Chapter 147 The Ones Who Got Away

Actually, Hao Ren was very glad—he had solved this ambush with some near misses, but that didn't mean he was completely at ease in his heart.

His shield wasn't indestructible; in fact, during the battle just now, its capacity had been steadily decreasing.

Those death warriors wielding swords, though they used ordinary cold weapons, their combat power was still astonishing. The world of Koro had its own unique power system, where mortals could gain superhuman strength through special training methods and energy infusions. The power of those swords, filled with various energy rays, was no less than that of ordinary werewolves or demon hunters on Earth, and some of these people's special skills could also bring considerable damage. Hao Ren was immune to most magic from the Dream Plane, but he wasn't immune to damage outside of magic, so these black warriors' attacks dealt full damage to him.

If twice as many such warriors besieged him, and he didn't have time to prepare various weapons of mass destruction, he would have to run.

But in the end, the arrangement of this group of death warriors fell short. Their trump card wasn't a warrior, but a spellcaster—a battle wizard whose damage output was zero to Hao Ren.

In fact, the arrangement of these people was not a problem. In the world of Koro, the combat profession with the strongest burst damage has always been magic-based units, especially wizards. Although wizards are physically weak and cannot be trained as assassins, they could almost 100% guarantee the successful capture of a target when fully prepared and with traps laid out. This was because Koro's warriors had limited attack methods and lacked crowd control abilities, but wizards had a variety of magical skills that could bury enemies under endless spells. Therefore, the main attackers during ambushes have always been them, and melee units such as warriors were usually only there to provide opportunities for wizards to cast spells.

If they hadn't encountered a magic-immune freak.

Most of the death warriors had already turned to dust in the previous battle and under the disintegration rays. Only the remaining three warriors were obviously no threat, and in the mage team, everyone except Ramor had died due to mana exhaustion and magical energy backflow. This ambush was finally settled, but Hao Ren still had many questions to understand.

He looked around and immediately frowned: Earl Wiley was gone.

The Earl was obviously the mastermind behind everything. Judging from his previous remarks, this "young talent" was definitely a dark element lurking within the kingdom. Hao Ren could vaguely guess at some things, but more was still a mystery. However, the Earl was obviously not as brave as his death warriors. Not long after the battle started, he seemed to have slipped away.

The chaotic battlefield attracted Hao Ren's attention, and he didn't even know when "Mr. Earl" had run away.

So in the end, his gaze could only fall on Ramor and the three warriors.

The old wizard had suffered two impacts of mana exhaustion in a row, plus the extra poisoning from a "Drop of the Abyss". At this time, he had already lost most of his life. He collapsed on the ground under the protection of the three warriors, his face as white as paper, his whole body trembling, and beads of sweat as big as beans kept rolling down his forehead. When the three warriors saw Hao Ren turn his gaze over, they immediately raised the swords in their hands. But at this moment, their behavior was no longer as brave as before, but more like a conditioned reflex under panic.

A monster that could be immune to "forbidden magic" was beyond the psychological endurance of the death warriors, and the brainwashing education they usually received couldn't make them muster the courage to continue.

"You definitely didn't expect this to happen," Hao Ren came to Ramor and asked condescendingly.

Ramor didn't have the strength to move, but he didn't have more fear. Perhaps he knew that fear was useless, so he simply calmly said, "You are not an ancient guardian at all. What exactly are you...thing?"

Hao Ren raised his eyebrows: "Why do you say I'm not? Have you ever seen a real ancient guardian?"

"I haven't seen it, but when the forerunners of the Order destroyed the Caswan Temple a thousand years ago, they didn't see any magic-immune freaks..." Ramor said, coughing violently, "Cough cough... This... This isn't a power that mortals should master. You are a monster that violates the laws of the world... Ha, in that case, you're actually similar to us..."

Hao Ren frowned: "The Order? You? Who exactly are you? Why did you attack me?"

Ramor's expression finally changed at this time: "You really don't know?"

Hao Ren shrugged: "How would I know? I only know that you had bad intentions from the beginning."

"Could it be that Veronica is just an acci..." Ramor blurted out subconsciously, but he swallowed the second half of the sentence, replacing it with a miserable smile, "Heh... So that's how it is, so that's how it is. Fate, fate in chaos, is truly a cruel thing. Our accumulation and management of so many years was actually ruined so inexplicably."

