Chapter 348: Chapter 350: The Fourth Calamity, Zhang Kou Jiu Lai (Part 1) Chapter 348: Chapter 350: The Fourth Calamity, Zhang Kou Jiu Lai (Part 1) PS: This section is free.
Many readers complain that long chapters are too expensive. From now on, we will split them into smaller chapters. For example, a chapter of 6000 words will be split into two chapters each containing 3000 words. It will be cheaper this way, yes, definitely.
Today, I only wrote 5000 words. I will split it later and make up another 5000 words tomorrow at noon.
As the City Lord of Black Iron Castle, the Level 18 half-elf Collins Grey Claw was the sole ruler of this city—no one could challenge his dignity.
But today was obviously different.
Because a vampire had co to the city; yes, a vampire, which was extrely rare in the Underworld.
Due to the lack of food, beings that need human blood to survive hardly ever appeared in the Underworld. Yet, his subordinates had reported just such a creature to him.
What was crucial was that the vampire could very likely be at Level 17 or even 18.
He could still rember the fear in the eyes of his guards.
This inevitably raised Collins’ suspicions given that there had never been any news of vampires in this land.
When he considered the fact that vampires needed to feed on human blood to survive, a disturbing speculation entered his mind.
It was highly possible that this vampire had co from the surface world to the Underworld.
The surface…
The implications of that term were too nurous.
Various thoughts could not help but bubble up in Collins’ heart.
If a human from the surface world ca to Black Iron City, he would feel revulsion because those surface beings might very well send armies to conquer his city.
Humans were by no ans benevolent creatures. Their greed could astonish even the devils of hell.
But vampires were different. Though cruel and bloodthirsty, and the purest of dark beings, they did not possess the inexhaustible armies of humans.
This point was key. Black Iron Castle felt vexed by the nearly endless numbers of human armies but did not fear the invariably scarce vampires.
This deduction gave Collins infinite room for imagination.
The surface… that was a world rich in resources, coveted by all life in the Underworld.
The Underground Cities were rumored among humans to be mountains of wealth, the most affluent cities.
Similarly, in the legends of the Underworld, the surface was no less rich—with sunlight, boundless food, and a safe environnt. To every being living in danger daily in the Underworld, that place was paradise.
The people within the city wanted out, while those outside wanted in, each salivating over the other’s situation.
“I need to know the true origin of this vampire…”
“If the other party really is from the surface, then perhaps Black Iron City can establish trade dealings with this mysterious vampire…”
“Or maybe I can learn of the underground passages from this vampire and personally lead the army to plunder wealth from the surface…”
“The appearance of this vampire may bring a pleasant surprise; the wealth of the surface world is too bountiful…”
Lit by the magic lamps, within the room sat Collins at the head of the stone table. His yellow eyes shimred with light.
This clever Half-body City Lord had sensed a rare opportunity the mont Lide appeared.
The surface world could invade the Underworld, but the Underworld was not to be trifled with either. The conquests of the surface by beings of the Underworld were not unheard of in myth and legend.
Tap, tap—a sudden rapid footsteps at the door interrupted his thoughts. Monts later, a young half-elf wearing a black leather vest and carrying a longbow entered the room.
“Lord Collins, the vampire has arrived.”
Hearing the soldier’s report, Collins perked up a bit.
Has he finally co?
With curiosity in his heart, he followed the ssenger out of the hall.
As he stepped out of the hall, Collins’ yellow pupils suddenly contracted.
This vampire… so powerful.
At that mont, Lide was wearing a black Mage robe embroidered with dark patterns, his mannerisms radiating the heart-subduing nobility of a noble, especially his crimson eyes, as captivating as the most precious Ocam’s Rubies of the Underworld.
But what truly shocked Collins was the subtle aura emanating from Lide.
Beneath the black Mage robe seed to lurk an Ancient Giant Dragon, as if it could tear through its disguise at any mont, rear its head, and let out a roar, unleashing the majesty of an Ancient mythical being.
Danger, extre danger.
Originally, this Level 18 Half-Elf had already held Lide in high regard, but at this mont Collins imdiately elevated this regard to the extre.
Many decisions that had already been made were imdiately revised.
This vampire could not be offended lightly.
Unbeknownst to Lide, within that brief mont, the Half-body City Lord had already changed the strategy he had originally planned to implent against him.
