272: Chapter 269 The Nearest Place

Zhang Mu now had many doubts in his heart.

From the bits and pieces Potter once revealed, it could be known that the Ice and Snow Empire was besieged back then, and the promoter behind it was the Church.

And the Pope, who mastered the True Word Spell, was the undisputed ruler with complete control over the Church.

Then the problem arose.

According to Servant's own account, the downfall of the Ice and Snow Empire was caused by him, and the mastermind behind the empire's destruction was the Church.

In other words, Servant and the Ice and Snow Empire belonged to the same camp, and they were in an adversarial position with the Church?

The conclusion deduced from the clues made Zhang Mu scratch his head.

There was a logical conflict; putting aside why an organization like the Church would betray its own leader, how did they dare?

It was the True Word Spell! He could crush them with a single finger!

However, the reality was that the Church had safely survived until now, while Servant, the Pope, was huddled in a corner of the continent, wearing a Servant's outfit.

His thinking hit a roadblock; Zhang Mu couldn't figure out what reason caused Servant to flee the center of the continent in such a wretched state.

Suddenly, he remembered that there were gods on the Saul Continent.

The will of the gods?

Scratching his chin, Zhang Mu asked, "Did you do something... disrespectful to the gods?"

He didn't answer, but said to himself, "Humans multiply and live on the continent, and magical creatures and beasts are their most deadly enemies."

"They slaughter us and devour us."

"Later, humans gained the power to resist: Professionals."

"It evolved for an unknown amount of time until today, where it is enough to completely overwhelm magical creatures and beasts."

"The most indispensable part of this process is the treasure in the labyrinths—magic power."

"And these are all... prayed for by humans and bestowed by the gods."

After hearing this, Zhang Mu felt a sense of déjà vu and muttered, "It sounds like..."

Servant's face, which looked like it had facial paralysis, pulled into a strange smile: "It's like humans using wood to enclose a piece of land and putting some lambs in the pen."

"When the lambs bleat from hunger, the humans throw in some fodder."

"So..." Zhang Mu turned to look at him, his tone a bit subtle, as if questioning, yet also certain, "You hope to escape the sheepfold."

"It's to escape with all the sheep together."

"But obviously, I failed and also caused his death."

This was Servant's speculation; Zhang Mu thought so.

Although it sounded very realistic and logical, there was ultimately a lack of ironclad evidence.

And the key was, so what if it's true?

Zhang Mu had no way to change anything.

So he stood up: "If you don't plan to keep me here, I'll be going now?"

Servant woke up from his grayish memories: "Aren't you looking for someone?"

"Yes, are you willing to help?"

"The person you are looking for should be me."

"?"

After dazing for a few seconds, Zhang Mu took out the simple ring from his pocket: "Its owner..."

"Mihe." Servant said the name first, "I was the one who sent that little fellow to the Silent Forest."

The person he was looking for was found, but there was more confusion.

Zhang Mu stuffed the ring back into his pocket: "You are the royal family's guardian, can it be understood that way?"

"It can."

"And you also guided Mihe to form a Resistance Army hostile to the royal family, right?"

"Yes."

"Are you just bored and looking for some fun to pass the time?" He felt that this group of people was a bit abnormal.

"It's just..." Servant hesitated for a moment, "trying, trying out a new path."

Zhang Mu had no interest in appreciating whether his ideals were great or not and directly stated his purpose: "I want to know if Lake's two powerful Archdukes support Andre."

"I investigated a lot but still found nothing, then Mihe said you might be able to help."

Servant didn't hide anything at all, revealing the previous discussion of the two Archdukes in its entirety, and finally revealed some of his own speculations.

After listening, Zhang Mu stood up and walked out: "Thanks."

"No need."

Returning all the way to the hotel and entering the room through the wall, Zhang Mu deactivated the Shadow Technique and revealed himself: "Things have gotten serious."

The three people who were talking hadn't yet recovered from his sudden appearance when they heard the statement representing bad news and immediately stood up together: "What's wrong?!"

Taking out the ring and returning it to Mihe, he explained: "The King and the two Archdukes are going to sacrifice the entire population of the Royal Capital and the city lords who have ill intentions."

The news was so shocking that the three were stunned on the spot.

Finally, it was Soren who woke up first: "All three heirs are competing for the throne; whose city lord's allegiance would be considered as having ill intentions?"

"It doesn't matter who they follow." Zhang Mu recalled Servant's account, "From the time the King fell into a coma until now, as long as there are signs of fragmentation or defecting to the enemy, they must all die."

"Then what does that have to do with us?" Domit asked blankly.

We followed the Marshal and repelled the Kingdom legion; we are heroes of Lake. We can't possibly be classified as rebels, right?

What is the Marshal worried about?

Zhang Mu remained silent, frowning in deep thought.

Servant told him that the two Archdukes valued Avril's future very much, almost treating her as the hope for reclaiming the throne of the First Empire after the restoration of Ice and Snow.

