His fingers unconsciously rubbed against the sword hilt, the faint glow from the movement almost imperceptible.
"Observe the changes. Our position and target remain concealed. The true threat... might be waiting for us to expose ourselves. Bestour, expand the outer perimeter, ensure no third 'eye' is watching from the darkness."
"Yes!"
Bestour immediately suppressed the restlessness in his heart, understanding Shen Mu's deeper meaning.
He gave a few brief hand gestures, and the Steppe Bandits, who had already spread out on the periphery, disappeared silently behind the dunes like fish slipping into a sand sea, venturing further and deeper into the darkness.
The wind on the dunes seemed to weaken further, and the air became even more hot and stuffy.
In the distance, the cracking of Skeleton fragments and dull thudding continued, but the sounds belonging to the Skeleton Cavalry were growing weaker and weaker.
Those dozen points of struggling, resisting ghostly green soul fires, after all, dimmed and extinguished one by one in the endless gray bone tide and the crossfire of corrosive arrows.
The battlefield gradually fell silent, leaving only the sound of the wind blowing dust past the quietly standing Skeleton Archers.
Their eye sockets turned towards New Rivadin, their soul fires deep and profound.
Then, like a receding black tide, these Skeleton Archers began to retreat in an organized manner, re-entering the shadows of the undulating dunes and disappearing, leaving behind only a mess of shattered bones and sand stained with blood and strange viscous fluids.
Shen Mu looked at the scorched plain, which rapidly returned to deathly silence, the chill in the depths of his pupils not melting in the slightest due to the enemy's defeat.
The tactical discipline and battlefield reaction capabilities of these Skeleton Archers once again refreshed his understanding of the Black Arrow Tower Dynasty.
Their retreat was not a rout, but a re-concealment after completing their objective.
And the Ghost Light Dynasty's losses...
"These Skeleton Cavalry are nothing more than consumables." Shen Mu's voice was low, as if stating a cold fact: "The true 'Bone Armor Cavalry'... that elite unit capable of erupting with 'Ghost Light,' is still in the shadows."
He turned, facing New Rivadin, and tightened his reins: "Return to the city. Bestour, tell your outer sentries to be twelve times more vigilant. Lezalit, you must speed up the reinforcement of the Underground entrance's fortifications."
The Holy Tree Heavy Steed took steady strides, the faint glimmer of mithril appearing exceptionally restrained under the scorching sun, yet containing a sharp edge.
The city walls of New Rivadin grew closer in sight, yet everyone knew in their hearts that the undercurrents beneath this scorched earth were already surging more fiercely.
The true crisis was like a lurking beast, waiting for the most dangerous moment to reveal its deadly fangs.
...
New Rivadin Castle cast a huge shadow under the dim twilight, like a lurking giant beast.
On the battlements, the reinforced fortifications and increased garrison had begun to take shape under Lezalit's continuous supervision in recent days.
Tired but solemn soldiers had just completed their shift, and bonfires crackled at the corner of the wall, dispelling the gradually thickening chill and the lingering scorching heat in the air.
Shen Mu had just returned from the observation point on the dunes outside the city, his armor still carrying the rough texture of wind and sand.
He stood at the observation post of the main city tower, his gaze calmly sweeping over the desolate Desert outside the city, the huge gap of the Underground station entrance in the distance resembling a gaping wound on the earth in the twilight.
Lezalit and Aleron were quietly checking the city defense blueprints nearby, while Bestour stood with his arms crossed, his hawk-like eyes vigilantly scanning for any potential disturbance.
The atmosphere was oppressive and heavy, with the shadow of the three factions hanging over everyone's hearts.
"Lord!" A hurried but lowered voice broke the silence on the city wall.
A Swadian Light Infantry jogged up the city wall and knelt on one knee: "One hundred meters outside the East Gate, there's... there's someone requesting an audience! He demands to speak with the Lord!"
"Someone?" Bestour sneered, his brows furrowed into a knot: "In this godforsaken place, at this time? Someone's here?"
The reporting Swadian Light Infantry swallowed, his voice tinged with disbelief: "He said... he claimed to be from across the Xiao Long River, and is... is 'the Devil's Emissary'."
The air seemed to freeze instantly.
"Devil's Emissary?" Lezalit put down the blueprint, a clearly visible hint of astonishment flashing across his usually calm face for the first time.
