Jake, Reus, Hardy, and Ben came to the battlefield where the Royal Knights were slaughtered. The scorched ground and the dried blood, but to their surprise, there were no dead bodies.
"Reus–" Hardy held the remaining words when he saw Reus touching the ground with his palm. The sleepy Jake became wide awake at the scene while Ben walked around.
The fifth Templar Knight, Hardy also followed the others to check their surroundings. He was trying to find the trail of what happened in this place.
But no trail could be found, even the trace of the battle barely remained around, and it was hard to find out what happened with a few traces left. Their only hope was Reus with his special innate skill.
After five minutes, the three Templar Knights returned to where Reus was. The fifth Templar Knight was not over as he still touched the ground. It took him another ten minutes before he jolted up and opened his eyes in shock.
"We better leave this place soon, I will tell the details on the way back," Reus was sweating profusely. Unbelievable stuck on his expression as he immediately made his way back to the city's direction.
"Hey! What did you see?" Hardy called out but he was ignored by Reus as the latter kept walking. Jake and Ben exchanged glances as it was rarely acting like this. But the two did not question Reus as they followed the man.
The two knew that Reus would tell them eventually. When they were halfway to the city, Reus opened his mouth and told his three comrades what he saw. He did not miss a single detail including the strong beastmen's involvement, Kairu who single-handedly killed six Grand Royal Knights.
On top of that, Reus told his friend about Red Chivalries's involvement in the battle. It seemed the Flaming Lion killed six Grand Royal Knights alone was not enough for their shock until the three heard Tang Shaoyang killed the whole party that consisted of twelve Diamond Rank Adventurers.
Red Chivalries' name was resounded throughout the continent. The newly rising Diamond Rank Party comprised twelve Diamond Rank Adventurers. People predicted the party would reach Heaven-Diamond Rank next year, but such a promising party was wiped by a single man.
"You are joking, right?" Hardy could not believe what his friend told him. If it was Red Chivalries even four of them might not be a match against this Diamond Rank Party.
"He's not joking," Jake shook his head, "Look how shocked he was before. He's the same as you, he could not believe that but he saw that through his ability directly. It might be hard to believe but we have to accept the truth."
"If so, we have to call Karl and Ruwen. We four may not be able to kill them, let alone capturing them," Ben voiced his thoughts, killing was easier than capturing but now the mission would be impossible to execute with just four of them.
Karl was the second strongest Templar Knight that the Church of the Waskin City had produced. And of course, Ruwen was the strongest Templar Knight amongst the seven Templar Knights.
"We have to report this to Saintess, the Goddesses have to know what we would face and ask her enlightenment," Reus agreed to Ben's idea.
"Are we going to just walk back with empty hands? Don't you guys feel ashamed?" Hardy raised his voice while voicing out his disagreement. Failing to execute the task from the Goddesses was something he never thought of before, and he was not going to disappoint the Goddesses this time too.
"Why do you feel ashamed? Admitting your weakness is not something you should feel ashamed of. We are the followers of the perfect being, but that doesn't make us perfect too. Perfection only belongs to her Grace, not us!" Ben shot a glare toward Hardy.
"Seeking her enlightenment is our part too when we encounter such trouble in the mission," Reus followed up.
"But this is not the end for us. We can finish the task without bringing our failure to the Goddesses," Hardy did not step back even though the other three agreed to seek their Goddesses' help.
"What do you mean?" Ben furrowed his brows.
"The Adventurer Guild, since that man wiped out the Diamond Rank Party, Red Chivalries, we can use them to fight him too!" Hardy vigorously voiced his brilliant plan, "There is a Heaven-Diamond Party and also another Diamond Rank Party now in the city. We can use them to fight Tang!"
"That's a good idea, but we still have to report this to Saintess," Reus readily agreed to get the Adventurer Guild involved, "But your plan may not work if you just tell them that Red Chivalries is wiped out."
