Chapter 1 Black Pine Forest

Towering giant trees blocked the sunlight, and dense shrubs and vines formed walls. The life cycle entrenched in this land formed a closed energy field, completely blocking the aura from outside the forest. After stepping into this mysterious jungle, everyone felt as if they had stepped into another world.

And this feeling didn't seem to be an illusion.

"It's getting foggy?" Only after the carriage gradually slowed down and entered a stable state did Lily lean her head to look back. What she saw was a strange thick fog—the thick fog was entrenched among the trees a hundred meters away, so thick that it resembled some kind of gray liquid. The fog slowly drifted with the breeze through the forest, and through it, the outline of Greenwade's green barrier was barely visible: it should be known that the magnificent barrier could be clearly seen from several kilometers away.

But now, only a vague, eerie shadow could be seen hiding behind the fog.

"Strange... those Imperial soldiers didn't chase after us..." After calming down, Charlemagne realized another unusual thing, "Something's not right, they don't give up so easily..."

Vivian glanced at the prince: "In any case, now we can finally determine who wants you dead."

"The Black Sword Knights are directly under the command of Emperor Dragon, and no one can order them around except the emperor himself," Hao Ren interjected. "And looking at their merciless attitude, they have obviously confirmed your identities and were ordered to hunt you down—how exactly did you offend that Emperor?"

"I don't know," Charlemagne replied bluntly. "To be honest, after arriving in Dragon territory, the situation completely spiraled out of my expectations and control. Everything that happened in this country was completely unexpected… I can't help with intelligence anymore."

Hao Ren curled his lips and looked in the direction of the other two covered wagons: the third covered wagon had already switched forms. Now, the folded partition walls hadn't been restored to their original state, turning it into an "open-top car" surrounded by a circle of fortifications, making it easy to observe the surroundings. He saw that the guards on the other two covered wagons were safe and sound, and the shields on the vehicles were working well.

Realizing that these wagons had powerful shields, the guards had quickly retreated inside the shields. Except for one rash guy who leaned out to meet the enemy at the beginning and was accidentally scratched by a spear, everyone was safe.

"I didn't expect these cars to be equipped with such powerful magical barriers," Awenna said in surprise. "Your World Tree Temple seems to have very remarkable technology."

"We've always had cutting-edge technology," Hao Ren waved his hand indifferently. "The key question now is, what are you going to do next? The Black Sword Knights are hunting you down, and the one ordering them is definitely that Dragon Soul Emperor Berentin, so the Imperial City is definitely out of the question—are you going to continue this 'secret mission'?"

In Hao Ren's view, the situation had developed to the point where the Dragon Empire and Ysura were on the verge of breaking off diplomatic relations. Regardless of the Dragon Soul Emperor's reasons for targeting Charlemagne and his sister, this act of assassinating the neighboring country's royals was tantamount to a declaration of war. In this situation, the "secret mission" was meaningless.

But after a moment of contemplation, Awenna shook her head: "No, we must complete our mission."

"Huh?" This time, even Leah, who was squinting her eyes and engrossed in studying, couldn't help but open her eyes and look over. "Are you kidding me! That Dragon Emperor wants to kill you, and you still plan to go to the Imperial City to find him?"

"No, we're going to find Princess Constance," Awenna said seriously. "Go north past the Imperial City, to the Northern Six Provinces..."

Hao Ren opened his mouth, but before he could say anything, Charlemagne took the initiative to speak: "Sorry, our mission is very important. Of course, we have no position to ask you to continue with us. My sister and I have already been taken care of by you along the way, and we really can't ask for more. After leaving the Black Pine Forest, everyone..."

"Wait, wait, I haven't said anything yet," Hao Ren immediately waved his hand to interrupt the other party. "You're going to the Northern Territory to find that Princess Constance, right? No problem, it's all the same to us, let's go to the Northern Territory with you."

This time it was Charlemagne's turn to be stunned. He stared blankly at Hao Ren: "That... is that alright? Aren't you also shouldering the mission of the World Tree Temple, and you have to go to the Imperial City to find Emperor Dragon?"

"It doesn't matter, what we want to do doesn't necessarily require us to find that Berentin, or rather, it doesn't necessarily require us to go find him first," Hao Ren smiled. "In fact, I'm no less curious about that Princess Constance than I am about the Dragon Soul Emperor... maybe she can answer a lot of my questions."

"And there's one more thing," Vivian added faintly from the side. "With your own strength and the current situation where your whereabouts have been exposed, can you really reach the Northern Six Provinces safely without our help?"

A trace of imperceptible embarrassment flashed across Charlemagne's face, but he nodded silently: "In that case... then we'll have to continue to bother you."

"It's just cooperation," Hao Ren smiled, his gaze falling on the tall "corpse" covered in armor in the middle of the carriage. "Now that there are no pursuers, let's get to know these Black Sword Knights..."

