Chapter 53: Brotherhood

Carrying the equipment purchased with the underworld coins saved up, two skeletons, one tall and one short, left the "Novice Village" and headed toward the human town in the south.

To cover their tracks, they specifically looted two bed sheets from the dilapidated hotel at the foot of the mountain, wearing them as cloaks, which counted as reducing the scare distance of the "Fear Aura".

Of course, whether it was effective was a matter of opinion.

There is also a saying in the surface world that undead wearing clothes are scarier than those not wearing clothes.

Just as these two skeletons left the hotel, a horse-drawn carriage hurried to the vicinity of the hotel, just brushing past them.

In the carriage.

The man sitting on the wooden board at the end vaguely saw something, turned back to face the carriage, and muttered nervously.

"Boss... I seemed to have seen something just now, seems... it's undead?"

And it seemed to be undead wearing cloaks and disguised as humans!

Hearing this, everyone felt a chill down their backs, and their chrysanthemum tightened.

"Undead?!"

"Here?! Are you sure?"

"I... not sure." The fierce-looking man showed a cowardly expression on his face, "Maybe it was an illusion."

As the saying goes, people with ghosts in their hearts are especially afraid of ghosts.

Like this guy who doesn't pray properly usually, doesn't hug Saint Xisi's thigh temporarily, and sells his soul to demons every now and then, he is most afraid of those half-dead things.

The carriage was buzzing with discussion.

Only the boss of the crowd, Jack, the leader of the Poison Snake Gang, sat silently with a gloomy face.

He knew better than anyone present that it was definitely not an illusion; his little brother had indeed seen something.

After all, he had indeed been doing business with necromancers recently, and they were even on the necromancer's territory at this moment.

Jack had thought about the day it would be exposed, but hadn't thought it would come so soon.

Rather than letting these guys go back and talk nonsense, it was better for him to strike first and block their mouths completely.

Thinking this, he finally made up his mind, and after the carriage stopped, he called the little brother driving the carriage over from the front, pulled up the curtain of the carriage, and then took out a recording crystal.

"Listen... doing our line of work always involves dealing with all kinds of people, and walking by the river often, there's no way not to wet your shoes. One day, we will also become like this."

Looking at the boss who suddenly became serious, everyone was shocked, exchanging glances with each other, guessing what the boss intended to tell them.

Jack paused for a moment, casting his gaze toward the wounded lying on the stretcher in the middle of the carriage.

That guy's name was Lumier, his capable subordinate. The young man had been doing things with him since he was sixteen, now twenty-five or twenty-six, but was now dying like a decaying old man.

And all this was because yesterday, when they were handing over goods at Black Water Port, they were attacked by Shark Raiders!

To save himself, this brave young man was poked in the chest by the Shark Raider's fish fork.

That guy was probably the leader of the sharks, or a warrior-type character of the tribe.

That fork didn't hurt any vital organs, but his wound just wouldn't heal.

Not only that, as time passed, he also aged at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Because he was injured during smuggling activities, they couldn't send him to Saint Xisi's church for treatment. This wasn't a question of money, but that the vow-taking hurdle couldn't be passed.

Although there were black clinics in the underground street of Lei Ming City that served people like them, those alchemists and herbalists were all helpless against this kind of damage with curse properties.

It wasn't just Lumier who was weak, but also his heart that wasn't pious to begin with.

He didn't lack money, nor did he lack power, but he had never felt so weak... even unable to save a loyal young man.

And it was also at this time that an old alchemist's words unexpectedly woke him up—

'This kind of injury can only be cured by the servants of Saint Xisi and those who feed on evil.'

Those who feed on evil...

He happened to know such an adult.

"Lumier is a good child; he was seriously injured to protect me, but we couldn't send him to Saint Xisi's church."

"Perhaps in the eyes of Saint Xisi's servants, people like Lumier are asking for it, people like us are asking for it; if we honestly paid taxes to the lords, honestly worked in the lords' manors, honestly were docile sheep... today's tragedy wouldn't have happened."