"It seems that I've been dragged into some big conspiracy, a typical case of being shot while lying down," Hao Ren said expressionlessly, then took out several sets of shackles from his dimensional storage, "Forget it, I can have Veronica and her old man investigate it after I go back. They will definitely be happy to have someone help them ferret out you kingdom parasites. These things were originally prepared for Wiley, but that Earl ran away pretty fast—so they can only be used on you."

Ramor was obviously stunned when he saw the shackles that had been prepared long ago, and then he finally realized a problem: "You... You were prepared?! You didn't..."

"I never believed Wiley's nonsense," Hao Ren grinned, "I came here just to see what kind of surprise he had prepared for me, because I didn't know why I, who had just arrived here, would be targeted. Ha, wolf walker? That 'Earl' really had the imagination to come up with that, and he even tried his best to make this story ambiguous so that no one could find fault with it."

Ramor looked at Hao Ren as if he had seen a ghost: "How is that possible... There shouldn't be any loopholes in this story! We are sure that it completely matches all your descriptions, and there are no extra details that can be seen through! What exactly are you..."

"It's simple, there is no such thing as a wolf walker from a thousand years ago in this world," Hao Ren looked at the black-robed wizard, "At first, I was really shaken for a moment, and thought that there really was a werewolf in this world who looked a lot like my friend, but the closer you described her to what I said, the more I didn't believe it. When you finally took out that portrait, I completely understood that this was just a scam. You guys had a hard time—it wasn't easy to create such a photo without Photoshop, right?"

Ramor just looked at him coldly. The old wizard didn't say another word.

It seemed that he didn't know what Photoshop was.

"It seems you don't plan to say anything, so let me guess," Hao Ren glanced at the three warriors next to him with cold eyes, making them not dare to act rashly, and then turned to look at Ramor, "You mentioned Veronica's name just now, so the reason you want to deal with me isn't because of the identity of some 'ancient guardian', but has something to do with the princess?"

"..."

"Then just think about the relationship between me and that princess. What have I done... Ah, because of my intervention, Veronica, who should have died in the Land of Chaos, returned safely. I think this must have disrupted someone's plan, and this 'someone' is you. So you think I'm a huge threat, and even think I'm here specifically to disrupt your actions?" Hao Ren touched his chin, talking to himself, "Wait, that doesn't seem quite right. The reason isn't sufficient. You should have a bigger and more specific motive to explain your such a big battle—it's not easy to set up an earl-level 'chess piece' in the upper echelons of the kingdom. I don't believe that a figure like Wiley is your expendable."

"..."

"I think you should know what happened to Princess Anya and Prince Andrew. Well, thinking about it this way, it seems to be related. Your appetite seems to be quite big? What do you want? Power? Status? The entire country? Or just want to subvert it? Your actions seem to lack rationality, which makes people more and more curious."

The black-robed Ramor finally made a sound. He sneered disdainfully, "Hmph, I thought you were some worldly expert who knew everything, but it turns out you're just a mortal. You don't know anything at all."

"You're still calling me a mortal," Hao Ren smacked his lips, "My status is much higher than yours. I'm someone with an ID card."

After saying that, he picked up the superalloy shackles and looked at the death warriors next to him: "You guys, are you going to shackle yourselves or should I do it? Oh, you probably don't know how to use this..."

Before Hao Ren could finish speaking, he saw the three warriors' bodies suddenly tremble, and then they fell to the ground one after another.

He was shocked and quickly stepped forward to check, but found that all three had died: they had shattered their internal organs with some special technique. This should be a suicide skill specially trained for people like them.

"Holy crap, they just died?!" Hao Ren was stunned, and then suddenly reacted, grabbing Ramor's neck, "Don't even think about dying! Do you believe that even if I dig out your brain, I can still guarantee it'll stay alive?"

Ramor coughed, "Cough cough... Don't worry... I don't have the strength to kill myself anymore."

Hao Ren didn't dare to believe the old wizard's words. Now this was the last live person in his hands, so he immediately shackled the old man firmly and activated the nerve inhibitors on the shackles. In this way, the old man couldn't even commit suicide if he wanted to.

Just as he was busy with all this, the corner of his eye suddenly caught sight of dust rising in the distance. A team of cavalry was rushing towards here, carrying the Talos royal family's emblem.