The Black Pine Forest.
The towering trees blocked the sun, and the dense shrubs and vines formed a wall. The life cycle entrenched in the land had formed a sealed energy field that completely blocked the air outside the forest. After stepping into the mysterious forest, everyone felt as if they had stepped into another world.
And this feeling was not an illusion.
"Fog?" When the cart slowed down and stabilized, Lily peeked behind her. What she saw was a strange, thick fog. The fog lingered in the forest about a hundred meters away. It was so thick that it looked like some kind of gray liquid. The fog drifted slowly with the forest breeze. Through it, the outline of Greenway's Green Barrier could not be seen clearly. After all, that magnificent barrier could be clearly seen from a few kilometers away.
But now, he could only vaguely see a strange shadow hiding behind the fog.
"Strange … the imperial soldiers did not come after us …" Charlemagne realized something unusual after he calmed down. "Something is not right. They would not give up so easily …"
Vivian glanced at the prince. "Anyway, now we can finally know who wants you dead."
"The Knights of the Ebon Blade answer directly to the Dragon Emperor, and no one can order them around except for the emperor himself," Hao Ren said. "And looking at their attitude of killing you, they have obviously confirmed your identity and are here to kill you. What did you do to offend the emperor?"
"I don't know," Charlemagne replied. "To tell you the truth, after coming to the Dragon Empire, the situation was completely out of my expectations and control. Everything that happened in this country was completely out of my reach. I can no longer help you in terms of intelligence."
Hao Ren's mouth twitched as he looked in the direction of the other two caravans. The third caravan had changed its form, and the folded partition wall had not returned to its original state. This made it a 'convertible' with a circle of cover, so it could easily observe the surroundings. He saw that the guards in the other two caravans were safe and sound, and the shields on the caravans were functioning well.
After realizing that these caravans were equipped with powerful shields, the guards quickly hid behind the shields. Apart from a rash guard who stuck his body out to face the enemy and was scratched by the spears, everyone else was safe and sound.
"I did not expect these caravans to have such a powerful magic shield installed," Awenna said in surprise. "The Basilica of the World Tree seems to have mastered some very powerful technology."
"We have always mastered cutting-edge technology." Hao Ren waved his hand nonchalantly. "The key question now is what are you going to do next? The Knights of the Ebon Blade are after you, and the one who gave the order must be the Dragon Soul Emperor, so you can't go to the imperial capital. Are you going to continue this' secret mission '? "
From Hao Ren's point of view, this was tantamount to the rupture of diplomatic relations between the Dragon Empire and the Kingdom of Izzo. No matter for what reason the Dragon Soul Emperor had to kill Charlemagne and his sister, this assassination of the royal family of a neighboring country was tantamount to a declaration of war. In this case, the secret mission was meaningless.
But Awenna shook her head after a moment. "No, we must complete our mission."
"Huh?" This time, even Rheia who was immersed in her studies opened her eyes and looked over. "Are you kidding me? That Dragon Emperor wants you dead, and you still want to go to the imperial capital to look for him? "
"No, we are going to look for Princess Constance," Awenna said seriously. "Go past the imperial capital and continue north, to the six northern provinces …"
Hao Ren opened his mouth, but before he could say anything, Charlemagne had already spoken. "Sorry, our mission is very important. Of course, we are in no position to ask you to continue with us. You have already taken good care of us along the way, and we really can't ask for more. After we leave the Black Forest, we will go our own ways … "
"Wait a minute, I haven't even said anything." Hao Ren immediately cut him off. "You are going to the north to look for Princess Constance right? No problem, it doesn't matter who we look for, we will follow you to the north. "
This time, it was Charlemagne's turn to be stunned as he looked at Hao Ren with his mouth agape. "That … works? Don't you also have a mission from the Basilica of the Yggdrasil, and have to go to the imperial capital to look for the Dragon Emperor? "
"Don't worry, we don't have to look for Berentine, or rather, we don't have to look for him first." Hao Ren laughed. "In fact, I am as curious about Princess Constance as I am about the Dragon Soul Emperor … She might be able to answer a lot of my questions."
"And there's one more thing," Vivian added. "With your current strength and the fact that your whereabouts have been exposed, without our help, do you really think you can reach the six northern provinces safely?"
Charlemagne's face flashed with a hint of awkwardness, but he still nodded silently. "If that's the case … then we will have to continue to trouble you."
