Having taken on a new post, Xilǐ'er naturally had no need to return to his fiefdom. Just as he had for the past eighty years, he spent most of his time fighting alongside the Twin Kings or high-ranking knights, rather than locking himself in his manor and castle to count his money like a short-sighted lord.
Led by his guards, Xilǐ'er arrived at a military camp located in a corner of the Eternal Domain capital, " City of Dusk," a place where knights gathered before each medium to large-scale battle.
He lifted the curtain of a tent, and a group of knights appeared before Xilǐ'er.
A dozen or so knights sat around a round table, in the center of which was a large charcoal brazier, on which sat a half-cooked beef leg.
The group was now quite drunk, some cutting beef with knives, others raising their glasses to pour drinks for each other.
They had absolutely no manners when they ate, as if they had completely forgotten all the etiquette of the noble knights of the past.
A cool breeze blew by, and everyone looked towards the tent entrance. After a brief moment of recognition, a sudden exclamation rang out:
" Xilǐ'er!"
You're still alive!
"Perfect timing!"
Several voices rang out simultaneously, and Xilǐ'er recognized the identities of several of the knights.
Over the past few decades, he has had many dealings with this group of knights, and on many occasions they have entrusted their backs to each other, thus forging a very deep friendship.
"You're all here?"
Xilǐ'er was usually calm and composed, and most of the time he appeared quite experienced, but he couldn't help feeling a little awkward facing the enthusiastic invitation from a group of acquaintances.
"So, you guys go dragon hunting too?"
"Right."
A knight pushed his chair aside, making room for Xilǐ'er, and then began to tell his story enthusiastically:
" The High Tier knights under the Twin Kings are training us recently, and their aura is incredibly strong. You absolutely must try it! Tomorrow, just tomorrow, you fight one of them! Hahahaha!"
How long are we going to stay here?
Xilǐ'er was clearly not a very cheerful person, and upon hearing the word "training," he keenly caught the problem in his friend's words.
"I don't know, but it'll definitely take some time, right? Otherwise, with our current strength, going to fight the Blue Dragon would be like sending ourselves to their deaths."
Xilǐ'er nodded, looking at the large, undercooked piece of beef that had been tossed into the plate in front of him, and the oak wine glass beside him filled with wine of who-knows-how-many years.
The knight beside Cyril put his arm around Xilǐ'er's shoulder.
"How long has it been since we last saw each other? At least half a year, right? What have you been doing all this time? I thought you were completely dead..."
Xilǐ'er took a sip of wine without any expression:
"I fought a battle with a medium-sized fortress in the Graycast Corridor. That fortress was a combat-specialized type. My resurrection had some problems, which caused me to keep heading west until I met a very kind lord who took me in. During that time, the roads were clear, so I came back."
Xilǐ'er omitted all the interesting parts, making the whole story bland and uninteresting.
The knight beside him slammed his oak goblet on the table and laughed loudly, saying:
"Hahahaha, I see, brother, you've really missed out on a lot of good things."
"Just two months ago, we had just... um..."
The somewhat drunken knight was speaking when another knight's elbow was already pressed against his ribs.
He let out a muffled groan and sheepishly sat back down in his seat.
"In short, we accomplished something very important, but since you weren't involved, it's not convenient to talk about it right now."
Upon hearing this, the knight who had quietly reminded him widened his eyes. The slightly drunk knight realized his slip of the tongue and whispered in defense:
"I didn't go into details, what's so surprising? Besides, if Xilǐ'er wants to know, he can probably just ask the Twin Kings. After all, he's an independent knight directly under their Twin Kings, hahahahaha!"
Xilǐ'er also realized that something significant might have happened in the Eternal Domain during his time of wandering, but he had not sensed anything, or perhaps it was not yet time for him to know.
As the knight said, he always followed the rules, and he would never meddle in other people's business if he shouldn't know something.
So Xilǐ'er pretended not to hear their conversation. His wandering was over, and now he should seriously face the next problem—dragon hunting.
Thinking of his next enemy, Xilǐ'er suddenly asked the knight beside him:
"What grudge does that dragon hold against our Eternal Domain?"
The knight paused for a moment, then replied:
"How would I know? I've never even seen a dragon, and you certainly haven't either. But you can ask the High Tier knight commander who trained us; he should have seen one."
Xilǐ'er frowned slightly, and without thinking, picked up the wine glass beside him, took a sip, and fell silent.
Winter has finally arrived in this World of Disorder.
Ed didn't know if the world was a sphere, or if there were places where it was the height of summer; all he knew was that the snow in December was really heavy.
His previous guess did not come true; his players were still laughing and joking every day, showing no signs of becoming listless.
The players were indeed unharmed, but to his surprise, the Blood Corpse completely withered away in the dead of winter...
Perhaps it was because the low temperature slowed down the metabolism of those monsters and the speed at which the seal broke, or perhaps it was simply because their claws could not scratch the frozen ground. In any case, after entering December, the number of Blood Corpse encountered by the Second Holy See decreased, as if these beasts had entered a state of hibernation.
However, the Blood Corpse that had been captured and rendered harmless did not hibernate. The fact that they could see and smell the blood but could not eat it constantly stimulated their senses, forcing them to continue to diligently pedal without daring to slack off.
Ed absolutely refused to believe that the decrease in Blood Corpse was due to his players turning them into endangered species. After all, according to Xilǐ'er and Gray, each Grand Duke had at least a million Blood Corpse under his command, which was far beyond what his tens of thousands of players could possibly kill.
That's right, tens of thousands of players.
With the other towns sharing the burden, the number of players has recently increased again. Ed, who extracted the Aberration plant genes from the suicidal bishop, implanted a new function—" Green Tooth Headphones "—into all the bodies.
With the help of this new plant, Ed can now enable players to communicate wirelessly over short ranges, eliminating the need to shout to exchange tactics.