Shadow of the Evil God

"This is the most crucial part," she said. "When guests enter the banquet hall, they are still somewhat dazed. The invisible assassins waiting on both sides will stab their throats with sharp daggers one by one. In the blink of an eye, they will lose their lives while still unconscious. There will be no footsteps, no screams, and even no blood splattering. The wounds will be covered with flower petals, sprinkled with incense, and a special medicine will be used to stop the bleeding. The old emperor's guards will quickly carry the bodies to the side of the banquet hall and place them one by one on the chairs where they were supposed to sit."

Cesar was slightly taken aback.

"This is probably the most difficult story for me to review of all the stories you've told me about the Empire," he said. "When did you read it?"

"I was eleven or twelve at the time," Artinya said. "The chronicles are actually quite vague, but I was able to find and infer many details. The new emperor knew nothing about it. I've read in later accounts that his relationship with his father, the old emperor, wasn't good, and that the old emperor had made the decision on his own. The new emperor was in the banquet hall, waiting to receive dignitaries from the south, and he was still wondering why there were so many incense sticks and the strong smell. But when the first body was placed on a chair in the banquet hall and petals coated with hemostatic medicine were pressed against his torn throat, he fell silent."

"Did this incident have any impact on the rule of the Casar Empire?" Cesar asked her.

"It had a significant impact, at least stabilizing the empire's rule over the southern territories for several hundred years," Altinia said calmly. "But I'm not just interested in the impact of the historical event itself, but also the actions of every participant in it. The nobleman who invited and received everyone on behalf of the old emperor—his name has been lost, and I can't remember it. I think perhaps the new emperor intentionally erased his trace. Every dignitary at the time walked into the corridor to his embrace and welcome, and then left without returning."

Cesar looked at the princess's face and noticed that she had just begun to defy him after hearing his explanation, adopting an elusive smile that was even harder to detect. Does everything have to be decided by a winner? Sometimes he thought the princess was a bit childish.

"My great regret," she continued, "is that I couldn't see how that man embraced and welcomed them, because if he had just one wrong look or one wrong gesture, he would have revealed a flaw and ruined the whole plan, but he didn't. So I think the sincerity in the expression on his face and in his words was more sincere than real sincerity, so that no one had any doubts, and until the moment they died, they didn't believe he was acting."

"What do you think?" Cesar wanted to say that this was also his comment on her today.

"I believe that when things rise to the political level and involve decisive decisions, we should not talk about faith and justice, good and evil, kindness or cruelty, morality or immorality. As long as we can achieve the best goal and have a suitable excuse, we should use the means and methods that can achieve the goal."

"This..." He hesitated. "Don't you think that no matter how low we fall, there should be a cliff where we can't fall any further?"

Chapter 230 Blood Relationship

"I can't... explain it clearly. Perhaps I haven't found the moment to hesitate yet." Altinya stared at her pale face reflected in the wine. "But I think many things have reached a point where they must be done. There has never been a better time than now. A bunch of self-proclaimed emperors are used as puppets, and behind them stand a group of powerful ministers. In other words, there is no emperor, no leader, no regime, and no stable rule. This is just a ruin trampled under the feet of its own people and the beastmen."

Her eyes didn't blink, and her tone didn't slow down at all.

"Except in those self-proclaimed capitals, where people still live like human beings, all other people endure endless disasters, some even lying in the streets waiting to die like the refugees in Sodoris, believing it is better than staying within the empire. The Kasar Empire has reached its shameful state today, suffering from internal strife worse than that of the southern kingdoms in the past. This proves that if anyone wants to do something different, they must not hesitate or fear."

"Where are your brothers and sisters?" Cesar asked her.

The princess shook her head slightly, a slight but resolute movement. "Those self-proclaimed emperors, hiding behind the powerful ministers, may appear to be carefully selected figures, but in reality they are merely an extension of their will, representing one ethnic group's desire to confront and suppress the others. Otherwise, why would they intermarry for another generation, waiting to be tainted with the blood of those ministers before sending them forth to assume important positions? Princes and princesses who consider themselves the children of ministers no longer represent the will of the empire, but rather the will to further division and internal strife."