"But I still want to say, not everyone is born in the sunshine, just repeating the words Saint Xisi said can be worry-free, and even the air breathed out in the morning is righteous."

"Some people are born in dark corners, and they have to fight with all their might to win a chance to live... just like young men like Lumier, just like you, including me. Since we were born in the underground street, we can only live the way of the underground street; I don't think this is a shame. Even if it is a shame, it is not our shame, but everyone's shame."

"Since the holy light cannot shine on every inch of Lei Ming City, it should at least allow those mice born in the gutter to live in their own way, or else don't let us come to this world."

The carriage was unprecedentedly quiet, with only the breathing of deliberately suppressed rhythm remaining.

Every pair of eyes focused on Jack, some shocked, some thoughtful, some confused.

Finally, someone broke the silence, saying with a trembling voice.

"... Boss, what do you want to say?"

Someone opened the conversation, and soon someone else followed.

"We will always support you... you don't have to be so roundabout."

Looking at his subordinates who were all so frank, Jack felt ashamed for a moment for his dirty thoughts.

He actually wanted to hold their handle.

However—

Shame is shame, what needs to be done must be done.

No other reason.

He couldn't afford the risk of being betrayed, and the people sitting here couldn't afford it either.

Even if it was just to let everyone feel at ease working for him, he had to stand in the position of the speaker and complete this essential ritual. And as his sincerity, he would pray with them.

In this way, it could be considered to ensure that he wouldn't use this recording crystal purely for the purpose of threats or extortion.

It will serve as their common brand!

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"... What I want to say is, besides the high and mighty Saint Xisi, perhaps there is a more worthy object for people like us to offer loyalty to."

A burly man swallowed his saliva, saying with a trembling voice.

"For example?"

Jack said calmly.

"For example... the Demon King who rules the underground world of Lei Ming City."

The Demon God is too far away.

Perhaps the Demon King is more suitable for them... at least that is the person he has communicated with through the wall.

These rebellious words shocked everyone, and even Lumier lying on the ground held his breath, looking at the man who was like a father to him in disbelief.

Jack didn't pause, but continued in a calm tone.

"I will take you to witness the miracle."

"But before that, I need you to make an oath... even if this oath is temporarily insincere."

"And from now on, we are no longer superiors and subordinates or masters and servants; we will believe in the same master. We are not just partners in a gang, but compatriots who believe in the same sect, brothers who are as close as hands and feet."

"I will treat each of you like family."

Brotherhood.

He had already thought of the name of this new organization.

The Demon King's magic workshop.

Luo Yan was flipping through the notes he took when he was in the Demon King Academy, and suddenly sneezed for no reason.

He has been sneezing a lot recently, and he doesn't know who is gossiping about him behind his back.

Arachnos?

That guy shouldn't have that intelligence; cave spiders usually are satisfied with a hole, and he should have satisfied her.

Little demons?

Perhaps...

He spent three years in the Demon King Academy and didn't fully understand what their brain circuits were; he only heard Professor Lilith say that those little guys were keen on pranks.

Whether intentional or unintentional.

If conditions allowed, Luo Yan would like to get two little demons to study, but he had more important things to do right now, which was to prepare for the upcoming battle.

Previously, in his communication with Hearing You You, he learned an important clue.

Transcendent power is essentially the same thing.

Since this is the case, why can't he use the "Qi" power of the Dragon God Sect and Dragon Language magic?

When dealing with Earth Dragon Tribe-like monster-resistant melee units, the effect of spell damage is relatively limited.

If conditions allowed, he would like to try the "enemy's" fighting style.

However, just as Luo Yan put his thoughts into action, trying to inject transcendent power into his meridians in the form of "Qi", a tearing pain instantly crawled all over his body, making cold sweat break out on his forehead.

"Healing spell..."

Quickly interrupting the attempt, Luo Yan threw a healing spell on himself, finally curbing the burning tearing sensation.

Pain!

Simply too damn painful!

