145: Harvest

"Hehe, first time meeting you, Daniel. You've truly given me a grand surprise."

Looking at Daniel's shocked face and the thick resentment mixed in his eyes, Lister nodded slightly, looking at him with indifferent eyes.

Lister didn't say anything about making him surrender, because he knew very well that since Daniel was caught on the spot communicating privately with a foreign race, the only fate he faced was death.

Daniel knew this as well, so in order to escape from the hands of the God of Death, he could only survive by resisting.

But the deep confusion in his heart still made Daniel ask involuntarily.

"Lister Howard, how did you know about our deal, and how were you so clear about our deal location?"

"Naturally, it was the guidance of the holy light god to me," Lister bluffed.

"holy light god?"

Seeing Daniel's puzzled look, Lister didn't bother to talk nonsense with him anymore. He gripped the longsword in his hand and charged at him fiercely.

Although Daniel was obese, his realm was not low, being at Bronze Rank 8, only one rank lower than Lister.

Facing the longsword Lister swung through the air, Daniel, who had snapped back to his senses, hurriedly raised the longsword in his hand to block.

Clang—!

The strike didn't hit, and there wasn't a hint of surprise on Lister's face. He immediately withdrew the sword to his side and swept it horizontally toward Daniel in a half-moon arc from below.

Daniel, who couldn't react in time and hurriedly blocked, was shaken back repeatedly by the terrifying force coming from the sword blade. As his body fell backward, he barely managed to stand by supporting himself with the longsword.

Shua!

Without giving him any chance to breathe, the longsword in Lister's hand was like a gale, swinging out a Dou Qi energy slash that flickered with silver light, shooting out violently.

"Damn it!"

The crisis of death coming from his consciousness made Daniel instinctively hold his sword horizontally in front of him.

But the power in his body hadn't been fully mobilized at all. The moment the Dou Qi energy slash and the sword blade met, with a "boom," the longsword was sent flying into the sky, and his massive body was also sent flying.

Bang—!

Accompanied by a series of loud bangs, Daniel's body heavily crashed through several thick trees behind him, only coming to a stop and falling to the ground at the fifth tree.

From the Knight Squad forming the encirclement, several knights broke off and rode their horses quickly to Daniel's side. Seeing that he was already heavily injured and unconscious, they arrested him with chains made of fine iron without a word.

At this moment, the battle was still not over. Compared to Daniel's five knight subordinates, of which there was only one Silver Rank 1 knight and the others were only Bronze Rank Intermediate, the overall strength of the five Black Dog Orcs was much stronger.

Just High-Rank Bronze alone, there were three of them, and the last one also had the strength of Bronze Tier 6.

Aside from the High-Rank Bronze Black Dog Orcs that Carlyle and Sejin were respectively fighting, the remaining one High-Rank Bronze and one Bronze Tier 6 orc were each being countered by two to three knights together.

On the other hand, Aier Sidi's combat power made Lister marvel inwardly; he was actually fighting two of Daniel's subordinate knights who were Bronze Rank Intermediate all by himself.

And he didn't fall into a disadvantage at all, greatly reducing the combat pressure for the other knights.

His gaze quickly swept across the battlefield, and Lister's figure shot out like a cannonball, charging toward that High-Rank Bronze Black Dog Orc.

Feeling the intense killing intent coming from behind, the High-Rank Bronze Black Dog Orc holding a giant hammer swept the hammer in a 180-degree arc. While pushing back Dewey, Langman, and Buck in front of him, the power remained undiminished as it swept straight toward Lister behind him.

However, Lister was already prepared. His body leaped suddenly, flying above the Black Dog Orc's head, and his Spiritual Power jolted violently.

The Dou Qi energy all over his body and the fire elements in the air rapidly gathered and fused toward the sword blade.

In the next second, Lister's arm swept out forcefully toward the Black Dog Orc. With a "shua," the Flame Cross Slash came out in response, like a Red reaper claiming a soul, shooting toward the Black Dog Orc's head.

The inertia of the giant hammer in its hand made it too late for the Black Dog Orc to block. It could only watch helplessly as the Flame Cross Slash continuously enlarged in its pitch-black, green-glowing pupils.

With a "puchi," the Black Dog Orc's massive head was pierced through by the Flame Cross Slash, and a large cross appeared on the head.

With a "bang," the Black Dog Orc's massive body fell to the ground, and the giant hammer in its hand smashed heavily onto the floor.

"Lord Lister is mighty!"