Cesar realized that Artinya did not actually regard her brothers and sisters as brothers and sisters, and the blood relatives she recognized were not blood relatives in the secular sense, but a very abstract concept.

"They will only make the Casar Empire more and more half-dead, and the trauma will accumulate more and more." She said resolutely, "This means that someone needs to break free from those shadows and end all these traumas - even if it means cutting them off, we must end these feudal rules, end the slaughter they have caused, eliminate the increasingly accumulated looting and exploitation, and heal these sores that have become foul-smelling due to years of festering. All hesitation and retreat, kneeling down to pray for salvation and for relief because of not daring to take responsibility, such choices are absolutely unforgivable..."

Her voice was like a piano string, stretched taut from the moment it opened, now suddenly reaching its limit and snapping. Her face was pale, her throat moving, as if she was trying hard to keep herself from shaking. Her eyes, once a gentle, soft violet, now seemed to blaze with fire.

Cesar felt that her impulse was sudden and she barely took a breath during the entire narration. Rather than determination, there was a kind of neurotic weakness in her voice, as if she was suffering from a weak illness but was forcing herself to stand up.

"You're saying," Cesar sorted out her story a bit, "that the Kasar Empire is divided, and its people are displaced by the wars between the self-proclaimed emperors. All of this stems from the ministers of each territory, and further from that, because the empire is too vast, it has to be divided into different regions. Each territory has its own army, each with its own emperor, to rule its own territory. They don't want to elect the most capable emperor, but rather to have their own ethnic group suppress the ethnic groups in other territories, so that their own interests will be superior to those of other ethnic groups."

Altinya opened her mouth. "Yes...that's right." The princess stared at him and said, "Your words sound much clearer than mine, Master Cesar."

"You've long harbored the idea of ​​weakening the military and financial power of the various territories and strengthening central authority. I was merely stating it," he said. "According to you, each territories has been lip-service to the emperor's orders. At one point in history, the old emperor even resorted to slaughtering a group of dignitaries to maintain a century of stability. But you feel that this isn't enough, that the root of the scourge hasn't been eradicated. These malignant sores must be eradicated before the scourge can end. Whether it's General Cleaves or yours..."

"The Prime Minister, his family, and of course, my mother, who I want to hold the puppet strings and become regent," said the princess.

Cesar had always suspected that Artinia wanted to establish a completely unified and centralized monarchy, and now he was completely convinced. According to her, eliminating the ruling families of each territory was only the beginning; they also needed to eliminate military and financial power, a series of millennia-long traditions, concentrating them all in the hands of the central monarch. Naturally, political decrees would also need to be unified, completely ending their independent political system.

Undoubtedly, the Chancellor, a blood relative of hers, was her enemy; her biological mother was an even greater enemy. As for her brothers and sisters who had become self-proclaimed emperors through intermarriage, in her eyes, they were merely extensions of the will of those evil ulcers, not even blood relatives. For her to marry into one would be more than just a personal problem; it would tarnish what she considered to be an extension of the will of the Kasar Empire.

This was difficult to consider. After all, Cesar was only an ordinary person, unable to place himself within the realm of abstract will. In this respect alone, Altinia had not only disregarded human gender distinctions but also abandoned human kinship, leaping into a new dimension of self-awareness.

"Well," Cesar said, "I understand what you mean now.

"I'm done, Aya." He pondered, "You carry this sense of mission, feeling you must master the skills of those who came before you, perhaps even master them. You see those who are powerless, weak, hesitant, unable to accept sin, and who sink into regret and pain after committing it—these are just ordinary people. Do you wish you had the strength to endure this, to resolutely use any means and avenues, to commit any crime without a single qualm of conscience?"

She pursed her lips. "You are being... too blunt, sir."

"Or maybe it's too harsh," Cesar told her. He felt that his negotiations with Corella and Loresa had never been as tiring as they were now; he was simply racking his brains. "But I think," he said, "that those you've seen in history who committed sins to maintain the Casar Empire and enjoyed a long period of stable rule are not the chosen heroes. Because these people are actually ignorant and uninformed, and in fact, they are also protecting their own selfish interests, just like the sores you mentioned."

Chapter 231: Because She Really Gets Embarrassed

"Ignorance is also ignorance..."

