Penny (1)026 Penny (2)027 Penny (3)

Green walked back indoors and glanced at the wall clock. The time was still a bit early, and he guessed Old One-Eye had not opened his doors yet.

Regarding this batch of enchanted rifles, Green felt a great deal of anticipation. Having evolved into Gun Skeleton Soldiers, their combat power reached [6.3], which was roughly the strength of an intermediate apprentice knight. With such strength in the Kingdom Knights Order, they would undoubtedly be elite soldiers. If they ground out some seniority, they could even be promoted to officers.

At that moment, a knock suddenly sounded.

Green asked who it was, but without waiting for him to open the door, it was pushed open from the outside. Vincent strode in boldly, accompanied by a young woman dressed in a fitted set of leather armor.

Green glanced at Vincent and let his eyes fall upon the youthful and beautiful young woman, immediately recognizing that she was the very person who had ridden in on horseback just moments earlier.

"Penny? Why are you back!" Green looked somewhat surprised at the graceful young woman standing beside Vincent, a host of memories instantly surfacing in his mind.

The young woman was named Penny Wilson, the daughter of Vincent's uncle. Having lost her parents, she lived as a dependent in the castle. Her status was somewhat similar to Green's former self, but Penny's father was Viscount Paul's own younger brother, and their relationship seemed quite good. This caused Viscount Paul to daze and pamper her greatly, making her status in the castle rise along with the tide.

Because the two of them had similar circumstances at the beginning, Green and Penny had built a good friendship, right up until the year before when Penny received Viscount Paul's recommendation to head to the Faerun City Knight Academy.

"Green, that's wonderful! I didn't think you actually became a mage!" Upon seeing Green, Penny immediately beamed with smiles. She stepped forward and gave Green's shoulder a very bold pat, yet because of her pretty features, she feigned an imposing and seasoned air that left people somewhat amused and exasperated.

"Why are you back? The knight academy shouldn't have started its spring break yet," Green asked. He felt no aversion toward this beautiful young woman; from the moment he saw her, there was a sense of closeness born from the depths of his heart.

"I asked for leave to come back. I heard Lillisa was almost kidnapped, and this time I'm back to smoke out the people who kidnapped Lillisa, and to let those rats in the gutters know that the Wilson Family is not to be trifled with!" Penny cried out with righteous indignation, murder flashing in her eyes. Clearly, after two years of training, she was no longer a little girl, and her strength as an intermediate apprentice knight filled her with confidence.

Green sank his face. He certainly did not believe an intermediate apprentice knight could upend a cult organization like the Tower of Yin Spirits, but he knew Penny's personality. Trying to dissuade her would definitely fail, so he could only nod and say, "Then be careful. If you discover anything, don't act rashly; notify me or Vincent immediately."

"Rest assured, I haven't been eating for free at the knight academy these past two years." With that, she also cast a defiant, warning glance at Vincent.

Following that, the three of them went inside, sat down, and chatted about past events, then discussed the matter of Lillisa being kidnapped as well as the Tower of Yin Spirits, which had suddenly concealed its traces.

Vowing with solemn oaths, Penny waved her small fist, determined to drag all those madmen of the Tower of Yin Spirits out into the open...

Half an hour later, after seeing Vincent and Penny off, Green took a carriage to Old One-Eye's shop.

As for Penny chasing down the tracks of the Tower of Yin Spirits, Green held no hope for it whatsoever. The Tower of Yin Spirits was deeply rooted, and as a cult organization that had existed for many years, it was by no means something a wet-behind-the-ears young girl could shake. As for Penny's safety, there was no need to worry too much; an intermediate apprentice knight was already not weak. As long as she was a bit quick-witted, she would always have a chance to slip away.

"Hahaha! Brother Green, you've finally come!" Seeing Green push open the door and walk in, Old One-Eye immediately laughed heartily and went to greet him. To be honest, Green not coming to pick up the goods yesterday had truly made him somewhat worried. Those thirty enchanted rifles had come straight out of the Kingdom Equipment Bureau; leaving aside the price of the guns themselves, the upper and lower bribes alone had cost a huge sum of money. Furthermore, Old One-Eye had even promised a big shot in the Equipment Bureau that this time was merely testing the waters, and that there would be even larger orders to follow. If Green didn't want them anymore, although the deposit would offset it and he wouldn't lose much money—even having some left over—he would lose face with the big shot over at the Kingdom Equipment Bureau, leaving the impression that he was unreliable, which would make doing business even harder.

Fortunately, the thing Old One-Eye worried about did not happen. Merely a single day later, Green had called in person. The two exchanged a few pleasantries and immediately headed to the basement to inspect those firearms. After confirming everything was correct, Green paid the remaining balance in full, and from that moment on, those thirty enchanted rifles belonged to Green.

