WTYTIAAN Chapter 229

Yan Yunqing followed the faint scent of blood, discovering it emanated from the small cabin they were temporarily residing in.

Alarmed, Yan Yunqing quickly approached the cabin and noticed a magic array set up, its arrangement strikingly familiar, resembling Merlin’s style.

This discovery halted Yan Yunqing’s movements, involuntarily calming him down.

Merlin and Isabel had returned?

Could the scent of blood be something they brought back? Were they injured?

Could they have encountered an enemy even they found troublesome?

Before Yan Yunqing could sort things out, the magic array was temporarily deactivated, and the door opened. Alice peeked out, and upon seeing the little black cat, she quickly opened the door a bit wider, making room and gesturing for Yan Yunqing to come in.

Seeing Alice’s expression devoid of any panic, Yan Yunqing felt half of his worries subside.

He squeezed past Alice, entering the room and immediately being assaulted by the strong smell of blood. Yan Yunqing frowned instantly, focusing to realize that the source of the bloody scent wasn’t Merlin or Isabel, but someone Yan Yunqing recognized.

Bishop Lowell.

At that moment, Lowell was covered in blood and filth, his messy beard stuck together in clumps, looking disheveled as he lay prostrate on the ground. His face was pale, and his eyes were tightly shut, looking like he had lost too much blood and fallen unconscious, utterly pathetic.

Merlin and Isabel stood to the side, similarly showing signs of a struggle, disheveled as if they hadn’t had time to tidy up.

“What’s going on?” Yan Yunqing’s gaze swept over the pathetic Lowell on the ground, then settled on Merlin and Isabel, waiting for an explanation.

To his surprise, both wore solemn and grim expressions, and for a moment, no one spoke.

Yan Yunqing: ?

Had they really encountered a formidable enemy?

Originally relieved by the fact that those around him were unharmed, Yan Yunqing involuntarily tensed up again.

Merlin glanced at him, and finally addressed the others present, “I need to talk to Nolan alone about something. Please leave for a moment.”

Berloth and Diviak were the first to look at Yan Yunqing, and after receiving an affirmative nod, they nodded back and left the room. Alice glanced at Yan Yunqing with some concern before taking her godmother, Cornelia, and leaving as well.

Just when Yan Yunqing thought Merlin was about to speak, Isabel also walked out, her face as cold as frost, the soles of her boots seeming to make loud thuds against the earthen floor.

Finally, the long silence ended with the creak of the wooden door closing.

Yan Yunqing glanced at Lowell, still unconscious on the ground, and deactivated his disguise, reverting to his human form. He could sense Merlin’s seriousness at the moment, and naturally wouldn’t use his cat form to listen.

“Speak, what exactly happened?” Yan Yunqing found a chair and sat across from Merlin.

Merlin looked at Yan Yunqing, his gaze then falling on the unconscious Lowell on the ground. He sighed first, “Isabel was a bit harsh just now, don’t mind it.”

Yan Yunqing waved his hand, “Am I such a petty person? So what exactly happened? Isabel’s emotions are off.”

“Amos… has been found.”

Yan Yunqing was taken aback, quickly searching his memory for the name Amos.

“Is that… Isabel’s little dragon Cub?”

He first heard the name Amos back in Mandipelle, when Diviak infiltrated Mandipelle to participate in the Midas Touch competition, specifically to examine the Chi bone sword made from dragon bones, to determine if it was made from Amos’s dragon bones.

Amos was the only cub born to the brilliant dragon clan in the past two decades, and Isabel had taken him by her side and raised him since he was very young. It could be said that Isabel raised him single-handedly.

But Amos suddenly disappeared four years ago, and the entire Dragon Valley failed to find any trace of Amos. Isabel began to investigate as a result, discovering that many dragons had mysteriously disappeared in the past hundred years. Only after obtaining information about the Eternal God Cult from Yan Yunqing did she gradually uncover some clues.

The disappearances of those dragons were closely related to the Eternal God Cult, and Amos’s disappearance was also very likely the work of the Eternal God Cult.

Only then did Isabel and Merlin begin a full-scale siege against the Eternal God Cult.

“Yes.” Merlin nodded, his voice also a bit obscure, “Amos… is dead. Your judgment was correct. There is indeed an Eternal God Cult altar nearby, and a large one at that. There is a blood pool among them, about a hundred feet long, and Amos was hung on it.”

Hung?

This particular descriptor caught Yan Yunqing’s attention, and he frowned, “You mean… Keane?”

Merlin nodded heavily, “Yes, using the Lock Soul Chain. Amos was… tortured to death. After death, his soul was imprisoned by an alchemical formation. Using Amos’s soul as nourishment, burning the blood pool to provide it with energy. When we found him, Amos’s wraith was almost… about to burn out.”

