The chilling aura of killing intent and the stench of blood surged through the hall, yet at this mont what truly weighed down Asler’s heart was the unfathomable source of Baron Carlos’s trendous power.
The presence of blood didn’t seem forged; if the opponent had truly done what he claid, then...
The Baron Carlos before his eyes must have so hidden trump card or superior strength.
The atmosphere quickly beca tense and rigid.
Inside the hall, knights slowly clenched the hilts of their swords while the mages felt the growing surge of magic within them.
Four knights, among them one Great Knight.
Three mages, including one high-ranking mage.
This formation, bolstered by Black Castle’s stationed troops, should have been foolproof.
But for so reason, Asler now felt an eerie unease creeping up in his heart.
"Who... who exactly are you?" He took a deep breath, his gaze intense and profound as he stared at Carlos, filled with deep mistrust.
"We can talk about that in detail later," Li Chengyi replied, seemingly oblivious to the wary posture of his opponent.
He took slow, asured steps forward, closing the distance.
As he drew nearer, an increasingly oppressive force lood over the group like dark clouds, making it hard for the seven to breathe.
Asler couldn’t help but retreat, but the four knights could not retreat anymore.
"Aaah!"
One knight scread and lunged forward, sword raised high to chop down at Li Chengyi with all his might.
"Die, demon!"
A silver broadsword traced a semi-circular arc, flashing like lightning toward Li Chengyi.
Clang!
The blade abruptly halted, suspended in mid-air.
Caught single-handedly by Li Chengyi’s extended hand around the hilt, his Giant Strength crashed down like a torrent, instantly overpowering the knight’s arms.
Crack.
The blade snapped, the knight scread in agony as he was hurled sideways, flying precisely through the window.
The other knights, seeing this, changed their expressions dramatically and drew their swords to charge.
The mages threw their hands forward, scattering a shower of glittering white powder.
As the powder hit the ground, the sky outside the window suddenly filled with the sound of beating wings.
Mutated three-headed vultures sped in from afar, crashing through the windows to swoop at Li Chengyi.
But before they could get close, they were neatly bisected at their vital points by a casual slash of silvery sword light, lost their balance, and crumpled to the ground.
Asler also retreated and raised his hand, sending a dozen serpentine flas curling out to scatter from his palm like a blooming flower.
The fiery serpents swirled around and converged, swirling toward Li Chengyi.
Their speed was incredibly fast, and the timing was just in the gap between the knights’ attacks in front.
Unfortunately, as fast as the fiery snakes were, Li Chengyi was faster.
He lunged forward like a rocket, his sword slashing down toward Asler.
The speed of the strike was so fast, its force so imnse, that even with Asler’s anticipation, a sense of inescapable despair arose in his heart.
Luckily, another knight rushed over, holding a shield with both hands, kneeling in front of him to block.
Bang!!
The sword smashed onto the shield’s surface, releasing a force so horrifyingly imnse it was unimaginable.
The knight’s face twisted with shock, feeling as though he was not fighting a human but the Barbarian King himself!
The trendous force drove him to his knees on the spot, the sound of shattering bones echoing as he crumpled.
His head buzzed, consciousness faded, and blood seeped from his mouth and nose from the concussive force.
Bang!
Li Chengyi nonchalantly tossed aside the now unconscious knight and, clearing his sword blade with a flick, calmly walked toward the final opponent, Asler.
The snake-like fla spells attacked from behind him and were explosively torn apart by a re backhanded sword stroke.
He didn’t even turn his head and easily arrived re ters from Asler.
Raise sword, strike down.
Bang!
In an instant, a giant stone hand as thick as a grown man’s thigh sprouted from the ground in front of Asler.
The hand caught the blade, emitting a muffled sound, while simultaneously getting cleaved into a scattering of rock and soil.
At the sa ti, taking advantage of this opportunity, Asler recited a brief spell, and a blinding white bolt of electricity flew aggressively from his hand like a twisted white ribbon, hitting the nearby Carlos.
