Damn it, were they really going to tear off the mask?
Radi was Lorist's eldest disciple. In a way, the person Lorist trusted most was Radi and Schwad—not Bodenfeng,
Although Radi was a Silver One-Star, the technique he currently cultivated was not
As Lorist's eldest disciple, Radi had not failed his master's expectations. Lorist had even said more than once that Radi's martial talent far surpassed his own. In just four or five years, Radi had broken through the third bottleneck of the Danhai Qi-Guiding Art in one go and was now approaching—or about to approach—the fourth stage.
The Danhai Qi-Guiding Art was an internal force cultivation technique from Lorist's family heritage in his previous life. To be precise, it was designed for outer-branch family members to practice—easy to learn but hard to master. The first two layers were simple enough, but only a precious few ever broke through to the third layer, reaching the peak of Manifest Force. The fourth layer marked the breakthrough from Manifest Force to Hidden Force. As for the fifth layer, Lorist had heard from his grandfather in his previous life that only one outer-branch member, during the late Qing and early Republic era, had cultivated the Danhai Qi-Guiding Art to the fifth layer, becoming a grandmaster. Sadly, that person had later disappeared during a war of resistance against foreign invasion, and no one ever learned what became of him…
Radi was already nearing the fourth layer of the Danhai Qi-Guiding Art. According to Lorist's assessment, he had now surpassed the Gold Swordsman level but still fell some distance short of first-rank Great Swordmaster. Only upon reaching the fourth stage and comprehending Hidden Force would he match the caliber of a Great Swordmaster. Lorist sighed and said this was where Radi's true talent shone. It had taken Lorist himself—having endured countless brushes with death and ordeals—nearly ten years to reach the Great Swordmaster stage, while Radi had achieved the same level in half that time.
However, breaking through to the fourth layer of the Danhai Qi-Guiding Art required comprehension. Originally, once Radi had broken through the third layer, Lorist had planned to send him out traveling to broaden his horizons. But that was right when the large-scale knight strike broke out—all the knights had gone into seclusion to advance to
Once everything had settled down, Radi finally set out to travel the Galentea Continent. His plan was to travel overland to
During his time as acting bodyguard battalion commander, Radi had worked closely with Tager and knew that these covert operations indeed fell under the bodyguard battalion's purview. Just as in the Royal Capital of Windbury, where he had worked with Tager to eliminate several underground criminal syndicates, Radi readily agreed and headed to the Central Four Duchies. The operations in Sabaji Duchy and Fakel Duchy went smoothly, but things went wrong in the capital of Handra Duchy when he tried to take down an underground crime boss.
That crime boss openly ran a large restaurant. He was a relative of a duchy count. The count was a spineless fool whose wife was having an affair with the Duke of Handra—everyone in the duchy knew about it, but nobody dared say a word. The crime boss was the countess's cousin, and riding on her influence, he extorted protection money, ran gambling dens and brothels, and blackmailed merchants in the duchy capital of Naouris City, committing every evil imaginable.
The agents Tager had arranged were a couple in their fifties who were originally locals. They had two sons and a family trade in leatherworking. During the Imperial Civil War, when the First Prince's army had attacked Handra Duchy, they had fled as refugees. The family of four had been taken in by a northbound caravan in the Andinak Kingdom and brought to Northland. Now both of their sons had joined the
Upon their return, they found that their old house had been seized by the crime boss. When they went to negotiate, the crime boss declared that the entire family were deserters who had fled when the duchy was in danger rather than serving their country. Not only did the old couple fail to recover their house, but they and the impostor son were beaten and all their remaining possessions stolen. When the news reached Tager, he was furious. He sentenced the crime boss to death and ordered Radi to go and uproot the entire criminal organization.
Now, this crime boss ran a large restaurant. Radi destroyed the organization's gambling dens and brothels, killed off most of the henchmen, and then went after the crime boss himself. As it happened, several duchy nobles were hosting a banquet at the restaurant to entertain an envoy sent by Duke Fisablen. That envoy was one of Duke Fisablen's close nephews, who had met Radi at the knight tournament—knew him as the swordsmanship champion and also knew he was a member of the Norton Family.
Radi cut off the crime boss's head, held it in his hand, and strode confidently toward the main entrance—only to come face to face with the envoy at the foot of the stairs.
