Mission Knight, Part One

Foreword:

No matter how much you scrub with soap, you can't make a black person white.

[Part 1: The Hunter King's Legacy]

The wind and snow grew heavier, and to conserve energy, Meteor simply transformed back into human form.

He disarmed himself, allowing his tense nerves to gradually relax. He carefully pressed the sinus artery in his neck, bringing his blood-bearing body back to the metabolic level of Homo sapiens.

This little lapis lazuli baby couldn't yet fully control his beast transformation.

--Occasionally, when 3301 argues and bickers with his wife over some strange travel plans, he gets so worked up that he loses control of his emotions and suddenly transforms from human form into a giant wolf over two meters tall.

Thick, snow-white wolf fur gradually fell off his back. These hairs, like lumps of mud, slid from his shrunken skin to the floor. His body gradually returned to 192 centimeters tall, leaving a trail of white fur at his feet. His upturned ears and deformed, protruding skull also gradually returned to their original positions.

After the meteor transformed into human form, he was left with only half a pair of pants. He immediately found a mahjong table in a teahouse and a card room, and took a few dust blankets to keep warm. When he had some free time, he hid under the L-shaped counter in the tea room on the second floor and picked up the Berloberg straightening sword blade.

The spirit weapon reshaped the sword, reshaping the damaged edge into a straight blade and making it lighter overall, requiring the user to readjust to the greatsword's balance.

"Berloberg."

The meteor called out to the sword spirit, and in the clear, mirror-like blade, it saw its own golden eyes.

"Although you're not as pretty as you were when you first came out of the factory, Ming Ge shouldn't be angry with me seeing you like this, right?"

[You're asking me? If you ask me, he'd rather see you as you are, completely and fully.]

[After all, a broken sword can be reforged, but the dead have no chance of being brought back to life.]

Relieved to receive the sword spirit's approval, Meteor put the rose ruby pendant back around her neck.

"I'm really scared."

"It feels like I'm not far from death; I've never felt this way before."

"Has my courage diminished since I obtained the blood of the lapis lazuli wolf?"

[Since humans became the dominant species, it's common for many individuals to lose their sense of crisis.]

[But for animals, a single rain shower can often cause them to freeze and die.]

[The lapis lazuli blood merely awakened your sense of crisis; your will to survive has become even stronger.]

"Is this a good thing or a bad thing?" Bu Liuxing turned his sword, and a patch of snow-white hair was reflected in the mirror, almost reaching his shoulders.

[It could save your life, so of course it's a good thing.]

[The sword of a hero is never in his hand, but in his heart.]

[When your mind accepts the help of the leash, you've already articulated this principle yourself.]

True courage is not about being fearless, but about having the unwavering determination to move forward even when faced with things that fill you with fear and unease.

Meteor fell silent for a moment, which was unusual for him; he used to be a talkative kid who never stopped chattering.

"I feel like I'm being controlled by Flash Butterfly."

He fled in a panic, and after defeating the Flash Butterfly, he fought the Wings of Light for several tens of minutes, leaving him no time to think.

Finally having some time to rest, I recalled all the twists and turns I had experienced within the illusionary orb—

--That was a chaotic consciousness pieced together by the people of East Horse Port, and also a part of Jason Megan's spirit.

He only remembered a very familiar spiritual pressure feature that tore apart this powerful and domineering illusion; it was Old Bones helping him.

"How's Old Bones? He helped me out—is he alright, Gloria?"

The Hunter King has vanished forever, his soul scattered.

Meteor exclaimed in surprise, "How could this be?"

[I am a derivative of the Primordial Ancestor of Life, a spirit of nature, and possess a natural aversion to Evil Spirit Body like the Hunter King. I have a keen ability to detect malevolent souls in the environment.]

[In my eyes, the Hunter King has always been watching you; he neither harms you nor intends to help you.]

[Just as he himself said—he was merely the arbitrator in this game, and had no intention of helping either side.]

[In the Church of Dionysus, he followed Jason Megan all the way, and even as Jason was injured by the Flash Butterfly and turned into a grotesque lantern, this Old Bones still showed no intention of helping.]

Bu Liuxing felt resentful. "Why? I still want to take him back to the Nine Realms!"

[So he died completely; the moment Gloria chose to help you, she destroyed his Soul Coffin.]

[As for why he suddenly had a change of heart and decided to switch sides and help you out—it must have stemmed from Jason Megan's determination, which made the Hunter King feel both ashamed and utterly humiliated.]

