Sherlock walked in front, followed by the other Sun Keepers, and whispered, "According to past practice, the Kingdom of Blystone usually holds a welcome ceremony for foreign guests in Witsel Church Square. After the clock strikes 12, they will then enter the Daklan Fortress together."
At this time, it was actually drizzling outside, but upon entering Witsel Church Square, the Weather immediately turned sunny. This was because a massive Alchemy array beneath the square converted the Weather, ensuring that no matter what the Weather was like outside, it was always sunny here.
Zhou Ning nodded, acknowledging with a hum that he understood. In his previous life's game, he had witnessed this scene several times. Blystone in the game was already the strongest of the six nations, and its faction leader, His Majesty the King Charles VI, was an arrogant fat man who called himself the Sun King. Whether receiving players or envoys, he always liked to assert his authority by being late. He consistently ranked first among the most unpopular faction leaders.
In the eyes of Zhou Ning, the Transmigrator, he was exactly like King Gigi.
As they walked into Witsel Church Square, a distant honor guard was playing the Blystone famous song, "Matilda." The Ruins envoy had already arrived; he was a black-haired middle-aged man with a hairstyle very similar to an Ami donkey, and a benevolent smile always on his face. As for Charles VI, the honor guard had arrived, but he should not have yet.
It seems that being late saved this younger brother... Zhou Ning couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.
"Do you need me to do anything?" XB asked softly, hoping to trigger a quest.
"Not for now."
Zhou Ning shook his head. At that moment, he saw Keen West, accompanied by a middle-aged man in a Sun Keeper uniform, leave the crowd and walk towards them. He first smiled and nodded at Zhou Ning, then looked at Sherlock: "What's going on? Is the Vik University matter resolved?"
"It's resolved. I left a few people there to wrap things up." Sherlock repeated Zhou Ning's conjecture to Keen, who then sobered, his expression becoming serious: "It's indeed very possible. Thank you for the reminder."
A prompt appeared on Zhou Ning's panel:
[Sun Keepers' favorability towards you has increased by 1200 points!]
[Sun Keepers: Friendly (200/1500)]
[Your reputation in the Kingdom of Blystone has increased by 1600 points!]
[Kingdom of Blystone: Respected (100/6000)]
On the other side, XB also received panel prompts, which opened two new factions. Blystone started as friendly, with the relationship of 'ordinary citizen', while the Sun Keepers' relationship was still 'indifferent'.
"Sure enough, I still have to follow the protagonist!" XB's eyes welled up.
"You two, come with me. Stand behind me in a moment," Keen West said in a low voice as he walked back.
"His Majesty the King hasn't arrived yet?" Sherlock asked.
"No," Keen West shook his head. "Ruins came to Daklan this time to discuss the territorial dispute over the Pu'er Cloud Land. His Majesty the King doesn't want to give in and intends to keep them waiting."
Zhou Ning couldn't help but twitch his lips. Sure enough, King Gigi's tradition of being late was present from the very beginning of the game.
Following Keen to the queue, Zhou Ning stood behind him and quietly observed the situation on the opposite side. The quest was right here; there was definitely something wrong with that Ruins delegation.
The Ruins envoy, with his Ami donkey-like hairstyle, always wore a benevolent smile. Zhou Ning keenly noticed the yellowish marks on his right index finger and thumb, traces left by long-term contact with crucibles and test tubes. Zhou Ning instinctively felt that this person was very suspicious.
As for the other attendants of the delegation, nothing could be discerned for now.
About 10 minutes later, the sound of carriage wheels echoed from a distance, and a magnificent carriage drove in. Zhou Ning's spirits lifted. Only officials are allowed to set fires, not the common people to light lamps; the only dog-like figure who could ride a carriage in Witsel Church Square should be Charles VI.
The carriage stopped, and an attendant helped pull open the curtain. Sure enough, Charles VI was helped down from the carriage and walked smilingly to the Ruins envoy: "Welcome to Daklan."
After some diplomatic pleasantries, according to etiquette, the Ruins envoy took out a state letter from his personal box and handed it to Charles VI.
As Zhou Ning's eyes swept over the state letter, a prompt suddenly popped up on his panel:
[Unknown Artifact:??????. ] followed by a string of question marks.
Unknown Artifact?
Zhou Ning's heart sank. According to the game's setting, these were peculiar items passed down from the era of the Four Heroes, often found in the Meteorological Tide across the continent. Some were very useful, but more often than not, they were accompanied by misfortune and disaster.
Just as he was about to speak, he saw the Ruins envoy pull a dagger from the state letter, still wearing a benevolent smile, and suddenly pounce towards Charles VI.
