Chapter 256: 255 Killing Two Birds with One Stone? For brother “Huo Zheng is fine”.
Chapter 256: 255. Killing two birds with one stone? -For “Huo Zheng Quite Well” brother [520].
“This is the place! You guys go down from here and follow the underground river all the way to the sewers of Scarlet Fort.”
At nightfall on the second day after the attack on the jackal camp, beside a bay where the Cadman River flowed through the Andromeda Hills, Hogg, who was riding a messy-furred hyena, shrunk his head and said to the several Wolfsbane pioneers following beside him:
“This is where my people and I ran from, but I must warn you that perhaps they have discovered this place and that there is something dangerous in the third level of the sewers.”
“We know, ghouls only.”
The leader of the Wolfsbane Vanguard was a tall guy, and if you looked closely you could see that the guy’s face was similar to that of Jopan Markie, who had been killed by Murphy.
Especially the brutal eyes on that bearded face were practically the same as Qiao Pan’s.
He is the half-brother of Qiao Pan Markqi, another son of Corlando, named Stender Corlando Gungro.
Apparently, although he had been a vampire for more than thirty years, he still believed in the concept of “father and son in battle”, and in addition to his own sons, he also had two daughters in his faction.
However, those two Corando sisters are still staying in Green Island to help their father to take care of the territory over there, and did not participate in this operation in Transylvania.
“Now that you guys have arrived, I’ll go back huh?”
Hogg acted scared.
It portrayed the form of a cunning but fearful and weak jackal in an extremely realistic manner, and the Wolfsbane Clan guys could even really smell the terrified fear in its heart.
This caused these brutal guys to let out despicable laughter.
“Go back? Where do you want to go back to?”
Stand sneered, lifted Hogg’s collar and grabbed him off his equally skinny coyote mount, pointing at the hidden river pit not far away:
“Your chief gave you orders to take us into Fort Scarlet to scout, how do I know you won’t deliberately send us to our deaths?
Go!
Go ahead and lead the way.”
“That was not part of the agreement!”
Hogg yelled, only to be greeted with two slaps to the head by one of the Wolfsbane Huntresses who stepped forward, the latter’s sharper and more hideous wolfbat claws against its neck than the rest of the clan, and said in a cold voice:
“Either lead the way! Or die!”
“Lord Kenport will not allow you to do so.”
Hogg whimpered twice in a very aggravated manner, but really had no choice but to call out to his coyote mount to wait for him nearby, and was then coerced into leading these Wolfsbane Vanguards once again into the passageway that led to the Scarlet Fortress sewers.
Its aggression was not feigned.
Its fear was also real!
After all, the Wolfsbane Vampires it had come into contact with were very different in style from the previous members of the Blood Vulture Clan.
Even if the jackal could not understand the meaning of “elegance” of civilized ethnicity, it knew that these guys around him were all murderous thugs, and that if he did not obey them, he would be killed in a matter of a few claws.
And Kenports will not turn against the Wolfsbane Clan just for the sake of a “crippled bastard” like himself.
The more so, the more Hogg hated these bastards.
Not just the Wolfsbane vampires, but that stupid, over-ambitious bastard Kenport.
How could an asshole like him lead the Transylvanian jackals?
If the so-called “nobles” in the Dark Mountains were only this stupid, then it was really no wonder that the Jackals had fought four Black Plagues but had not been able to take over the continent once.
This kind of power that is not restrained by wisdom can only harm people and themselves!
On the other hand, in the Blood Vulture Corridor, Count Andre, who was discussing the plan of action with his subordinates, raised his head and saw the door of his room being pushed open.
Lady Adele stood in the doorway and gestured to him.
Count White Mountain immediately stepped out beyond the door of his room, and in the shadows Madame Adele whispered:
“‘Piercing Beetle’s arithmetic treasure bead signal is approaching Scarlet Castle, it should be the vanguard of Wolfsbane that it has brought close to this place, I don’t know how well you have prepared, but there is no time left for you to make further preparations.
Begin your performances.”
“Yes!”
The matter came to a head when Count Andre took a deep breath, and he said to Mrs. Adele:
“Please tell Lord Murphy that I’ll be waiting for him in the Fight Club.”
—
The pioneers of the Wolfsbane Clan were brutal and still hadn’t gotten rid of that stock market well smell on them, but they weren’t stupid, and these guys had been very careful after Hogg had led them into the underground tunnels.
The style of the Grey Claw faction they belonged to was simply summarized: even in the Wolfsbane Clan, which was notorious for its lack of rules and regulations, the Grey Claws belonged to the more “extreme” faction.
They crave for expansion and power, and because they are already vicious city thugs, they act more and more aggressively after being empowered by the never-ending fear of the Wolfsbane blood.
The Gray Claw faction had their own cities as territory in Grimm’s Island, but they were not satisfied, and often set off actions to annex other factions’ territories, and didn’t like to be suppressed or regulated, which made old Edward not tired of it before he transferred them to the continent as the vanguard of Wolfsbane Clan’s participation in the affairs of the Black Scourge.