Seeing the Black Dog Orc that the three of them had barely managed to hold back being insta-killed by Lister like this, Dewey and the other two couldn't help but praise loudly.

At this time, from Locke's position on the other side, the sound of flesh being sliced open was heard, and the four of them immediately turned to look.

They saw Daniel's Knight Captain, Godwin, being directly decapitated and killed by the longsword in Locke's hand.

Although their lord was captured and the Knight Captain was dead, the remaining four knights had no intention of submitting on the spot; to live, they could only fight to the death.

Unfortunately, the scales of victory on the battlefield had completely tipped toward Lister and the others.

In terms of high-end combat power, both sides originally had two Silver Knights, but Godwin had been ambushed by Red, resulting in a severed arm and a huge drop in combat power, and now he had been slain by Locke.

So Locke, who was now free, also joined the battle against those four knights, and Dewey and the other two were not to be outdone and joined in as well.

On the other side, the respective battles of Red, Carlyle, and Sejin were all at an advantage.

Realizing there was no need for his help, Lister sat on a large rock nearby, quietly watching everyone's battle.

Soon, all the battles came to a close, and Lister still had no need to help in the middle.

In this battle, Godwin and the other two knights were all slain on the spot, and the remaining two knights were captured by Locke and the others.

In the battle against the Black Dog Orcs, except for the Black Dog Orc Sub-leader being captured alive by Red, all the other Black Dog Orcs were killed on the spot.

And on Lister's side, except for the main knights suffering some minor injuries, not a single person died.

At this moment, Daniel was still unconscious, so Lister had to come before the Black Dog Orc Sub-leader and those two knights.

"Orc, tell me your origin."

Hearing Lister's question, the Black Dog Orc Sub-leader, who was taller than Lister even while kneeling, looked at him fiercely and said, "Don't you dare think you can get a single word out of my mouth."

"You've got backbone. Red, loosen its bones for it," Lister looked at Red and ordered.

"By your command," Red said solemnly, and then like a demon, he began to "massage" the Black Dog Orc Sub-leader.

Then, shrill wails echoed in the night sky, making the two captured Silver Knights nearby turn pale with fright, their bodies trembling incessantly.

Lister looked at the two of them and said, "How about it, do you two have anything you want to say?"

"Lord Howard, we'll talk, we'll talk," the two knights said, scrambling to be first.

Nodding, Lister signaled for the two to start confessing.

After organizing their thoughts, the two knights began to confess the information they knew.

Soon, Lister learned some things about Daniel from their mouths.

Daniel had been collaborating with the Orc Race to sell intelligence for two or three years already. Generally, Daniel sold intelligence about the Northern Frontier, exchanging it for a large amount of cultivation resources and money.

As for why Daniel, a mere Baron Territory lord, dared to do such an evil deed that everyone would condemn, the two knights weren't very clear.

They joined Daniel's boat not only because of the high monetary temptation but also because Daniel held something against them.

Hearing that the two had no more information to reveal, Lister could only continue to look at that Black Dog Orc Sub-leader.

At this moment, its massive body was already covered in scars. Various interrogation methods that Red had learned from those interrogators on the Northern Frontier battlefields had been used on it quite a bit.

The Black Dog Orc Sub-leader's backbone was also completely shattered, and it confessed about this transaction.

Regarding previous transactions, it wasn't very clear, because different Black Dog Orcs would be sent for each mission; detailed information was only known by the clan elders and the clan leader.

From its mouth, Lister learned that the Black Dog Clan's transaction of intelligence with Daniel was done under the instructions of the Beast Tribe's leader.

The Beast Tribe was a medium-to-high-grade tribal group among the Orc Race, including many clans. The Black Dog Clan was just one of them and was relatively weak.

Many other clans were unwilling to do such dangerous actions that were highly likely to be exposed, so it fell to the Black Dog Clan.

Since the Beast Tribe was currently stationed outside the Western Frontier Territory, the Black Dog Orcs sent out by the Black Dog Clan to perform missions all infiltrated from the Western Frontier.

Normally, the tight defenses of the Western Frontier would make it impossible for Black Dog Orcs to infiltrate at will.

But an Earth Vein Surge two or three years ago opened a passage beneath the border wall leading to a Viscount Territory inside the kingdom.

Through a series of operations, that viscount was moved by the massive wealth promised by the Beast Tribe and tacitly allowed them to infiltrate, but no more than ten could infiltrate at a time, otherwise, he would take action to repel them.

He had a bit of loyalty, but not much!

And this also happened to achieve the Beast Tribe's goal; they were originally aiming to open a passage through which they could stably infiltrate into the kingdom's interior to trade intelligence.