"I'm not denying your knowledge," Cesar said. "I just feel that I want to acquire knowledge, not to make my ideas more fanatical or pious. Because if I do that, even if people turn away from the religion of God, they will still be subject to the religion of the world. Some people go to great lengths to create false gods, firmly support them, and praise and affirm their knowledge for their sake, and denounce the knowledge that denies it. This is not knowledge and understanding—it is just compiling scriptures."

"But what does it mean to be knowledgeable?" Artinya asked him.

"I think that knowledge and understanding mean that people should acknowledge that ideas and concepts are interchangeable. Only by realizing this can one let go of the fanaticism that blinds their eyes and understand everything. Because knowing everything means loving everything, and only then can one let go of prejudice and understand everything. This is still freedom, perhaps even freer than being ignorant and loving nothing, and it can still overcome those obstacles. Because when the ignorant want to slaughter and kill, to destroy those obstacles, you may be able to fly over them like spreading wings."

"You said flying..." Altinya blinked. "Oh, that's surprising. How can a teacher say something like that? It sounds like something from a fairy tale."

"There's nothing wrong with fairy tales," Cesar smiled. "Have you noticed that I've never supported your ideals? But I haven't denied you either. My teaching you has nothing to do with your ideals. It's because you've always sought knowledge from me. I want to see how far you can go, what you can come up with. Maybe you'll succeed, maybe you'll fail, but that doesn't matter to me. Even if you don't, the knowledge you possess is written in this book, and someone in the future will surely read your ideas and feel that they can achieve it."

"Well," the princess nodded. "If I don't achieve anything in the future, then I'll have somewhere to go, sir. If your true identity is exposed to the world, remember to take me with you when you buy a ship and flee. In other words, you'll be taking with you the many blood debts I'll undoubtedly bear."

"Your words are really heavy."

"Your speech is the most serious." Altinya said with a smile.

......

Cesar shifted his buttocks repeatedly on his mimic horse, feeling uncomfortable all over. He had finally managed to trick a group of goblins into working as laborers in the wilderness, but he found riding without a saddle incredibly difficult. His buttocks and thighs were numb, and he knew some goblins were secretly biting him.

The horse's height was sometimes short, sometimes tall, its body was sometimes wide, sometimes narrow, and its color changed with the surrounding environment. From time to time, something inexplicable would touch his crotch, like a mosquito bite.

Cesar wanted to find a real horse, especially a saddle, but they were in the wilderness. Even if they could find one, it wouldn't be possible for a horse to grow wings and leap across a chasm dozens of meters wide like a mimic horse, let alone tread on a steep cliff face. No matter how you looked at it, these little goblins would be perfect for long-distance travel, but his demands were too many.

In Neuen, Cesar was accustomed to chatting with people as they walked. He talked to Firth about Itris and the Origin Society, to the dark-haired Ajeh about the Sassulai people and her brother, to Cecia about her mercenary career and swordsmanship training, and to Sister Kallen about her sect and personal beliefs. They could talk until nightfall. Even if someone didn't want to talk to him, or even wasn't used to talking, he would unknowingly open up to them.

Exchanging stories with others was Cesar's way of understanding them, and he would always ask more and go deeper than others. He found out about Ceshia's blood feud, and almost went out of town with her to experience knight competitions in various places. He also had many heated arguments with Brother Kallen, whom he hadn't quarreled with for more than ten years, and even ended it with an unforgettable kiss. If it weren't for old Thane who set him up after the incident, this would have been more than just a kiss.

Cesar shook his head and sighed, his mimic horse carrying him across the top of the stone forest, over a hundred meters high, making him want to vomit. Looking back now, it was a good time. He practiced swordplay during the day, disturbed the monks at dusk, and slept with the little witch in his arms at night. In between, he strolled back and forth. If you don't count the arrangements for the city's defenses, it was almost a normal day for the idle young noble.

The worst thing is not that he is very busy now. Various political and military affairs can fill up a table. The worst thing is that when others are sleeping soundly, he still has to trek through the endless wilderness until he wakes up in the morning.

His beloved eldest daughter of the Duke's family still floated beside him like a ghost, hanging at arm's length from him, motionless. No matter how the mimic horse took him, leaped, galloped, or slowed down, she remained relatively still with him. For a moment, Cesar felt that this guy was the one riding the horse, and that he was the horse she was riding.