The reason why Corando was able to get the map of the Wolfsbane Clan’s defense in the Cato region was also because of this duty.
After offering their loyalty to King Louis, the Wolfsbane Clan was rewarded with a portion of the Cato region being assigned to them as a territory, and as the Wolfsbane Vampires’ new stronghold on the continent, Old Edward clearly intended to run it well.
To have a territory on the continent again, this is of great significance to the Wolfsbane Clan that was forced to withdraw from the continent and even once on the verge of extinction under the joint suppression of the Church of Avalon and the Tower of the Ring.
The wolfsbane ethnic group that doesn’t talk about inheritance really can’t understand the old Edward’s painstaking efforts, and the Gray Claw faction that is eager to try has already regarded the entire Cato region as their own.
Especially for Corando.
Right now his most important job is to expand the influence of the faction, he does not intend to confront the Black Plague head on and fulfill his duty for Old Edward with the demise of his faction.
A qualified Wolfsbane member could be far from noble.
“The exit is up ahead.”
Hogg, who was leading the way, held his torch aloft, illuminating ahead at the end of the dark natural tunnel as it pointed to the swirling currents:
“You’ll have to swim up there yourselves, I’ll be waiting here!”
Before it could finish its sentence, its entire body was kicked into the water by the Wolfsbane Vanguard behind it, and it had no choice but to flail forward lest it be drowned by the slightly swirling currents of the place.
The other Wolfsbane Vampires did not rush into the water.
They waited patiently for Hogg to disappear into the water for several more minutes before crossing the underwater eddy with Stander leading the way.
The vampires didn’t like water much, but their nature as transcendent beings allowed them to easily cross this level of current obstruction.
After several minutes of holding their breath and swimming, these pioneers made it into the underground cavern on the third level of the sewer.
As a result, as soon as they entered, they were made nauseous by the smell that permeated the place, and the few guys with good eyes had already seen the ghouls that were moving in and out of the holes in the walls of this honeycomb-shaped underground cavern, wandering aimlessly.
“So many?”
Stander had previously thought that there were only a few hundred ghouls underneath the Scarlet Fortress, but this would be into his eyes, this TM was at least a few thousand, possibly even tens of thousands.
“You’re punking us?”
He drew his staff sword and looked viciously at the shrunken Hogg in front of him, who scowled:
“I told you all ahead of time that there are tons of ghouls here! How else do you think we could have escaped so smoothly? We were captured here as gladiators while being squeezed by the blood vulture vampires to clean up the ghoul scourge for them, and that’s precisely why I found this hidden path.”
“How is this supposed to go over?”
A wolfsbane female warrior cursed:
“There’s no way we can get up to the sewers without alerting the ghouls.”
“It’s possible! I know a path that you guys can fly up! Don’t you vampires have wings to fly?”
Hogg screamed urgently:
“Up there! Look there, there’s a hole that was blown out before, that’s the passage they made when they were exterminating the ghouls, the ghouls in that neighborhood were cleared out, you guys can go up from there!
I swear!
I swear to the Lord of the Hunt!
That’s the fastest way, but there’s a gang of vampire human lapdogs, the Blood Rats, patrolling right up there, and I can’t go up there! Please!
Once they realize I’ve escaped, I’ll be recaptured back in the gladiator arena, and I don’t want to go back up there.”
No matter how much the Clan Wolfsbane warrior threatened, Hogg just wouldn’t advance any further, even after a few hard lashes he just huddled in place.
It portrayed the image of a coward in an unbelievably realistic way.
Perhaps it wasn’t necessarily pretending either?
“Judy, you stay here and watch it! The rest of you come up with me and take a look.”
Stander really had no choice but to leave someone here to take over, while the other vampires climbed quickly up the cliffs of the cave.
Hogg, the DD Jackal, assumed that all vampires were able to fly as freely as the blood vultures, but that was just a common misunderstanding his clan had about the midnight vampires. The vampires of the other clans didn’t have wings that could carry their weight as they sped through the darkness of the night, and the Wolfsbane clan was especially bad in that regard.
They were all plus points on muscle, making it difficult for them to even glide short distances perfectly.
But there were gains and losses.
Other vampires of the same rank don’t stand a chance against a Wolfsbane Warrior in a head-to-head melee; they’re the muscle hunks of the Bloods.
The powerful force pushed them to travel fast on the cliffs, and soon they entered the second floor of the sewers with dexterity.
As Hogg had revealed there were Blood Rats thieves patrolling the area, but these ordinary humans could not catch sight of the vampires in the darkness.
Stander was cautious enough to use a certain psychic item, and after confirming that there were no wide-range detection spells in the sewers, he was relieved to spread out a few of his followers, and relying on the vampire’s keen sense of life, he began to travel through the sewers to scout the area.
He himself was very “lucky”.
He was soon guided by the convergence of life’s scents near the Fight Club at the seventh entrance to the sewers.
The place was filled with people, as if there was a magnificent match going on, just the shouts of the blood servants could be heard for a long time in the sewers, and the members of the Blood Rats who were supposed to be patrolling the neighborhood even slipped out of sight and hid next to each other to watch the match with great concentration.