This was... a dagger revealed at the end of the scroll?
Keen West, already prepared, reacted quickly. He drew his gun immediately and shot the opponent in the chest. The Ruins envoy's body stiffened, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth, but he still relentlessly lunged towards Charles VI.
Immediately after, others also reacted, drawing their guns and firing at him.
After being hit six times, the Ruins envoy's body soon fell motionless to the ground, having breathed his last.
But what was horrifying was that even in Death, a benevolent smile remained on his face. The state letter in his hand clattered to the ground.
"Wait!"
Zhou Ning vaguely felt something was wrong. Just as he opened his mouth, he was interrupted by Charles VI, who furiously pointed at the Ruins delegation: "Arrest them!"
But before the others could act, the rest of the Ruins delegation each pulled a dagger from their robes, their faces showing fanatical expressions, and unhesitatingly stabbed themselves in the stomach.
Immediately, blood flowed everywhere, and the entire scene was filled with the pungent smell of blood.
Following this, the winding blood on the ground converged, miraculously forming a hexagonal star array, which lit up one by one. With the open book on the ground as its center, a narrow spatial rift formed in mid-air.
Everyone at the scene was stunned. Through the rift, a peculiar world could be seen: a blood-red sky, with long stone bridges connecting shattered Ruins everywhere. At a glance, it was impossible to count how many buildings were inside. Beneath the stone bridges was an endless river of blood.
"This is... the Blood Kingdom?"
The legendary domain of blood elements, inhabited by countless elemental monsters. Wasn't this content supposed to appear in the Elemental Chaos version?
Zhou Ning's hairs stood on end: "Retreat quickly!"
After saying that, he unhesitatingly drew his gun and fired at the open book on the ground. The book was shot with incredible precision, causing it to jump up, and its pages closed together.
As the pages closed, the spatial rift slowly disappeared. But before Zhou Ning could breathe a sigh of relief, he saw a black shadow emerge from the disappearing spatial rift and land on the ground.
It looked somewhat human, its body a blood-red worm, but its head bore a human face, with a pair of glowing red eyes embedded within it. After appearing, it burrowed directly into a corpse on the ground.
Without any reason, an extreme sense of danger arose in the hearts of everyone present.
"This is a Blood Worm! Don't let it get close. Its own attack power isn't strong, but it will split after absorbing enough blood. Try using fire against it!" Zhou Ning shouted while firing at the corpse.
The corpse on the ground quickly shriveled, and the Blood Worm split from one into three, then pounced on other corpses. Soon after, it quickly split into countless worms, rushing towards the other living people.
"Frost!" "Meteor Shower!"
Keen West was one of the kingdom's top Meteorologists and a Clan Knight. He continuously used Weather skills. Although he successfully blocked many Blood Worms, dense swarms of Blood Worms still rushed towards the people around him.
The scene descended into chaos.
It was at this moment.
A colorless, terrifying aura radiated outwards from Zhou Ning as its center. Since he didn't have time to specifically control friend or foe, the few people closest to Zhou Ning were immediately stunned for a second, taking a step back. The entire space seemed to tremble. Following this, the dense Blood Worms in the square instantly fell into a dizzy state, and the game panel began to scroll wildly.
[Your Conqueror's Haki dealt 109 damage to the Blood Worm. The mental difference was 25 (40-15). The Blood Worm fell into a dizzy state. The target is Dead. You gained 65 experience points.]
[Your Conqueror's Haki dealt 93 damage to the Blood Worm. The mental difference was 24 (40-16). The Blood Worm fell into a dizzy state.]
[Your Conqueror's Haki dealt 111 damage to the Blood Worm. The mental difference was 27 (40-13). The Blood Worm fell into a dizzy state. The target is Dead. You gained 72 experience points.]
...[You were attacked by Wayne Strowell's Conqueror's Haki. You took 79 damage. You are stunned.]
XB was standing next to Zhou Ning and immediately fell into an indiscriminate state of deterrence and dizziness, his health instantly evaporating, leaving only a sliver of health. Although his game character was stunned, he was awake in reality, his mouth agape, wanting to say something, but his vocabulary was too poor. After struggling for a long time, he could only gasp, exhaling two words: "Holy crap!"
Seeing this scene, the live stream chat went wild. By watching XB's perspective, they also clearly saw what was happening on the scene.
"Holy crap, this move is called Conqueror's Haki! This is too brutal, isn't it?"
"This must also be a protagonist-exclusive skill. Coach, I want to learn this!"
"Wuwu... my husband is too fierce!"