Terrifyingly Strong

Terrifyingly Strong

"Assassins."

Ryan of the Frozen Earth Territory received the news alongside reports of the Flying Wolf Cavalry's rout and over fifteen hundred casualties in the Dragonblood Warrior Legion.

Count Winter's Flying Wolf Cavalry had been reduced to fewer than two thousand survivors. If they had not been able to fly, and if those knights had not reacted in time, the casualties would have been even worse.

As for the Dragonblood Warrior Legion, its poor mobility had resulted in even greater losses.

More than half of the Black Goat Orc Warriors legion had also died, but the remaining three to four thousand Orc Warriors were still enough to strike fear into the nobles of Northwind Province.

He narrowed his eyes as he read the letter's description of the assassins.

They were blue-furred catfolk who could wield rapiers like humans, hide within shadows, and strike without fail.

"So I've finally found you."

Ryan had not forgotten that the original owner of this body had been killed by assassins.

"Catfolk are weak. Anyone among the orcs can bully them, yet they possess such powerful extraordinary strength. Who could it be?"

Ryan first ruled out the catfolk themselves, as well as Count Winter and Count Soron.

Both counts' Extraordinary Legions had suffered devastating losses. How could this possibly have been a show they staged themselves?

It could not have been the orcs either. If those orcs had such brains, they could have been self-sufficient in the Northlands. Why would they need to invade the South?

Among the remaining possibilities, the nobles of the empire's South were also unlikely. It would have been impossible to send so many assassins into Northwind Province without any news leaking out. That left only the nobles within Northwind Province itself.

"Count Love Weiss is the most likely suspect. The other viscounts... Viscount Miles is probably not involved. If he had such an assassin force, Viscount Dragoon would have died long ago."

"There aren't many answers left."

Ryan considered the answer from the standpoint of being opposed to all the nobles. In the end, his suspicions still landed on Count Weiss.

That count was the most suspicious.

"If it really is Count Weiss, then he may also have an Extraordinary Legion under his command."

Looking at the situation across the entire Northlands Province, Ryan knew that many people in Northwind Province would likely not survive this winter.

But even Ryan had not expected the first one unable to endure it would be Viscount Miles.

After fighting the Extraordinary Legions of the two counts to a draw in Golden Wheat County, the Black Goat Orc Warriors legion had actually led tens of thousands of Black Goat Orcs into Zero Crossing Prefecture.

It had to be said that the Miles Family truly deserved its status as a noble house passed down for centuries. They still had plenty of reserves. At the crucial moment, they brought out more than a dozen Spell Scrolls, inflicting over a thousand casualties on the Black Goat Orc Warriors army.

Viscount Miles was actually a Great Mage, only one step away from becoming a Magus.

This revelation stunned many people in Northwind Province. Viscount Dragoon in particular was immensely relieved that the old bastard was nearing his end.

In the subsequent attacks, the Black Goat Orcs ravaged more than half of Zero Crossing Prefecture, and over half its nobles suffered severe casualties.

Fortunately, Zero Crossing City was not breached, so the nobles themselves were not in much danger. It became the only prefecture in Northwind Province where not a single noble had died.

By then, the orcs' rampage was still ongoing. After their Extraordinary Legions suffered devastating losses, Count Winter and Count Soron had already withdrawn them to their own Earldoms, completely unwilling to come out and deal with the Black Goat Orc Warriors legion again.

However, due to Viscount Miles, this extraordinary orc army had also suffered heavily. The remaining Black Goat Orc army no longer targeted cities, instead scattering to plunder the castles and estates of lesser nobles.

Speaking of which, Ryan had something to do with why Zero Crossing Prefecture came under siege from the Black Goat Orc army.

Confident in their own intelligence, the Black Goat Orcs had dispatched scouts southward to determine which noble possessed the most food.

And at that very time, Ryan had sold that information to Viscount Miles.

As a result, Viscount Miles and the merchant guilds following his lead began buying up food in bulk, piling all the surplus grain into Zero Crossing City in preparation to make a fortune from the war. Naturally, this could not be hidden from the Black Goat Orc scouts who had specifically come searching.

Thus came the Black Goat Orc tribe's attack on Zero Crossing City.

In short, Northwind Province's united defensive line had become a joke. Everyone was fighting on their own, organized by prefecture.

Then, half a month later, news arrived that another prefectural city had been breached by the orcs. This time, there was no Flying Wolf Cavalry to evacuate anyone. Several dozen nobles in the city, including Viscount Skinner, were completely wiped out.

As soon as the news spread, every noble in Northwind Province was unable to sit still.

Leaving aside the fact that so many noble deaths meant mutual ruin, they simply could not explain it to the empire.

Count Winter's Flying Wolf Cavalry and Count Soron's Dragonblood Warrior Legion gathered once again and began hunting down the Black Goat Orc Warriors legion. Yet the ones truly fighting those Orc Warriors were still ordinary cavalry.

Only cavalry could keep up with the Black Goat Orcs. The Flying Wolf Cavalry's endurance was too poor; by the time they reached the battlefield, the fighting was already well into its later stages.