“Hey, that thorny little white boy is no match for our Lord Murphy! He even dared to take the initiative to provoke, if you ask me, we should slash his face!”
“What the hell do you know!
People’s identities come from big sources, I heard my cousin who has already joined the People’s Army secretly tell me that these hateful pups of the Thorn Clan are all spies sent by their sassy female Archduke!
Our Lord Murphy made a wager with their Queen on the position of Governor of Transylvania, and that Thorn brood is the fellow sent by the Queen of the Northmen to succeed Lord Murphy.”
“Huh? There’s more to this? What’s the point of keeping it then? Wouldn’t it be better to just kill it? We Transylvanians don’t like those Yankees!”
“Can’t kill him! I wouldn’t dare kill him. This little white man is a big shot. I hear he’s a Yankee count? Maybe he’s also the concubine of their young queen.
Heh heh heh.”
A group of blood rat gang members in the periphery of the whispering let hiding in the darkness of the Stand heard clearly, as a name with “wolf” vampires, their hearing and perception than other vampires to be a little more keen.
This is a racial characteristic.
Feeling that he had gained important information, Stander hesitated, and then ventured up into the high part of the Fight Club, lying down next to one of the broken walls and peering down.
Below, in a gladiatorial arena illuminated by gas lamps, there were two young and handsome vampires fighting to the death.
It really was a fight to the death!
The blows were unrelenting, one using oddly sharp claws of darkness, the other wielding a chilly sword in his hand, but the one with the claws was clearly the better fighter, practically overpowering the latter.
The latter’s body was already covered in blood but he wasn’t willing to back off.
Unfortunately, will did not mean power, and in a surprise attack he was buckled face first to the ground by the opposite guy, and it wasn’t too late, as the victorious blood vulture vampire pressed against him leaving scars on his handsome face.
Such injuries were nothing to a vampire, they could heal scars, but being watched by so many lowly mortals was quite a terrible humiliation for a vampire.
“Arrogant and arrogant northerners, you’ll have to abide by our rules once you’re on the territory of the Blood Vulture Clan!”
Murphy scolded sternly:
“This time is just a small lesson for you, Andre! Next time, I’ll snap your eyes out and send them back to your sister!
Don’t think that the Wolf Girl name scares anyone!
We Transylvanians won’t have any of your shit!”
The crowd beside them burst into cheers, rejoicing in the victory of their lord, but the heart of Stander, who was hiding, snapped.
This thorny little white boy who had just been humiliated in front of the crowd was actually the Wolf Girl’s brother?
This was a big piece of information!
Stander’s heart was racing and he was about to leave with his gains, but in the next instant he saw Murphy, who had flapped his wings and flown up to the gladiatorial arena, waving triumphantly to his blood servants, while beside him a dainty, nastily-built female vampire fawned over him and presented him with his weapon.
A staff sword.
A wolfsbane style staff sword.
The thing made the second Jopan brother’s eyes round as he recognized it as his brother’s sword! The gray wolf head symbol on the hilt could not be faked.
It was the symbol of his father’s faction.
“So it’s you!”
Stand gritted his teeth as he caught his brother’s murderer, this vampire named ‘Murphy’, a scumbag of the Black Iron rank!
By the looks of him he seemed to be the current governor of Transylvania?
That outrageous rumor was true, a vampire of the Black Iron rank had taken control of the now riddled Transylvania through rhetoric and ingratiating himself with humans.
“Very well.”
The Wolfsbane warrior stared dead at Murphy as he was escorted out of the area by a few pathetic vampires, and he saw the humiliated vampire count being helped out of the gladiatorial arena by his own servants as well.
He followed quietly.
The other party was a member of the Thorn Clan he didn’t dare to follow too close, he could only prick up his ears to listen.
“Today’s revenge will be avenged in the future!”
That little white man said sternly:
“I’m going to kill him! How dare you humiliate the Hero King’s bloodline like that! Vesta! What I asked you to do.”
“All done, master.”
Another sinister voice replied:
“Murphy is having a headache with the jackal warlords of the Andromeda Hills, the assassin he sent out missed and angered the jackals instead of burning their grain.
He can no longer be bothered to spy on us.
I have stockpiled a sufficient amount of explosives in several hidden places in the sewers of the Scarlet Fortress as you instructed, and at your command, this ridiculous Scarlet Fortress will go up in flames.
This will be your fiefdom, my lord! Naturally, today’s humiliation cannot be spared casually; he will kneel before you and pray for your forgiveness, which you will cruelly deny him!
Archduke Shani has secretly made preparations for our people to support your annexation of this place if you can get rid of Murphy and his frail honored elder Tris.
You will realize your ambition!”
“But those jackals…”
Andrei hesitated a bit, to which his servant immediately replied:
“Their presence will leave Murphy with no time for us, master, not to mention that in front of the Midnight Assassins of the Thorn Clan, the district is just a warlord, and as long as there is no leader left, the Jackals will scatter!
They always do.
No need to think about them!
It is how to get Murphy killed that is your immediate and urgent problem.”
(End of chapter)