Chapter 189: They Should Have Died

Elham stared at the huge hole on the ground as if he had seen a ghost. The muddy ground had melted, turning into crystalline glass-like structures. Such intense heat could not be produced by any ordinary earthly flame; only a high-level Divine Art Master of the Church, borrowing the power of a Deity, could unleash such destructive force.

“Aya! Aling!” Elham trembled all over, his legs weakened, and he dropped to his knees.

The cold, merciless white light faded from his eyes. With a twisted expression, Elham looked at the enormous crater, slowly bent forward, and knocked his forehead hard against the ground.

“It can’t be, how could this happen? Why did it have to be like this?” Elham mumbled, and gradually his voice grew louder, higher, and more frantic. Suddenly, a burst of white light shot out from behind him, and the pure, bright light surprisingly condensed into a pair of hazy wings on his back.

As if his body had lost all weight, Elham flashed to Lartus’s side. He grabbed Lartus by the neck and lifted him effortlessly. “Why did this happen? Where is Aya? Where is Aling? What exactly happened? Didn’t you send people to escort them back to the city?”

Two streams of hot tears flowed from Elham’s eyes, but the pitiless white light immediately filled them. The tear tracks on his face evaporated under the white light, leaving not a single drop behind. The cold, ruthless Elham replaced the one who had briefly shown genuine emotion. He gripped Lartus tightly, questioning him in a stern, severe tone.

While no one was watching, Lin Qi quickly stashed his large axe and two red crystals into his Ankle Chain. He staggered to his feet, skirted around the huge crater, and came to Tixiang’s side. Grabbing Elham’s wrist firmly, Lin Qi shouted sharply, “This has nothing to do with us. Someone tried to assassinate us. The two young ladies suddenly burst into flames. We don’t know what technique they used, but it caused all this destruction.”

Elham released his grip and tried to seize Lin Qi by the neck. But Lin Qi was not about to let him succeed. He fiercely grabbed Elham’s neck instead, forcefully shoving him backward.

With the light wings formed on his back, Elham’s movement became much more agile, but his physical strength had not increased. Lin Qi’s terrifying brute force made him stagger backward over a dozen steps. Fortunately, Yan and An supported him, preventing him from falling.

His pale, lifeless eyes fixed on Lin Qi, Elham snarled, “Assassins? Where did these assassins come from?”

A loud whinny echoed, and in the distance, over a dozen white-clad Knights could be seen scrambling onto their horses, trying to escape. The massive explosion had blasted them far away, killing most of them. Only these dozen or so had survived. Even so, they were badly burned and had suffered multiple fractures. At this point, they had no intention of continuing their assassination attempt.

Enraged, Elham shot into the air. Flapping his wings, he flew rapidly with numerous afterimages appearing behind him, reaching above the group of fleeing horsemen.

“In the name of my Deity, I declare this place a prison. None of you may escape!”

Chanting the incantation in a deep, forceful voice, Elham casually gestured, and a square white light ring appeared on the ground. The horses’ legs suddenly weakened, unable to run any further. They collapsed powerlessly to the ground, along with the Knights on their backs.

With a cold sneer, Elham flew toward one of the horsemen who had fallen and could not get up. But as he approached, he saw black blood continuously oozing from beneath the man’s skull mask. It wasn’t just this one Knight; all the remaining horsemen had black blood trickling from under their masks.

Furious, Elham removed their masks. Their faces were already contorted; they had died from poisoning. Realizing they could not escape, they had immediately bitten into poison capsules hidden in their mouths to kill themselves.

Lin Qi and the others had also rushed over. Seeing these Death Warriors who had resolutely taken their own lives, Tixiang’s expression turned grim. “They are Death Warriors. We won’t be able to find anything from them. We have no idea who targeted whom.”

Tixiang looked at Lin Qi and asked with a frown, “Who did they attack first?”

Lin Qi spread his hands and shook his head, indicating that he didn’t know either. These horsemen had charged out abruptly, first firing a volley of Crossbow Bolts. Lin Qi himself had been shot, and then it was the turn of Ya and Ling in the carriage. It was impossible to tell who the horsemen were targeting, since they clearly intended to kill everyone present.

Long Cheng stood nearby without saying a word. His expression was strange, extremely strange.

Yulian, who stood behind Tixiang, stepped forward. “Let’s leave this place first. The explosion was too loud. The Imperial Capital will definitely send people here. If we’re found here, it will cause big trouble for Your Highness Lartus and Sir Tixiang.”

Near the Imperial Capital, within less than half an hour’s journey from the city, such a powerful explosion had occurred. Officials of all ranks in the Imperial Capital were going crazy.

Had the Alien Race from the Five Great Archipelagos invaded? Or was it another disaster like the falling stars?

A strange snake, pitch black and as thin as an earthworm but with a head the size of an adult’s fist, crawled awkwardly out of the soil near the crater. It raised its head and hissed angrily at the sky, flicking its tongue a few times, then swiftly slithered toward the direction of the club.

In a meeting room inside the club, Lartus and Elham were engaged in a heated argument about how to handle the aftermath. The deaths of the only direct descendants of the Divine Descendant Clan of the Flame Temple in this generation was a responsibility no one could bear. Especially since the demise of Ya and Ling was clearly related to Tixiang’s romantic incident the previous night, which meant everyone present now shared the responsibility.

After discussions between Lartus and Elham, it was decided that Tixiang’s involvement with the two women the previous night would be treated as if it never happened. Tixiang would offer certain compensations to Elham, and the matter would be closed, never to be mentioned again.

As for the deaths of the two women, a plausible and acceptable reason had to be found. The theft at No.1 Shenghui Street was brought up again. Lartus and Elham unanimously decided to pin the blame on the unknown thieves.

It would be claimed that the criminals who had looted No.1 Shenghui Street had planned this assassination. Faced with powerful enemies, Ya and Ling had no means to resist and were forced to use their ultimate technique, a Forbidden Spell, to perish together with their attackers. The crucial question of who the enemies were would have to be answered by Tixiang.

According to Tixiang’s instructions to certain official departments in the Imperial Capital, after thorough investigation and detection, it was concluded that the enemies likely came from the Odin Ice Plain.

The Odin Temple from the Odin Ice Plain had orchestrated everything with the aim of disrupting the peace in the Imperial Capital. As for whether there were other reasons, that would require joint investigation by the Dawn Temple and the Flame Temple.

Given the nature of the Odin Temple, as soon as Tixiang spread the word that two high-ranking Clergy members of the two churches had perished in the Imperial Capital, the Shamans there would joyfully and eagerly step forward, declaring that they were the ones who had killed the two Clergy members. So, there was no worry about finding someone to take the blame; the Shamans of the Odin Temple were natural-born scapegoats.

During the Hundred-Year Land-Island War, there had been dozens of assassination attempts related to various Royal Families on the Continent. In every case, someone from the Odin Temple voluntarily took responsibility—claiming that it was all planned by them, that all actions were led by them!

With the Odin Temple involved, the biggest potential problem in this matter had been eliminated.

It took Lartus and Elham only a quarter of an hour to agree on a strategy.

Lartus breathed a sigh of relief. “So it seems, the deaths of Ya and Ling only bring us benefits.”

Tixiang smiled easily.

Elham gave a firm nod. His eyes, deep with white light, fully agreed with Lartus’s opinion.