Imperial Crown

Hu——

The strong wind blew into the big tent, the flames in the brazier flickered, and Judra's shadow stretched over the tent, like a demon with bared fangs and claws.

Raven walked to the door and closed the curtain: "I didn't hear it. If you want information about the terrain of the lower city, then I can..."

"Help me kill Angel." Judra's voice was low and hoarse, lifeless.

Thunder exploded again.

Raven turned back and took a deep look at Judra. The eldest son of the Wharton family looked abnormally pale, and his eyes were as gloomy as the current weather.

Obviously, he was not kidding.

"Mr. Jude, you've got the wrong person." Raven walked around Jude and sat in his seat: "I'm an imperial baron, not a killer."

As he spoke, Raven picked up the wine bag, and as soon as he opened it, Jude snatched it away: "Will you help me?"

Raven spread his hands: "Family love is the most precious treasure in the world. As an upright noble and the recipient of the first-class medal of courage in the empire, how could I do something that goes against the spirit of nobility?"

"Oh my God, it's terrible. Just hearing this kind of talk, my heart is broken!"

Jude's eyelids twitched: "Raven, aren't you afraid that Donald will crawl out of the ground when you say this?"

"Burned to ashes, he can't get up." Raven also straightened his face: "Give me a reason to help you."

Judra took a deep breath and sat opposite Raven: "... Raven, I think you should know that my status in the family is not high."

"I have been receiving the education that an heir should have since I was a child, until my brother Mark was born, everything changed, and everything that originally belonged to me was handed over to him."

"The eldest son inherits the title, this is the iron rule of the empire since ancient times."

"I once had illusions about Angel, hoping that he could respect this tradition, but one fact after another told me that my illusions were just illusions."

Judra clasped his hands together, his eyes fell on the ground, and remembered all the injustices he had suffered.

Angel's ruthless trampling on his reputation, his protection of his brother's illegitimate son, and only gave him 200 serfs for this expedition, but let his brother stay in the territory.

"Your previous words and Viscount John's words today have completely awakened me."

"The more military exploits I have, the more I will be suspected and excluded by Angel. If I wait until the war is over, it will be too late!"

"I don't want to spend my life as a knight. I was born a noble and I must become a baron in the future!"

"So, I need your help."

Raven looked at Judra steadily and asked again: "What help?"

"Kill Angel!" Judra made his request for the third time.

"I can't help you with this." Raven said.

"What do you mean?" Jude frowned: "Eagle's Beak Mountain, Thousand Needles Jungle, and Gray Mountain Mine, don't you want them anymore?"

Raven shook his head and sighed: "We have known each other for almost a year, right?"

"To be honest, your desire for the title and your ambition for power are all qualities I admire."

"So I am willing to invest in you."

"But what about you, Mr. Jude, how do you treat me?"

"From the moment you entered the tent, you kept making requests, as if I were your subordinate."

"You don't even want to call me a baron."

"So late at night, you came to my tent and hired me to help you kill your father with something that originally belonged to me..."

Jude sneered: "The price is not high enough? Well, as long as the matter is done, I will give you another knight's collar!"

Raven looked at Jude deeply, slowly got up, and picked up the helmet that was originally on the table.

"Judra, Judra, what illusion did my words and actions give you that made you disrespect me so much?"

"If you enter the tent, call me Baron, and act as you should, then I can make your wish come true."

"With my help, you will regain the status and reputation you deserve and inherit the title of Baron."

"But...ha!"

At this point, Judra finally changed his face.

He understood what Raven meant. Raven wanted more than just the three territories he promised. He wanted submission and loyalty!

The word "respect" explained everything.

Judra clenched his fists tightly, staring at Raven's back, and his breathing began to become heavy.

He never wanted to bow to Raven. The contract signed before was just a kind of cooperation in Judra's view. He always believed that talking to Raven on an equal footing was already a very low attitude.

But now, no one can help him except Raven.

Lightning suddenly flashed.

Under the sudden strong light, Raven's back was so far away and so tall that Judra had to look up.

Click——

Raven had already walked to the door. Once he stepped out of the tent, it meant that Judra had to accept his predetermined fate.

