Chapter 12
The lid of the black snuff bottle opened on its own, and a strange black smoke came out of it. The black smoke quickly rose and condensed into a distorted human figure, like a scream in an abstract painting.
“What sorcery… is this?” Rock Bear Knight was extremely shocked. He smashed his heavy hammer at the distorted figure.
Wild Boar Knight watched quietly with a smug look in his eyes.
The heavy hammer passed through the distorted black smoke and finally smashed into the ground, causing the ground to crack.
Frost Wolf Knight also slashed with his sword, but it also pierced through the body of the black smoke. He finally woke up and cried out, “Big guy, this is an evil spirit. Damn it, our attacks are ineffective against the evil spirit! Run! We must report this matter…”
Before the Frost Wolf Knight could finish his words, two streams of black smoke came out of the distorted human figure and entered the nostrils of the Frost Wolf Knight and the Rock Bear Knight.
In an instant, the two knights were rooted to the spot, unable to move.
The Rock Bear Knight’s arm glowed with a black light. He used the power of black gas. Immediately, a terrifying and strange howl sounded from the Rock Bear Knight’s body.
It seemed like two forces were fighting in his body, but in the end, the Rock Bear Knight’s face lost its luster, and the black gas on his arm began to dissipate.
Although the black gas had the power to resist this black smoke, it was obviously limited to this.
The situation of the Frost Wolf Knight was the same. It could not continue after resisting for a moment.
In the end, the two knights fell to the ground. Their eyes were wide open, and their expressions were distorted as if they had seen something extremely terrifying.
It was as if their essence, qi, and spirit were instantly sucked out. Wisps of white gas surged into the snuff bottle’s evil spirit, causing it to solidify.
These two knights looked no different from ordinary people, but they had no aura. They were already dead.
“Burp.”
The snuff bottle’s evil spirit seemed to have eaten its fill. It burped and entered the black snuff bottle, leaving behind a sentence that echoed in the meeting hall. “I am very satisfied with this deal. According to the [Principle of Equal Exchange], as a gift, I will help your Wilderness Brotherhood once. In the next transaction, you need to offer three knights.”
The evil spirit actually spoke.
The Wild Boar Knight quickly lowered his head and said respectfully to the snuff bottle, “Yes, Lord Lamp Spirit.”
After doing all this, they looked at the corpse on the ground.
“Just like we discussed at the beginning,” the Wild Boar Knight said coldly, “when the three of you were participating in the Aristocratic Dance Ball, you were attacked by the legendary evil spirit. Rock Bear Knight and Frost Wolf Knight were unfortunately killed. You were lucky enough to escape because you were devoutly wearing the Badge of Holy Light of the Heavenly Father.”
“But will the people of the kingdom and the church believe it? Murdering other nobles is a serious crime.” Silver Fox Knight asked. He was clearly not confident.
“Don’t worry. Whether they believe it or not, no one will pursue you. Instead, they might use this opportunity to spread the news and make their lord appear even more omnipotent. Moreover, the Millennium Holy War has exhausted the kingdom and the church. The lords below have long been restless. I think the king will not care much about the death of these two barons. Instead, he will secretly heave a sigh of relief.” Wild Boar Knight sneered.
“In addition, it is an indisputable fact that the two of them were attacked by evil spirits. You didn’t lie about this. Otherwise, there is no way to explain the fact that the two of them were completely unscathed and died without being poisoned. However, they would never have thought that this evil spirit was controlled by someone. You have to believe that in this world, only our Wilderness Brotherhood has the ability to control this legendary terrifying evil spirit.”
“Pleasure working with you. We’ve completed the task successfully. The only fly in the ointment is that the Serpent Vulture Knight didn’t come.”
“Here’s 1000 gold coins. I hope our cooperation will become more and more pleasant in the future.”
“Chaos will eventually descend. May the Lord of the Wilderness bless you…”
After the Wild Boar Knight finished speaking, he threw down a big bag of gold coins and turned around to leave.
Only the Silver Fox Knight was left with an uncertain expression. In the end, he sighed and picked up the bag of gold coins on the ground.
For a small territory like the Silver Moon Territory, 1,000 gold coins were almost ten years of financial income.
In this world, the purchasing power of gold coins was very strong. For Silver Fox Knight, who urgently needed to expand his military equipment, this was a huge sum of money. It meant dozens of sets of excellent knight armor.
For this huge sum of money, even if he had to risk the church discovering the truth, he had to do it.
“That evil spirit is too terrifying. The two official knights couldn’t fight back at all. However, the black gas seems to be able to resist the evil spirit, but the effect is very weak. Or rather, the quality and quantity of the black gas of the Rock Bear Knight and the Frost Wolf Knight are not enough.”
The Silver Fox Knight had a lingering fear. Whether it was that strange invisible attack or that illusory body that could be immune to attacks, it made the evil spirit invincible against the knight.
“The Wilderness Brotherhood has mastered the power of the evil spirit. Now, it’s the kingdom and the church’s turn to be in trouble.”
The real “winter” was about to arrive. No one could stay out of it. The only thing the Silver Fox Knight could do was to become as strong as possible before winter arrived.
…
A few days later, through some traveling merchants in the territory, Levi learned that the Rock Bear Knight and Frost Wolf Knight had encountered a legendary evil spirit and died suddenly.
Levi couldn’t help but break out in cold sweat.
“Fortunately, I didn’t go. Regardless of whether the rumors about this evil spirit are true or not, Silver Fox Knight definitely didn’t have good intentions when he invited me back then.” Levi muttered to himself.
He was skeptical about the rumors of the evil spirit attack. He had encountered an evil spirit before and knew that the evil spirit was not just a legendary thing. However, this evil spirit killed the Rock Bear Knight and the Frost Wolf Knight, and only the host Silver Fox Knight was fine. This was a little strange.
However, this was not something Levi should worry about.
“Even knights are no match for evil spirits. What kind of existence are these things? I have to put the search for clues to the wizards on the agenda. I have to use magic to deal with magic.”
…
Spring had passed, and the summer of the Month of Flowing Fire had arrived.
After more than a month, the Church of Holy Light’s investigation results on the deaths of the Rock Bear Knight and the Frost Wolf Knight was finally out.
The final result of the investigation was that they had died from an attack by an evil spirit.
For a time, the entire country was in a state of panic.
All along, everyone had thought that evil spirits were just ancient legends.
It was a lie that adults used to scare naughty children who couldn’t sleep.
And now, its existence was confirmed by the world’s most authoritative organization, the church!
In response, the pope of the Church of Holy Light warmly reminded the nobles and civilians that if they wore the church’s Badge of Holy Light, it had the effect of exorcising evil spirits. It was precisely because of this that Silver Fox Knight was protected from the attacks of the evil spirit.
For a time, the memorial badges that were originally only worth one gold coin issued by the church on the occasion of the millennium had been hyped up to a ridiculous price of 100 gold coins per badge.
From the nobles to the rich merchants, they would not feel at ease without wearing a Badge of Holy Light when they went out.
After all, evil spirits were just legends in the past. But now, evil spirits really existed.
Even the high and mighty knights were so fragile in front of the evil spirit.
Of course, all of this had nothing to do with the peaceful Black Water Valley.