The envoy froze. "What are you doing here…" Then, jumping to his own conclusions, he decided Radi must be a Norton Family spy. This trip to Handra Duchy was merely to negotiate some trade agreements on behalf of the Fisablen family, but the envoy, bursting with self-importance, believed he was carrying out a vital mission for the Fisablen family. The moment he decided Radi was a Norton spy, the second words out of his mouth were: "Seize him! He's a spy from Northland—he followed me here…"
The nobles and their guards beside the envoy, upon hearing Radi was a spy, raised a clamor and attacked. Radi was seething with rage. He cut through the nobles and guards like a hot knife through butter, his strikes somewhat brutal—roughly half of them died. Seeing the envoy trying to flee, Radi strode forward and disemboweled him, then walked away unhurriedly. The entire Duchy of Handra was thrown into an uproar…
The murder of an envoy was intolerable and deeply shameful for any noble—and this was Duke Fisablen's own nephew, not some nobody who could be brushed aside. At the very least, the killer had to be captured to give the Fisablen family an explanation. The Duke of Handra flew into a towering rage, sealed the borders, and launched a full-scale manhunt. Radi thus began his life on the run.
His initial pursuers were pushovers—just garrison troops from various Handra duchy towns. Every time Radi entered a town or village to resupply, the garrison would hassle him, but he didn't think much of it. However, after the first Gold Knight sent to capture him fell to his sword, Handra Duchy began deploying military forces for the pursuit. They ordered every village and town to impose martial law, barring entry to any lone travelers. They also dispatched the duchy's sole first-rank Great Swordmaster to hunt Radi down.
Now Radi was in real trouble. Garrison troops in villages and towns had been easy enough to deal with, but that required getting close. Now every village and town was completely inaccessible—or at least nearly impossible to infiltrate. Patrols would issue warnings from a great distance, ordering people to halt, and under the aim of several long-range crossbows, someone would be sent forward to inspect. Only after confirming the person wasn't Radi would they be allowed entry. On two or three occasions, Radi grabbed an inspector as a hostage, only to find that the garrison troops fired without hesitation, turning their own comrade into a pincushion…
Radi finally paid the price for his overconfidence, enduring considerable hardship. Things grew especially dire when the Great Swordmaster caught up with him. As Lorist had said, his current swordsmanship surpassed that of a Gold Knight but fell short of a Great Swordmaster's. While he wasn't completely crushed the way a Gold Knight would be against a Great Swordmaster, it was a fact that he was at a disadvantage in every exchange. Fortunately, when he couldn't win, he could still escape. Radi changed direction and fled back the way he'd come, deciding to head for Sabaji Duchy. From there, he would pass through the former Merlein Duchy's Meishan Province to reach the White Egret Lake Marshes, cross into the Andinak Kingdom, and take the long way around to Morant City.
What Radi hadn't expected was that the Central Four Duchies would truly unite against a common enemy. The Duke of Handra's messenger reached Sabaji Duchy, and the Duke of Sabaji issued his own arrest warrant. After just two easy days, Radi was once again forced onto the path of flight. This time Radi was truly furious, and his strikes grew ever more vicious. After Radi beheaded two Gold Knights of Sabaji Duchy, the Duke of Sabaji was equally enraged and dispatched his own Great Swordmaster, vowing to tear Radi limb from limb…
Two Great Swordmasters working together left Radi with nowhere to run and nowhere to hide. Fortunately, as the saying goes—fear not a godlike opponent, but fear a pig-headed teammate. The two Great Swordmasters were more than Radi could handle, but their subordinates tasked with assisting the pursuit couldn't withstand three of his strikes. And the two Great Swordmasters, living in comfort and luxury, would never deign to lead from the front—they only mobilized once they had Radi's exact location, which gave Radi his openings. He frequently launched lethal strikes against the advance trackers before continuing his flight. After several such incidents, the trackers in the lead grew terrified and started dragging their feet to save their own skins. None of them dared stray too far from the Great Swordmasters…
Radi finally breathed a sigh of relief. The constant fleeing had tempered his swordsmanship, making it more refined and fluid. He could now go toe-to-toe with one of the Great Swordmasters, parrying and counterattacking with ease—even gaining a slight upper hand for a time—until the second Great Swordmaster arrived, at which point Radi laughed and vanished into the mountains and forests.
