The Ring

"Is this a mutual destruction?"

Not far away, Leian watched the blood scattered across the battlefield. His expression was complex—a mix of surprise, confusion, and, above all, disbelief.

"When the snipe and the clam grapple, the fisherman profits? Can I really encounter such a stroke of luck?"

To be safe, Leian waited a while longer. Only when he was certain that Elvis was no longer moving did he cautiously walk toward the battlefield.

The closer he got, the stronger the stench of blood became. Fortunately, back when he helped Laman escort goods, he had clashed with bandits and killed men, so he felt no discomfort at the sight of the severed limbs and corpses.

When he reached Cal, he stopped. His gaze swept over the few corpses before finally settling on Elvis, who lay not far away.

The five men from Laman's side had either been decapitated or had their throats slit; they were dead beyond any doubt.

Elvis, however, remained intact. He was lying face down on the ground, and one could still see the dark dragon scales on half of his cheek.

Furthermore, a pair of ferocious dragon claws were also quite conspicuous.

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

The Thorny-backed Armored Dragon was the smallest yet most terrifying of the ninth-rank dragon species. It was a dark-attribute magical beast, possessing the strongest defense and the greatest agility among dragons of the same rank.

In Leian's view, the dark dragon scales on Elvis's cheek were extremely similar in shape to those of a Thorny-backed Armored Dragon.

Moreover, those black, thorn-like claws were practically a miniature version of a Thorny-backed Armored Dragon's talons.

Leian still couldn't quite believe it, so he examined them carefully for a few more moments, only then becoming fully certain that he hadn't misjudged.

If it were any other magical beast, Leian wouldn't have been so sure, but he knew he couldn't possibly mistake a Thorny-backed Armored Dragon. This was the dragon species whose bloodline Linley had awakened. Back when he was viewing the magical beast compendium in Laman's study, he had paid special attention to the Thorny-backed Armored Dragon, so its appearance was deeply etched in his memory.

However, the degree of Elvis's dragon transformation was far inferior to Linley's. Not only did he lack a dragon tail, but he also lacked the spikes on his back, presumably meaning he hadn't gained much in terms of defense or agility.

Of course, being able to undergo a preliminary dragon transformation meant his physique must have surpassed that of an ordinary human. Thinking of this, a sliver of doubt couldn't help but arise in Leian's mind:

Is this Elvis really dead?

As soon as this thought surfaced, Leian became alert. A glance out of the corner of his eye caught a broken sword near his feet. He flicked his toe, and the broken sword sprang up with a metallic clang, which he caught between his fingers.

Then, with a flick of his wrist and the addition of his immense strength, the broken sword flew like a throwing knife, slicing through the air with a whoosh straight toward Elvis's forehead.

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

He rolled to the side to dodge the blade, then suddenly lifted his head to look at Leian, propping himself up with his war blade as he slowly stood to his feet.

"What a cautious fellow!"

Elvis praised him unhurriedly. His state was nothing like the crumbling mess he had appeared to be just a moment ago. His gaze moved past Leian's masked face and swept quickly over the greatsword on his back, his expression turning surprised:

"So it was you!"

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

Leian, the newly emerged "genius," was naturally in his sights.

Upon realizing that the person hiding was Leian, Elvis actually felt relieved. In his current state, while it would be a struggle to deal with a sixth-rank warrior, the young Leian surely lacked combat experience, and he was confident he could finish him off.

With his identity exposed, Leian was slightly stunned, but he immediately realized the flaw in his cover.

When he decided to tail Laman tonight, he had guessed he might get drawn into a fight, so he had subconsciously brought both his swords along. He hadn't expected that the unique, massive size of the weapon would directly give him away.

However, it didn't matter anymore. Just by looking at Elvis's act of playing dead, he knew the man had discovered him long ago and was just waiting for him to come over to loot the bodies so he could land a lethal blow.

Leian wasn't afraid, though he felt a bit depressed. His pride and joy, the realm of perfect control, along with his ability to suppress his aura, had failed to work on Elvis.

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

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

Elvis replied with a cold sneer. He wouldn't tell Leian that his five senses had been enhanced by the dragon transformation, and the darkness of the night allowed his Dark Battle Qi to exert its maximum power.

During the previous fight, Leian had let his aura slip for a split second. It just so happened that Elvis was observing his surroundings at that moment, checking for other ambushes, and he had caught that very flaw.

Not getting an answer, Leian felt a bit disappointed. Hearing Elvis's reply, he asked in a flat tone:

"It seems that even if I turn and leave now, you aren't willing to let me go?"

"What do you think?"