As for more information related to the infiltration, the Black Dog Orc Sub-leader didn't know much either.

However, regarding information inside the Beast Tribe, it did confess quite a bit. One piece of information that Lister particularly focused on was that several territories in the Western Frontier Territory had been completely controlled by the Beast Tribe.

The Western Frontier border defense fortress and the wall were not directly adjacent to the foreign races, but rather a large area of Pioneer Territories.

Past the range of these territories was the land adjacent to those foreign races. It could be said that the royal family's purpose in pioneering these territories was to create an extra buffer zone with the foreign races.

Therefore, if the Orc Race wanted to infiltrate, they still needed to cross the lands of these Pioneer Territory lords. It was because they had secretly controlled several Pioneer Territories that they could easily cross the Pioneer Territories.

After confirming that the Black Dog Orc Sub-leader hadn't hidden any information, Lister had Red knock it out, along with the two captured knights.

From the three of them, he obtained the intelligence scrolls for this transaction, which clearly stated some recent border defense movements in the Northern Frontier and Western Frontier.

Especially the information on the Northern Frontier, it was written very clearly. If an attack were launched based on this intelligence, it would definitely cause heavy damage to the Northern Frontier fortress.

And at the bottom of the scroll, there was also Daniel's personal signature. Normally, such things wouldn't be written on traded intelligence; if caught, wouldn't it expose one's information? For example, this time.

But that group of Orc Race from the Beast Tribe was stubborn; they insisted on having Daniel's personal signature, otherwise, they wouldn't believe the authenticity of the intelligence.

In this way, it saved the trouble of subsequent official kingdom investigations, and Lister could easily complete his task.

Stowing the intelligence scrolls, Lister walked toward those thirty-odd large boxes, while holding the high-grade storage ring seized from the Black Dog Orc Sub-leader's hand.

Looking at the various colors of light shining in the boxes, the corners of Lister's mouth couldn't stop turning up as he said, "Tsk tsk, it seems I've gotten quite a lot of good stuff for free again this time."

With a wave of his hand, the knights began to take inventory.

More than twenty minutes later, Red came before Lister with a look of joy and said, "Lord Lister, according to a rough count, three of the boxes each contain about a thousand gold coins."

"In the other boxes, each contains a large amount of cold iron and vibrating iron, all of which are excellent materials for forging weapons and armor. Forging over a hundred sets should be no problem."

"Over a hundred sets!" Lister was stunned, and then ecstatic in his heart, saying, "This has exceeded my expectations. I didn't expect these savage Orc Race to be so generous."

"I will have Jimur lead the weapon forging department to forge this cold iron and vibrating iron into armor and weapons as soon as possible."

"At that time, Red, all of your knight armor can be replaced with new ones, and the knights in the Knight Squad who are not equipped with armor can all be equipped with excellent armor."

Lister's voice was not intentionally lowered, so it sounded very clear in the dark night, and the surrounding knights all heard it clearly.

Hearing that they were getting new and better weapons and armor, Red and the other knights couldn't help but shout praises for Lister's generosity.

Lister smiled and didn't say much more, waiting for the cheers to subside.

Lister looked at the high-grade storage ring in his hand, which had a faint layer of Spiritual Power covering it.

Feeling it, he then released his Spiritual Power to wear away the Spiritual Power imprint on the ring. It didn't take long before it was completely worn away.

His consciousness swept through the inside of the ring; the overall size should be nearly forty cubic meters, enough to house a person.

However, there were no extra things inside; clearly, it was only used to transport these thirty-odd large boxes.

Using his own Spiritual Power to temporarily place an imprint, Lister put all the boxes inside.

Then he came before Daniel, who was lying on the ground, and patted his face, but he still showed no sign of waking up.

Lister felt it was a bit of a pity that he hadn't brought Lianna along, otherwise, he could have directly treated him. Now he could only give up and then signaled everyone to start cleaning up the battlefield.

Sitting on a rock, while Lister waited quietly, he soon thought of the way to handle this matter next.

He planned to hand Daniel and the others over to the contact person sent by Earl Elsie de Frander. Although Elsid was not currently stationed at the border, he would certainly care deeply about such matters of private communication with foreign races.

Once the people were handed over, how to handle things afterward would be left to Earl Elsid and the kingdom officials to worry about.

As for the stolen goods from the private communication with foreign races, according to kingdom law, there was no need to hand them over, so they were already considered his private property.

After making his decision, Lister began a new day's divination—