Night of the Soulless Heathens – 165



#165. The Rampage of the Faction 2

The Emperor’s Herald does not regret what has already happened but it is not without emotional pain.

Azadin was in pain. How many of his followers had he killed so far? How could there be a way to bring them back to their senses? It was hard to bear without venting this anger on someone.

The Qingjiandang Taoist felt Azadin radiating the heat of his anger like hot coals and he became frightened and hurriedly picked up the vial that had fallen on the floor.

“This is the potion that the woman who told me to watch over you gave me. I sense the presence of another Nether inside of it.”

It was a quick and exquisite excuse enough to prevent Azadin from venting his anger on him.

“Yeah. That vial…”

Familiar. It was the vial that Arael had shown to Azadin to put in their food.

“Is that the same elixir you guys used inside?”

When Azadin mentioned the Qingjiandang’s elixir the Taoist was momentarily speechless. His remark was a subtle hint that he knew the identity of the elixir they were using.

I had to be careful with my words. This young man had come all the way here through the storm of the crowd and was furious.

The Taoist who knew that his ability his power and his anger might turn into a blade and fall on his neck at any moment answered with the utmost courtesy.

“We have only tried to help those suffering from malnutrition. We have saved many people from suffering many times before but this has never happened! This must be someone’s scheme!”

“That’s not what I was asking. Are you saying that what’s in that bottle is the same as your elixir?”

“Yes. It’s a different medicine than the one we use. To be honest we dilute it considerably to prevent binding but… this is quite concentrated.”

“And you’re fine even after eating that?”

“Fortunately I was able to use blood magic to isolate and control the elixirs that entered my body.”

Blood magic. A type of sorcery that uses blood from small folk remedies like extracting leech blood to reduce swelling to large-scale magic that uses blood to summon demons.

The Cheonggeondang Taoist used his blood magic to split the elixir that had entered his body and created a tree branch from his hand.

“You can contain the elixir controlled by blood magic inside this branch. Fortunately the guardian deity of the Cheonggeondang we serve is Grimsroun the old tree in the swamp…”

Since it was a being with wood properties it was possible to isolate the elixir before it was absorbed into its body using wood materials. That was what the Taoist was saying.

‘Since they cannot be servants of two gods at the same time the medicine Arael gave them actually became an antidote. The concentration of the medicine was strong but since this person was a blood mage and the Nether being they served was like a tree ghost they were able to completely isolate the elixir from their bodies. So did Arael tell them to put the medicine in their food with good intentions?’

Azadin thought for a moment about his only blood relative but then shook his head.

There is no way Arael would have done that out of consideration.

‘Not all the Qing Dynasty members are tainted by the power of the Nether but if you poison their food even the wrong people will be infected. Arael just doesn’t care if there are other victims or not.’

Arael was always like that. Strong and confident he didn’t care about the weeds or ants that were trampled to death under his feet. Like an elephant that tears everything that stands in its way and moves forward Arael’s steps were smooth and unstoppable. Perhaps this Taoist was also an ant trampled under Arael’s feet.

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Then Zibek called Azadin’s attention.

“Azadin. Look over there.”

“ah.”

Azadin found Arael and her party entering Baron Adyrov’s castle at the place that Zibek pointed to.

“This is not the time to pursue. Hey Taoist! You have to stop the runaway trees! Can you do it?”

“I’ll try. Oh take this!”

The Taoist monk Cheonggeon-dang handed Azadin a branch containing Arael’s elixir.

Azadin took the sharp and strong branches put them in his bow and chased Arael.

*********

After the baronial family was wiped out by an endemic disease the Adyrov Baronial Castle was used as a kind of office where officials dispatched by Count Lantarik performed administrative duties.

The building that was built to house a noble family lost its ornamentation over time and now only rationality remained on its exterior. But that was only the outer shell of this castle.

Inside the castle of Baron Adyrov surprisingly there was an old dwarven-style building and the castle was just a shell built on top of it.

And Azadin could guess that it was the Emperor’s treasury.

This was because after Arael and her party entered first a thick low sound could be heard from underground as if the entire building was stretching. It was a loud noise as if the ruins themselves were waking up.

“Are you okay Captain? This is scary.”

Scott had already prepared a cart cast a spell on the surrounding corpses and climbed onto the cart himself.

“What are you doing? That?”

“….”

Zibek glared at Scott as he disrespected the corpse before his eyes.

But soon everyone became speechless.

Scott organically combined the torn corpses leaving behind only the most utterly functional beauty.

Then the cart started moving by itself.

If you look closely you can see that the muscles extending from the handle to the floor are pushing the cart… but the muscles are obscured by the supports that hold the cart upright so it looks like the cart is running on its own.

“Let’s call it Smart Mobility!”

“…smart?”