But the premise of everything was that Avril showed enough ability to shoulder the heavy responsibility.

Otherwise, it couldn't be ruled out that after the King woke up, he would also classify Avril as a sacrificial offering, stripping her of the Ice and Snow inheritance in her bloodline and leaving it for the excellent offspring born in the future.

The two did not say this in front of Servant.

It was an inference he made based on his knowledge that the royal family had such a secret technique, and the King might not necessarily implement it.

It was just that Zhang Mu was unwilling to gamble.

Learning of this, he wondered why Servant didn't stop it, and then he realized, why should he stop it?

Servant's goal was to protect the descendants of the Ice and Snow King from being harmed by external enemies; as for the descendants killing each other, he didn't care.

If he really wanted to interfere, he would have stepped in when the King first decided on the sacrifice.

Others couldn't be relied on; he could only rely on himself.

Zhang Mu raised his head and scanned the three: "The plan needs to be changed; we have to find a way to get all the city lords away from the Royal Capital."

"Wouldn't it be enough to reveal the truth?" Mihe said.

"No." Soren immediately denied, "The situation in the Royal Capital is tense. At this time, advising them to leave the city, no matter how sufficient the reason, they will think it's a trap and that we are deceiving them."

"Lure them out of the city and then ambush and kill them."

"Then what should be done?" Domit's expression was solemn, "The Church's ban will be lifted soon, and the shackles on the two Saint-level Archdukes will be removed."

"If the city lords don't flee now, they won't be able to escape then."

"We must first formulate a proper plan. Rashly contacting other city lords will only alarm the royal family and make them vigilant, adding obstacles for us."

Stop." Zhang Mu spoke up to interrupt the three, "Mihe, does using a shadow recording crystal in the city count as using force?"

"It doesn't." Answering, Mihe seemed to understand what he wanted to do, "You want to tail the Archdukes and use the shadow recording crystal to record evidence?"

"Yes."

The fact that you could smoothly sneak into the Royal Palace shows that even Saint-levels cannot see through your disguise magic; the idea is feasible.

It's just... the activation of the shadow recording crystal will emit magic fluctuations, and the perception ability of Saint-levels..."

"Don't worry, I have a way to solve it."

After saying that, he glanced at the window.

The sky was already brightening; through the glass, pointed roofs could be seen appearing and disappearing in the thick fog.

He had already fallen out with them; there was no need to go to the meeting and waste time.

Thinking of this, Zhang Mu no longer hesitated: "Soren, tomorrow you will represent me to attend the Debriefing Meeting."

Domit, Mihe, you two go to the First Army's camp outside the city and bring Damu and the others to sneak into the city disguised as commoners."

"Understood!"

After arranging for the three, Zhang Mu activated the Shadow Technique, left the hotel, and headed straight for the Royal Palace.

It was already light, and the gates of the inner palace were open.

After entering smoothly, he found a place to stand, and after a while, Servant appeared as expected.

Zhang Mu asked him about the location of the two Archdukes.

He thought the other party would either simply inform him or be unwilling to reveal it.

The result was unexpected; Servant stated he didn't know where the two were.

He almost wanted to ask, "You're a former Pope, and you can't find the traces of two Saint-level Professionals?"

But in the end, he didn't ask.

Because Zhang Mu remembered that, putting aside the True Word Spell, the Pope was just an ordinary person.

If he didn't use the True Word Spell, his perception ability was not even as good as his own.

Helpless, he had no choice but to turn and leave the palace to find them himself.

He had thought about asking Servant to use the True Word Spell to help him find them, but since the man shook his head and said he didn't know from the start, he probably wouldn't agree to this request.

After wandering aimlessly on the streets for a while, feeling that this wasn't working, Zhang Mu walked to the side of the road and sat on the curb.

"In such a large Royal Capital, where can I find two people? Especially Saint-levels who are intentionally hiding their tracks."

He scratched his head irritably, thinking about where they might be hiding and the method of sacrifice.

The former yielded no results after thinking for a long time.

The Royal Capital was the most prosperous city in Lake, and various functional areas overlapped, with extremely blurred boundaries.

There might be residential houses in a certain market, and residential houses might cover part of the commercial area.

This led to a mix of people and frequent population movement.

Finding someone here was no different from looking for a needle in a haystack.

As for the latter.

Zhang Mu frowned.

Servant didn't say in what way the sacrifice would be carried out; if it was by constructing a magic circle, then they just needed to destroy the magic nodes.

But now they knew nothing, and there was no way to start the destruction.

Sighing, Zhang Mu stood up: "Staring blankly here is useless; I'll just wander around and try my luck."

After walking a few steps, he looked left and right, muttering to himself: "Where could they be hiding..."

"And they're running around all day, if all the city lords run away then... all run away?"

Zhang Mu stopped involuntarily; yeah, if they don't run, the city lords would escape?

Under normal circumstances, city lords wouldn't leave the city during the Debriefing Meeting.