Crack.
The sound of the electrical discharge only now began to spread.
The intensity of this arcing bolt was far stronger than any the mages, whom Li Chengyi had previously slain, could summon, by many folds.
But for Li Chengyi at that mont, it only caused a slight numbness.
Spurt.
In the final mont, the spell Asler had yet to finish was abruptly cut off; his vision blurred, the world spun wildly, and he collapsed to the ground like the others, knocked unconscious by the blow.
Imdiately after, the remaining mages and knights stood no chance against the flashing figure of Li Chengyi and were each swiftly knocked out.
Sheathing his sword, Li Chengyi dusted off his clothes, no longer intending to hide his abilities. After gauging the mages’ system, he decided to accelerate his acquisition of knowledge.
It was only then that lissa and Old Buck rushed into the hall, taking in the scene before them.
The entire hall resembled the aftermath of a rampaging elephant, the chaos evident everywhere.
The visiting mages and knights lay on the ground, their fates unknown.
Amidst it all stood Li Chengyi, serene, as he slid the sword back onto his back.
"Carlos! What are you doing... what in the world are you doing?!" lissa exclaid in disbelief, completely at a loss for how to react.
"As you see, self-defense," he responded.
The soldiers from outside ca in and began tying up the unconscious individuals one by one.
"But those are envoys from the White Tower!"
lissa couldn’t help but shout.
Li Chengyi didn’t bother to say much, taking a chanical watch from a mage and strapping it onto his own wrist.
Then he turned and walked out of the hall, satisfied.
A few Barbarian Warriors, dominated and subdued by fear, followed him out of the Black Castle.
Now that he had gleaned almost enough about the situation, it was ti to harvest.
Several hours later.
The noble coalition forces outside the Black Castle suffered a crushing defeat and retreat; at the sa ti, shocking rumors spread that the Black Castle had conspired with Elves and Barbarians to rcilessly slay White Tower Mages and Knights.
The entire Okra Domain was shaken.
The surrounding nobles promptly entered a state of military readiness, convening a noble alliance eting to discuss how to address the situation with the Okra Domain.
anwhile, Li Chengyi had already begun interrogating Asler and the others.
A vast amount of secret knowledge about mages was leaked from their mouths.
The Sword Furnace Fla in Li Chengyi’s mind began to spread and intensify one step further.
After a brief interrogation, he headed straight for the largest domain near his territory, Viscount Tislan’s Sun City.
Sun City was the central district where the Viscount typically called for urgent etings with the nobility.
The next day, ten out of the thirteen nobles who had co to Sun City for the scheduled eting were ambushed and killed on their way.
A survivor who feigned death spread the word that the ambusher was none other than Baron Carlos from the Okra Domain.
This undefeated Baron Carlos, alone with his sword, slaughtered a fully armored small group of knights numbering around forty with ease, as if he were simply writing or drawing.
Common knights from the domains could not even withstand two rounds against him.
On the third day, at Viscount Tislan’s Mansion.
The Viscount’s complexion was dark as he stood in the parlor, his eyes fixed intently on the young, handso black-haired baron who was walking slowly through the door.
"Carlos, what on earth do you want? Slaughtering Elves, ambushing nobles, kidnapping White Tower Mages and Knights! Even Barbarians have been captured by you! What is your ultimate goal?" The Viscount obviously had enough detailed intelligence at his disposal.
And it was this intelligence that made him deeply realize that the seemingly handso young baron in front of him was, in fact, an undisguised monstrous being.
Boom!
Outside the parlor, a Barbarian Warrior smashed through the door, bent over, and peeked in. He mumbled sothing.
Li Chengyi casually responded with an order, and after the Barbarian Warrior turned and left, he shifted his gaze to Viscount Tislan.
"God has endowed with extraordinary talents and abilities, not to wallow in the petty struggles for power among common n. I should have a grander stage. The pursuit of life’s evolution and knowledge is the direction I ought to take," he said.