[This Lapis Lazuli Guards fulfilled his duty admirably; his spiritual pressure resistance was almost zero, leading the Spirit Cloud Squad to confront the flesh golem created by Judas —he knew some enemies were difficult to deal with, so he picked me up.]

[A warrior who has lost his courage cannot wield me, but in Jason's hands I shine brightly.]

[He fought until his strength was exhausted, sent the students away, and finally had to face the psionic bomb, the Celestial Embryo, alone. He was defeated and captured.]

[The Hunter King watched quietly, following behind the Flash Butterfly.]

[--Even if Jason Megan saves you twice with a dog leash, even if it completely drains his mental strength and leaves him brain-dead, he's willing to do it as long as he doesn't become an accomplice to the Flash Butterfly.]

[I can sense that this evil spirit's will is the same as yours, undergoing the same test, and its soul is suffering greatly.]

[He's in the same predicament as Jason Megan, with only a crystal skull remaining, which Gloria uses.]

[If the divine power of [The Power] still works, Gloria, with her abundant elemental essence, can absolutely seize the initiative, always attacking one step ahead and always retreating with ease.]

[In each round, she has enough time to think about how to use the power of the dice, how to manage her advantageous dice resources, and how to deal with the changes in the next round—constrained by the Soul Coffin Life Box, the Old Bones can only pay lip service to "fairness" and continue to serve Gloria.]

[She feigns to tell you how to counter the advantage dice, and it seems you have a slight chance before the second die lands—but as long as [The Power] is still active, you and your teammates will never get to unleash a combined attack.]

[Jason Megan was willing to sacrifice herself, and Old Bones's coffin should have been smashed long ago.]

[The Hunter King helped you push away the illusion orb, hoping his death would be more meaningful. It was a belated sacrifice, but sacrifices often lead to shortcuts.]

"If only I had known it would turn out this way," Meteor murmured.

Berloberg interrupted—

[--I have many human companions, General of Tears.]

People grow old, become weak, and become confused.

[Ming De, so eager and anxious, at the gunsmith's most rational age, extended an olive branch of longevity, hoping this warrior could live for hundreds of years by donating his blood.]

[Because the BOSS had also met many human companions, he gradually became paranoid under the torment of time, reverting back to an unintelligent ape, transforming from a gentle, kind, and compassionate wise king into a cruel, bloodthirsty, and tyrannical ruler.]

How could the Hunter King's life be explained simply by "if only I had known"?

If everything could be known "in advance of time," how could there be so much ignorance and helplessness, so much being misled and bewitched in this chaotic world?

[If you die here, Gloria will win once again.]

[Perhaps this evil spirit, having lost its "human nature and form," will regret its actions in the underworld—because "if only" it had known it would lose, it would have been better to remain a slave.]

No matter how much soap you use, you can't make a Black person white.

[The Hunter King is dead, he died decades ago. What you saw was merely a cowardly phantom, imprisoned by the evil magic of the Immortals.]

[He left you a precious legacy: the Great Rift of All Things, written with painstaking effort during his voyage across the perilous realms of the Nine Realms and along the Shambhala route—your destiny ends here.]

[You, the gunsmith, the nameless warriors, and countless others who will follow will continue to write this story. And before you know it, you've already finished its preface--]

[There are cracks in everything, that's how the light gets in.]

Meteor didn't answer, instead wiping the solidified butter in his bag with his fingers and smearing the grease onto Berloberg's blade.

He applied the same oil to his frostbitten, cracked skin, and tears began to stream down his face without him even realizing it.

" --Berloberg."

"The things you've been talking about."

"I'm so frustrated! I'm going crazy!"

"I also want to bring the Old Bones to the BOSS! He'll be so happy to see this crystal skull!"

"It will definitely try to throw this skull from the reception area to the boardroom counter! And then call someone to retrieve it."

[It's absolutely outrageous that you're telling this hellish joke while crying, General of Tears.]

"Another lonely person will be left here forever!"

Tears streamed down A Xing's face as the Summoning Bell on his belt delivered a message: the leader of Scout Squad Six had died on the northeast side of the market, only 1,300 meters away from Meteor. The message included Gloria's real-time location and warned nearby scout squads to stay away from this high-value target—her vitality was extremely strong, and even explosives would be difficult to kill her.

At that moment, the other five Wings of Light also found the bodies of their companions.