Diana's eyes were closed, her hands were lowered, and her feet were naturally drooping, as if she was floating in her sleep. Not only did she float beside him and sleep as if she were alone, but she even slept with her chin up and her chest puffed out, as if to declare her nobility and extraordinaryness.

Although this girl repeatedly emphasized that she was meditating, Cesar felt that she

Just sleeping.

Fils's sleep was even more complete. She had no dreams, no consciousness, and curled up in the trunk behind him like a lifeless doll. When Cesar slowed down his pace, he would carry her out and comb her hair, as if he were tending to an incorruptible corpse. This would ease his mood slightly, but most of the time they were on long journeys, and she could only curl up in the dark trunk.

The only conscious person was Ajeh, but her words were sharp. If he spoke back, she would vanish, refusing to speak, only to return a moment later with a elusive air. Now she was more than ten meters away, crouching atop another stone pillar like a young wolf, her long hair flowing back like ash. She leaned forward, breathing into the wind, looking as if she wanted to cut her face with the chill.

Fortunately, Cesar forced her to put on some clothes, otherwise she would not only be slicing at the cold wind. Ajiehe seemed to have only become human after possessing him. Before that, she was a wild beast, and clothes were not a big deal.

What a terrible team, Cesar thought. He quietly reached out to poke Diana in the face, but she immediately floated back a hand's length, just out of reach. "Why do you float back when I reach out my hand?" Cesar asked her hopelessly, "At least let me poke your face to ease the pressure?"

"I'm meditating, don't disturb me." Diana glanced at him sideways and floated back an arm's length away.

"Once I find a place to stay, you'll know how I'll bother you," Cesar muttered. The mimic horse gradually moved deeper into the Thousand Needles. Suddenly, he realized the ground a hundred meters below him had completely vanished. The stone pillars seemed to stand in an abyss, and the lower he looked, the darker and deeper it became.

This kind of horrific environment was everywhere in the wasteland. After the baptism of the sleeping real dragon and the search with the Eye of God, he was no longer surprised by anything in the wasteland. He raised his head and stared at the strange birds circling around him in the blood-red sky, and couldn't help feeling quite hungry.

"I don't care if the creatures of the wasteland are edible," Cesar muttered. He had already been trekking through this stone forest for three days, not even a single night in real life. He wasn't afraid of being poisoned; he had to eat some meat.

He patted the mimic horse's head, and the horse immediately became a headless monster horse. After the horse's head broke, it split into more than ten little goblins in mid-air, flying around him and making sharp cries.

Diana was still meditating, with no intention of helping him convey his meaning. Fortunately, Ajeh finally ended the cold war with him and leaped onto his shoulder from more than ten meters away. "These little creatures want your blood," she said, crouching behind him. "Your own blood."

"Why do you keep running away like a sulky child without saying a word?" Cesar glanced at her sideways. "I didn't say anything, did I?"

"If I could hurt you, I would have done more than just run away without a word, Cesar."

"You can scratch me with your claws, and I won't hide. Doesn't that count as harm?"

"I'm not in the mood to flirt with you," said Ajeh.

Cesar shook his head, pulled back the sleeve of his left hand, and offered it to the vicious little devils. Lately, he'd been getting more and more accustomed to feeding the evil creatures with his own flesh and blood. "You were so talkative when you were joking with Diana, one sentence after another, that I wasn't interested when it was my turn," he said.

"Because she would be really embarrassed," said Ajiehe.

"I won't?"

"Do you know?"

Cesar was speechless, unable to respond. He could only watch as the goblins gnawed at his severed left arm, blood splattering everywhere. The scene resembled little puppets gnawing at bloody branches. It was absurd and perverse, but after accustoming himself to the wilderness, he surprisingly found it quite calming.

Soon, he cast off the vicious little goblins and ordered them to serve as hunting dogs, hunting the birds soaring overhead. He folded his arms, stretched his skeletal fingers, and wondered where he could find a place to rest. He had no problem feeding the evil creatures with his own flesh and blood, but eating raw meat was absolutely impossible.

Cesar put the bloody finger bone close to Ajeh's mouth. She subconsciously opened her mouth to bite it, but he dodged it and stared at the guy's wide-open eyes for a while with a smile.

