[ The Ginseng Rooster ] stepped forward, his tone both seductive and urging:
"Lord Colin, you still don't understand the true nature of mercenaries—mercenaries are only loyal to the source of their commission, which is why we all only obey Adrian's orders."
"Whether the money we received came from the Skeleton Council or somewhere else is irrelevant; all we know is that it was you who gave it to us."
"This alone is enough for us to offer our loyalty."
"After all, this money should ultimately come from every citizen of the Skeleton Alliance, so are we supposed to be loyal to every single Skeleton?"
"Therefore... this loyalty belongs solely to you, and its connection with the entire Skeleton Alliance is not actually very close."
"So, I ask you, who wouldn't want their excellent boss to not get promoted?"
After speaking, Colin fell into deep thought, seemingly making some kind of decision. After a long while, he finally spoke, but the question he asked only made [ the Ginseng Rooster ] laugh:
"Are all those Soul Returner like this?"
"Haha, Sir Knight, you are truly naive."
[ Ginseng Rooster ] smiled maliciously:
"That's right, all the Soul Returner are like that; they will only be loyal to the person who pays the commission."
"And if you don't fight for the positions of ' Bastion Lord ' and ' Border Garrison Warlord ', then other fortress knights will naturally fight for them."
"You wouldn't want to see your former colleagues climb over you, would you?"
Colin fell silent again. After a moment of thought, he made a decision and looked intently at the [ Ginseng Rooster ]:
Do you have a solution?
"Have."
[ Ginseng Rooster ] speaks seriously:
"I will provide you with a complete plan; whether to implement it, and to what extent, is entirely up to you."
Colin nodded and asked:
"So what do you think I should do now?"
[ Ginseng Rooster ] smiled and said:
"The first thing you need to do is give your group of Soul Returner a new name."
He explained earnestly:
"The essence of mercenaries lies in 'hiring,' but the mercenary relationship is not so secure."
"Therefore, you need to gradually downplay the word 'hire' and replace it with another word."
"Okay, then what do you think would be a suitable name?"
[ Ginseng Rooster ] revealed a somewhat sinister smile, as if he had been prepared all along:
"Beasts survive by relying on their claws and teeth. If you wish, then from today onwards, the Soul Returner mercenaries will be called ' Fang Soldiers '."
The southern part of the Demon Realm is a desolate and ruined land.
A week has passed since Sailesi, no, Councilor [ Nether Crossing ], was swept away to the southern shore of the Demon Realm by a hurricane from [ Divine Wings ].
He has been performing his duties very well during this period.
Find Grand Duke Rosalind or Grand Duke Wens, and kill or capture them alive.
This task doesn't seem complicated in its description, but it's actually very difficult to carry out in practice.
The reason is simple: the situation in the Demon Realm is far too complicated.
Sailesi, who served as a cardinal for nearly a century, was very familiar with the known history of World of Disorder.
Nearly 10,000 years ago, there was no so-called " Demon Realm " in the world; instead, all intelligent beings lived together in harmony.
At that time, not only were humans everywhere, but even the extinct monsters were evenly distributed in every corner of the continent, and they showed obvious differentiation due to environmental influences. Some subspecies were born during that period.
Later, the concept of "civilization" gradually emerged among humankind, which led to the settlement of people of the same species.
Humans who banded together quickly discovered that living together was much more comfortable than fighting alone, and they rapidly demonstrated a fighting power far greater than those who lived scattered.
As a result of their living environment, the monsters gradually began to band together and migrate eastwards from the continent.
The entire process lasted intermittently for thousands of years, but it ended long before the empire and kingdoms stood side by side in the north and south.
As a result, all the demons were driven to the easternmost part of the continent, and this area was later called the Demon Realm.
Driven together, the demons began to passively band together, unintentionally replicating human behavior.
Humans naturally wanted to drive all the demons into the sea to feed the fish, but the demons, united, were not to be trifled with either. So until the Demonic Tide, nearly one-third of the continent's area belonged to the demons, while the remaining two-thirds were divided equally between empires and kingdoms.
As for the Holy See, which lived between two great powers (there was no Theocracy at that time), it was a negligible margin of error.
Before this, the consciousness belonging to " Sailesi " had never set foot on the land of the Demon Realm.
It wasn't until he came here in person that he realized just how chaotic the place truly was.
Earthen cities, caves, valleys... everywhere there are traces of demons living there, but those who left those traces have long since disappeared, either dead or turned into Blood Corpse living a life worse than death.
Since arriving in the Demon Realm a week ago, [ Nether Crossing ] has led the elite troops of the Skeleton Alliance in three battles against the Blood Corpse Horde. Although they have won each time, none of them have been a one-sided and complete victory.
The 20,000 skeleton soldiers brought by [ Nether Crossing ] were all elites of the Skeleton Alliance, each possessing at least Low Tier Middle Grade strength (in the World of Disorder, this is already considered elite troops), yet even so, defeating those Blood Corpse was not so easy.
Faced with this situation, the commander [ Nether Crossing ] naturally conducted an analysis and self-criticism.
The Blood Corpse in the Wilderness of Chaos primarily originate from the Antos and Adelaide Lineage.
These two grand dukes, along with their Blood Corpse, were sealed away for more than half a century. Their strength did not increase at all and even regressed. Yet, even such enemies were not so easy for the Theocracy to deal with.
Now, [ Nether Crossing ] faces an even more difficult task: dealing with the Blood Corpse. It's easy to imagine why.
Compared to Antos, Adelaide, and the always-overlooked Hall, the three Grand Dukes trapped in the Demon Realm are not so simple.
They not only developed for an extra seventy or eighty years, but they also transformed all the life forms that could be transformed in the entire Demon Realm into Blood Corpse.
[ Nether Crossing ] had seen a large number of non-human Blood Corpse in previous battles.
In addition, these three lineages will also face joint suppression and encroachment from the Eternal Domain and the Graycast Corridor, and will even have to engage in open and covert struggles.
The entire Demon Realm is essentially a giant petri dish, where the three lineages of Blood Corpse are constantly being nurtured, making them far stronger than their brothers who are sealed outside.
As for [ Nether Crossing ], although his primary target on this trip was Rosalind, whose power was "devouring," her whereabouts were extremely difficult to find.
Left with no other choice, he had to settle for second best and began to use the wonderful tool given to him by the [ Crown ]—a drop of Duke Wens ' True Blood —to search for this being who wielded " Vitality " as his Authority.