In a scorched, stinking vegetable garden, the frost brought by the ice storm nearly destroyed the corpse completely. He was subjected to a barrage of gunfire from the Spirit Cloud Squad — Daniel and Hao Bro fed the corpse a total of eight explosives and three incendiary bombs to prevent it from reviving.

He was dead beyond dead. The Dragon Cavalry scouts carefully checked the concentration of the Spirit Calamity and the activity of the Vita Imprint, then went into hiding.

"Go protect Gloria." The elder leading the Wings of Light was a local of East Horse Port and a gentry family that supported the Church of Dionysus. In order to obtain the holy blood of Gloria Sebastian, this patriarch contributed both money and effort, supporting eighty percent of the church's daily expenses.

Following the clan chief's orders, a junior member of the clan followed Axue and headed towards the north side of the market without looking back.

After the outsiders left, the white-bearded, Blood-giving Monster hid under the eaves of the teahouse, staring at the charred corpse in the vegetable garden fence.

"My son."

The old man wept uncontrollably, his eyes red and swollen. He grabbed the doorframe, trying to pull his son's body back, but the charred, mangled flesh was frozen to the ground with the frost and snow, stuck to the roots of the green plants in the vegetable garden—he simply couldn't move it.

In a moment of exertion, the elderly father accidentally broke off his son's arm, which startled him at first, and then brought tears to his eyes even more.

How did it come to this?

How did it come to this?

"I'm supposed to be an old man burying his son?"

"My son."

"We finally found the elixir of immortality and the method of cultivating immortality—but in the blink of an eye, you're gone."

"Master," a woman standing beside the clan chief whispered, "There's still a villain in the teahouse who hasn't had a chance to escape. Grand Patriarch Gloria said she wants to trap him; as long as the snow doesn't stop, he won't be able to get out. And there are a few younger ones who attacked the young master—they'll definitely come back, and they'll surely take their revenge."

"You bastard! What are you waiting for? How long are you going to wait?" The clan chief reached out and slapped the woman across the face, leaving a bloody mark.

The old man disregarded everything else, single-mindedly focused on avenging his son. Black energy swirled around him, revealing a soul power identical in origin and form to his descendants—all possessing the heads of grass owls and the bodies of humans—the very essence of Gloria's soul power.

I want him dead right now!

[Part ② - Seeking Death]

Almost simultaneously, Meteor's carrying equipment rang urgently.

"Two high-value targets have entered the teahouse and will reach the second floor in as little as eight seconds, ready to engage the enemy."

The Dragon Cavalry remained by the General of Tears's side, providing early warning of the meteor shower through the coordination of the temporary command post.

The General of Tears, who was organizing his equipment, immediately stood up. The Azure Wolf Blood sensed the increased malevolent spiritual pressure in the environment, and its limbs trembled involuntarily, its hair standing on end.

He was seething with anger, just waiting for the enemy to come after him.

"You shameless scoundrel who has committed countless evil deeds and lost all conscience!"

The clan chief cursed as he climbed the stairs, and when he reached the second floor, he saw the General of Tears guard with a sword.

The Blood-giving Monster, instead of being afraid, intensified its grief over the loss of its son by scrutinizing the spiritual pressure of the General of Tears and Berloberg, and began to hurl insults and curses.

"--Killed my son! Bullied the good and harmed the kind! Committed countless cruel and violent acts!"

"You little thief!"

The local gentry, having read some books, took a few breaths and seemed to realize that his criticisms missed the mark, failed to address the root of the problem, and did not strike at the heart of the matter.

Once Meteor entered a state of combat readiness, he had no other thoughts.

He needed to conserve his energy and maintain a good mental state. The Wild Wolf ACE couldn't break through the hides of these two Wings of Light, so he had to find a way to finish the battle quickly.

But what exactly was the old man saying? I recognized each word individually, but I couldn't understand them when they were put together; it sounded like he was cursing.

After the clan leader finished catching his breath--

--The shooting star echoed that sentiment.

"A rebound!"

Are you serious?!

These four words are reflected in Berloberg's sword.

Meteor spoke very quickly, muttering the Gunsmith's Bible in a low voice.

"Remain calm and composed in the face of adversity."

"Stay calm and wait for him to have his episode."

The clan chief was stunned by the word "rebound" and it took him a long time to recover.

The women who were following the clan chief stood up for themselves and started to scold him.