He did not deliberately conceal his own aura; this was the Underworld, no need to play possum here, considering he was a giant dragon himself, he could simply crush any opposition.
He wasn’t a lone ranger; he had the power to suppress the city in his hands, so there was no need for such aningless acts.
“Respected mber of the Bloodline, Black Iron Castle welcos your arrival. I am the Lord of Black Iron Castle, the Clan Leader of the Grey Claw tribe—Collins Grey Claw.”
After sensing Lide’s powerful presence, Collins imdiately let go of his inner pride, stepped forward, and greeted Lide with a smile.
Lide regarded the Level 18 Half-Elf with interest.
The other party was 1.7 blades tall, with arms as thick and powerful as other Half-Elves’.
He was dressed in a luxurious grey robe, the patterns and adornnts on which were no less than those of the High-level Nobles among humans.
His presence was sharp, like a bow always strung and ready to shoot, and the arrow aid squarely at him.
His yellow eyes revealed a hawk-like caution; although he was smiling, his muscles were tense as if ready to attack at any mont.
His lower half, avian legs were faintly visible walking under the robe, clearly hinting at a fully ard posture in anticipation of Lide, the external visitor.
“Good evening, Lord Collins of Black Iron Castle,
Lord of Dawn City, Kachar; you may call Kachar City Lord.”
Lide’s face also bore a faint smile as he responded calmly.
Collins’ eyes narrowed slightly upon hearing this title, and his suspicions were imdiately confird; indeed the newcor was from the surface world, as the Underworld had no such place as Dawn City.
“Lord Kachar, welco to your arrival; this is the first ti we’ve had a friend from the surface world visit Black Iron Castle.
I think this is an honor for Black Iron Castle.”
After speaking, Collins stared intently at Lide, as if trying to discern sothing from his face.
Lide couldn’t help but smile at this; Collins was employing a very interesting conversational technique.
The content of his speech had directly assud Lide to be a life form from the surface world; no matter how he responded, Collins would be able to gather a lot of useful information.
However, as soone well-versed and cultivated (manipulated) by modern society for many years, it would be easy to avoid these talks, but he couldn’t be bothered to probe too much with Collins and spoke bluntly.
“Lord Collins, there is no need to worry. I co from the surface world, but I bear no ill will toward Black Iron Castle; otherwise, I would not have co with only two Bloodline squads.”
He then gestured toward the twenty Bloodline mbers behind him, the highest among them at Level 12.
With Lide’s affirmative response, Collins breathed a sigh of relief; the closer he got to Lide, the more he could feel the oppressive aura emanating from him.
Just like an evil dragon perpetually exuding his dragon power, it created imnse psychological pressure on Collins.
Although he couldn’t determine the truthfulness of Lide’s words at the mont, the re fact that the vampire had shown a non-hostile deanor was enough.
He feigned a nonchalant laugh.
“Lord Kachar, I believe you will beco a friend of Black Iron Castle.
Please co inside, and welco to taste our Half-Elves’ special Grey Barley Beer…”
Lide nodded slightly; it was clear the Half-Elf had accepted his gesture of goodwill. They were all foxes who had made their way up in this world; there really weren’t many stupid ones.
Imdiately, he followed Collins into the hall.
It had to be said that Half-Elf architecture was very characteristic, perhaps related to the environnt of the Underworld; all the furniture here was made of stone,
including the long table and the stools, all made of stone—more accurately, raw stones from various gemstone mines.
Most of these semi-transparent stones glowed in different colors, the gems obviously unextracted.
Under the illumination of the Magic Lamps, they looked like a rainbow filling the living room, contrasting sharply with the pure black environnt of the streets outside.
Using raw stones from gemstone veins to construct a house, Lide could only marvel at the wealth of the Underworld possessing such minerals.
Inside the hall, the long table was twenty blades long, surrounded by more than forty stone chairs. Collins led Lide to sit across from each other at the main seats, with the Half-body City Lord not taking the principal seat.
Clap, clap~
With a light clap of his hands, servants imdiately brought up various foods and fine wines unique to the Underworld onto the table.
Lide looked across at the Level 18 Half-Elf, his expression carrying a playfulness difficult for anyone to understand.