Beaming from ear to ear, Old One-Eye counted a stack of gold pound banknotes and shoved them into his pocket, not forgetting to sing his own praises: "My good brother, the batch of guns I got you was pulled straight out of the warehouse of the Kingdom Equipment Bureau. You've really picked up a huge bargain this time. If your old brother didn't have connections, this price would only buy you some discarded junk."

Green also nodded repeatedly, extremely satisfied with the quality of those thirty enchanted rifles. Right after that, a thought stirred in his mind and he directly cast a spell silently, casting Soul Summoning five times in a row. Right before Old One-Eye's eyes, he summoned fifteen skeleton soldiers. Methodically, they pried open the boxes containing the rifles, discarded the short swords and shields in their hands, and each picked up an enchanted rifle with both hands.

Silent spellcasting and summoning three skeleton soldiers at a time with Soul Summoning were Green's latest advancements in magical research.

As a necromancer, summoning undead creatures was the primary combat method, so summoning undead creatures quickly and covertly was the most paramount issue. Furthermore, after practicing the Meditation Method, Green's mental power had increased rapidly, enabling him to control magic power more flexibly, which allowed him to use Soul Summoning in a more versatile and varied manner. Of course, this was not his original invention; to a true necromancer, silent casting and multiple summonings were both basic techniques. Necromancers at the archmage level could even summon thousands upon thousands of undead armies in a single Soul Summoning.

Yet this display of magic by Green truly shocked Old One-Eye.

Originally, Old One-Eye thought Green was merely a newly initiated magic apprentice and hadn't taken Green to heart. Even when Green purchased weapons, he had taken Viscount Paul to be the true buyer behind the scenes, with Green amounting to nothing more than a figurehead pushed out by the Wilson Family to handle the specific operations. Yet he never expected Green's strength to be so terrifying. Based on his understanding of necromancers, many advanced necromancer apprentices could not achieve silent casting and multiple summonings as effortlessly as Green did.

What surprised Old One-Eye even more was that after more than ten thick-boned skeleton soldiers picked up the rifles and bullets, Green immediately used Soul Summoning in reverse, sending those skeleton soldiers away again. In the blink of an eye, even those enchanted rifles had actually vanished entirely right before his eyes.

Old One-Eye sucked in a cold breath of air, startled: "You've sent all the guns into the Netherworld!" Then his expression changed drastically, and the look he cast at Green held a few more shades of awe.

Clearly, in Old One-Eye's estimation, Green sending the enchanted rifles he had bought with heavy coin into the Netherworld certainly wasn't done carelessly. Then there was only one possibility: those skeleton soldiers from just now were all bound undead creatures, rather than being casually summoned out, and the next time Green used Soul Summoning, these skeleton soldiers would bring those enchanted rifles back. This method of cargo transport was extremely popular among necromancers who possessed fixed bound undead creatures, but for someone like Green, who was merely a magic apprentice, to have so many bound undead creatures was truly uncommon.

Old One-Eye arbitrarily concluded that a powerful necromancer was hidden behind Green. The strength of this person was hard to estimate, but in short, they were extremely powerful and were acting in secret as Green's teacher. Otherwise, how could one explain Green suddenly becoming a necromancer while also having so many bound undead creatures? This was simply not something a newly initiated rogue mage could possess.

Old One-Eye fancied that he had seen through Green's background, and could not help revealing a strange smile.

And Green had deliberately displayed this trick precisely to deter Old One-Eye, preventing this old, crafty merchant and those parasites hidden within the kingdom's government from harboring any crooked thoughts toward him. As for what Old One-Eye thought, he didn't care at all; in matters like this, imagination was key. Old One-Eye and others would help him automatically fill in a great deal of information. Moreover, in the end, they would never guess that there was no high-level expert behind Green at all, and those skeleton soldiers weren't just simple transport tools—those enchanted rifles were meant to arm those skeleton soldiers.

After completing the transaction, Green and Old One-Eye agreed to conduct the next transaction in three months: one hundred and fifty enchanted rifles plus an old-style enchanted cannon.

Because items were being smuggled out privately from the Equipment Bureau's warehouse, even the big shot behind Old One-Eye could not be too unbridled, so after completing this transaction, they had to drag things out for a period of time to make up for the shortfall and balance the books. Moreover, to Green's surprise, the other party's appetite was enormous. Not only did they dare sell firearms, but they actually even dared to touch an enchanted cannon. However, this enchanted cannon was not the newest model, but rather secondhand goods from seven or eight years ago, though it was quite well-maintained. If not for under-the-table manipulation, it could have served for at least another ten years.