Yan Yunqing was momentarily speechless. Although he had been mentally prepared for Amos’s death when he heard that Amos had disappeared and was related to the Eternal God Cult, he still felt chills down his spine upon hearing Amos’s experience.

“That alchemical formation?”

“Although I haven’t seen it before, many details are similar to Keane’s previous formations. I think the person who can arrange this formation is either very familiar with Keane’s previous formations… or Keane has been resurrected.”

Merlin gave a wry smile. He found it incredible to say this, after all, he also participated in the battle to kill Keane, and he witnessed Keane’s death with his own eyes. Even his soul was swallowed by the flames because of the backlash. Under such circumstances, there was no chance to even become a wraith, so how could he be resurrected?

If Keane hadn’t been resurrected, then a genius alchemist comparable to Keane had reappeared in this world – no, a genius wraith alchemist was more accurate.

This possibility was truly hair-raising.

Amos’s experience also made Merlin feel complicated. Amos was raised by Isabel from a young age, and Merlin had hardly left Isabel’s side in recent years, so Merlin was also watching Amos grow up.

A junior he had watched grow up since childhood was tortured to death and his soul was imprisoned so that he could not be reborn, and the person who imprisoned him extracted the last drop of his value. No one would feel good in their heart if they encountered this kind of thing.

“So that child, did you rescue him?” Yan Yunqing asked.

Merlin shook his head again, “Amos’s soul is already very weak. The formation has been in place for too long, and Amos’s soul is almost… about to merge with the formation. If we forcefully destroy the formation, Amos… will basically disappear as well.”

There is a theory of reincarnation in this world, and the disappearance of the soul is almost the so-called “soul shattering,” even losing the opportunity for reincarnation.

They had finally found the person they had been thinking about, only to find that the child had been severely hurt by others in a place they couldn’t see, and after finding him, they were unable to save him.

Yan Yunqing put himself in Isabel’s mood at the moment and thought it was perfectly normal for Isabel to look like she was about to kill someone now.

If it were him, he would also go crazy.

Yan Yunqing was silent for a moment, and then saw the bishop on the ground, “So this bishop is related to that altar?”

The bishop’s bloody appearance clearly indicated that he had been beaten up. Yan Yunqing was still surprised at how he had been beaten into a state of barely breathing, but now he was even more surprised at how he had survived – with Isabel’s current mood, she should have wanted to turn everyone related to the Eternal God Cult into ashes, how could she possibly leave the other party alive?

Merlin’s expression became even more complicated, and after a pause, he said, “That’s why I wanted to talk to you alone.”

“This guy… claims to be the Demon King’s most loyal supporter.”

Yan Yunqing: ?

Yan Yunqing frowned, a large bucket of dirty water was poured over his head.

“Tell me the details.”

Yan Yunqing knew that Merlin wouldn’t joke about such things, but he couldn’t understand how this person could be associated with the Demon King.

It couldn’t be that every bad thing could say that it was related to the Demon King, right? The Demon King was just a bit ruthless in killing gods, but he had never attacked innocent people!

“Lowell, formerly known as Cocker Bartley, was originally from Romunike. When he was a child, his parents were killed on the street by a noble’s guards for blocking their path, and he became an orphan.”

“Later, he was taken away by a mysterious man who sent him to this village and made him pretend to be an abandoned orphan, adopted by a couple in the mountain village. From time to time, he would secretly come over to teach him some knowledge while hiding from the villagers.”

Yan Yunqing understood, so the identity of this mysterious man was very important, and he had some guesses: “Is it someone from the Eternal God Cult?”

But Merlin said: “Perhaps, but the other party always claimed to be the Demon King’s family member… Lowell didn’t describe the mysterious man much, because the other party always covered himself very tightly when he came, there was only one characteristic that he accidentally discovered – the mysterious man’s hair was platinum blonde.”

Yan Yunqing was stunned for a moment, seeming to understand Merlin’s implication, and suddenly stood up, “Impossible.”

“It can’t be him, Merlin, you know, it can’t be him.”

Merlin reassuringly placed his hand on Yan Yunqing’s shoulder, pressing him back into the chair, “I know, I also think it’s impossible, I’m just telling you what Lowell said, platinum blonde hair is too common, it can’t refer to anyone, of course, this feature may also be Lowell deceiving us.”

Yan Yunqing looked up at Merlin, “…is that so?”

Merlin, the greatest magician in Ermann’s history, could he not even use a magic to identify lies well?

This was obviously impossible, since Merlin told him this, it meant that Merlin had indeed identified that Lowell was telling the truth.

Platinum blonde hair, a member of the Demon King’s family.

There were a total of two people who fit these two descriptions, one was the Elf King Sylph, who had chosen to return to the Mother Tree hundreds of years ago, and the other was the Archangel Theodore, who had taken the Angel race to the Floating Island to avoid the world after the fall of the Eternal Empire.

