Chapter 146: A Thousand Miles to Deliver a Divine Artifact, Courtesy Weighs Heavy, but Sentiment and Duty Weigh Even More (33)

"Click~~"

The airship door opened; it was clear it was made of a very lightweight material, and being lightweight often means low defensive capability.

It absolutely couldn't withstand his fire god gun, and even less could it withstand the huge power of a hydrogen balloon explosion.

A young woman walked out, her thick wine-red long hair coiled behind her head, revealing a luxurious and youthful face—she was the Kao queen, whose nickname is Nana.

Compared to a few months ago, she looks much younger, shifting from a thirty-three or thirty-four-year-old appearance to that of a twenty-eight or twenty-nine-year-old.

And this is naturally thanks to the Golden Blessing Elixir.

Luosen grinned: "Your Majesty, even if you wanted to invite me, there's no need to come in person."

The queen sighed: "Capturing others can certainly be left to subordinates, but capturing you must be done alive, so I had to come personally."

Luosen looked at the queen wearing a splendid dark-red combat leather armor, and jerked his chin toward the ground before him.

Squat down, face away from me with both hands clasped over your head—yes, just like that.

Don't make any small movements, or my hand will shake.

Throughout the process, the fire god gun remained aimed at the queen's chest; any movement would cause him to fire immediately.

But Luosen couldn't help but admit that the queen's waist-to-hip line on her back was truly attractive, especially full and especially round.

The queen feared Luosen might really attack, so she squatted meticulously.

Right after, the second sage walked out.

But it was the female sage who had longed for youth that day.

She also looked much younger, with a great change: from an elderly woman in her sixties with a wrinkled face, she became a middle-aged lady under fifty, even growing many fiery red hairs.

Luosen laughed: "Madam Ailuoliya, I helped you regain your youth and had no ill intentions—is this how you repay me?"

The Kao female sage Ailuoliya may look gentle and quiet, but she bears the wild epithet 'Flame Woman,' and in her youth she could have a violent temper.

Ailuoliya glared at Luosen: "Baron, your medicine isn't cheap."

Money is just a trifle; the key is that the whole country is restrained by him.

But how could the mighty Kao, the Rose Kingdom, a great nation with over a hundred million people, be restrained by a petty baron? So they have been investigating Luosen's true identity all this time.

Originally this was hard to investigate; aside from 'Weilan emissaries,' there were almost no valuable clues, but the fault lies with Luosen being too conspicuous—his fame spread across Weilan in an instant and even began to circulate in the Natural Alliance.

The Kao spies relayed Weilan's situation back, and they concluded that the mysterious Magic Saint and the White Sturgeon Island baron are inseparably linked.

After careful planning, they used the kingdom's newly developed flight magic device, crossing thousands of miles to sneak in and capture someone.

Yet they never expected that, despite such painstaking preparation at any cost, it would still fail—truly leaving people both heartbroken and bewildered.

The third sage stepped out—none other than the eldest sage of that day, Master Laierdun, the most renowned light-element mage on the continent.

His appearance dropped from seventy years old to under sixty.

"Master Laierdun, you really disappoint me."

Laierdun's face showed some anger; he said nothing, but obeyed, clasping his head and squatting before Luosen.

Luosen then looked at the airship: "I sense that a very powerful magic device is hidden inside the airship; this should be a spiritual magic device, somewhat large in volume, but likely movable."

"Move the thing out!"

The queen and the sages were captured, and the court mages inside could only follow Luosen's orders.

Soon, an object about half a person's tall, placed on a wooden round platform, was moved out.

At first glance it seemed like some kind of metal, but on closer inspection it also felt like a bluish stone.

Its surface showed no runes, no signs of processing, its shape highly irregular, feeling as if it formed naturally.

"Your Majesty, what is this?"

It's a spirit meteorite, capable of converting lightning into zero-ring heart energy; although its strength isn't high, the single-use conversion limit is absurdly high—no one could previously withstand it.

The queen's tone was thick with confusion; she simply couldn't understand why Luosen was still awake.

"Do such miraculous stones even fall from the sky?"

Luosen was genuinely surprised; no wonder the queen dared to risk coming to capture him—it turns out she had such a divine object assisting her.

Of course, it's also evident that, compared to hereditary nobles, the Kao queen and sages of commoner origin are noticeably more unrestrained.

Replace them with any noble holding great power, and they'd rather make a deal or send subordinates to take risks, absolutely unwilling to undertake such a potentially life‑endangering action.