However, Green was not confident whether the skeleton soldiers could operate a cannon. Although his eyes were turning red with envy at the enchanted cannon's power, he only agreed to buy one to try it out. Yet the price of this single cannon alone was equivalent to the cost of twenty of the newest enchanted rifles.

On the return journey, Green sat inside the carriage, but his thoughts had long since plunged deep into the graveyard.

In the desolate graveyard, all seventeen skeleton soldiers had already changed their equipment, and the graveyard had recognized their upgrade into Gun Skeleton Soldiers. The brand-new enchanted rifles were now covered in a layer of rust, and their appearances had undergone some changes. Even if Old One-Eye stood right here now, he would not be able to tell that these firearms were the ones he had just sold to Green. Although they had become old and worn, shells were loaded in the chambers and sharp bayonets were fitted to the muzzles, making these skeleton soldiers appear all the more murderous.

Green admired them with deep satisfaction, while secretly pondering whether he should take the initiative to look for Lola. The other party had promised to investigate the secret stronghold of the Tower of Yin Spirits, but had never sent a reply; she must have encountered trouble. He wasn't worried about Lola's safety; Lola was a lone wolf and a woman who had managed to hustle in the half-black, half-white adventurer industry for so many years—she definitely possessed her own means of self-preservation, and even if an accident occurred, she could retreat completely unscathed.

Yet Green had long since viewed the Tower of Yin Spirits as a mandatory dungeon to farm. That represented massive amounts of psychic energy. If it dragged on for too long, he feared complications would arise from delays and someone else would seize the chance first. Judging from the rumors he had recently heard, it seemed many big shots in Landon City were pitching tents and bracing themselves to deal with the Tower of Yin Spirits.

Right at that moment, the carriage suddenly braked. Leaning forward, Green immediately snapped back to his senses, frowned, and asked the driver, "What's going on?"

Yet before the driver could answer, the wooden door of the carriage was slapped with loud "smack, smack" sounds, and someone anxiously cried out, "Lord Green, is that you? It's bad, Miss Penny is in trouble!"

Recognizing the voice as belonging to a female steward of Wilson Castle whose status was second only to Steward Laurence, Green immediately opened the carriage door.

A middle-aged female steward dressed in a well-fitted women's suit stood before the door. Just moments ago, she had spotted the family crest on the carriage and recognized it as the one Green was riding in, which was why she had rushed forward to stop the vehicle. Now, however, she was breathing heavily and looked extremely flustered.

"What's going on? What happened to Penny?" Green asked with a frown, quite curious as to what kind of trouble Penny could have gotten into the moment she returned, causing this usually poised female steward to become as anxious as this.

"Lord Green, it was Miss Penny who discovered people from the Tower of Yin Spirits and told me to go home and report it while she tracked after them." The female steward suppressed her breathing and rapidly recounted, "I couldn't stop her, so I had to head home first, and I happened to run into your lordship's carriage..."

Hearing this, Green's frown deepened even further. He hadn't expected that while many people in Landon City couldn't find them, the moment Penny this silly girl returned, she actually discovered people from the Tower of Yin Spirits. Should he say she had good luck, or that disaster was hanging over her head?

However, Green did not dare to take this matter lightly. For one thing, his impression of Penny was quite good; for another, this was also an opportunity to track down the Tower of Yin Spirits. He immediately asked for directions, told the female steward to return by carriage, and then pursued the trail in that direction himself.

Holding his magic staff, Green ran along the bearing described by the female steward, and soon arrived at Novatz Street in the Lower District.

Novatz Street was a notorious slum in Landon City with a very complicated population; pickpockets, swindlers, robbers, gang members, and ruffians were plentiful. Charging forward all the way, Green arrived in Novatz only to find no trace of Penny. He was just about to find a local patrol officer to ask if there was any situation when suddenly, with a loud bang, a sound resembling an explosion came from a residence beside Novatz Street.

Green heightened his vigilance; he recognized that as the sound produced by the collision of knightly battle qi.

"They've already started fighting." Immediately following the sound, Green rushed over and arrived in front of an old, three-story brick-and-wood building.

The wall of a room on the second floor of this building had been directly smashed through by the aftermath of colliding battle qi, alarming many residents within the building who had run out one after another, discussing it downstairs. However, Penny was not at the scene.

Rushing forward a few steps, Green charged into the building and arrived at the second-floor scene to inspect the traces of the fight.