Sylph had already returned to the Mother Tree, and there was no news of the Elf King being reborn in the Elf race, so the only one who could meet these two conditions and was still able to act was the Archangel Theodore, who was far away on the Floating Island.

But how was this possible?

Yan Yunqing had thought that Theodore might kill him, but he hadn’t thought that Theodore might be related to the Eternal God Cult.

Theodore… as the often metaphorical holy Angel race, he had many of the stereotypes that people had about angels: holy, kind, upright… and so on.

The reason why Theodore betrayed the God of Light and chose to join the Demon King was because the God of Light and his followers were one of the main leaders of the God War and one of the culprits for most of the creatures on earth falling into endless war and disaster.

(The God War was initially started by the God of Darkness, but the God of Light had always been dominant in the later stages and had actively launched too many wars.)

The Angel race was the most powerful alien race under the God of Light at that time and fought at the forefront for the God of Light. However, the Angel race did not like war, and finally, after the death of the previous Archangel, Theodore took over as the Archangel, and he rebelled with the Angel race.

Although he was still constantly fighting after joining the Demon King’s camp, the core purpose had changed, from fighting with the gods at the beginning to seize territory and divinity, to fighting with the gods to protect the creatures on earth.

Therefore, Yan Yunqing had thought that Theodore might have the idea of killing him because of his departure. After all, he had betrayed the God of Light who created the Angel race in the first place, and it was reasonable for him to choose to kill him because of his breach of promise, but he hadn’t thought that Theodore would turn around and persecute the creatures on earth.

Yan Yunqing calmed down and thought: “Then what? Lowell only said platinum blonde hair and that the other party claimed to be a member of the Demon King’s family, these two points can’t explain anything, but you are implying to me that this person is very likely to be Theodore – don’t rush to deny it.”

Seeing that Merlin was about to say something, Yan Yunqing preemptively interrupted him, “I know you’re going to say that you didn’t mean to imply anything, but these statements of yours are already leading me to think about Theodore. This isn’t your usual style, so is there something else that makes you unconsciously lean your guess towards this person being Theodore?”

Merlin was rational. He could achieve the title of the greatest magician, so he was definitely not someone who acted on impulse. Based solely on random guesses, he would not show this tendency so obviously. Obviously, something had influenced him, and with the death of Amos stimulating him, he was unable to be so rational and objective for a while. When he repeated Lowell’s words to him, he unconsciously brought in his subjective judgment.

Merlin was stunned for a moment, then gave a wry smile, “You can’t hide it from you.”

“Before, you also asked what the expressions of your family members were when you disappeared, do you remember?” Merlin said softly, “We all believed that you didn’t die and wouldn’t disappear for no reason, so at the beginning, everyone was looking for you.”

“This search lasted for more than a hundred years. During this period, many things happened, and there were also some internal turmoil in the major alien races. We were looking for you while dealing with these things.”

“However, aimless searching was too difficult. More than five hundred years passed in an instant. During this period, people kept giving up. At the beginning, it was the Merman race. This is also normal. Siren had already fallen at the time of the establishment of the Eternal Empire, and what remained was just a branch of the Merman race with the name of Siren’s descendants. They didn’t have much affection for you, the Demon King, in the first place.”

“After the Merman race announced their return to the sea, more alien races chose to give up. In fact, the Eternal Empire had begun to slowly disintegrate at that time, so that’s why the Eternal Empire was destroyed by these two forces not long after the emergence of Romunike and Bato Vita.”

“When the hearts are scattered, it is naturally impossible to be as brilliant as it once was.” Merlin shook his head, “At that time, we all knew that the destruction of the Eternal Empire was inevitable, and we were all preparing for the destruction of the Eternal Empire, only Theodore was different…”

“He firmly believed that the Eternal Empire was your hard work, and only when the Eternal Empire was still there could you have a chance to return.”

“He led the Angel race and a small number of soldiers to resist to the death, resolutely not letting the Eternal Empire be destroyed.”

Before Yan Yunqing’s eyes, it seemed that with Merlin’s description, the scene of the destruction of the Eternal Empire more than a thousand years ago emerged. Even though he was not a participant, he had read enough historical records in the Sigrit Academy, so he could imagine the scene at that time.

That was an extremely painful past.

“The combat power of the Angel race is very strong, I must admit this.” Merlin sighed softly, “He actually relied on that point of his race and soldiers to hold the Eternal Imperial Capital, and held it for a full three years.”

“However, even if the Angel race’s combat power is strong, the small number is an indisputable fact. He can lead the Angel race to hold the Eternal Imperial Capital, but he can’t hold the vast Eternal Empire.”

Because of the Eternal Empire’s constant conquests in the past, the territory after the founding of the country was extremely vast, even larger than the current Romunike and Bato Vita combined.