Fortunately, after more than twenty days of pursuit, most of the remaining two thousand-plus Black Goat Orc Warriors had been killed or wounded. Of the nearly one hundred thousand Black Goat Orcs throughout Northwind Province, at least half had died.

The other orcs suffered even worse losses, but population was a burden to orc tribes in the first place. They had come south to seize food and reduce their numbers.

The continually devastated lands of Northwind Province finally welcomed February of the following year.

The orcs gradually began retreating, while the human lords began their counterattack, hunting down the orcs.

It was not because of rage or honor, but because the orcs had carried away too much wealth that should have belonged to them on their way back to the Northlands. They wanted to take back their wealth.

During the pursuit of the orcs, Ryan's Frozen Earth Territory finally had a chance to participate.

But unlike the other nobles, who were hunting the orcs down, he was intercepting them.

"Absolutely do not allow a single threatening orc to enter my territory. Brandt, gather the troops. Find every orc in the mountains. Kill all who resist, and make those captured into slaves!"

Ryan rode his warhorse across the plains beneath Rhino Horn Mountain. As the temperature rose, the snow here was gradually melting. At last, he could see a hint of life's color within his territory.

With nearly a hundred soldiers and seven to eight hundred serfs, Ryan's force of a thousand men began sweeping through the surrounding mountains.

They also mapped the routes in every direction along the way.

The fiercer and more brutal the orcs had been when invading south, the more cowardly and fragile they now became with full bellies and food in hand. Faced with the human encirclement, they did not think of fighting to the death, only of fleeing and hiding.

While this left Ryan speechless, it also allowed him to keep picking up easy gains. The number of orc slaves in the Frozen Earth Territory gradually rose from three to four hundred, to eight to nine hundred, then to over a thousand.

Another half month passed. By the time most of the snow across Northwind Province had melted, Ryan found it difficult to spot any orcs returning to the Northlands around the Frozen Earth Territory.

By then, the number of orc slaves under his command had already exceeded two thousand.

So many orcs had made the people of the Frozen Earth Territory anxious, leaving Ryan with no time to visit the Other Plane.

Thinking that food could not be wasted, Ryan waved his hand and directly handed the previously surveyed route to those orc slaves.

"Send them to open the road. Remember to pile the excavated soil somewhere. Since we can't find suitable farmland, then we'll create farmland ourselves!"

"Don't be polite with those orcs. Work them to death."

Orcs ate more than humans to begin with. Ryan did not dare imagine whether his granaries could last even a month if none of these orcs died.

Thinking of the granaries, Ryan could not help but feel gratified as his gaze fell upon the tall silos beneath Rhino Horn Mountain.

He really had to thank the orcs for returning through his side. Not only had he gained over two thousand orc slaves, he had also acquired more than twenty thousand Gold Coins, over two hundred thousand jin of grain, and wealth in the form of various handicrafts, gemstones, and other luxuries.

In an instant, Lord Ryan's purse was full again.

As he rode through his territory on patrol, Ryan was actually waiting.

He wanted to see whether the assassins who had tried to kill him before would come to assassinate him again because their mission had failed.

That was why no one was by his side now. Even Brandt was not accompanying him.

Because Ryan had discovered that he was now terrifyingly strong.

The hand holding the reins tightened slightly, and the warhorse beneath him could not help trembling for a moment, even though it had endured this terrifying aura many times over the past few days.

Ryan exhaled scorching breath through his nostrils. Even leather would soften upon touching it, while dry firewood placed before him could even be ignited directly.

Ryan had tested it. With one hand, he could easily lift a millstone over his head without feeling any strain.

The reason for all this was rather miraculous: the Clayton Family's Blaze Dragon Knight Breathing Technique that he cultivated had broken through to the level of a Formal Knight.

It was strange. His physique had clearly long since reached the level of a Formal Knight, yet he had somehow achieved a second breakthrough.

It was as though the physique enhancement granted by Deer Spirit's Blessing on his Spirituality Panel, along with the Deer Spirit Knight Breathing Technique he could also cultivate, had no overlap whatsoever with the Blaze Dragon Knight Breathing Technique. He could even cultivate both Breathing Techniques at the same time.

But after experimenting for several days, Ryan discovered something different.

His body might have instinctively been cultivating the Blaze Dragon Knight Breathing Technique all along, while the auxiliary effects granted by the Spirituality Panel allowed him to cultivate a second Breathing Technique.

The two methods did not conflict at all. It was only because Ryan's physique had already reached the level of a Formal Knight that this Breathing Technique breakthrough brought little additional enhancement to his physique.

Most of the enhancement instead came on the level of the soul, brought about by the Blaze Dragon Knight Breathing Technique.

After breaking through, Ryan felt like a giant beast at the top of the food chain. Anyone facing him would feel fear rise from the depths of their heart.

In battle, this influence could greatly reduce the strength an enemy could display, allowing him to win easily.

In short, aside from Brandt, the five or six knights in the territory combined were no match for Ryan.