But anything could happen; what if someone noticed something unusual and led everyone to flee?

No matter how small the probability, it was possible.

They two and the King had planned for hundreds of years; how could they tolerate such a flaw?

One should know that if the city lords really escaped, they wouldn't be able to take action to stop them inside the city due to the ban.

Once outside the city, killing everyone would be meaningless.

Because the sacrifice required living sacrifices; if the people died, the plan would be ruined.

Capturing them alive and imprisoning them was feasible, but they were only two of them, and there were hundreds of city lords who were at least Magisters; they simply couldn't catch them all.

Therefore, they must be in a very close, even face-to-face place, secretly monitoring the city lords.

If the city lords made any move, the two could react at the fastest speed.

"Almost touching..." Zhang Mu turned his head and looked into the distance at the hotel that was much taller than the surrounding stone houses.

Was there anywhere closer than this?

He started running toward the hotel and arrived downstairs in a moment.

He looked up.

It was now noon.

The warm winter sun shone on the entire exterior wall, and the crystal glass windows reflected the slightly dazzling sunlight.

They should be on the top floor.

Zhang Mu rose into the air on the spot, reminiscing in his heart.

Without permission, the top floor was forbidden to enter.

Although those who stayed here were not small figures, the hotel owner's status was clearly more prominent, so no one had ever relied on their status to try to force their way in.

However, Zhang Mu had been inside.

That was about three nights ago; out of curiosity about what was hidden up there or who lived there, he had used the Shadow Technique to investigate.

The result was very ordinary.

The entire floor had only three rooms, and the inside was not luxurious; it was even a bit simpler than the rooms on other floors.

After a brief look around and seeing nothing special, he left.

What was unexpected was that two big fish lived inside.

Amidst his sighs, Zhang Mu rose to the same level as the hotel's top floor, passed through the wall, and stood in the corridor.

He checked the three rooms in turn: two bedrooms and one dining room.

No one was seen.

It seemed they had gone out.

Since he had found the place, there was no need to be in a hurry.

Zhang Mu sat leisurely on a wooden chair, waiting for the two to return.

...

Evening.

Blova had been busy all day and returned to the outside of the hotel.

He shouldn't be discovered by others now, yet he stood in front of the door with an air of indifference.

Strangely, the pedestrians passing in front of him and the Guards responsible for watching behind him all seemed as if they couldn't see him.

Half an hour later, Pestoya slowly walked over from the distance on the stone road.

After meeting up, the two walked along the base of the wall to the back of the hotel.

There was a door here that led directly to the top floor.

They pushed the door open and followed the wooden stairs all the way to the top.

Entering the bedroom, Blova took out two bottles of wine and two gold goblets from the wine cabinet.

He opened the bottles, filled the glasses, turned around, walked up to Pestoya, and handed her one: "How is the progress on your side?"

She didn't seem to want to say much: "Everything is going smoothly."

Blova was not dissatisfied with her cold attitude: "It's almost over."

"Over?" Pestoya took the goblet, the rim of the glass pressed against her lips, and she tilted her head back to drain it in one gulp.

Raising her arm, she somewhat roughly grabbed her sleeve and wiped away the wine stained on the corners of her lips: "It's just the beginning."

"Mm." Blova understood she was venting her anger and also knew where the anger came from.

But the matter had already happened and had to happen; what could he do?

Just as he said yesterday, when his ancestors threw the responsibility onto him, did they ask if he was willing?

Who knew that Blova's childhood wish was to become a great Professional, travel the Saul Continent, and live a free and happy life.

Instead of, as he was now, dedicating his entire life to a boring dream of restoring a nation.

Most importantly, this dream belonged to someone else.

He had once asked his grandfather, who was still alive when he was at an ignorant age, "Why do we have to dedicate everything to Ice and Snow?"

His grandfather held him, sitting on the roof under the starry sky, looking up at the countless stars, and spoke slowly in a hoarse tone.

It was as if answering Blova's doubt, yet also as if answering himself.

"If you ask why, it's because our ancestors swore an oath to the Ice and Snow King to dedicate their everything."

"Can't we abandon the oath?"

At that time, his grandfather was not angry and laughed loudly, "Abiding by an oath is the conviction of a knight."

"Then what if we throw away even the conviction?"

"A person must always hold onto something."

Finally, his grandfather finished this sentence in a meaningful tone and ordered the Servant to lead Blova back to rest.

He didn't really understand and thought about asking again tomorrow.

But as soon as he got up the next day, his father sorrowfully informed him that his grandfather had passed away last night.

So he was never able to ask this question again and had to find the answer himself.

"Blova?"

"Blova?!"

"Blova!"

The gradually rising shouts dragged him out of his memories. Looking at the worried Pestoya, he smiled slightly: "I'm fine, I'm very good."

Taking a deep breath to smooth out the sadness rising in his heart, Blova returned to his usual serious self: "Come on, let's continue to deduce the nodes of the blood sacrifice's development."