“Lord Collins, I took a walk around Black Iron Castle and must say that, as a city of the Half-Elves, it is splendid and magnificent, not inferior to any city above ground.
The only drawback is that the scale of the market inside the city is sowhat small.”
Oh?
The aning of these words was quite clear, and Collins’s eyes imdiately lit up.
“Yes, because most of the Half-Elves have gone to Liusi City, Black Iron Castle has lost its forr prosperity, so this situation is inevitable.”
Collins did not hide his concern; this kind of news was public within Black Iron Castle. Anyone who wanted to investigate could easily find it; there was no point in hiding, and being open about it could garner a certain amount of goodwill.
Sure enough, he could distinctly feel that the smile on the other’s face grew much thicker.
“Lord Kachar, how far is your Dawn City from Black Iron Castle? Perhaps we can establish a trade route…”
Lide was slightly startled; he hadn’t expected to get to the heart of the matter so fast. Had they dispensed with pleasantries so soon to talk about serious matters?
“I ca from the other side of the Mud Swamp, and the exit of the underground passage is about 1000 kiloters from Black Iron Castle.”
Lide looked at Collins, leisurely saying, “Lord Collins, your proposal is great. The reason I ca to the Underworld was indeed to open trade with Black Iron Castle.”
“1000 kiloters?”
Collins frowned slightly. In the perilous Underworld, that distance was considerable.
“I have eight thousand Magic Language Bats that can entirely carry out air transport, so Lord Collins need not worry about the distance.”
Hearing these words, Collins’s heart gave a shudder. Eight thousand Magic Language Bats?
As one of the largest rulers of the Underworld, the Half-Elves had a fair understanding of the various races. The number of Magic Language Bats owned by the Bloodline was a standard for assessing their strength.
Being able to sustain eight thousand Magic Language Bats ant that the scale of the other’s city was definitely not small.
At this mont, he felt a touch of crisis because if the other’s strength was too great, Black Iron Castle might not be able to hold this Vampire in check.
“I wonder if Lord Kachar has co to the Underworld purely for trade or if you plan to establish a city of the Bloodline on this land to spread the Glory of the Bloodline?”
Looking at the very cautious Collins, Lide shook his head with a bit of amusent.
“No, Lord Collins, there is no need to be so wary of us. I have little interest in occupying the Underground City.
The Bloodline can only survive on the fresh blood of humans, and the Underworld is not suitable for human living—without food, what would we do with your cities??
Resources? Ore? Gemstones?
These things are worthless compared to survival.
Therefore, you needn’t worry whether I may one day suddenly attack Black Iron Castle; it would be aningless to .”
Hearing Lide’s frank words, Collins’s expression visibly relaxed.
After a bit of thought, he realized that indeed, the fatal point of the Underworld’s lack of food directly limited the expansion of the Bloodline, and there was no solution to this problem yet.
The pressure of food was no joke; in the food-scarce Underworld, even the Half-Elves who owned a city often suffered from the plight of food scarcity.
Lide’s words, though not particularly novel, were obviously very persuasive.
“Lord Kachar, your frankness and straightforwardness have won my trust; perhaps we can now discuss a collaboration.”
Collins said with a smile, though his tone remained sowhat firm—as at that mont, he believed he still held the upper hand.
Lide’s eyes revealed a playful glint upon hearing this, and the corners of his mouth turned up slightly.
rely pure cooperation was not what he wanted; this Underground City obviously held great potential.
As thoughts flowed, a new idea erged in his mind.
“Lord Collins, let’s set aside cooperation for now. According to my knowledge, Black Iron Castle was once the largest city of the Underworld with a glorious past.
Yet now it has declined to a re population of 50,000. Don’t you wish to change this?”
These words caused Collins’s eyes to narrow slightly.
“Change? What sort of change does Lord Kachar an? Expand Black Iron Castle? Increase the population? Strengthen the ard forces?”
Lide shook his head, “No, Lord Collins, these are not the most urgent matters for Black Iron Castle.”
“This world is undergoing unprecedented changes, and you remain none the wiser, still living in the sa environnt as before, viewing this world with an old and conservative perspective, unable to foresee the future trends.”
After saying this, he stared deeply into Collins’s eyes, solemn of tone and deliberate of speech, “If you do not make changes, Black Iron Castle will soon face destruction.”
