Ring

"Did they perish together?"

Not far away, Leian looked at the battlefield strewn with blood. His expression was incredibly complex—surprise, confusion, but above all, disbelief.

"The snipe and the clam fought, and the fisherman reaped the reward? I actually ran into something this good?"

To be safe, Leian waited a while longer. Only after confirming that Elvis had stopped moving did he cautiously make his way toward the battlefield.

The closer he got, the stronger the stench of blood became. Fortunately, he had fought bandits and killed people before while escorting goods for Laman, so the severed limbs and mangled corpses before him did not make him uncomfortable.

When he reached Carl's side, he stopped. His gaze swept over the corpses before finally landing on Elvis in the distance.

Of Laman's five people, some had been beheaded, while others had had their throats slit. They were dead beyond doubt.

Elvis, on the other hand, still had an intact body. He was lying facedown, his head turned to one side, revealing dark dragon scales covering half his cheek.

A pair of savage dragon claws was also exceptionally conspicuous.

"This is... a Thorny-backed Armored Dragon?"

The Thorny-backed Armored Dragon was the smallest, yet most terrifying, of the ninth-rank dragon clans. A darkness-aspected magical beast, it possessed the strongest defense and greatest agility among dragons of the same rank.

The dark dragon scales on Elvis's cheek looked extremely similar in shape to those of a Thorny-backed Armored Dragon.

Moreover, those black, spike-like claws were practically a miniature pair of Thorny-backed Armored Dragon claws.

Even so, Leian still could not quite believe it. He scrutinized them a few more times before finally confirming that he had not mistaken them.

If it had been another magical beast, Leian would not have been so certain. But he was sure he could never mistake a Thorny-backed Armored Dragon, because it was the dragon clan whose bloodline Linley had awakened. When Leian had studied the magical beast atlas in Laman's study, he had paid particular attention to Thorny-backed Armored Dragons, so their appearance was etched most deeply into his memory.

However, Elvis's degree of dragon transformation was far inferior to Linley's. Not only did he lack a dragon tail, he did not even have the spikes along his back. Presumably, he had not gained much enhancement in either defense or agility.

Of course, being able to partially transform into a dragon meant his physique had to surpass that of an ordinary human. At that thought, a trace of suspicion arose in Leian's heart:

Was Elvis really dead?

The instant that thought surfaced, Leian became alert. With a sweep of his peripheral vision, he spotted a broken sword by his feet. He tapped it with his toe, and with a clang, the broken blade sprang into the air and was caught between his fingers.

Then, with a flick of his hand, empowered by immense strength, the broken sword shot through the air like a flying knife, whistling toward Elvis's forehead.

The next instant, just as the broken sword was about to strike, Elvis—who had been lying motionless like a corpse—actually came back to life.

He rolled aside, dodging the broken sword, then abruptly raised his head to look at Leian. Supporting himself with his war blade, he slowly stood up.

"What a cautious fellow!"

Elvis praised him unhurriedly. He looked nothing like the tottering wreck he had been moments before. His gaze passed over Leian's black-cloth-covered face, rapidly sweeping over the greatsword on his back, and his expression turned astonished.

"So it was you!"

Since Elvis knew that Laman of the neighboring territory harbored ill intentions toward his family, how could he not keep an eye on the notable figures in that territory?

Leian, the newly risen "genius," was naturally among them.

After realizing that the hidden person was Leian, Elvis actually relaxed. Given his current state, dealing with even a sixth-rank warrior would be difficult. But young Leian surely lacked much experience in life-and-death combat. Elvis was confident he could kill him.

With his identity exposed, Leian froze slightly, but immediately realized the flaw in his disguise.

When he had decided to follow Laman tonight, he had guessed that he might very well be drawn into a battle. Thus, he had instinctively brought both of his swords with him. He had not expected this unusually large sword to directly expose his identity.

Still, it did not matter. Elvis's act of playing dead showed that he had discovered Leian long ago and had merely been waiting for him to approach the corpses, planning to strike him hard while he searched them.

Leian was not afraid of that. He was simply somewhat frustrated. His perfect mastery and ability to conceal his aura had actually proved useless against Elvis.

Thinking of this, he asked curiously, "I thought I was hiding quite well. How did you discover me?"

"Why would a dead man need to know so much?"

Elvis replied with a cold laugh. He would not tell Leian that his dragon transformation had also enhanced his five senses. Combined with the night, it allowed his Dark Battle Qi to exert its greatest power.

During the earlier fight, Leian's aura had wavered for an instant. At that exact time, Elvis had been watching the surroundings for other possible ambushers, and he had caught that tiny opening.

Having received no answer, Leian was somewhat disappointed. Then, hearing Elvis's response, he asked in an even tone:

"So even if I turn around and leave now, you still won't let me go?"