He walked up close to the Viscount and then sat down on the sofa.
Watching the Viscount and his twin daughters revealing strands of terror and stepping back, he couldn’t help feeling sowhat uninterested.
"Of course, to put it in practical terms, I need all the books you have collected. I also require all the books collected by the nobles and rchants around here. I’m not interested in anything else, only books are the record of wisdom, the legacy of experience," he continued.
Books!?
Viscount Tislan could hardly believe his own ears.
Up until now, this Baron Carlos had killed at least several thousand people, and his objective was simply to gather everyone’s book collections?
Just for so books, he killed so many people?
"Of course, besides these, I also need to gather scholars to converse with ," Li Chengyi added.
"No scholar without a domain could outnumber those at the White Tower!" Tislan blurted out, "Why don’t you go to the White Tower!?"
At this point, he was beginning to suspect that the Carlos in front of him was not human at all but possibly so mythical creature disguised in human form; otherwise, there was no explanation for how he could single-handedly kill so many soldiers.
"The White Tower is indeed my next destination," Li Chengyi said with a natural deanor. "But before going there, I must make sure everything around is in order."
"You!?" Tislan hadn’t expected the other party to actually have such an intention and imdiately choked on his words, at a loss for how to continue the conversation.
"Carlos! Why did you do such things! You shouldn’t be so cruel to knights, slaughtering armies, kidnapping Mina!"
At that mont outside the hall, several mbers of the youth club hurried onto the battlefield, joining forces to combat a Barbarian Warrior.
The elite allied forces of other arriving nobility families were also closing in, blocking the remaining Barbarian Warriors.
Under a barrage of crossbow bolts, the few Barbarian Warriors were beaten into retreat, relying only on their armor and helts to protect their bodies, unable to counterattack.
The one shouting was Jane, a mber of the youth club who previously desired to challenge Li Chengyi. His face turned red with anger as he charged toward this location.
"You were the first to defeat a barbarian; I was even proud of you as an Easterner, defending your reputation abroad, but look at what you have done!"
"What have I done?" Li Chengyi turned around, grabbing the two-handed heavy sword swinging toward him with one hand.
Bang.
The blade was clamped between two fingers and immovable.
No matter how hard Jane tried, he couldn’t budge it.
"I’m simply clearing away so obstacles on the path of pursuing knowledge," he said casually.
He flung his arm.
Giant Strength sent Jane tumbling through the air, crashing heavily onto the distant stone pavent, rolling back out of the hall.
"Don’t you find it boring to keep sinking into the tedious sches of nobility? Why must the world be so complicated? By stripping away everyone’s disguises and facing reality, facing each other, isn’t that better?"
Li Chengyi casually sliced through a ball of orange flas flying from the right.
With a bang, the flas exploded, revealing his unscathed handso face.
Hiss hiss hiss hiss!!!
At that mont, a dense shower of crossbow bolts turned into a downpour, shooting towards his entire body.
But now, with physical abilities increased twelvefold like that of Milton, Li Chengyi rely flickered, and he appeared several ters away, dodging the sword rain.
His movents were ghostlike; he suddenly dashed forward and in two seconds, he had crossed through the chaotic battlefield of Viscount Tislan’s mansion.
Groups of knights and soldiers besieging barbarians were scattered like bowling pins being struck in his wake, rolling and exploding in all directions.
Everyone was shocked and terrified by the scene before them.
No one could stop Li Chengyi, not even for a second.
In front of him, everyone was like papier-mâché, whether knights or common soldiers.
After a dozen breaths.
The Deer Flag belonging to Okra Domain rose above Viscount Tislan’s mansion.
The Viscount announced his surrender.
The thousands of troops stationed outside beca re ornants; Li Chengyi charged straight for the heart, swiftly accomplishing the feat of annexing the surrounding territories within just a few days.
Despite being a violent rule, as long as he lived another day, the knights and nobles below dared not rebel.
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