The topic led here, and a trace of tension and fear appeared on the faces of Awenna and Charlemagne at the same time. The latter was still considered calm, but the former jumped to the other side of the carriage in small steps, creating enough distance from the "corpse" that seemed to have lost its life.

"I still don't know how you instantly killed this knight," Charlemagne said in confusion. "I saw the other battles, and although your magic is strange, it's still traceable, but this knight just now was..."

"I didn't attack him," Leah raised her eyelids and said lazily. "I just destroyed his sword—and then he just fell here and stopped moving."

Charlemagne was stunned.

The scene from the battle earlier reappeared in Hao Ren's mind: this Black Sword Knight and two Imperial soldiers stepped into the carriage to check the passengers, and ten menacing pursuers rushed from behind the carriage. After the battle broke out, Leah recovered her senses at the first moment. The weapons of the Black Sword Knight and the two Imperial soldiers that slashed at her disintegrated due to the divine power, and then the two Imperial soldiers were killed by Vivian and Lily. However, the Black Sword Knight...

He was not attacked, he fell down on his own—after the mechanical sword turned into ashes.

Lily curiously followed Hao Ren to the side of the "corpse", looking at the motionless body that had no wounds on it. She couldn't help but poke it with her hand: "Landlord, landlord, do you think he had a qi deviation and died because we broke his equipment he spent money on?"

Hao Ren scanned the husky girl up and down: "It's a bit hot in this forest, but your intelligence shouldn't have deteriorated to this extent, right?"

Lily immediately made a threatening sound in her throat: "Woof woof woof—"

Hao Ren ignored her completely, but put his hand on the side of the Black Sword Knight's helmet, searching for the buckle to open the armor: "Let me see what he looks like... I have to say, this thing is really tightly sealed, they probably have to take it apart for a while even when they eat..."

As he muttered to himself, the buckle between the helmet and the mask was first found, followed by a soft click, and the black steel mask popped up slightly, revealing a narrow gap between the mask and the helmet.

Hao Ren casually removed the other party's mask.

The face under the mask made almost everyone gasp.

Even Lily muttered, "I don't think I want to eat dinner..."

What was presented under the mask was not a face that humans should have—it was a completely deformed, stacked, and twisted face. The facial features and muscles were like melted wax flowing at will, forming a hideous and terrifying shape, and solidified on the already collapsed and deformed skull. The positions of the eyes were two sunken black holes, with a faint red light flickering inside, and his mouth had degenerated into a small crack. Seeing this mouth, Hao Ren could be sure of one thing: these Black Sword Knights probably don't eat normally, at least not like normal humans...

Not only do they not eat, but they also use their faces to prevent others from eating.

Well, they didn't deliberately prevent it, after all, Hao Ren himself courted death by taking off the mask.

"This is the Black Sword Knight?!" Vivian suppressed the discomfort in her heart—although this face was indeed a bit unrestrained, she had seen more than just an ugly face in the past ten thousand years, so she adapted quickly, "Is this the result of biochemical modification? Or... magical modification? Are the Dragon Empire's ace warriors all these modified freaks?"

"How could it be like this, it shouldn't be..." Awenna frowned and moved closer. Although her face was almost pale, she still forcibly suppressed the nausea and even began to examine the cause of the Black Sword Knight's mutated face with a hint of curiosity. "I've seen other Black Sword Knights, and I've seen their real faces... there's no difference from normal people..."

Hao Ren was stunned: "The Black Sword Knights you've seen are the same as normal people?"

"Yes, the Black Sword Knights are just a special type of soldier, but in the end, they're still people," Awenna nodded. "They can't stay wrapped in armor for the rest of their lives—they naturally have to show their real faces."

Lily touched her chin: "Maybe we just happened to meet the ugliest one..."

"Do you believe that yourself?" Hao Ren rolled his eyes at her. "And no matter how you look at it, this is obviously not natural, okay? Who is congenitally deformed like this and can still join the army and be good at both martial arts and literature? His eyes have turned into black holes."

At this time, the data terminal floated down from Hao Ren's shoulder: "Compared to these superficial mutations, the changes inside this... organism are probably even more surprising."

Awenna and Charlemagne looked curiously at the data terminal floating in the air. They had been interested in this thing for a long time. A "magic puppet" that could move on its own and had astonishing intelligence—this technology had never been heard of throughout Lahe Ryan. Only elven artisans and rune wizards would talk about similar things when they bragged to each other, but now there was a real one in front of them, how could they not pay attention?

However, now was obviously not the time to investigate how much black technology the World Tree Temple had. The two siblings quickly withdrew their attention and listened attentively to the data terminal's scanning report.

The data terminal stopped at the Black Sword Knight's chest. After performing a static deep scan, it finally had a clear result: "Half of this guy's body is a mechanical structure, and it's hard to say whether the other half is still biological tissue."