Luo Yan hurriedly glanced at the attribute panel; HP actually deducted 800 points!

Fortunately, his constitution attribute is 14.

If it were an ordinary mage, he would probably be "near death" on the spot.

Watching Luo Yan's messy attempt, Hearing You You rushed around him anxiously.

"Lord Demon King... you can't inject elemental power into your body, and mixing such messy elements together is very dangerous!"

"It's okay, I control the rhythm well," Luo Yan took a deep breath, entered a meditative state on the bed, and pondered after calming down, "Elemental power? So that's it..."

Hearing You You is his divinity.

As an existence independent of the "mortal world", it can see some things he can't see, such as the "code" behind the "texture"... just like the game's debug mode.

From its perspective, the transcendent power he injected into his body is not "Qi", but still elemental power! And it's stuffing all the messy elements in at once!

Obviously, although he imagined the existence of "Qi", his understanding of "Qi" still couldn't get rid of the mage's subjective intuition.

So much so that when he constructed the entire "formula", the code he called was still the elemental power written by the gods of various elements, and even incorporated the dark energy of the god of the underworld.

It's like people who have lived in the equator for a long time and people who live in the cold zone have different understandings of rain.

Even if they imagine a rainstorm, what appears in their minds will be different shapes.

And if the wrong code is applied in the wrong place, it will lead to corresponding backlash!

For this situation, the explanation of the hell academic circle is "punishment for the unpious".

It means that the essence of the spell is a prayer, and the prayer will suffer the punishment of the gods if they are distracted while chanting!

And now, Luo Yan has a new discovery!

"It has nothing to do with piety itself... the risk of using magic across systems does not come from the wrath of the gods, but from the caster's own inability to overcome subconscious obstacles, resulting in the wrong call of mismatched magic elements when using specific spells!"

For example, using "let fire cool down", "let earth boil" in magic sentences!

For example, inputting (x=a, y=b) in the function "x+y=?"!

"In other words, as long as you can overcome subconscious obstacles and practice... even a mage who doesn't believe in the Dragon God at all can use Dragon Language magic!"

Adventurers don't talk about faith in the Dragon God anyway.

His players don't even have to mention it; after having transcendent power, they learned "Slaughter" just by watching a video!

Luo Yan's heart was excited, quickly opening the notebook, finding the Dragon Language spells with phonetic notation he had copied in the Demon King Academy library, and then faced the candle not far away.

"Hearing You You, help me pay attention to the

"Received!"

Hearing You You responded earnestly, then leaned close to Luo Yan's side, carefully observing the energy flowing on him.

Under the gaze of a deity, different types of energy were as clear as spectral images on a thermal imager.

Recalling the situation during the previous battle with the lizardman priest, Luo Yan tried repeatedly, and according to Hearing You You's real-time reports, he separated the mixed energy like unraveling silk from a cocoon, trying his best to imagine himself as a dragon.

After the Nth failure, he finally gradually found a sense of it.

And the energy flowing on him gradually became different from before.

That energy was unlike any element in the world; it was as if it were a unique and special existence in this world!

It wasn't just Luo Yan who noticed the change in his aura; even Hearing You You, who was floating to the side, cried out in surprise as well.

"Lord Demon King! This time! This time is different from last time!"

Not missing this hard-won opportunity, Luo Yan recited the long-prepared spell—or rather, growled it—in a majestic tone.

"Extinguish!" (Dragon Language)

Feelings of anger gushed out.

That ancient and majestic voice seemed to carry a special power, causing the candle that had been burning normally a second ago to extinguish without wind!

That great power of words becoming reality was precisely the majesty of the Dragon God of this world!

And at this moment—

This unquestionable majesty was being challenged and mastered by a human who had never believed in the Dragon God... even if this level of mastery was still far from being able to use it freely.

Not easy!

It was truly not easy at all!

Looking at the extinguished candle, Luo Yan stood up from the bed excitedly, clenching his fists tightly.

The Dragon Language magic that he had tried countless times and failed at—

It finally succeeded!!!