When Merlin said this, Yan Yunqing had already thought of the reason for Theodore’s final choice to surrender, which he had deduced from the historical records he had read before.

… Because the armies of Romunike and Bato Vita were massacring the citizens of the Eternal Empire, Theodore could not protect those people. His manpower was only enough to hold one imperial capital, and he could not take care of the people outside.

If he surrendered, these citizens of the Eternal Empire might have a difficult time, but they would still have a chance to survive. After all, the Eternal Empire had been destroyed in name, and they, these people, did not necessarily have to bear the name of the citizens of the Eternal Empire and be persecuted.

Yan Yunqing lowered his eyes, “So you’re telling me this, what do you want to express? This can only further prove that Theodore is impossible to be involved with the Eternal God Cult.”

After all, Theodore had given up the country he had been protecting for the lives of those ordinary people, so how could he turn around and persecute ordinary people?

But Merlin said: “Theodore only cares about you.”

Yan Yunqing: …

Yan Yunqing’s thinking paused for a moment, and he didn’t know what kind of nonsense Merlin was talking about. He had a feeling of being inexplicably defamed.

“What?”

Merlin: “Haven’t you noticed? Theodore wants to protect the Eternal Empire for you. Theodore gave up continuing to resist for you – because you care about those ordinary people, Nolan, from the moment the Demon King declared war on the gods, everyone knew this.”

“Theodore chose to let go precisely because he knew that you didn’t want to see those people die.”

Yan Yunqing opened his mouth, but he didn’t know how to argue.

Damn it, is this what it feels like to be defamed? It’s simply impossible to defend myself!

He thought for a long time and could only take a different approach: “Theodore also cared about the lives of ordinary people… Wasn’t he also defecting from the God of Light because the God of Light was causing wars everywhere and harming living beings?”

Merlin shook his head: “Isn’t the Demon King’s war also a war? Theodore didn’t kill a few people at that time – even if those were believers of the gods, they still couldn’t change the fact that they were ordinary people.”

What Merlin didn’t say was that the one who really didn’t like war should be like him, never participated in a war from beginning to end, and either muddied the waters with the logistics troops every day or simply found a place far away from the battlefield to hide, such as him, such as Torin (the leader of the Dwarf race).

Theodore was a battle maniac, how could he be someone who didn’t like fighting? Like Diviak, they were both guys who only grew muscles and didn’t grow brains… Oh no, Theodore has a brain, and his brain is full of muscles and vying for favor is only Diviak, this idiot.

Merlin continued: “Moreover, when the magical creatures appeared, Theodore rushed into the magical creature’s nest xue and fought for ten days and ten nights – just to find your clues, and he even broke three wings for this… Uh, did I mention this to you? It seems not.”

Yan Yunqing looked pale, he really knew about this, but not from Merlin’s mouth, but from Lillian’s small mouth.

Seeing Yan Yunqing’s expression, Merlin realized: “It seems you already know about this.”

“So you should also know the extent of Theodore’s concern for you.”

Yan Yunqing rubbed his eyebrows, “Okay, these can indeed explain that Theodore cares more about his king, but this has nothing to do with the mysterious person you mentioned, right?”

Merlin’s expression suddenly became serious, and he opened his mouth very solemnly, telling Yan Yunqing an extremely incredible guess.

“Isabel and I deduced from the things Lowell revealed the approximate purpose of the Eternal God Cult collecting the ‘talents’ of believers through sacrificial means.”

“They want to use this as a sacrifice to awaken… or rather, resurrect the Eternal Lord.”

Yan Yunqing: …???

Yan Yunqing was stunned, “What did you say?”

He twitched the corners of his mouth, feeling that what Merlin said was too magical, “I don’t quite understand, what do you mean?”

“Lowell revealed that the mysterious person told him that the Eternal Lord has not fallen, but is sleeping. What they are doing is to send power to the Eternal Lord and awaken him. Only when the Eternal Lord wakes up can they rebuild the Eternal Empire like the Garden of Eden.”

At that time, Lowell’s performance was like that of a crazy believer who had been brainwashed, roaring that he would dedicate everything to the Eternal Lord, and that the world should be turned upside down. The establishment of the two great empires was a mistake, and only the Eternal Empire under the leadership of the Eternal Lord was correct, and as beautiful as the Garden of Eden in heaven.

Yan Yunqing was dumbfounded.

“The blood burning in that blood pool is the blood of the believers collected by those underground altars of the Eternal God Cult hidden in the crowd. There is a very hidden one-way transmission receiving magic formation inside, probably the same as the formations of those underground altars, but the formation function has been split into two parts. I didn’t notice it before.”

The ordinary underground altars are responsible for transmitting the believers’ blood out, and this blood pool formation is responsible for receiving it.