Aleron instinctively tightened his grip on the hilt of the knight's sword at his waist.
Shen Mu slowly turned around, his expression showing no fluctuation, but his eyes were sharp like ice picks piercing through the twilight.
"What does he look like?" His voice was low and steady.
"He looks... he looks like a middle-aged man, wearing... very ordinary old clothes, even a bit tattered." The light infantry tried to recall, his face showing confusion and fear: "But... but it feels... very wrong. He's very calm, too calm, and that Desert... he appeared very suddenly, with no movement around him at all."
"Where is he?" Shen Mu asked.
"He's about a hundred paces outside the city gate, alone, standing on a patch of sand."
"Let's go, take a look." Shen Mu was concise, leading the way towards the eastern city wall.
Lezalit, Bestour, and Aleron followed closely, everyone's nerves taut.
Ascending the eastern battlement, they looked down following the soldier's Guidelines.
Under the dim twilight, a hundred meters away, a middle-aged man in a worn jacket and work pants stood quietly.
His figure was thin, his face ordinary, even showing a hint of roughness from wind and sun, like a refugee.
However, this very "ordinariness," in the center of a deathly silent Desert, where only undead or devils resided, appeared incredibly bizarre.
"..." Bestour gritted his teeth, his voice squeezed through them, "It's a bastard in human skin! I can smell it, that stench of sulfur mixed with rotten flesh seeping from its bones! Even from a hundred paces, I can smell it clearly!"
His beast-like intuition instantly made the most direct judgment.
Because Kujit also habitually skinned people to intimidate their enemies, he immediately recognized this obviously strange expression as a devil in human skin!
Lezalit's eyes were cold, and he nodded, saying in a deep voice: "No mistake, this skin is just a vessel, what's inside is definitely not human. A devil... can so 'perfectly' mimic human form? And even come knocking on our door?"
The information contained behind this made even him, an experienced veteran, feel a chill.
Aleron said nothing, but his sharp eyes were fixed on that "person," the knuckles of his hand gripping the sword hilt slightly white from exertion.
He sensed a deeper threat—not just power, but the ability to deceive and infiltrate.
Shen Mu's gaze lingered for a moment on that face belonging to a fellow Blue Star native, something heavy flashing in his deep eyes.
He narrowed his eyes slightly, then raised his right hand, making a clear and decisive downward gesture.
Buzz!
The subtle sounds of bowstrings loosening and ballista mechanisms locking echoed on both sides of the city wall.
The light ballistas with their cold gleam on the towers stopped adjusting their aiming lines, and the Vigia Sharpshooters, archers, and Kujit bandits, poised behind the battlements, slowly lowered their arrowheads.
Deadly killing intent was temporarily suppressed.
But the taut bowstrings and cold muzzles still maintained a posture ready to unleash death at any moment.
The entire East Wall was like a beast that had retracted its fangs but bared its claws, silently looking down at the emissary below.
"You below." Shen Mu's voice was not loud, yet it pierced through the hundred-meter distance clearly and distinctly like clashing ice, echoing across the empty Desert, carrying a penetrative power beyond human voice: "State your purpose. A false opening will only turn you into a stain on the sand immediately."
His words carried no emotional fluctuation, merely stating a simple fact.
The "Devil's Emissary" below the city seemed to tremble ever so slightly, as if the power in that voice had penetrated its skin.
A stiff, almost rigid smile appeared on the middle-aged man's face, and his voice was like two rough pieces of leather rubbing together, the tone strangely flat and calm:
"Great Human Lord, the malice of Hell has already disturbed the order under your rule. I represent the 'Crimson Claw' to express our apologies to you." Its honorifics were used with unusual fluency, even excessively humbly, but the tone was flat and without fluctuation, containing no trace of genuine emotion, like reciting a document: "Our Lord has perceived that your powerful fortress is being coveted by two decaying wills from the 'Necromancer Dynasties'—the Bone Hooves of the 'Ghost Light Second Dynasty' and the Corrupted Claws of the 'Black Arrow Tower Seventh Dynasty'."
It paused slightly, and on that face belonging to a Blue Star native, its eyeballs shifted, seemingly confirming the reaction on the city wall, but the focus of its pupils was slightly abnormal.
"Their insatiable greed, their goal is not only to incorporate this rich nexus of psionic energy into their deathly domain, but also to completely erase existences like yours, which shine with the light of order. For this... Our Lord proposes to establish a temporary, mutually beneficial contract."