Luosen asked again: "Your Majesty, my people have all passed out; if anything happens to them, you'll have to answer with your lives!"

It's just an ultra‑large zero‑ring sleep technique; they'll wake after a while, with no serious harm.

Oh~ I hope that's really the case.

Luosen spoke while pondering how to deal with this group of extraordinarily special uninvited guests.

Kill them? That would be an enormous waste, like dumping a huge platter of delicacies down the drain.

So we can only keep them under control.

But for him alone to control so many people, not daring to relax the slightest bit, he really feels somewhat anxious.

As he pondered, the Kao queen said: "Your Excellency the Magic Saint, since we have been defeated by your hand, we certainly accept punishment."

According to the prisoner‑ransom rules, you can exchange us for ransom—two million? No, within three million there's absolutely no problem.

Luosen lightly chuckled: "I'm just afraid of having the life to take the money but not the life to spend it."

At that moment, he suddenly heard a spiritual voice in his mind: "Luosen, where are you?"

It was Naifeiluoniya.

Her appearance let Luosen secretly breathe a sigh of relief: "How are Lili and Qilinna?"

They've woken up, but still feel a bit dizzy.

Very good; I'm just outside the cave—come over and help.

Not long after, three high‑ring mages arrived beside Luosen, each holding a fire god gun.

With the addition of powerful allies, Luosen secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

Controlling so many people alone is like dancing on a blade's edge; he is also under tremendous pressure.

He introduced the captives' identities to the three women.

"These three sages are not simple, especially the one with wine-red hair—she is the Queen of Kao; you must keep a close watch on her."

The three girls were somewhat dazed by the hearing; who could have imagined that the Kao queen, who holds great power and sits high above, would actually appear on White Sturgeon Island?

Nevertheless, he kept the three sages firmly under watch.

Luosen, having some free time, entered the airship's interior while holding his firearm.

Inside the airship there were still 15 mages, five of whom were Four-ring Arcane Masters.

The three sages were restrained, so they naturally dared not act rashly, each looking at Luosen with anxious faces.

Luosen pointed his firearm at them to prevent these mages from taking risks, while carefully observing the ship's interior structure.

The first feeling was of narrowness, like a crude cellar.

Upon closer inspection of the structure, he discovered that there actually existed a simple wind-transformation spell formation.

The power source of the formation is burning Black Stone; the Black Stone violently heats and expands the air in the combustion chamber, and the High-tier Mages control it to exhaust all in the same direction, thus obtaining a considerable directed thrust.

Simply put, it is the most basic fire-powered jet device.

Although its thrust level is still far from enabling flight, it is sufficient to propel the airship forward rapidly.

"Not a bad idea; the structure is also quite ingenious."

Luosen gave a compliment, then stepped out of the airship again, and said to the Kao queen who was looking at him eagerly: "You could catch me once, so you could catch me a second time; therefore I don't feel safe just letting you go back like this." The queen immediately shook her head: "We can't catch you; without the Spirit Meteorite, we dare not take the risk."

"But you will incite others to cause trouble for us, and I am ultimately just a minor Baron who cannot withstand Kao, such a powerful kingdom, repeatedly seeking trouble."

"Besides, you are traveling in secret anyway; if you disappeared, nobody would know."

"So."

Luosen slowly turned the muzzle of his firearm, aiming it at the Kao queen's beautiful face.

The Kao queen's face whoosh turned snow-white: "No no no~ someone knows, Sagelup knows we've come!"

Puppet Master Sagelup is the youngest of the Kao trio of sages.

Upon hearing this, Luosen knew for sure that the queen and her two companions had set out, while Sagelup was controlling puppets made to resemble them to cover up their absence in the palace.

It can be imagined that, if the plan goes smoothly, they will return in at most two or three days, and nobody will notice the queen's outing.

If the plan fails, Sagelup will naturally dispatch many spies to the north to search for people.

Also, there is no need to worry that Sagelup will betray, at least not in the short term.

Because controlling the old king's actions has already tightly bound the interests of the four sages together.

Luosen grinned: "Hehe, the preparations are still quite thorough."

He couldn't immediately think of how to handle these three important Kao figures; after thinking it over, he decided to first detain them as hostages.

But Kao cannot lack the queen nor the sages; over time Kao would fall into chaos, and the queen's and sages' authority would be supplanted by new powers.

By then, these hostages would be useless.

What to do?

After much thought, Luosen's eyes lit up: "Doesn't Kao have a sage who specializes in puppet control?"

