I rode and slashed unparalleled in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 1185 Su Yao's Secret Exposed
"Your Majesty, can we trust the words of such wicked and unorthodox individuals?"

Two months ago, in Rome, the Eternal City, it was drizzling.

This summer rain was very strange; it lacked the usual torrential downpours, yet it was unusually persistent, and for almost a month they hadn't seen the sun once. Such weather was undoubtedly very unusual, so annoying it seemed to be washing away the last vestiges of glory from this "Eternal City."

Albanus wrapped his gray cashmere cloak tighter around himself, his boots treading heavily and hurriedly across the puddle-strewn cobblestones.

Behind him, Captain Lucius of the Praetorian Guard followed closely, his hand on the short sword at his waist, scanning the surroundings warily—ever since the news of the loss of the Eastern Provinces arrived, Rome had never known peace. The streets and alleys were filled with fleeing soldiers and mobs looting grain, and even the senators had to take a large number of guards with them when they went out.

However, their empire's only hope, the great Augustus, was escorted by only one man as he journeyed to that damned underground Tiber River tunnel!
That place was once an emergency passage built during the Roman Republic to defend against sieges by foreign enemies. Now it has long been abandoned and has become a dark corner infested with rats and ants and a hiding place for refugees.

What good people could possibly meet there?
“Lucius, when all the right paths are blocked, do we still have the right to criticize unorthodox methods?”

Albanus stood at the entrance to the corridor marked on the map, looking back at the captain of the royal guard behind him, his face showing extreme exhaustion.

He had been on the throne for less than half a year, yet it felt like he had lived most of his life. On the day of his coronation, the senators were still cheering "Eternal Rome!" But just a month later, the grain ships from the Egyptian province were completely cut off, and the price of grain in Rome rose three times a day. Then, not long after, urgent reports came from the Danube defense line that the Goths had broken through the empire's border defenses while the Han army was distracted and had already plundered three towns. Yesterday, scouts reported that the Han army's "Dingyuan-class" warships had appeared near Sicily, only a few days' sail from Rome.

He did consider resistance. He dispatched the legions stationed in Spain back to defend the city and reinforced the walls of Rome.

They even sent countless spies, and through bribery and investigation, they spent a great deal of time figuring out that the Han people did not rely on witchcraft, but on a weapon called gunpowder, and they even obtained its formula.

However, the gunpowder they made themselves was far less powerful than that of the Han army.

Both used saltpeter, sulfur, and charcoal, but the Han army's use of these materials caused devastating destruction, while the Roman artisans' costly imitations could only produce a loud noise. They couldn't even breach sturdy wooden shields, let alone destroy city walls and gates. The empire's artisans were baffled, attributing it to the Han people possessing some unknown "refining" technique or secret formula.

Just when Albanus was almost in despair and preparing to follow Severus's example by personally leading an expedition to the Danube to fight to the death against the barbarians and the potential threat of the Han army, a mysterious man in black robes, through layers of connections, delivered a "gift" that he could not refuse and an unbelievable invitation to meet.

The "gift" was a small pinch of dark gray powder and a brief instruction written in Latin and some strange symbols. Albanus had his trusted craftsmen secretly test it in a valley far from the city, and the powder, weighing less than a pound, shattered a boulder half a person's height into dust! Its power far exceeded any gunpowder they had previously imitated, and even approached the destructive power of the rumored Han army's "Thunderbolt."

The meeting place was set in the dark, damp, and dangerous underground corridor of the Tiber River, and he was required to bring at most one person with him.

"If these people can truly equip the Roman army with such weapons as they claim, and possess the means to kill that fiend, then I'll venture not only into this dark underground corridor, but even into the abyss of Tartarus!"

Having said that, Albanus bent down and slipped into the low, arched entrance, half-hidden by vines. Lucius gritted his teeth, waved for the rest of the guards to stand watch at the entrance, and followed the emperor into the darkness. The corridor was deeper and more winding than he had imagined. The torchlight flickered, illuminating only the slippery flagstones underfoot and the mottled, moss-covered walls on either side. Water dripped constantly from the cracks in the ceiling, echoing clearly in the silence. After walking for about fifteen minutes, a steady light appeared ahead.

It was a slightly wider fork in the road, with several specially made torches stuck in the wall that burned with almost no smoke. Three figures, shrouded in wide black robes, stood there like ghosts. They wore expressionless white masks, revealing only their eyes, which looked particularly eerie in the flickering firelight.

“Welcome, Augustus of Rome.” The tallest man in black robes in the center spoke, his voice deep and hoarse, with an almost inhuman quality, yet he spoke fluent Latin. “Your presence here is a testament to your sincerity.”

"Enough with the nonsense." Albanus suppressed his discomfort, straightened his back, and maintained his imperial dignity. "Who are you? Where do you come from? And what about that powerful gunpowder?"

“Who we are is not important, Augustus,” said a slightly thin man in black robes on the left in an almost chanting tone. “What is important is that we know the true secret of your enemy—Su Yao, who came from the East and is known as the ‘Emperor’ and the ‘Scourge of God’.”

"A secret?" Albanus's heart tightened. "It's nothing more than some mystical tricks and powerful weapons!"

"Hehehe..." The black-robed man in the center let out a series of low laughs, which echoed in the narrow corridor, sending chills down one's spine. "Do you really think that a person can control thunder, ride a mythical griffin, and build a vast empire spanning continents and oceans in just a few years, simply by relying on 'tricks' and 'weapons'?"

He took a step forward, his eyes behind the mask seeming to gleam with an eerie light: "Let us tell you the truth, great Augustus. That being named Su Yao, he doesn't belong to this world at all."

"Hmph! Boring!" Captain Lucius of the Royal Guard couldn't help but sneer. "That guy is a complete devil, from the depths of hell! Do you even need to tell me that?!"

Having said that, Lucius drew his sword and stood in front of Albanus, pointing it at the man in black, saying, "Either hand over your formula, or tell us something we don't know, otherwise..."

"Otherwise?" The black-robed man in the center remained motionless, his voice even carrying a hint of mockery. "Otherwise, you're going to use that pitiful piece of ordinary iron in your hand to judge us, Captain Lucius? You're welcome to try."

Lucius was startled when his name was revealed, but the emperor's safety prevented him from backing down. He was about to step forward when Albinus raised his hand to stop him.

“Let him continue.” Albanus stared intently at the man in black. “You say he doesn’t belong to this world… what do you mean? Surely he’s not really a devil or a god.”

"Devil and god also belong to this world." The black-robed man on the right, who had been silent all along, suddenly spoke. His voice was unusually calm, but it carried a cold, penetrating power. "But he was just a despicable fire thief, a rule-breaker, a virus that must be eliminated."

"He stole the great power of my Lord and polluted the river of history with knowledge that does not belong to this era," the black-robed man on the left added in unison. "And we... are here to 'correct' all of this."

(End of this chapter)