Elvis chuckled softly. "You've learned the secrets of my Cleo Family and still want to leave alive? How naive!"

"Die!"

Before the words had even faded, Elvis had already transformed into a black shadow, lunging forward at high speed.

Leian raised an eyebrow, thinking to himself that he indeed still had some strength left.

With a thought, he drew his black longsword like lightning. As Elvis slashed a blade toward his face, Leian pivoted on his toes. The moment he dodged the blade, he lightly swept his longsword, slicing across Elvis's throat with a speed that caught him completely off guard.

Elvis's movements stalled instantly. His eyes widened, his face filled with utter disbelief:

"Eighth-rank... warrior? No... impossible!"

Pfft!

As blood sprayed, Elvis collapsed heavily to the ground.

Leian sheathed his sword with a backhand motion, turned around, and looked down at Elvis's corpse, saying softly:

"You're wrong, it's a seventh-rank warrior. But I'm more generous than you, so I can tell you the reason: my physical strength has already reached the limit of a normal human. A sixth-rank body combined with Battle Qi is indeed enough to slightly rival an eighth-rank warrior."

Although Leian had obtained a battle-qi cultivation technique, he had not abandoned the training of his physical body; the pressure of practicing swordsmanship underwater, combined with the nourishment of battle-qi, had allowed him to push his physical body to the limit of the sixth rank a year ago.

With strength comparable to an eighth-rank warrior, killing a severely injured Elvis was far too simple!

After dealing with Elvis, Leian knew this place was not a good spot to linger, so he hurriedly began to loot the bodies.

From Laman to Benson, and then to Cal and the other five, he did not find anything of value, which was not surprising; after all, they were out on a murderous errand, so it was unlikely they would carry any precious items on them.

However, each of Elvis's eight guards had a small pouch containing varying amounts of gold coins, which added up to at least over three hundred in total.

Next was the parcel Elvis had thrown aside. After Leian opened it, he found that the value was indeed substantial; besides three sets of jewelry, two fourth-rank magic cores, and one sixth-rank magic core, there was also a thick stack of gold notes.

These gold notes were made from a special paper created by alchemists invited by the three major empires of the Youquan Continent.

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

Leian picked up the gold notes and took a rough look, finding no ten-thousand-denomination notes, but there were about a dozen one-thousand-denomination notes and twenty to thirty one-hundred-denomination notes.

The jewelry, magic cores, and gold notes, when converted, totaled nearly twenty thousand gold coins, which was just about the value of a single healing magic scroll.

It seems reasonable and logical, but this amount doesn't quite match the Cleo Family, does it?

Leian pondered to himself, sensing that there was something fishy about it. If one didn't know Elvis's true strength, a declining town lord would indeed have roughly this much net worth.

But in his prime, Elvis was an eighth-rank warrior. Even without his dragon transformation, he should have been at the seventh-rank level. While it would be difficult for this level of strength to hunt seventh-rank magical beasts, what if his father were included?

Elvis possessed a secret technique for dragon transformation; could his father do the same?

Therefore, was his father really just a seventh-rank warrior?

Even if he were, two seventh-rank warriors with a group of guards would have at least a fifty percent chance of hunting a seventh-rank magical beast.

A seventh-rank magic core was worth at least fifty thousand gold coins. As long as this father-son duo managed to obtain one, plus other low-to-mid-rank magic cores, their family fortune would absolutely not be this meager.

Thinking of this, Leian decisively stood up and walked over to Elvis, searching him carefully. When his gaze swept over an inconspicuous black ring on Elvis's left middle finger, his eyes suddenly lit up.

Without a second thought, he slid the black ring off, then pricked his finger and dripped a drop of blood onto it.

Watching the blood being absorbed at a speed visible to the naked eye, even with Leian's calm temperament, he couldn't help but feel excited.

At that moment, a vast circular space appeared in his consciousness.

It really was a spatial ring!

Leian couldn't help but grin. With a swift glance, he saw three huge wooden chests stored within the ring's space.

Knowing full well that the wealth of the Cleo Family was now in his hands, Leian didn't rush to examine them. He packed up all the spoils and headed toward Qingshi Town at the fastest speed of his life.

As for the corpses of Laman and the others, he didn't know fire-attribute magic and couldn't dispose of them easily, and burying them would look too deliberate, so it was better to just leave them be.

After all, from beginning to end, he had only struck one sword blow; based on that alone, no one would ever trace this back to him.

--

PS: I originally wanted to write about magic crystal cards, but while writing, I had a sudden impulse to flip through the original work and discovered that magic crystal cards were actually invented hundreds of years before Linley was born. There was no choice but to use the gold note setting instead.