He immediately had an idea.

He is extremely proactive and got to work right away.

The first step was to summon the black-clad puppet he had meticulously crafted, Miss Akari.

Since this place is not far from Crescent Castle, Akari arrived nearby in about half an hour.

Then Luosen used Transformation Technique to build a small temporary changing room in the blind spot of the airship's view.

After it was built, he used Spiritual Whisper to tell the Kao queen: "Go in and take off your clothes completely!"

The Kao queen didn't understand why, but having no choice, she could only comply.

Luosen also entered the changing room; she immediately let out a low cry, her cheeks whoosh turned crimson, and the half‑removed clothing stopped: "My lord, what are you doing?"

Although she had borne several princes and princesses, she had never exposed her privacy before any man other than the old king.

At this moment Luosen suddenly followed her in, startling her greatly.

"Hurry up and take them off!"

Luosen pointed his firearm at her.

Helpless, the queen could only grit her teeth and obey.

Afterward, Luosen carefully observed her body.

After seeing clearly, he then had Akari come in and applied Transformation Technique to her.

Soon, the changing room contained a copy of the Kao queen that was hard to tell from the real one.

The queen's eyes widened, her azure irises showing deep fear.

"What do you intend to do?"

"I warn you, even if your arcane art is peerless, you absolutely cannot conceal it for long; once exposed, just wait for Kao's furious retaliation!"

She obviously misunderstood, thinking Luosen wanted to silence her and then make a puppet queen.

Luosen hehe laughed: "Your Majesty, don't worry, I'm certainly not that stupid."

He then urged: "Put on the clothes. Not your own, but this one of the puppet!"

The queen hesitated a bit, but under the threat of the firearm she still complied.

Meanwhile Akari put on the queen's clothes.

Luosen then said: "Lady Eliorlia, Mr. Lairton, you both come in."

After the two sages entered, Luosen explained the detailed plan in full; indeed all three were stunned speechless.

Lairton shook his head repeatedly: "No way~ absolutely not, the Kao queen can never be a hostage!"

Ailuoliya also firmly denied: "This is too absurd!"

But the Queen, as the party involved, remained silent.

Luosen coldly smirked at the two Sages: "You certainly still have a second option; in fact, everyone can take this path."

"But I believe you definitely don't want to take this path."

He spoke while stepping back to the door of the changing room, simultaneously pointing the muzzle of the Fire God Gun at the three Sages in the narrow room.

One shot, and everyone inside will be dead.

And he can fire three shots in a row, guaranteeing that even Mother Nature herself couldn't save them.

"Your Majesty, what do you say?"

Queen Kao stared at the dark muzzle, let out a deep sigh: "Let's do as the Baron says; who let us lose to him?"

She knew that if she disagreed, this lawless Baron before them would surely send the three of them to meet Mother Nature.

Perhaps he will pay a price for this later, but given his ability, he will certainly have a way to deal with it.

But the three of them have utterly no future.

Ailuoliya and Laiente's faces turned ashen, but there was nothing they could do.

In the end, they acquiesced.

Thus, the silent Queen and the two Sages left the changing room, boarded the airship, and quickly departed White Sturgeon Island.

After the airship had completely vanished from sight, Luosen looked at the silent Queen and shrugged.

"Your Majesty, I originally just wanted to borrow a little of Kao's power; I certainly wouldn't have driven you to this point, after all I don't want to cause too much trouble."

"But you're never satisfied, insisting on controlling everything yourself, which led to this regrettable outcome."

"But rest assured, I will establish a more mature and stable signal channel, guaranteeing you can remotely control domestic affairs at any time."

The Queen coldly stared at Luosen: "Baron, you're playing with fire!"

Luosen didn't care: "I've always been playing with fire."

Power is inherently like fire—it possesses great strength but is also extremely hot to handle.

And this harvest was huge as well—not only did we capture the Queen as a hostage, but we also obtained a mysterious soul meteorite.

With the Queen as a hostage, Kao could become his tremendous ally, enough to be a super trump card against the Dawn Duke.

Of course, this card cannot be overused, after all the kingdom does not belong to the Queen alone, and there are many political rivals within the country.

If we play with fire too much, it could lead to the Queen being sidelined or trigger a coup within Kao, and then there would be nothing left to play with.

So, this card must be played with extreme caution.

"As for this meteorite, we really need to study it thoroughly!"

"Converting lightning into mental energy—this is truly a fun thing!"

(End of chapter)