Go ahead. You may congratulate now. Seriously, I’ll wait. What I just accomplished wasn’t sothing nearly as easy as it probably looked from the outside.
A bunch of complete newbie cultivators going up against the experienced king of a town which is the literal primary source of high-end weapons throughout the region and actually winning?
That’s an achievent which honestly requires a solid twenty hour standing ovation from the whole damn town, minimum. But hey, I’m far too humble of a man to actually demand it. I’ll just accept it graciously when it inevitably cos.
We carefully took the dazed King Cangyuan into a nearby building for privacy, sat him down on a comfortable chair, gave him so refreshing water to drink, and let him slowly co back to his proper senses.
Qinyue firmly ordered the curious crowd to stay outside and give us space. We were about to discuss so highly classified top secret information, after all. Things that regular civilians probably shouldn’t hear. Although, we did let Han stay inside with us.
Let break the ice for you since you’ve been patiently waiting so long to find out. What exactly were in those mysterious boxes which had to be kept a secret so desperately?
Well, it was Mingchen Tie, also called the Iron of the Dark Dust in so ancient texts. It’s an extrely powerful and rare tal which is primarily used to forge high-quality weapons of exceptional strength and durability.
As for the fascinating origins of the tal itself, a long, long ti ago there took place a legendary battle between several immortal cultivators at the peak of their powers. Who won the epic battle, you ask?
Funny thing, no one. Literally all of them died at the hands of each other in complete mutual destruction. Haha, talk about cosmic cody and bitter irony.
Anyway, this incredibly powerful tal is actually taken from the ashes and remains of those fallen immortals. So spooky trivia about the tal for you: with the right skilled user, the weapons forged from this material can actually beco sentient and develop their own consciousness.
Crazy to think about, right? I an, you’re on your way to kill so guy and suddenly your sword’s got opinions about your life choices. Kind of annoying if you ask .
Now you might be wondering why I’m stupid enough to have told you earlier that Ironbell was the famous town of weapons manufacturing, but they sohow still gotta bring in the source material from outside.
You see, this specific tal isn’t naturally found here in this region. Due to its extre rarity and the circumstances of its creation, it has to be imported from distant locations.
Besides, the local smiths usually only use this premium material for high-end client requests for special custom weapons. In such normal cases, just a few small crates of the stuff would be more than enough to fulfill orders.
But they’ve been bringing in literal ship loads of the material from the past month straight. Soone’s clearly preparing for a battle. A huge and extrely important one.
"I apologize deeply, King Cangyuan," Han said sincerely as he bowed down before the king with genuine respect.
The king just shook his head wearily, waving off the apology. "It’s alright. It’s perfectly alright. I don’t even rember what exactly happened during all this. This whole situation is very confusing and disorienting to ."
"I knew there was sothing terribly wrong, King Cangyuan," Han said earnestly. "You wouldn’t just turn on us without good reason. That’s not who you are."
"Yeah, well, I did turn on you," the King said sadly as he looked around at all of us gathered there. "Even if it was unconsciously and against my will, I’m still not proud of my actions at all. All of you must accept my sincere apology."
"Please don’t ntion it," Han said as he bowed deeper.
"Although I must say, it is extrely impressive that you were able to take down in combat," the king nodded.
"Thank you, King Cangyuan," I replied humbly, though I couldn’t resist adding, "I an, taking you down was indeed a very difficult task. If not for my quick thinking and brilliant strategic planning, we’d probably all be dead by now."
Jian imdiately shot an annoyed look. "Yeah, well, if I hadn’t improvised on the spot and created that protective barrier around us, a sizable number of innocent civilians would’ve been dead from collateral damage."
Liangyu shot a look to both Jian and , so I don’t feel left out. "I an, not to brag or anything here, but if I hadn’t delivered that finishing blow at the perfect mont, the king would’ve still been under the direct influence of whoever he was under the influence of."
Jian narrowed his eyes competitively. "h, if it wasn’t you, I would’ve taken that strike myself. It wasn’t really that big of a deal."
"Maybe you would’ve, if you weren’t so busy literally dying of complete exhaustion at the ti," Liangyu replied with a smirk.