Well, that’s pretty dramatic…
These words sent a jolt through Collins’s heart, and his body subconsciously wanted to stand up, but he stopped in an instant, his eyes showing a look of uncertain alarm at Lide.
If an ordinary person had said this, he would not have cared at all, but these words ca from a Vampire whom he felt to be exceedingly dangerous, and who had also co from the Main Plane.
This directly added credibility to the alarmist statent.
The most feared things in the Underworld are all on the surface, be it the countless human armies or those Sects of the Light Attribute shouting for eternal light and glory. Their appearance in the Underworld often signifies the shattering of an Underground City.
Because of the unique nature of the Underworld, the realms cannot be linked together. Thus, even a large Underworld cannot compare to a single Human Country.
In the Glory Main Plane, the Underworld has stirred up nurous storms on the surface, but it generally remains in a weaker position.
If a Human Country were to truly launch a cost-nothing attack, very few Underworlds would be able to hold their ground.
“Lord Kachar, what do you an by that?”
Lide heard the voice trying to remain calm but, in reality, already shaken inside, the curve of his lips flashed by in an instant.
Lifting his head slightly, he stared into those sharp yellow eyes, “Do you know about the Lost Plane?”
“The Lost Plane?”
Collins furrowed his brows, looking at Lide sowhat confused. What does this matter have to do with the Lost Plane?
“The Battle of the Gods in the ancient tis caused the realms connected to the Main Plane to scatter into the Chaos Void, so still traceable, others lost.
These realms are known as the Lost Planes.
Now, a lost plane has erged in the Main Plane…”
“And then? The humans of the surface world can’t possibly be unable to deal with a lost plane, right?” Collins’ eyes held so confusion, his tone strongly skeptical.
“You are right, a race has appeared from the Lost Plane that even the Main Plane cannot handle.”
An 18th Level Half-Elf showed an incredulous light in his eyes.
“Impossible! How could the mighty surface world not tackle a single plane? Has the Abyss invaded once again??”
Apart from the notorious land of Extre Evil, the bottomless Abyss, he couldn’t think of anything else that the Main Plane couldn’t handle.
Lide’s gaze was profound when he heard this.
“That race, they are beings even more terrifying than demons.”
“Hiss~
Beings more terrifying than demons?”
Collins’ gaze was fixed on Lide, as if trying to glean clues from his face.
But his keen perception could clearly sense that the Vampire was not lying about this matter.
In an instant, the Half-Elf at Level 18’s breathing beca hurried, and only after taking several deep breaths was he able to suppress the shock in his heart.
His gaze sharpened as he pressed Lide, “Lord Kachar, aren’t these words a bit too alarmist? Are there really beings more terrifying than demons in this world?”
Lide nodded as if it was the most natural thing in the world.
“Of course, they are much more formidable than demons and even harder to predict.”
Those idiotic beings might simply be trying to test if jumping down from a building would shatter the floor or robbing just to see how fast they can run when chased; such thinking is much more horrifying than that of demons…
“Lord Kachar, can you provide information about them?”
Collins’ arm subconsciously tightened around the edge of the table, his yellow eyes sharp as an eagle’s.
Lide sensed the restlessness in the Half-Elf’s heart, his own eyes revealing a aning the other could not understand.
“We refer to that terrifying race as—The Fourth Calamity!”
“The Fourth Calamity???”
Hearing this na, Collins felt a jolt in his heart.
By the God of Half-Elves, what sort of terrifying lifeform could be worthy of such a destructive na!!
Lide nodded deeply.
“Yes, they are beings that can resurrect over and over, unkillable, indestructible; even if their souls are devoured, they can erge unscathed after so ti.”
“More importantly, they bring disorder, chaos; they can do anything…”
“The Main Plane is already in chaos because of them.”
“Just a few days ago I received news that all humans of the Main Plane united to slaughter these calamities, killing them continuously for a week.
But after a week, they could still resurrect unscathed.”
Collins was stunned by the words from Lide’s mouth. How terrifying must this Fourth Calamity be.
“So, what does this Fourth Calamity have to do with our Black Iron City?”
Nonsense, if I didn’t make them out to be sothing so formidable, how could it possibly concern you…
With a slight cough, Lide began to speak….
Reviews
All reviews (0)