"What do you think?"

Elvis smiled faintly. "You know the secret of my Cleo Family and still want to leave alive? How naive!"

"Die!"

Before his words had even faded, Elvis turned into a dark blur and pounced at him with extreme speed.

Leian raised an eyebrow. So he really had some strength left.

With that thought, he drew his black longsword like lightning. As Elvis slashed his blade toward Leian's face, Leian suddenly pivoted on his toes. The instant he dodged the blade, his longsword gave a light sweep and sliced across Elvis's neck at a speed far beyond Elvis's expectations.

Elvis's movements instantly froze. His eyes abruptly widened, his face filled with disbelief.

"An eighth-rank... warrior? No... impossible!"

Pfft!

Blood sprayed everywhere as Elvis crashed heavily to the ground.

Leian sheathed his longsword with a backhand motion, turned around, and looked down at Elvis's corpse. He said softly:

"You were wrong. I'm a seventh-rank warrior. But I'm more generous than you, so I can tell you why. My physical strength has already reached the limit of ordinary humans. A sixth-rank body combined with Battle Qi can indeed barely rival an eighth-rank warrior."

Although he had acquired a Battle Qi cultivation method, Leian had not abandoned training his body. The pressure of practicing swordsmanship underwater, along with the nourishment of Battle Qi, had allowed him to train his body to the limit of the sixth rank a year ago.

With strength comparable to an eighth-rank warrior, killing a severely wounded Elvis had been far too easy.

Having dealt with Elvis, Leian knew this was no place to linger and quickly began searching the corpses.

From Laman to Benson, then Carl and the other five, he found nothing of much value. That was not strange. They had come out to kill people, so naturally they would not carry precious items on them.

Elvis's eight guards, however, each carried a small pouch containing varying amounts of gold coins. Altogether, there were at least more than three hundred.

Then there was the bundle Elvis had thrown away. After opening it, Leian found that it was indeed quite valuable. Aside from three sets of jewelry, two fourth-rank magical crystal cores, and one sixth-rank magical crystal core, there was also a thick stack of gold notes.

These gold notes were made from special paper created when the gold banks of the three great empires of the Youquan Continent jointly invited alchemists to develop it.

This paper was tough, wear-resistant, and difficult to destroy. The gold notes made from it were roughly the size of an adult's palm and came in denominations of one hundred, one thousand, and ten thousand.

Leian casually examined the notes and found no ten-thousand-denomination bills. There were around a dozen thousand-denomination notes and twenty to thirty hundred-denomination ones.

The jewelry, magical crystal cores, and gold notes together were worth nearly twenty thousand gold coins, which happened to be about the value of a healing magic scroll.

"It seems reasonable, but doesn't this amount seem a little inconsistent with the Cleo Family?"

Leian pondered silently and felt there was something suspicious about it. If he had not known Elvis's strength, then the assets of a declining small-town lord would indeed be roughly this much.

But at his peak, Elvis had been an eighth-rank warrior. Even without dragon transformation, he should previously have been around the seventh rank. Hunting seventh-rank magical beasts would be difficult at that level, but what if he teamed up with his father?

Elvis possessed a secret method for dragon transformation. Could his father do the same?

So, was his father really only a seventh-rank warrior?

Even if he was, two seventh-rank warriors leading a group of guards would already have a fifty-percent chance of hunting a seventh-rank magical beast.

And a seventh-rank magical crystal core was worth at least fifty thousand gold coins. If father and son obtained even one, along with other low- and mid-rank magical crystal cores, they absolutely would not have such a meager fortune.

At that thought, Leian decisively rose and walked over to Elvis, searching him carefully. When his gaze landed on the inconspicuous black ring on Elvis's left middle finger, his eyes immediately lit up.

Without another word, he slid the black ring off, cut his finger, and let a drop of blood fall onto it.

Watching the blood be absorbed at a visible rate, even the composed Leian could not help feeling excited.

At that moment, a massive circular space appeared within his consciousness.

It really was an Interspatial Ring!

Leian could not help grinning. With a quick glance, he saw three huge wooden chests stored within the ring's space.

Knowing that the Cleo Family's wealth was already in his hands, Leian did not rush to inspect it. He swiftly packed away all the spoils and raced toward Qingshi Town faster than he ever had in his life.

As for the corpses of Laman and the others, he did not know fire magic, so they would be difficult to dispose of. Burying them would also look deliberate. It was better to leave them as they were.

After all, from beginning to end, he had only struck one blow. Based on that alone, no one would trace it back to him.

PS: I originally wanted to write magical crystal cards, but while writing, I suddenly felt compelled to check the original work and discovered that magical crystal cards had apparently been invented several hundred years before Linley was born. I had no choice but to use gold notes instead.