"You little thief! Your dog's life is surely in my hands!"

Having said that, the old man and the young man urged their spirits to press closer step by step.

The meteor's eyes followed the two solidified black wisps that kept shifting.

--This is also Gloria's Soul Power, possessing the data for [Sing For Me].

The barn owl-like birdmen, one on the left and one on the right, unleashed a flurry of clear sword light with their two pairs of wings, their attacks chaotic and without any strategy. The General of Tears retreated at an extremely fast speed, leaving behind sword marks more than two inches long that cut through the corridor from the second floor to the tea room.

Meteor retreated further, his bare chest pierced by a sword wound that revealed bone, from which blood flowed continuously.

--Even in pain, he remained clear-headed and calm, changing his Pankrasin stance to wield the Berloberg in one hand to meet the enemy, thus slowing his retreat and reducing the area of injury.

In this narrow passage, the two enemies could not approach at the same time. The clan elder, eager for revenge, cried out in a strange voice. He became even more excited when he saw his enemy was injured. He kicked aside the female members and occupied the entrance to the corridor. He drove his spirit to press forward aggressively, and his soul power was like that of a ghostly god demanding death.

"Sigh"

Meteor blew a breath of scalding hot air onto the blade, and the rose-red stone on his chest suddenly burst into flames.

The hand that was loosely gripping the sword pommel and the heavy hammer suddenly exerted force. The instant he was freed from the situation of fighting two opponents, the white-haired fierce god suddenly sprang up, leaping a full six meters like a hungry wolf pouncing on its prey!

He practically plunged into the barnyard spirit's array of feathered blades, his body immediately covered in wounds, with radiating bloodstains everywhere. His deltoid and latissimus dorsi muscles were badly injured, a half-foot-long slit was cut into his forearm humerus, and his left pinky finger was severed!

Having only made a simple estimate of the spirit's killing efficiency, the meteor executed the killing procedure without holding back!

The rapidly approaching Berloberg caught the chieftain's eye; the blade swiftly adjusted its movement in mid-air, transforming from a sideways, half-concealed grip into a leaping slash—

--It's like it flew in.

"Pfft!"

The woman had just been kicked by the master, and when she looked up again, her indestructible, blood-soaked body had turned into two halves of flesh emitting pink steam! She had been cut in two!

"Ha!--"

She gasped, then saw the swordsman kick aside the corpse, draw his Berloberg, and lock onto his next target with a fierce look. In that instant, her fighting spirit completely collapsed, and she could barely maintain her soul power.

Meteor didn't rush to attack. Instead, he quickly took out medicine from his bag and injected himself. His severed little finger grew back and hooked tightly onto the hilt of the sword. Only when he had a firm grip on Berloberg did he feel at ease.

The broken muscles in his spine snapped shut again, and the bloodstains obstructing his vision were wiped away by his eyelashes after a few blinks. Once he stood still, he was finally convinced—the will to survive bestowed by the blood of the Azure Gold made him terrifyingly strong.

Seeing that the woman was about to invoke the power of her spirit, he activated his owl spirit form, which, along with her physical body, propelled her into the air, allowing them to escape.

--Berloberg gently bounced up, and Meteor changed his spear-throwing gesture.

Before the ogre could fly even half a meter, the spiked greatsword it had been thrown pierced the wall, and it struggled desperately, howling in agony.

She frantically tried to break free from the scorching sword blade and scrambled a few steps towards the window. The white-haired monster grabbed her hair and pulled her back, first breaking her neck with a punch, then tearing off her arm, breaking the arm bone and shoving it into her throat. Finally, she couldn't even scream anymore and could only lie weakly and powerless on the spot.

"Don't move!"

Meteor retrieved Berloberg from the wall.

"Yes! Don't move! If the blade misses, it'll damage my precious sword!"

Wings of Light wept bitterly, his upper body and spine snapped and broken by the terrifying werewolf, his knees shattered, leaving him like a pile of fleshy pulp. His head was tilted back, exposing his throat and neck, helplessly watching the old man's body, torn in two but not stiff enough to die. Gloria's dice seemed unable to stop this ferocious god.

No. It seems to have some effect, but it's not very useful anymore.

This guy's moves are all deadly; if he loses even one bet, he's completely finished!

The sword light was magnificent, like the blazing sun.

The flames consumed the White Lady larvae inside her belly, and not a drop of blood was shed.

Yes--

They're dead.