Hardy was about to argue but Ben stopped him, "Let him finish what he wanted to say first."
"Do you think the adventurers would try to avenge the death of the Red Chivalries? No! They may have the same profession, adventurer, but they are also rivals! The disappearance of Red Chivalries would be seen in a good light by the other Diamond Rank Parties! They will not just go blindly to avenge their rival!" Reus explained why they could not rely on the adventurers and why it might not work.
"Then, what's your plan?" Hardy blurted out as he realized what Reus said was the truth.
"It's simple, we just need to spread the rumor that Red Chivalries is wiped out by Tang. Don't let them know that from our mouth, they are not that stupid to not realize that we want to use them to fight Tang if we tell them this directly," Reus explained, but the explanation only confused the fourth Templar Knight.
"Fame! They will not make their move if we ask them, but if they hear the rumor they may make their move on Tang. The fame for successfully capturing the man the Red Chivalries failed to do is more tempting for them rather than the reward from the church!" Jake, who understood Reus' plan, explained to the confused Hardy.
"And we have the stage for them. The Beast Stampede is the day of our big clash against that man. Since he is allied with the beastmen and he has a grudge against the Waskin Family, Tang will use the Beast Stampede to avenge the villagers killed by the Royal Knight!" Reus continued with his plan, "We have two Primes at our disposal too. We can tell what I see to Roman Waskin, and tell him our plan so he is willing to dispatch the two Primes on his side!"
"That is a solid plan, what about Karl and Ruwen? Should we call him too, but wouldn't it be too much manpower for a single man?" Jake was quite reluctant to call these two. If they had enough manpower, he felt it was unnecessary to call them back to the city.
"We have to call them to ensure our success, we can't afford to fail anymore…" Reus stopped halfway for a moment before he continued, "Everything in Her Graces' decree, we will just follow her grand plan instead if Her Graces have their plan."
Hardy no longer complained. He has to agree to Reus after he realized that his plan could never work. He overlooked the fact that adventurers were more into rivalry than comrady.
*** ***
Meanwhile, the involved man, Tang Shaoyang was in a big moment in his life, inheriting the Dragon Bloodline.
The process was indeed quite simple, he just needed to sit on top of the magic circle Rumru had created beforehand. He sat cross-legged and closed his eyes.
At first, it was nothing but he just felt uncomfortable as he felt that something foreign entered his body. The feeling persisted for an hour.
The expected pain had not yet come until he heard a loud heartbeat from his chest.
Thump!
It was so loud and very clear to his ears. It was just like a drum being next to his ears. He was so surprised that he opened his subconsciously.
Thump!
However, at the second beat, he felt an extreme pain originating from his chest. His expression scrunched into pain as his body fell to the side. He curled his body while having his hands on his chest area. Tang Shaoyang gritted his teeth hard, holding the pain. No, it was beyond pain as if his heart was being squished.
While Tang Shaoyang was holding the pain, the magic circle below him lost its glow. The Bloodline Inheritance was over, the rest was on Tang Shaoyang's will to complete the remaining process.
Rumru stood up from his spot and approached Tang Shaoyang who suffered extreme pain. It was commendable that he did not let out a scream despite the pain, but if this continued, he might fail. At least, that was what Rumru thought.
"Let it out, child. Scream out your pain, it's not something shameful," Rumru's gentle voice entered Tang Shaoyang's ears.
Tang Shaoyang's face lost its color, it was so pale as sweat flooded out. He moved his eyes toward the old man as he shook his head.
"You know, the scream may help you lessen the pain. Don't be stubborn and scream, no one will know about this since only you and me in this cave, just scream," Rumru shook his head at the stubborn Tang Shaoyang.
However, the Dragon was surprised by Tang Shaoyang's stubbornness. Holding the pain, the man just wriggled around without making any noises. He watched the man being tortured by the pain for twenty-three hours. After twenty-three hours and twenty-seven minutes, Tang Shaoyang stopped moving.