to observe him for a period of time.
Yuri and his light cavalry scout team were nowhere to be seen. They were not in the manor. Occasionally, clouds of arrows would rise from the grape fields in the distance. That was the crossbow archer team training. The spearmen on duty stood on the walls of the manor. The spearmen who were not on duty were divided into small teams and trained in formation, sprinting, and other areas under the leadership of their respective captains.
Laurist now had more than 2,300 soldiers in his family's army, and nearly 3,000 of them had their families with them. If this army of nearly 6,000 soldiers were not properly trained and immediately headed north, it was easy to imagine how much chaos it would bring. Laurist decided to stay in Slov Manor for a period of time and wait for everything to be prepared before heading north.
— — Dividing Line — —
At night, Fatty Shi sat on a soft couch and brought his maid, Jasmine, to report to Laurist what they had found during this period of time. Ever since they had taken over Slov Manor, the old manager of the manor was stubborn and refused to reveal the situation of the treasury. So Fatty Shi asked Redi and Padt to assemble the hollow wheel and the swivel chair. He asked the old butler to try out the swivel chair, and then asked him to play with the hollow wheel for a while. After that, the old butler lied on the ground and told Fatty Shi everything about Commander Slov's two gold vaults and his personal treasure vault.
The two treasury had been a great harvest for Laurist. The larger treasury was probably for public use. It was filled with all sorts of gold, silver, and copper coins, and was worth forty to fifty thousand gold coins in total. The smaller treasury was probably Slov's private treasury. It was filled with gold coins and gold yuan scrolls, worth more than seventy thousand gold coins. As for the treasury, it was filled with Slov's collection of weapons, armor, and secret manuals. Laurist was planning to bestow them to his knights in the future. Some of the artifacts could be used as gifts and to build relationships.
In short, taking over the Slov Manor had earned Lollister more than 100,000 Gold Fords, solving their current financial problem. Moreover, the armory, wine cellar, and granary in the manor's warehouses had also enriched Lollister's team's supplies. Ael had even privately discussed with Laurist that if they ran into any trouble on the way north, they could just take over any manor and solve the problem.
Laurist had thought that this was the end of the harvest, but when Laurist handed the small box of gold coins from Ingelek's house to Fatty Shi, Fatty Shi realized that he had overlooked a huge problem. As a result, the relatives of the slave hunters began to have bad luck. Fatty Shi moved the hollow wheel and swivel chair to the residential area, and began to ask the original residents of this residential area to experience the feeling of dizziness and weakness in their hands and feet. Then, they went door to door to search for belongings.
Fatty Shi said, "Your Excellency, after three days of searching, we have seized about 34,000 gold coins from nearly 300 households in the residential area. In addition, there are also seven high-grade qi secret manuals and some treasures. These have been handed over to Sederkamp for safekeeping. The problem now is, what should we do with the relatives of the slave hunters? "
This was a problem. They could not follow them north, nor could they just let them go. Their families had been destroyed by Loriste, and this hatred was too great. However, he couldn't bring himself to kill them. The ones who did evil were their relatives. Although they enjoyed the fruits of their evil deeds, it wasn't to the extent of dying everywhere. In fact, Aire's suggestion a few days ago was the most reliable. Sell the relatives of the slave hunters to the slave traders and let them have a taste of being slaves.
Loriste was a little hesitant. He had said in front of everyone that the Norton family did not have slaves. If he were to turn around and sell these people to slave traders, it seemed like he was going back on his words. What a headache. Forget it, I'll leave this problem for later. Anyway, there's still some time before we set off. I'll think about it when the time comes. Loriste irresponsibly pushed this matter off to be resolved in the future. Right now, he would let the original residents of the manor be prisoners for a period of time.
--- Dividing Line ---
A three-masted ship was slowly approaching the port of Ametland. The flag of the Slov Slave Hunters was fluttering on the ship. This was Captain Slov's private ship. Because the crew was all local, they were very familiar with the coastal waters, so there was no need for a pilot.
"The port is very quiet today. I can't see anyone," Captain Slov said to Master Swordsman Parker, who was standing beside him. Because he had been living like a prince for the past two years, Captain Slov's body had become very fat. He looked like a wine barrel.
"You have to think about who you are. Nowadays, the housewives in the town all say your name when they scare their children, telling them to be careful. If they don't listen, they'll be caught and sold by you. So it's normal for our ship to appear at the port without anyone around. "Master Swordsman Parker was a tall old man. He had an arrogant expression on his face.
