Chapter 43

Soldiers fell one after another into pools of blood; the red blood slowly gathered into a small stream that gently flowed into the river, the river slowly turned red and then flowed downstream; soon, the whole river and everything turned red.

Soldiers dared not advance; the dwarves, weapons in hand, launched an attack and seemed about to rout. The dwarf leader, holding a black longsword, gripped it with his right hand; the blade slowly changed, gradually turning red, then he slashed at the soldiers. Red sword qi flashed past, cutting the soldiers in half instantly; the remaining soldiers dropped their weapons and fled.

"No!" the king shouted. Then he jerked upright from bed, sweat the size of beans pouring from his forehead, his back drenched in sweat, the sheets completely soaked. He then lay still for a moment, confirming it was only a dream, wiped the sweat from his forehead with his right hand, then let out a long breath, saying: "Turns out it was a dream, but I need to hurry and check on the red-clothed devil's research; this is my necessary plan to acquire wealth."

The red-clothed devil continued his experiment in the lab; suddenly a burst of laughter came, then he said: 'Hahaha! Success! Finally succeeded!'

The king hurried to the red-clothed devil's place; hearing the devil's laughter, he quickened his steps. When he saw the devil, the devil held a cup with unknown contents, laughing loudly while looking at the few dwarves in the cage. The king had never seen such a devil, so he asked: 'What makes you so happy? Could it be that your experiment succeeded?'

"Yes, Your Majesty, it can be considered a success." The red-clothed devil restrained his smile and respectfully replied to the king.

Hearing the devil's answer, the king directly asked: 'So can we now use it?'

Upon hearing the king's inquiry, the red-clothed devil was in a dilemma, saying: 'Use can be used, but this magic potion was just made; its effects, side effects, and duration are unclear. If we recklessly use it on our soldiers, it's fine if nothing goes wrong, but if something goes wrong, it would be a loss not worth the gain. We need a temporary small test to see the potion's effect.'

After hearing the devil's words, the king began to think, saying: 'So who will be the guinea pig?'

The red-clothed devil laughed, then reached out and snatched a young dwarf from the cage; the dwarf began to resist, but his strength was too small, gradually losing strength; then the devil placed the dwarf on the table, again showing a ferocious smile, saying: 'So the guinea pig will be our raw material; we'll test the results with a magic potion made from dwarf bodily material—hm, not a bad idea.'

The red-clothed devil ordered the soldiers to tie up the dwarf, then brought a funnel, placed it in the dwarf's mouth, and poured the potion in; at this time the king also saw clearly the potion's color—it was purplish-red—as the potion slowly flowed into the dwarf, after confirming the young dwarf had drunk it all, the king and the red-clothed devil quietly waited for time to pass, then observed the potion's effect.

After a while, the dwarf slowly underwent a change, becoming extremely enraged, then continually struggled, trying to break free of the ropes binding him; the king and the red-clothed devil watched from the side; suddenly they heard a 'pa' sound, and the dwarf broke the rope.

The red-clothed devil watched, nodding, then somewhat proudly said: 'Hmm, this test subject's response is not bad; judging by appearance, the potion can greatly increase soldiers' strength; what else?'

"Ah!" the young dwarf shouted, lunged straight at the red-clothed devil and punched him in the shin! The devil felt pain, cried out, then lightly touched the struck leg, feeling a piercing pain; he knew his shin was swollen.

The sight before him shocked the king; this was merely a young dwarf, yet after drinking the potion he erupted with such tremendous strength! Thus the red-clothed devil became pleased, then ordered the soldiers behind him: 'Kill this dwarf, soldiers!'

The soldiers slowly advanced to surround the dwarf; the dwarf's eyes were vacant, obviously lacking reason; the soldiers directly raised their spears and thrust at the dwarf, but the dwarf blocked the spear with his body, unharmed! The soldiers stared wide-eyed, unable to believe it was real; then they exerted force with the sharp spearheads and thrust at the dwarf's body, only to hear a 'bang'—the spear broke; the dwarf picked up the spearhead, then hurled it like a dart at a soldier's head, that soldier's head was instantly pierced with a large hole, he fell to the ground, brains spilling everywhere; the spearhead, after passing through the soldier's head, lodged into the rear wall.