"This battle qi containing fire attributes should be Penny's. The opponent is also an apprentice knight with ice-attribute battle qi, but their strength is weaker..." Through the traces left at the scene and the aura of the battle qi, Green made a preliminary judgment of what had just happened. It should have been Penny who had the upper hand. After exchanging a combat skill, there was blood on the ground; she should have injured the other party and was now pursuing them.

So-called combat skills were a knight's powered-up attacks, and were not particularly profound ultimate moves. Although their power was not weak, they had quite a few limitations; when encountering an experienced enemy, it was hard to have enough opportunity to accumulate battle qi. Therefore, most of the time, high-tier knight battles rarely featured combat skills, whereas battles between wet-behind-the-ears apprentice knights frequently saw situations of trading blows with combat skills.

Green unleashed Death Spirit Sight, finding the direction where the battle qi had lingered, which unexpectedly led toward the Upper District.

"Hm? They actually went to the Upper District, where patrols are stricter." Green silently mused: If the person Penny encountered really is from the Tower of Yin Spirits, and yet fled toward the Upper District after being injured, could there be someone in the Upper District—where the wealthy and nobles live—giving them cover? That's hardly surprising; without an inside man, the Tower of Yin Spirits couldn't possibly hide so perfectly. I just wonder who it is that actually dares to harbor the Tower of Yin Spirits.

While thinking, Green continued tracking, and soon left Novatz Street to enter the Upper District.

In the southeast corner of the Upper District, there was a large tract of wasteland. This area originally belonged to a wealthy merchant who had prepared to build a luxury residence, but for some unknown reason had suddenly moved away from Landon City, leaving behind several thousand square meters of land and a half-built, abandoned skeleton building. Because the property rights still belonged to that wealthy merchant, the Landon City government had no right to interfere either, and could only watch as the abandoned courtyard grew over with weeds, becoming an incurable patch of ringworm in the Upper District.

According to the traces left behind by the battle qi, Penny had finally entered this abandoned courtyard...

Meanwhile, Wilson Castle had been thoroughly alarmed by the female steward who brought back the news. Viscount Paul directly invited Doctor Wilkins out, and together with Vincent, they led six apprentice knights raised by the family as they charged out of the castle on horseback. As for Viscount Paul, he boarded a carriage and immediately headed to the municipal hall to ask the mayor to send reinforcements. Landon City's local Anomalies Bureau, coupled with the personnel dispatched down by the Northwest Province headquarters, should be sufficient to deal with the turtle-shelling Tower of Yin Spirits.

Green did not yet know that Landon City's entire apparatus of violence was already in motion. He vaulted straight over the wall into the abandoned courtyard, and at the same time cast Soul Summoning to summon three skeleton soldiers from the graveyard realm, along with two ghouls, hiding them stealthily among the weeds to stand guard.

Holding his magic staff, Green stepped over the lush weeds one step at a time while looking all around. Soon he made a discovery: right near the unfinished building in the courtyard, clear residual battle qi had appeared once again, leaving behind quite a bit of blood.

"A battle broke out just recently, and an earth-attribute battle qi has been added to the mix. It looks like that girl Penny is in trouble." Green judged that reinforcements had appeared for the opponent; fighting one against two, Penny was likely going to suffer.

Heightening his vigilance even further, Green summoned yet another group of skeleton soldiers, which formed a front-and-rear formation with the previous three skeleton soldiers to guard him in the middle.

Because it was still daytime, it didn't feel particularly gloomy even in the abandoned skeleton building. Sunlight shone through the windows onto the mottled concrete walls, and a good deal of garbage had accumulated indoors. It seemed that after this place was abandoned, quite a few vagrants had come here, but by now they had all vanished without a trace. It was estimated that most of them had been used by the Tower of Yin Spirits as sacrifices to evil gods; anyway, even if those dirty, humble vagrants went missing, no one would care.

The second floor of the unfinished building was a large hall.

Just as he walked up the stairs following the blood and the aura of residual battle qi, Green saw a tall, thin man in a black windbreaker and a bleeding, corpulent old man cornering Penny—who had dropped her knight sword and was clutching her left shoulder—forcing her into a corner. The two men wore sinister grins that carried a hint of lasciviousness.

Penny bit her lower lip, a trace of despair showing in her eyes. Her practical combat experience was still too lacking, and she had been somewhat reckless and overzealous. If she hadn't chased them all the way here, even if she encountered a pincer attack from the two of them, she could have thought of a way to maneuver and find an opportunity to escape. But now that she was blocked right here, breaking out was simply too difficult.

Yet at that very moment, Penny's eyes lit up as she caught sight of Green walking up the stairs.

