Chapter 57

Everyone understood what he meant; the unkillable stance of the heavy armored knight made everyone suspect there might be a skeleton or zombie beneath the armor, but now it was clear it wasn’t—corpses don’t rot away, they merely decay.

“It’s corrosion scars—massive amounts of corrosion scars. Did they eat this stuff like rice?” Lisa exclaimed.

“They probably didn’t want to either—Adam’s Binding Ring. These are living dead,” Nagris leaned over, staring at the silver ring around the corpse’s neck.

The others had never heard the name, but Phelin drew in a sharp breath: “Adam’s Binding Ring? That mind-controlling forbidden art? Adam’s Binding Ring?”

Nagris nodded. Adam’s Binding Ring was invented many years ago by a spirit mage named Adam, using a specially crafted neck ring to seal a person’s soul inside their body, allowing total control.

In this process, the body remains alive, the soul remains alive, but the soul and body are severed—hence the term “living dead.”

This art is extremely cruel: once the binding ring is placed, the person is essentially ruined. Even if removed, the soul and body can never reunite—only becoming a vegetable, lying in bed until they slowly die.

After its invention, this art attracted little attention and nearly vanished, because the cost was astronomical. Just the hardware for the ring itself was exorbitant; successfully applying it required a series of complex procedures, and the success rate was low—utterly impractical.

The ring alone was worth enough to buy thousands of slaves; well-trained slaves were far more useful than Adam’s-controlled living dead.

Until one day, a shocking event rocked the entire Material Plane: the most beautiful empress in the history of the Seth Empire vanished during a leisure outing. Six months later, she appeared naked at the royal banquet of their mortal enemies, the Tivan Empire, wearing a binding ring, her expression vacant as she danced the most debased dance.

The noble empress, revered by all, treated this way—the people and ruler of the Seth Empire erupted in fury, launching a thirty-year war of annihilation without hesitation. Every victory left no survivors; every defeat meant no surrender. They fought until the Tivan Empire was utterly destroyed.

Of over ten million people, fewer than five hundred thousand survived, mostly cowards who fled to other nations. From then on, the Tivan Empire vanished from history.

One art had sparked a war that killed tens of millions. Because it was so cruel, all nations’ nobles feared it might be used against them, and thus reached a consensus to ban it.

From then on, Adam’s Ring became Adam’s “Binding” Ring, gradually fading into obscurity.

Because it had vanished so long ago, many had never even heard of it, let alone recognized it on sight. After hearing Nagris’s account, everyone looked at him with reverence: “My lord, you know so much. May we ask your name?”

Nagris accepted the praise without blinking: “It’s nothing. I’m the one who knows everything… cough, cough—just call me Nag.”

He’d almost boasted about his omniscience, but suddenly remembered An’s sharp questions, and quickly changed his tone—what if these people asked him, like An did, where the king had gone? He’d have no answer. Better flee, flee, flee.

No one could connect the name “Nag” to his divine name—probably no one remembered it anymore. Otherwise, why hadn’t a single soul called out to him during these days since his seal was broken?

“Oh, so you’re Lord Nag. Lord Nag, your knowledge is vast. May I ask, do you know why the Church of Light uses forbidden arts to create these heavy armored knights?” Phelin asked curiously.

“Living dead don’t fear death or pain, can be healed when injured, possess great strength and high defense, suppress elements, the Holy Shroud makes them immune to necromancy, Adam’s Binding Ring grants immunity to spirit magic, and most importantly—they’re immune to holy magic, making them perfect counters to holy knights, priests, and clerics. If they call themselves the Inquisition Army, then yes—they’re the Inquisition Army, designed specifically to hunt down internal traitors.”

Everyone instinctively turned their gaze to Lisa—the former Holy Saintess—wasn’t she precisely the traitor they spoke of?

She knew best the Church’s internal structure. Frowning in thought, she said: “Are you referring to the Holy Inquisition?” That was the only unit she’d heard of remotely similar.

Nagris shook his head: “No, no. The Inquisition is for external enemies. The Inquisition Army is for internal ones. You wouldn’t know—it’s normal. Heh, because they’re under the Grand Archbishop’s direct control. Leoard’s got some serious backing.”

Lisa’s eyes widened in shock. Only she understood how immensely powerful the Grand Archbishop was. If Leoard’s patron was the Grand Archbishop, and his actions had the Grand Archbishop’s approval, then they’d stirred up a massive trouble.