"'Crimson Claw'?" Lezalit repeated the title in a low voice, his eyes solemn.
"Contract? A contract with a devil?" Bestour almost roared, his eyes bloodshot: "Son of a bitch! I'll skin it alive first!"
He violently drew a armor-piercing arrow and nocked it, drawing the bow halfway, the arrowhead pointing directly at the emissary below, a threatening growl rumbling in his throat.
Coming in human skin to talk about making a contract, that was simply not putting them in their eyes!
Shen Mu swept a glance, and although Bestour's chest still heaved with anger, he forcibly suppressed his rage and the bowstring.
Aleron stared intently at the emissary, saying coldly: "Are they stalling for time? Or probing our strength?"
The emissary seemed oblivious to the tense atmosphere on the city wall, or perhaps simply unable to truly comprehend human anger.
It continued in its strangely flat voice:
"Yes, a contract. Our Lord promises: to provide you with precise location information of the core nodes of those two undead dynasties, as well as the operational rules and weaknesses of some of their key Bone Armor Cavalry and archers' unique abilities. We can even coordinate to tear apart their front lines and guide your powerful forces to deliver a fatal blow. In return..."
It finally revealed its true purpose: "Our Lord merely hopes that after the battle ends and the undead pollution here is cleared, you will generously allow Our Lord's 'purifying' power—deep within that Underground tunnel—to establish a temporary, small anchor point for observing spiritual realm convergence phenomena. A small, non-interfering window into your fortress's order."
It even mimicked a human gesture, a trivial one, its movements stiff like a marionette.
"Nonsense!" Betusier could no longer hold back, shouting sharply, "Let you filthy things dig holes at my doorstep?! Dream on!"
If not for Shen Mu's suppression, his arrow would have almost left the string.
Bestour's temper was not good.
Otherwise, he would not have chosen to leave the Kujit Khanate out of anger, and even offended the Khan of the Kujit Khanate, which was a capital offense.
Lezalit analyzed in a deep voice to Shen Mu: "My Lord, the 'anchor point' they want is by no means as simple as an observation station! That Underground tunnel goes deep Underground, connecting to unknown spiritual realm nodes. Once they gain a foothold, it's like inserting a key into our heart! The so-called 'observation' will quickly become a bridgehead for infiltration! Its harm is no less than that of the undead!".
Aleron also added: "Their proposal itself is full of traps. Sharing information? Perhaps some of it is true, but it must be mixed with fatal inducements. Moreover, how can they guarantee not to stab us in the back during cooperation? And why are they so eager to eliminate the undead? Is it because the power of the undead poses a greater threat to them?"
Shen Mu listened quietly to his generals' analysis, his gaze never leaving the devil's emissary.
That human skin, in his eyes, was like a crudely made specimen covering an inner essence full of sulfur and hatred.
The strong sense of incongruity and the hellish, cold aura were so striking.
Silence lasted for several breaths, like a heavy lead weight pressing on everyone's hearts on the city wall.
Only the wail of the wind sweeping across the sand and the crackling of the bonfire could be heard. Finally, Shen Mu spoke again, his voice colder than the Desert night wind:
"Devil."
He used no honorifics, calling it by its name directly: "Your skin is nauseating, and your words are full of sulfur-scented lies."
The stiff smile on the emissary's face seemed to freeze.
Shen Mu's voice was bone-chillingly cold, carrying an undeniable pressure: "Allies? You are not worthy. Trading with Hell will only drag you into Hell in the end."
He paused, his sharp gaze seemingly able to penetrate that layer of human skin, looking directly at its twisted essence: "But... I am indeed very interested in tearing apart those undead Skeletons."
This made Lezalit and the others momentarily stunned.
Betusier looked at Shen Mu with confusion.
Shen Mu continued: "Your proposal can be carried out in a different way."
His words were clear as a blade: "Before noon tomorrow, present the core coordinates of the Ghost Light Dynasty's Bone Armor Cavalry's encampment, as well as the specific limitations of their 'Black Light' burst, accurately and without error, at the location I designate—buried at the marked spot in the sand fifty paces west of the city gate. Only information is needed; none of your kind are to approach New Rivadin by even half a step. Violators... will be reduced to ashes." (End of Chapter)