"It's just cooperation." Hao Ren smiled as his eyes fell on the huge armored 'corpse' in the middle of the carriage. "Since there are no more pursuers, let us get to know these Knights of the Ebon Blade …"
At this point, Awenna and Charlemagne both had a nervous and fearful look on their faces. Awenna was still calm, but Awenna immediately hopped two steps to the other side of the carriage, distancing herself from the seemingly lifeless' corpse '.
"I still don't know how you managed to kill the knight in an instant," Charlemagne said in confusion. "I saw the rest of the battle, and while your magic was strange, it was still traceable, but this knight …"
"I didn't do anything to him," Rheia said lazily as she lifted her eyelids. "I just destroyed his sword, and then he just lay there motionless."
Charlemagne was stunned.
The scene of the battle reappeared in Hao Ren's mind. The Ebon Blade knight and two imperial soldiers had entered the carriage to inspect the passengers, and behind the carriage were ten murderous pursuers. Rheia was the first to recover after the battle broke out, and the weapons that the knight and the two imperial soldiers used to slash at her disintegrated due to the divine aura. The two imperial soldiers were then killed by Vivian and Lily, but the knight …
He was not attacked. He fell down on his own after the mechanical sword turned into ash.
Curious, Lily followed Hao Ren to the "corpse". Looking at the motionless body, which was unscathed, she could not help but poke it with her finger. "Mr. Landlord, do you think he died because we broke his equipment?"
Hao Ren scanned the husky maiden from head to toe. "The forest is a little hot, but your intelligence shouldn't have deteriorated so much, right?"
Lily immediately let out a threatening growl. "Awooooo!"
Hao Ren ignored her and placed his hand on the side of the Ebon Blade knight's helmet, looking for the buckle to open the helmet. "Let me see what he looks like … Speaking of which, this thing is pretty tightly sealed. They usually have to open it for a while just to eat …"
As he muttered to himself, the buckle between the helmet and the visor was touched first. Then, with a soft click, the black steel visor bounced up slightly, revealing a narrow gap between the visor and the helmet.
Hao Ren took off the knight's visor.
The face under the helmet made everyone suck in a breath of cold air.
Even Lily muttered, "I don't think I want to eat dinner …"
What appeared under the visor was not a human face. It was a completely deformed, stacked, and twisted face. The facial features and muscles were like melted wax, forming a hideous and terrifying shape, and solidified on the collapsed skull. Where the eyes should have been were two sunken black holes, and a faint red light flashed in them. His mouth had degenerated into a tiny slit. Looking at the mouth, Hao Ren was sure of one thing: the Ebon Blade knights did not eat, at least not like normal humans …
Not only did they not eat, but they also used their faces to stop others from eating.
Well, they did not deliberately stop him. After all, it was Hao Ren who took off the visor.
"This is the Ebon Blade knight?!" Vivian suppressed the discomfort in her heart. While the face was a little unruly, she had seen more than just an ugly face in the past ten thousand years, so she adapted quickly. "Is this the result of biochemical modification? Or … magical modification? Are all the ace warriors of the Dragon Empire these mutated freaks? "
"How could this be, it shouldn't be …" Awenna frowned as she inched closer. While her face was pale, she suppressed the nausea and even began to investigate the reason behind the knight's mutated face. "I've seen other knights before, and I've seen their true faces … They are no different from normal humans …"
Hao Ren was stunned. "The Ebon Blade knights you have seen are the same as normal people?"
"Yes, the Ebon Blade Knights are just a special unit, and in the end, they are still humans." Awenna nodded. "They can't possibly hide in their armor for the rest of their lives. Naturally, they have to show their true colors."
Lily rubbed her chin. "Maybe we have just met the ugliest one …"
"Do you even believe that yourself?" Hao Ren rolled his eyes at her. "And no matter how you look at it, this is obviously not natural. Who would be born with such a deformity and still be able to join the army and fight? Even the eyes have turned into black holes."
The MDT floated down from Hao Ren's shoulder. "Compared to these changes on the surface, this … the changes within the body are even more shocking."
Awenna and Charlemagne looked curiously at the MDT floating in the air. They had been interested in this thing for a long time. A "magic puppet" that could move on its own and had high intelligence. This technology was unheard of in L 'Haronne, and only the elven craftsmen and rune wizards would talk about it when they were bragging about it. But now, there was one right in front of them, so how could they not be interested?
But now was not the time to ask how much technology the Basilica of the Yggdrasill had, and the siblings quickly focused on the MDT's scan report.
The MDT stopped on the chest of the Ebon Blade knight, and after a static scan, it finally had a clear result. "Half of this guy's body is mechanical, and the other half is probably biological."
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