Seeing Lisa’s expression, Nagris laughed dismissively: “Don’t worry—it’s just a Grand Archbishop. Cross-plane campaigns aren’t that easy. Just prepare defenses against similar surprise deployments. What can a Grand Archbishop do to you? Back in my day…”

Nagris had every right to look down on a Grand Archbishop—even the Pope ranked a tier below him, a God of Knowledge.

“Aaaah!” Just as Nagris was about to boast about his glorious past, An suddenly roared. Before Nagris could react, An sat down heavily on his back and pointed far away.

In that direction, the little zombie was sprinting at full speed, slamming into the unicorn with tremendous force, sending it stumbling.

But Lightning’s stumble looked deliberate—after a few lurches, it surged forward, breaking through the encircling enemies and racing away at full speed.

Even when someone lunged with a spear to block it, Lightning skillfully sidestepped or shoved past, never taking direct hits. Reaching the fence at the far end, it leapt into the air, soaring over like flight, landing over ten meters away, hooves churning as it vanished into the distance.

The little zombie was furious, howling as it chased after.

The angel skeleton’s body hadn’t regenerated, but its wings had. It flapped its feathered wings, dragging its bony frame after them. With only bones left, its weight was much lighter, making flight faster than ever.

Too bad it couldn’t cast Holy Radiance in this state—if it could, An would’ve kept it like this.

Worried the two might get into trouble, An hurried after them—but on foot, he couldn’t match the little zombie’s speed. He had to ride.

“What good is riding me if I can’t fly fast? Cut off head and tail, I’m only half a meter long. Have a little conscience!” Nagris floated up, struggling forward while complaining.

His body was too small. An riding him was like riding a donkey—his feet nearly touched the ground. Just being able to fly was already impressive, and that was only because An was just bones, light in weight. Otherwise, he couldn’t have flown at all.

An thought for a moment, then cast the Pollination Art onto Nagris’s fleshy wings. Each time Nagris flapped, tiny vortices formed, and his speed surged dramatically.

“Damn it, I told you not to ride me, not to speed me up…” Nagris grumbled, flying off with An on his back.

Left behind, Phelin, Lisa, Lu Se, and others exchanged glances. After hearing Nagris’s explanation, they’d felt some relief—but now their hearts tightened again. Should they trust what a mount says?

In the air, they quickly caught up to the two on the ground. Lightning was taunting the zombie, keeping just out of reach, accelerating when the zombie neared, only becoming cautious when An arrived.

“Surrender. You can’t escape. I’ll spare you since you’re just a horse and haven’t harmed our people. Surrender—we won’t hurt you,” Nagris called from afar.

Hearing this, Lightning exploded: “Who are you calling a horse?! You’re the horse! Your whole family’s horses! Are you blind? It’s a unicorn! Unicorn Lightning! See?!”

Lightning lifted its hoof and pounded its own forehead—definitely not a horse. Horses couldn’t flip their hooves up to their heads.

“Heh, where’s your horn? No horn, what’s the point of calling yourself a unicorn?”

Stung, Lightning snarled: “You’re mocking me because I lost my horn? If I still had it, I’d zap you into charcoal. Come down if you dare—I’ll trample you to death!”

“Still calling others blind? You’re the blind one. Look closely—what am I? Brass Dragon! Can your lightning even char me?”

“Brass ‘Giant’ Dragon? Where’s the giant? You’re smaller than a dragon egg. Were you born premature? Go find an eggshell to gnaw on—maybe you’ll grow bigger.”

Nagris’s scales bristled with rage—he was about to dive down and fight, completely forgetting he was only half a meter long.

But seeing him dive, Lightning immediately turned and fled—completely contradicting his bold words.

“Don’t run! Stop! I’m coming down—come trample me!” Nagris grumbled, chasing after.

“You’ve got numbers. If you’ve got guts, come alone—I’ll trample you to death!” Lightning called back without turning.

“I know why you lost your horn—it’s because you’re mouthy,” Nagris retorted.

Lightning and Nagris chased and yelled at each other, soon losing track of where they were—surrounding them stretched endless, barren plains.

The sky gradually darkened. The wind grew stronger.

“Aaaah!” An roared. The little zombie, who’d been relentlessly chasing, reluctantly stopped and trudged back to An’s side. The angel skeleton also flew back. All of them began digging into the ground.

Seeing no one was chasing him, Lightning stopped too, turning to peek curiously: “What are you digging for?”

No one answered. Everyone focused on digging. Even Nagris used his tiny front claws.

Watching them, Lightning felt a dread rising. Looking around, he saw no place to hide. He couldn’t help wondering: Should I dig a hole too? But as soon as he lifted his hoof, he dismissed the idea.

The wind grew fiercer. Lightning shivered. This wind—why did it feel so cold and eerie?

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