But the good times didn't last. When Duke Fisablen learned that his beloved nephew had been murdered and the killer still hadn't been caught, the enraged duke sent his old lover—the godmother of Princess Silvia, a second-rank Great Swordmaster named Cindy—to Sabaji Duchy. Now Radi was in serious trouble. He was no match for Great Swordmaster Cindy at all. After a single exchange, he sustained three deep wounds that reached the bone. Fortunately, he fled quickly, leaping into a large river behind him and swimming underwater for half a day before escaping danger.
The message from Tager's agents in Sabaji Duchy came from the pursuers' own subordinates: Radi had last been spotted at the White Egret Lake Marshes, and the manhunt forces were preparing to move to White Egret Lake for a search. Even the Four-Nation Alliance Army stationed on the Central Island in the lake had been alerted and dispatched numerous troops to assist in searching the marshlands.
"The map…" Lorist said. Schwad, who had been anxiously worrying about his eldest martial brother, spread out the White Egret Lake Marshes map he had already prepared and laid it before Lorist.
Both routes essentially meant taking a huge detour. There was one more option: crossing the marshes in winter. The surrounding swampland would freeze solid, allowing passage over the marsh to the Central Island, and from there, through another stretch of marsh, to reach Meishan Province. This was the same route the Gale Wind Corps had once taken to reinforce the former Duke of Merlein against the
To be precise, the White Egret Lake Marshes should be called the White Egret Lake watershed—a vast expanse of wetlands. White Egret Lake itself was only about a hundred li long and ten to several dozen li wide, but the dozens of marshes of varying sizes surrounding it formed a continuous belt stretching over a thousand li that was impassable to all. Even in winter, while some smaller marshes froze solid, the vast majority remained a life-devouring forbidden zone that swallowed any explorer who dared venture in…
Since the fall of the Duchy of Merlein—with two of its provinces annexed by Sabaji Duchy—and the Second Prince's return to the throne of the Andinak Kingdom, the Central Four Duchies had organized a nearly ten-thousand-strong Four-Nation Alliance Army and deployed it on the Central Island. They were also constructing a castle fortress on the island to prevent the Second Prince from leading forces through the marshes to the Central Island for a surprise winter attack on Sabaji Duchy. After all, the Second Prince's winter offensives were infamous, and the Central Four Duchies dared not let their guard down.
As for the other road leading to the former Duchy of Madrass, the Central Four Duchies weren't particularly concerned about it. First, that route followed the edge of White Egret Lake and several large marshes—it was winding and difficult to traverse, and midway along, a fortified pass protected it. No one could move a large army through that road; the terrain was simply too unfavorable. In peacetime, only traveling merchants used that route to do business in Vannades City. It was said that the Duke of Madrass had once discussed expanding it into a proper highway to facilitate trade with the Duke of Merlein, but the enormous cost of road construction had indefinitely postponed the plan.
Currently, the Andinak Kingdom's White Lion Corps was deployed in the two southwestern provinces, eyeing the Kambona Province held by the Commercial Alliance. The reorganized Royal Guard Corps was stationed in Hansdomos Province, facing off against the forces of Duke Zuturam, who had retreated with his entire army to the northwest. Intelligence indicated that the Second Prince was building a new amphibious corps on the shores of White Egret Lake, directly across from the Central Island, which had the Central Four Duchies in a state of panic.
Today was the twenty-sixth day of the eleventh month of the Galentea Common Calendar—forty-four days before the new year. If Lorist wanted to reach the White Egret Lake watershed to find Radi, the fastest route would be to sail first to Shilowas Island, land at Qilin Port, and ride hard to White Egret Lake—taking only ten to eleven days. However, this route passed through the Imperial Capital's Central Province, where the Second Prince could easily interfere. Lorist wished to avoid trouble and abandoned this option.
The second route was to go first to Dremk Province, then to Vannades City, and from there take the road that followed White Egret Lake and the marshes straight to Sabaji Duchy before entering the White Egret Lake watershed to search for Radi. The path was somewhat circuitous and took longer—even riding day and night with fresh horses, it would require fourteen to fifteen days. Moreover, since the fall of the Duchy of Madrass and the submission of Northland's four great families to the Second Prince, Sabaji Duchy had closed the fortified pass midway along that road, prohibiting merchants from traveling to Vannades City.
Lorist pondered for a long time before deciding to take this route to the White Egret Lake watershed to find Radi. "Tager, send a messenger hawk to our people in Vannades City. Have them find a guide and hunter familiar with this route, and make all preparations for the search for Radi. We depart this afternoon."
"As you command, Your Highness."