"Exhaustion?! Haha! Look who’s talking. I’m not the one who desperately chugged down three full glasses of water the second we got here."
"I only drank so much because the water tasted delicious!"
"Oh, did it now?."
"You-"
"Guys!" Qinyue interrupted firmly. "Shut up! Both of you! We’re in the literal presence of royalty right now! Show so respect!"
Liangyu and Jian imdiately apologized, looking slightly embarrassed.
"It’s quite alright, I’m genuinely not bothered by it," the king replied with a small smile. "Your bickering actually reminds of my own youth with my brothers in battle."
I let out a breath and began asking the important questions. "So, King Cangyuan, could you please tell us about the situation you’ve gotten into? And what’s the very last thing you clearly rember? Please don’t leave out any details, no matter how small."
He was lost in deep thought for a few long monts, clearly trying to piece together fragnted mories, before he finally began speaking. "It was a few weeks ago. I don’t rember the exact date, but it wasn’t anything particularly special, just a completely regular day.
I finished my usual administrative work, had dinner with so advisors, walked around the palace gardens for a while to clear my head, and then went to my bedroom to sleep. Usually, Li Xue is there waiting for every night.
But this specific ti, she wasn’t there. I just assud she was busy with so work or visiting family. I was too sleepy to think much about it, so I just changed my clothes and went to sleep.
At around midnight, I suddenly woke up to so distinct footsteps in my room. I looked around carefully and there was no one visible in the room. The windows though, were wide open. Suspecting sothing was seriously wrong, I slowly began to reach for the hidden blade under my pillow.
’That’s so impressively sharp hearing you have,’ said a voice from directly behind .
I spun around and there I could see a man standing at the far end of the room, near the door. He was fully covered in dark cloth from head to toe, even his entire face was concealed.
’Who are you?’ I demanded.
’It doesn’t matter who I am,’ he replied calmly. ’What matters is what you’ll do for , and what you’ll get in return for your cooperation.’
He approached slowly and limping badly, clearly injured.
I could then get a clear look at his eyes through the mask. It looked like he had been through so serious physical hardship. He was exhausted to the point of nearly fainting, but sohow still kept his posture upright.
He chanted sothing in a language I didn’t recognize, created so kind of thick fog in the room, and all of a sudden, I could see Li Xue appearing in front of , all tied up tightly and unconscious.
I got imdiately angry and stood up from my bed. ’What did you do to her?!’ I demanded.
’Nothing yet,’ he replied coldly. ’But I will, if you don’t do exactly what I tell you to.’
Maybe I should’ve attacked him right then and there. Maybe what he showed was just a clever lie, so kind of illusion to manipulate . But I didn’t want to take that risk with Li Xue’s life. So I did as he told .
He pulled out a small potion from his robes and told to drink it. And that’s the very last thing I clearly rember.
I vaguely do seem to rember a few things after that, but only like fragnted dreams. Like passing strange orders to soldiers, eting soone important. Maybe a young girl? But... I honestly don’t know. It’s all very foggy and unclear.
I don’t know what exactly I did while under his control, but from the terrible looks of it, it seems like I’ve made serious mistakes I cannot take back. I put my own wife at a higher priority than the people who trusted to lead them, and look where it’s gotten now."
With that heavy admission, he began weeping quietly. "I’m sorry. I didn’t see another way out."
"It’s alright, King Cangyuan," Han replied gently. "Anybody in your place would’ve done the sa thing."
I could see the answers to our questions clearly now. Well, not so much as to who exactly this mystery man was or where he ca from, but at least it was definitively confird that the king had been manipulated and controlled by soone dangerous.
So kind of battle-damaged guy capable of advanced mind control magic, hoarding massive amounts of Mingchen Tie, and forcing a master healer to help him recover and get back on his feet.
It had been almost a full month since all of this started happening. God only knows how much he had already been healed in that ti.
We were up against soone very clever and powerful, and it would definitely take extensive planning and preparation to take him down successfully. But hey, thank God Ironbell had on their side. No need to applaud just yet. But soon.
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