Chapter 232 You let her give birth to a child

......

There seems to be no bottom in the depths of the stone forest.

Cesar lay on the back of the mimic dragon, watching it cling to the stone pillars with its feet, climbing down step by step. However, they went several hundred meters deep, and even deeper was still a bottomless abyss. Then they walked back and climbed up for nearly a thousand meters, but found that there was no sky at the top.

There is no difference between going up and down. There is an abyss with no visible bottom under your feet, and an abyss with no visible top above your head. The stone pillars extend up and down to the end of your vision.

"I really want you to kneel on the ground and tell me about your recklessness and mistakes and apologize to me one by one." Diana said beside him.

Cesar glared back at her. "Why didn't you say that while I was exploring further down?"

"I won't wake up unless there are unusual signs and threats, or you hold something out of my reach," Diana said nonchalantly.

"You might as well just classify me as an abnormal sign and threat," Cesar said. "Besides, aren't you human? Why are you so comfortable in the wasteland?"

"She's not human," Ajiehe suddenly said. "You used to be human, but she wasn't born human."

Cesar looked at Diana, who raised her eyebrows slightly. "Whatever you say, Ajeh."

Ajeh licked the blood from the corner of her mouth. It was his blood. "In the last era," she said, "beastmen and cursed demons roamed the land, offering sacrifices and slaughtering people without restraint, doing things unimaginable to the orderly Kunar. They also mated with humans, of course, and the offspring they produced also bore their blood. Most were deranged hybrid beastmen, but there were also some exceptionally rare individuals with terrifying talents, wisdom far exceeding both their ancestors. These people mastered the Kunar magic that the Franks of the time had reluctantly learned, and became uncontrollable, which led to the creation of all the schools you see today."

Seeing Diana fall silent, Cesar touched her face again. This time, she didn't notice, nor did she dodge. She glanced at him sideways after he touched her cheek, and subconsciously raised her hand to slap his hand away. But he held her fair hand instead, intertwining his fingers, palms against palms, feeling a little cold. "Do you mind?" he asked. "This place doesn't seem right. It's not appropriate to be floating here, is it?"

"I'm not used to sitting in someone's arms," ​​Diana said.

"Then the back will do," he said.

Cesar placed the wooden box in front of him and tightened it with the same rope that had bound the mimic dragon's neck. The box was almost entirely made of wood; until it was opened, one wouldn't have noticed there was a person inside. Meanwhile, Diana had adjusted her undershirt and cape, swung her legs, and sat behind him, her arm around his waist.

The mimic dragon weaved through the stone pillars. Unable to flap its wings, it could only climb like a lizard, gradually sinking into the increasingly dark haze. Diana was silent behind him. Her figure was so slender that Cesar could almost feel her heartbeat.

They silently observed their surroundings, pondering the changes in their environment, until the sound of their heartbeats melted into the silence and darkness. Cesar felt that finding a way out was impossible. For now, he had to find a place to stay before considering other matters. If the Mimic Dragon climbed down again, he would have to donate more than just one hand to them.

"Do you have any testimony about that era?" Diana suddenly broke her silence behind him. It seemed that her emotional discomfort was no match for her thirst for knowledge. "I want to know the authenticity of the true knowledge and the cipher records, Ajeh," she said.

Ajeh, perched on Cesar's shoulder, looked back, meeting her gaze. "For over a thousand years, the Franks were enslaved and sacrificed by the Kuna. Although they later rebelled, they didn't actually cause much trouble at first," she said slowly. "The spells they stole were just fragments, and their proficiency in magic was far inferior to that of the Kuna. In that era, the Franks were essentially a barbarian tribe. Their chance acquisition of spells requiring extremely high levels of theory, wisdom, and knowledge wasn't much of a deal. Compared to the beastmen, who had been watched by the true gods, they were nothing."

Cesar raised his eyebrows. "I can hear the tendency in your words."

"Can I still speak from the perspective of the Franks? What you said is really strange." Ajiehe seemed to be about to laugh. "Even if I were in this situation, I would not stand on the side of the Franks. You should be thankful that you are an alien creature, Cesar, - no, Duanwu, otherwise I would not be able to live in peace with you."