The dwarf step by step pressed forward; the soldiers retreated; then they heard a 'dong' sound, the young dwarf collapsed to the ground, slowly turning to stone and slowly cracking.

The red-clothed devil waved his hand, signaling the soldiers to clean up, then said to the king: 'Your Majesty, the experimental results are excellent; the magic potion is potent, it can increase the user's strength and bodily hardness, but correspondingly it causes loss of reason, and after use it inflicts severe damage to the body.'

The king nodded and asked: 'Can it be mass-produced?'

The red-clothed devil smiled and replied: 'Whether it can be done depends on how many dwarves Your Highness has; basically each dwarf yields only a tiny amount of that potion; Your Majesty's army cannot possibly equip everyone with it, but we can guarantee that elite troops can each have a bottle!'

"Ah, the sun today is really nice!" Yang Xin lay on the palace roof, basking in the sun, squinting his eyes as he spoke.

Wang Tingwan stood beside him, her face showing a worried expression, asking: 'Do we really not need to follow behind Feng Yan to see?'

"No need!" Yang Xin rose, crossed his legs, and continued: 'I know they went to hire bounty hunters, but do you think our finances can compare to Feng Yan and Chen Hao? Our only option is to incite the prince, using the prince's wealth to deal with those two. Besides, that red-clothed devil can also be used; I've heard he's researching some interesting things.'

"The current plan is this: we will first send the dwarves out of the dwarf country; after all, that little fellow spoke the truth, so you are the indispensable material for that potion; I will have Jin Meng protect you all around; Jin Meng, you must not be discovered by the Li Kingdom's soldiers, protect covertly, the purpose is to eliminate those Li Kingdom soldiers who come to capture the dwarves; while the palace lacks sufficient materials, it will certainly seek other materials as substitutes; and at this time, Jin Meng, your mission is to seize the Li Kingdom's prince." Chen Hao analyzed the situation, then quickly confirmed the plan.

"But we are now inside the palace; how do we get out?" a dwarf asked.

Feng Yan smiled and said: 'Let's go; I'll take you out now.'

Feng Yan opened the gate; a group of soldiers directly surrounded the outside; the red-clothed devil slowly walked up to Feng Yan, proudly saying: 'Long time no see, adventurer Feng Yan; this time I came to make a deal with you two.'

Feng Yan smiled and said: 'What deal?'

The red-clothed devil said: 'You give me the dwarves under your command, and I'll give you money; how about that?'

The dwarves looked at the red-clothed devil, their eyes full of fear, then looked at Feng Yan with hopeful eyes; only to see Feng Yan say: 'Dream on; you want to buy, I want to sell—what if I don't sell?'

"It's simple: kill you and snatch it from your hands!" the red-clothed devil said softly, his tone gradually scornful, feeling he had victory in hand.

"Then you'll see if your underlings can hold up." Feng Yan laughed and said, then directly led the dwarves away.

The soldiers stood motionless; they deeply knew the terror of this adventurer's strength before them, but they could not disobey the red-clothed devil's orders, so they had to attack Chen Hao; however Chen Hao was not easy to provoke; the soldiers gripped their spears and thrust straight at Chen Hao; Chen Hao sidestepped to evade; then Feng Yan, seeing the situation, directly threw the black sword to Chen Hao's hand; Chen Hao caught the black sword, then struck at the soldiers with a sword, then threw the sword back to Feng Yan.

"Hmm, that's more like it!" Chen Hao said, then sat on the ground.

The spearheads of the soldiers' spears all fell to the ground; the soldiers dared not advance, yet could not retreat; they stood in place, unable to advance or retreat.

Feng Yan, full of amusement, looked at the red-clothed devil's expression, then said: 'You, before going out, check the almanac; see you later, welcome to come play again.'

The red-clothed devil's face flushed red then white from anger; he glanced at the soldiers standing in place, then helplessly issued the order: 'Retreat!'

Yang Xin, on the roof, watched their every move, then said: 'Old friend, we can start the next round of treasure hunting.'