"Hehe, that's true. But it's always good to be feared. Otherwise, if you're kind, these lowly people will think that you're weak and easy to bully. They'll think of ways to take advantage of you. It's better this way. Fear them, and they'll stay away from you. They won't dare to poke their noses into your business, "Captain Slov chuckled as he shared his life experience.
The ship finally docked at the dock. A few sailors climbed down from the ship and tied the mooring rope to the wooden stakes of the dock. Then, they lowered the gangplank for disembarking the ship. After fixing it, Captain Slov and Master Parker brought more than 20 people to carry a few big boxes down from the ship.
Arriving at the dock, Commander Slov looked around and scolded fiercely, "Did I leave for too long? Those bastards from the manor forgot to welcome us with their carriages. I'm going to give them a good beating when I get back. "
Master Parker looked around and became serious, "Be careful, I feel that something's not right …"
Clap clap clap! Loriste appeared at the port, followed by Padt and Redi. They each held three javelins in their hands.
"Who are you?" Master Parker narrowed his eyes and stared at Loriste. His gaze was as sharp as an eagle's.
Laurist ignored him and continued to clap his hands. Six hundred black-armored soldiers holding black square-shaped shields appeared behind him and surrounded the dock. Then, more than four hundred soldiers armed with crossbows appeared behind the heavy-armored soldiers.
If Master Parker was indifferent to the appearance of the heavy-armored soldiers, then the appearance of the crossbowmen made his expression change. Even though he was a Master Swordsman, he would not be able to survive under the barrage of four hundred crossbows.
"Who are you? What do you want?" Master Parker yelled. Beside him, the fat Captain Slov's face turned pale. He hid behind his two chain-armored followers, no longer looking arrogant and fierce.
"Who I am is not important. What's important is that I want your lives," Loriste replied casually, as if he was very confident in taking the lives of the Master Swordsmen.
"If you want to take our lives, let's see if you have the ability." Master Parker unsheathed his sword.
Loriste raised his hand, and the sound of the bowstring was deafening. Four hundred and twenty crossbow bolts whistled through the air …
Master Parker's longsword danced into a ball, and the crossbow bolts were knocked away and shattered …
The rain of arrows stopped. Master Parker's hair was disheveled, and he looked extremely haggard. However, there were no injuries on his body. He had used his own strength to take on this wave of arrows.
While the crossbow was still in his hand, Master Parker whistled and turned into lightning, pouncing at Loriste …
The two were about twenty meters apart. Loriste smiled coldly and stretched out his hand, and a javelin appeared in his palm …
The javelin whistled through the air as it pounced at the incoming figure at an even faster speed. Master Parker had no choice but to use his sword to block it …
"Bang!" The javelin shattered into pieces, and Master Parker was forced to take two steps back by the force of the javelin …
Master Parker turned pale with fright. He had never encountered such a small javelin before, but he had no time to be surprised. The javelins thrown by Loriste had already turned into a continuous rain of javelins, heading straight for his head …
"Bang, bang, bang!" The sounds of the javelins exploding continuously rang out. Master Parker retreated and blocked, and it was extremely difficult for him to parry the attacks as his sword flashed …
"Ah …" This was Master Parker's scream.
"Ugh …" This was Master Parker's muffled groan.
After throwing all six javelins, Loriste's face was flushed. He let out a long sigh, feeling his limbs go weak. Throwing seventy-two javelins filled with inner force in one go was a little difficult for him. He could not do this again in the future, and had to save some strength to deal with unexpected changes.
Master Parker was not dead yet. There was a javelin in his left thigh, and another in his right shoulder. The most injured part was his abdomen, and a javelin had pierced through his back. To be able to block Loriste's sixty-nine javelins, Master Parker had performed above his usual level. Unfortunately, there were still three javelins that he could not block …
"You, you didn't give me a chance …" Great Swordsman Parker murmured. Blood was flowing out of his mouth …
"I'm not sick, why would I fight you in close combat? It's too dangerous, very dangerous." Although Master Parker's voice was soft, Loriste could still hear him clearly. After he finished speaking, he waved his hand, and the sound of arrows being fired rang out again. Master Parker instantly turned into a porcupine, and he died with his eyes wide open.
As for Captain Slov and his twenty or so followers, they had already died in the first wave of arrows.
"Clean up the battlefield and occupy the ship. Cut off the heads of Slov and this Master Parker, and bring them back," Loriste ordered.
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