Diana tried to pronounce his original name, her pronunciation remarkably precise. "It's quite fascinating," she said. "It's a pity you haven't put much thought into it. Otherwise, learning an unknown language would be quite a feat."

"If you speak my language, I'm afraid I might accidentally say something I shouldn't."

"What happens after this, Ajeh?" she asked nonchalantly.

"I don't need to mention the chosen ones of the various temples who changed the living conditions of the Franks at that time. Besides the chosen ones who traveled through the Age of Gods, there were also the geniuses born from the thousands of evil offspring. Most of them were Franks, but they all inherited the blood of the wasteland. This blood is both a gift and a curse. They can master difficult spells without the need for theories and knowledge systems, and can even create their own theories and knowledge systems. But there is a problem. Bloodline inheritance...

Things are unreliable. It is more reliable to screen for potential talents among thousands of bastards than to expect talented descendants from your own generation."

Cesar turned to look at Diana, who remained silent.

"In fact, after that era, the number of mages capable of founding a school of magic has essentially ceased," Ajeh continued. "Their own descendants are all mediocre, not as good as the children of commoners found in the tribe. Therefore, magic schools have always been organizations that rely on talent rather than bloodline inheritance. Among all these magic schools, there is only one exception, Cesar. Do you understand the weight of this statement?"

"Weight, eh, weight?" Cesar shook his head. Diana leaned against his back, her legs pressed against his thighs, her arms around his waist. "So, am I digging the grave of the Yesterlen School's weight by doing this?"

Ajeh grinned, her teeth sharp. "That's hard for me to answer. I can't guarantee that an alien like you wouldn't meet their school's expectations. Otherwise, why wouldn't they intervene?" she said, suddenly excited. "But I think there's a way to prove it. Let her give birth to a child, and see if her school suddenly appears and snatches the baby away. Then you'll know for sure."

"Really?" Cesar asked her back, "But I'm more curious if you have children. Do you think they will become a new tribe of beastmen?"

"Who knows?" Ajiehe spread her hands. "Do you want to try it? In a sense, I'm already a part of you. Do you think if I have a child, will it come out of your mouth?"

"Once I get it out of my mouth, I'll let it—"

Diana tightened her arms around his waist to block his words, then coughed lightly, "I feel there is a particularly wide stone pillar nearby, and there is a deliberately carved gap in the wall of the stone pillar. We should go over there and take a look." She said.

Chapter 233: Memories of the Dead

......

Cesar gazed ahead and spotted a strange stream flowing through a gap in the withered grass. Its source was a water tank suspended at an angle in mid-air. The stream flowed from the tank, passing through this strange gap, and fell into the abyss below the stone pillar. Although it was called a gap in the stone pillar, it looked like a huge cave. The stone pillar itself was also astonishing in scale, like a magnificent cylindrical mountain.

Water gushed out of the tank endlessly, seemingly without end, while the tank itself hung there, seemingly suspended in its place, as if supported by an invisible giant. Surrounding the tank was a building, but it looked more like the remains of a building, with its roof gone and only the broken walls barely above the head remaining.

Some faceless white stone sculptures were scattered throughout the ruins. Cesar recognized them as sculptures of the White Nightmare at a glance because they looked very familiar. Not only that, but they were sculptures of the White Nightmare sculpted by the Kuna people after being worshipped like Legosius.

This suggests that this must be the home of the ancestors of the Kuna people. According to Ajeh, many Kuna people completely abandoned their bodies and fled into the wilderness. If they did not give up, the White Nightmare and the Beastman Shaman would use their bodies as anchors to find their souls and snatch them away from the wilderness.

"I'm going to stay here for a while, studying this spell," Diana said, a statement that didn't surprise him at all.

"Are you serious?" Cesar replied casually. "I think this thing is more than just a spell. The people are dead, the buildings have collapsed due to erosion, and yet the jar is still bubbling."

"Existing spells are almost always short-lived destruction and curses," she said. "But the Kuna possess some self-sustaining spells that, as long as their balance is not disturbed, can bear the mark of their reality-warping power until the end of time."

Cesar noticed that Diana was determined and her eyes were fixed on him when she spoke, so he had no choice but to nod in agreement.