However, she wasn't foolish; seeing that Green didn't shout out, she even forced herself to mask her expression of excitement and agitation. But those two tall and fat fellows were seasoned old hands with rich experience and extreme vigilance. Even if they hadn't caught any clues from Penny's expression, they quickly spotted Green, who hadn't bothered to conceal his tracks.

"Who goes there!" The tall, thin man suddenly turned his head and shouted harshly, the revolver in his left hand pointing toward Green's side, while the short sword in his right hand remained aimed at Penny to guard against her suddenly bursting out to break through.

The corpulent old man also cast a sideways glance over, the gem at the tip of his magic staff glowing faintly blue. He had already prepared a Tier 1 water-attribute spell, Water Bullet Spell, locking onto two directions so he could provide support at any moment.

Facing the tall, thin man's muzzle, Green revealed a trace of a cold smile and stopped his footsteps at the top of the stairs: "As transcendent beings of the Tower of Yin Spirits, the two of you are actually ganging up to bully a young girl. That's hardly a gentlemanly behavior, I'm afraid."

Hearing Green call out the name of the Tower of Yin Spirits, the tall, thin man and the fat man both changed expressions. Their gazes grew even more ferocious, and staring at Green, they exuded a thick intent to kill.

"Haha, looks like there's one more courting death. Then we'll send you on your way first." The tall, thin man's face tightened as he grinned, and he suddenly pulled the trigger.

With a bang, a gunshot rang out, but the bullet struck the skeleton soldier that had suddenly appeared in front of Green. Because no battle qi had been infused into it, it was just an ordinary bullet and had no way of penetrating the armor defense after the Gun Skeleton Soldier's upgrade.

The tall, thin man was taken aback: "So he's a necromancer apprentice. No wonder he has such a bold facade and actually dares to come and rescue people." As he spoke, a grey halo suddenly burst out from his body, enveloping the revolver in his hand and causing intricate magical runes to emerge on the gun body.

Yet right at that moment, a scream suddenly came from an adjacent room: "Green, it really is you! You actually didn't die!"

Hearing the voice, the tall, thin man did not rush to pull the trigger, instead looking toward the direction the sound came from. He saw two people walking out, whom Green instantly recognized as old acquaintances. They were none other than the two individuals who had stabbed a blade straight through his heart and then driven a carriage to dump his body in the wilderness when Green had first transmigrated: one was named Les, and the other was Bill.

At this moment, these two men were somewhat different from before. Green perceived an evil aura emanating from both of them—an aura originating from the Void Yin Spirit, which was devouring their life force while temporarily granting them transcendent power. Clearly, these two had ultimately ended up as sacrifices as well; although they were temporarily not dead, they wouldn't make it past two years.

Les and Old Bill did not yet know their own condition. Having just acquired powerful abilities a few days ago, the excitement had not yet worn off for them when they suddenly laid eyes on Green, leaving them utterly astounded. The cult they had originally joined was already a peripheral organization of the Tower of Yin Spirits. Because the situation in Landon City was tight, the Tower of Yin Spirits had contracted its forces, gathering the peripheral organizations under the fine-sounding pretext of bestowing divine power, when in reality they were using the life force of these people to feed the Void Yin Spirit they worshipped.

Therefore, Les and Old Bill did not know the news of Green coming back from the dead. Running into Green again during this operation was what caused them to be so greatly shocked.

At this time, both of them were dressed in black robes resembling those of priests. Floating in front of them was a massive skull wreathed in a ball of black Qi, black flames flickering within its eye sockets.

"Les, you know him?" the tall, thin man asked sinisterly. "Then I'll leave this person to the two of you to deal with. By the way, let me also take a look at the power bestowed upon you by Lord Yin Spirit."

"As you command, ritual priest. But to obtain the divine power bestowed by Lord Yin Spirit, I alone am more than enough to handle this person," Les said, full of confidence, showing not a shred of fear even upon seeing the skeleton soldiers guarding in front of Green.

To his surprise, Old Bill completely discarded his previous submissive demeanor, speaking in a muffled voice: "What do you mean by just you alone? Lord Priest told the two of us to do it together. Do you want to monopolize the credit all by yourself?"

A cold light flashed in Les's eyes. He felt extremely furious at the attitude shift of this former subordinate after obtaining Yin Spirit divine power. Helplessly, the two of them no longer had a superior-subordinate dynamic and both possessed Yin Spirit divine power; knowing he couldn't suppress Old Bill, Les could only grind his teeth in secret and vow to take fierce revenge in the future.

Green felt somewhat surprised by these two suddenly popping up old acquaintances as well. To a certain extent, Green even had to thank them; if they hadn't plotted against the original Green Wilson, Green would never have had the chance to transmigrate into this world. However, Green would certainly not show them mercy because of this tiny bit of history.