“I think it’s a smart design Captain.”

“ha.”

Zibek was speechless.

At that moment bloodthirsty tree ghosts appeared in front of Azadin’s party. They were the people inside the Adyrov Castle but now they were Nether’s people who were running wild and slaughtering the people around them.

“joy.”

Azadin swung the branch he had received from the Qingjiandang Taoist priest like a dagger at the people who were blocking him.

-Puff puff!

Each shot hit them accurately with a crisp sound.

The attack which was distributed with such precision that it seemed as if holiday gifts were being handed out to children brought their minds back to reality.

Then the wooden beast became human.

“Ugh?”

“No way!”

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“What have I done so far? Did I really do this?”

“Ahhh! What’s wrong with my body?!”

They were terrified at the disaster that had befallen them.

“Go to the Cheonggeondang Taoist priest and ask for help! Get out of the way!”

Azadin walked inside avoiding the crowd that had come to their senses.

Although their fate was sad chasing Arael was more important right now.

*********

The underground area had a huge granite staircase.

A continuous rumbling noise could be heard from the stairs that seemed to lead to the heart of the mountains surrounding Baron Adyrov’s castle.

On the wall of the massive dwarven-style stone structure which looked clearly like the work of human hands was carved the figure of Emperor Yaeslat.

And the source of the loud noise that had driven Azadin until now was revealed.

It was a huge stone gate that opened with hydraulic power. On both sides of the gate were the keys to the treasure vault that Azadin had seen. When the keys were inserted a water wheel would operate and open the gate.

“If I retrieve the key now won’t the door close and trap those inside?”

Jibek suggested but Azadin shook his head.

“I can hear the sound of water inside so I think there’s a way out once we get inside. There’s no use locking them in. Let’s go in too.”

“Wait a minute. If someone takes the key from behind we’ll be locked up too. And Arael and her men are incredibly powerful. Are you prepared? We won’t kill you because you’re one of their kind but we can kill you to break your will.”

Shati opposed Azadin’s suggestion to go inside.

Arael may not kill Azadin but she may torture him to blackmail him. And isn’t Shatina Xibek Scott an outsider that the Heralds can kill?

But Azadin ignored Shati’s objections and already strode inside.

and….

-Kirik kirik….

Scott’s smart mobility creaks and rolls inside.

“Can’t you be quiet? You’re being so blatant about coming in…”

“The opponent is also a messenger clan anyway. Let’s just go with confidence. And also interfere with my muscle gain.”

Zibek and Scott grumble and follow Azadin.

“Oh shit.”

In the end Shati had no choice but to follow Azadin.

*********

As you pass through the dwarf gate and enter a spectacular sight of water gushing from the mountain and forming a waterfall in an underground cave appears.

Arael stood in a daze inside a large cavity where outside light streamed in through the ceiling and several dwarven machines were visible.

“This is the Emperor’s mint?”

Usually it doesn’t take much of a process to mint gold coins.

Pure gold is so easy to work with that you can make nice looking gold coins just by pressing it without even heating it.

The Value of Gold Coins Given the scarcity of gold it would have been possible for a gold mint to be made by a single craftsman striking a mold with a wooden hammer. Since it was not a currency that was used often anyway there was no need to produce it in large quantities.

Given the powerful magic that was placed on the Emperor’s gold coins the only thing that prevented counterfeiting by the mint was magic and the mint itself was a simple pressing machine. Even the clever Arael thought so.

But the mill here was a large machine tool linked to a water wheel. It was the size of a barn suitable for housing about six goats.

If it were made of planks one man could lift it but if it were filled with metal without any gaps it wouldn’t budge even if an elephant pushed it. It’s impossible to take it.

“It’s much bigger than I expected Arael.”

“What should I do?”

Arael’s subordinates were also agitated.

“Let’s first figure out how it works. Where should we look?”

Arael approached the walls of the Emperor’s treasury. Near where the gold bars had originally been stored the skeletons of dwarves lay scattered.

They all had weapons in their hands and their skulls were broken so it seemed that the dwarves had fought over the Emperor’s gold and died. However since there was no gold it seemed that other grave robbers had stolen the gold.

“Arael!”

At that moment a sharp young man’s voice called Arael.

Azadin’s party had arrived.

Azadin Shati Scott and Zibek came in the same way Arael and her party had come. Azadin was wearing a mask making it difficult to see his expression but the other three seemed surprised by the size and appearance of the Emperor’s treasury.

“This is…..”

“Is this Emperor Yaeslat’s treasure house?”

“But there isn’t much treasure. Has it already been robbed?”

“Let’s be wary of the woman and the messenger clan in front of us Captain. They’re all monsters.”

Scott concluded the agreement on his chariot keeping a close eye on Arael and the four men under her command.