Laiman and his group rode their horses through the streets of Longsong Stronghold.

After the battle, the residents of the city hid in their homes, keeping their doors closed, and the streets were deserted, making them seem somewhat desolate.

"Sir Laiman, is your hand alright?" asked Leven, the "Strongshield" knight.

"It's not a big deal," Laiman. Horse shrugged, "At least I can still move it." However, the movement immediately made him frown.

The gate assault last night went smoothly. There were only twenty or so guards stationed at the east gate of the stronghold, and they never expected the enemy to attack from within the city.

Although the horn was blown, it would take at least a quarter of an hour for reinforcements to arrive. Fifteen mercenaries who had taken the pills rushed to the top of the city and killed the guards one by one. Laiman then led the knights to open the city gate. In the dim light, he did not notice a side door next to the city wall. Two guards suddenly rushed out from inside. One of them lunged at him with an iron hammer.

To make it easier to turn the winch, his weapon had been put away in his waist. In a hurry, Laiman had to use his arm to block. Almost at the same time, Leven on the other side delivered a long sword, stabbing straight into the guard's waist. Affected by this fatal blow, the falling iron hammer lost most of its force, but it still left a dent in his arm armor.

At the time, Laiman didn't feel much pain. After capturing the city gate, he realized that he could hardly lift his right arm. After removing his arm armor, he saw that his forearm was swollen like a rolling pin.

"Hopefully the church has some pain-relieving herbs," Leven said, "They often prepare some strange things."

"Like pills," another knight, Dorn, chimed in with a grin.

Thirteen knights lost two men in the night attack, and one was seriously injured, now lying in the camp, moaning, probably not surviving the night. Overall, this loss was acceptable, Laiman thought. Now that the militia had entered the city, the stronghold was completely in his hands.

Before long, the group arrived at the entrance of the church. A squad of over a hundred militiamen were waiting here, all looking eager when they saw Laiman.

"Distribute the pills to them," Laiman dismounted and saw that everyone had taken the pills. Only then did he lead the team up the steps and towards the main hall.

"Stop," two guarding believers shouted, "This is sacred ground, no weapons allowed inside!"

Leven drew his weapon and handed it over with both hands, "Alright, will this do?" Just as the believer reached out to take the long sword, he suddenly grabbed the hilt and jerked it upwards, and the other's two hands fell to the ground in response.

"Ah—" Before the believer's scream could escape his throat, the knight had already pierced his throat with the tip of his sword.

Leven's nickname was Strongshield, but his quick sword was rarely matched.

The other believer also had his throat cut by Dorn. Laiman kicked open the door and walked into the hall with a blank expression.

"Who are you?" A middle-aged man wearing a white robe with blue trim greeted them, showing no fear in the face of the bloody blades, "How dare you break into the church! Children, seize them!"

Laiman sneered. Most of the townspeople were staying at home now, and there were only twenty or thirty believers stationed in the church. Facing battle-hardened knights, those who resisted would only die.

Before he could give the order, Dorn had already laughed strangely and slashed down a believer who rushed up. Others soon joined the battle, and the church was immediately in chaos. Seeing that the situation was not good, the priest shouted, "Children, take the holy medicine, let the gods give you the power to defeat the thugs!"

His Majesty Tiefeike was right, Laiman thought with joy, there really were pills here! He saw the believers' eyes suddenly turn red, and veins bulged on their faces. Within the effective time of the drug, an ordinary person could unleash strength and speed beyond the limits of the human body, making it even more difficult to deal with in narrow terrain. Too bad, you're not the only one who has this, he thought, savor your own power.

"Get out of the way," he roared, "Militia, engage the enemy!"

Hearing this, the militiamen behind them eagerly swallowed the two-colored pills, and then fought with the berserk believers. Only then did the priest's expression finally change, "Why do you have...!"

"Holy medicine?" Laiman bypassed the two groups of people fighting and approached the other with his sword in one hand, "This is originally a gift from the church. If it weren't for you interfering, His Majesty would probably have unified Graycastle long ago."

"Your Majesty?" The priest widened his eyes, "You are Tiefeike's—"

The sound stopped abruptly, the knight's sword had already pierced his chest, penetrating his heart and lungs.

This battle with a huge disparity in strength ended quickly. More than twenty believers were slaughtered, and their bodies lay scattered on the ground. After the effects of the medicine subsided, the militiamen breathed heavily and sat down contentedly against the corpses, not minding the freely flowing blood.

Laiman felt his arm become heavier and heavier. The sword just now made him feel a tearing pain. Sometimes he also wanted to swallow the black pill to ignore the fatigue and pain in his body, but every time he saw the ugly appearance of the pill takers, he would take back the idea.

Laiman had a deep understanding of these two kinds of pills sold by the church. For a healthy person, the pills could only be effective three times at most. The first time was about a quarter of an hour, and the duration would become shorter and shorter afterwards, while forming a strong dependence. If you don't take the medicine for a long time, your body will gradually decline until death.

Using this characteristic, he uniformly made the militiamen take the pills before departure, forcing them to obey his orders, and the craving for drugs could transform even the weakest and most incompetent farmer into a bloodthirsty beast. Now these hundred or so people had taken it for the second time, and they only had one use left.

But... even if the medicine is continuously supplemented after three times, it can only slow down the pain and cannot reverse the process. In other words, as long as you take the first pill, it is equivalent to having one foot in the coffin. Of course, Laiman would not tell this to these people.

There is no doubt that the two-colored secret medicine is a conspiracy of the church. His Majesty Tiefeike clearly realized this, so he forbade any knights to use it. But it is also a weapon for unifying the kingdom, or rather... a necessity. Without it, His Majesty would not be able to defeat Garcia. Wimbledon, who also had pills.

When he first heard His Majesty mention this matter, Laiman couldn't believe it. He really couldn't understand why the church would support two royal bloodlines to compete for the throne, but the series of changes that followed made him more and more agree with His Majesty's judgment. Now that he saw this kind of pill in the church in the Western Region, he no longer had any doubts about it—the church did not intend to help any prince ascend the throne, what they wanted was the entire Graycastle.

"The pills have been found in the basement, four large boxes, with as many as several thousand pills." After thoroughly searching the church, Leven excitedly reported, "There are also a lot of gold dragons, jewelry and silk, which should have been donated by the believers."

"Take away everything you can take, and burn everything you can't take away," Laiman instructed, "Anyway, this was all done by Roland. Wimbledon, we are just helping the church suppress the rebellion."

Since the secret medicine must rely on the church to provide it, now is not the time to completely tear up the relationship. Pushing it to the Fourth Prince can be regarded as a dead end. In order not to arouse suspicion from the church, His Majesty himself stayed in the north, pretending to listen to the other party's instructions, but sent himself to carry a small number of knights and conscript a large number of militiamen to seize the Western Region.

Now that the church's troops are all concentrated in the Kingdom of Wolfheart, and they have no time to pay attention to the situation here, so it is necessary to unify Graycastle as soon as possible, so as to free up the strength to resist the church's attack—His Majesty Tiefeike believes that it is only a matter of time before they launch an attack on Graycastle. Before that, they must store and collect as many pills as possible. At the same time, he also ordered the alchemist association in the royal capital to study the ingredients of the secret medicine, and strive to be able to imitate it as soon as possible.

Now that the pills are in hand, the only step left in this mission is to completely eliminate Roland. Wimbledon. (。)