"Raven... Baron!" Judra's forehead was covered with cold sweat: "Baron, I, Judra, ask for your help."

Raven stopped but did not look back.

Judra knew that this was not enough.

He bit his lip until it drew blood, knelt down on one knee, and put his hand on his chest: "Baron, if you are willing to help me, then I will swear with my soul and honor that from now on, the Wharton family Will follow in Griffith’s footsteps for generations to come!”

Raven then turned back with a smile on his face: "Hey, Mr. Judra, get up quickly! We are as close as brothers, why do we have to say such distant words?"

As close as brothers! If that's the case, why didn't you let go earlier?

Judra cursed in his heart, but it didn't show on his face. He stood up and said, "...are you willing to help me?"

"Don't worry, speak slowly." Raven sat back in his seat.

Judra was a little impatient: "How many supernatural beings are there in your team? Give them all to me! If not, at least Eric will be there. Angel is a third-level supernatural being. You will never be able to defeat him without careful planning!"

"No." Raven shook his finger: "I won't give you anyone."

"You!" Judra's eyes widened: "Raven, are you kidding me?"

"Oh oh oh, don't get excited." Raven said with a smile: "We are nobles. Fighting and killing is too irritating. Besides, you have been fighting for so long. Aren't you tired?"

"I have a better way here."

As he spoke, Raven touched his belt and grabbed a crystal bottle in his hand. This was the only bottle Raven had left.

Judra's eyes fell on the bottle suspiciously: "What is this?"

"Corrupted Soul Essence." Lei Wen said lightly: "The purest form of negative energy, as long as it is placed in the room, then when the Dou Qi user practices Dou Qi, it will naturally be absorbed into the body."

"It doesn't take long for it to begin to erode the victim's body, making him irritable, irritable, increasingly fragile, and increasingly difficult to control his fighting spirit. Eventually, he will suddenly die during the cultivation process!"

"The most terrible thing is that even if the priest comes, he won't be able to tell any clues, because it is no different from making a mistake in practice, causing the fighting spirit to go wild and leading to death!"

"An upright noble like me will never use such a sinister method of harming people!"

Judra's expression was extremely strange, and she thought to herself: Are you honest? If you are really upright, how come you have such a thing in your hands? You speak so clearly. Who would believe you if you say you have never used it?

Did Donald die under this thing back then?

After all, Donald's death was unclear.

With this endorsement, Judra did not doubt the reliability of the rotten soul essence, and reached out to grab it in the palm of his hand, but Raven immediately picked it up.

Judra asked: "What do you do?"

Raven raised his palm: "Can't such a good thing be taken away for nothing?"

"How much do you want?"

Raven held out three fingers.

"Three thousand gold coins, are you crazy!?" Judra was shocked: "It's just such a small bottle, and you don't care if I ask for so much money?"

Lei Wen was stunned for a moment when he heard this. There was not much rotten soul essence in this bottle, which was the content of more than thirty magic cores. According to the magic core calculation, three hundred gold coins was about the same.

He originally wanted three hundred.

But since Judra shouted it out, Raven naturally had no reason to lower the price: "This is the only thing in the entire Nord province and even the entire Keynes Empire. If you don't want it, forget it."

As he said that, he was about to put it back into his belt.

"Wait!" Judra's fingers trembled: "Three thousand, just three thousand, deduct it from the gold coins you promised me!"

"It's a deal!" Raven immediately stuffed the bottle into Judra's palm.

This speed made Judra deeply doubt whether he had been fooled! ?

"Does this stuff really work?"

Raven glanced at him: "You and I have the same interests. I won't lie to you in this regard. You must not try it on your own."

"This kind of poison has no cure."

At least Raven couldn't find a solution.

"I understand..." Judra put the bottle into her belt: "Farewell."

After saying that, Judra stood up, moved and left the tent.

The moment he stepped out of the tent, thunder exploded in the sky, lightning shot up, and heavy rain fell on the ground like a curtain.

Judra reached out to catch some rainwater, pursed her lips, and strode into the rain.

Volaf asked curiously: "Baron, what did you say to him? Why do you seem to be calling him stupid?"

Raven's eyes widened: "Don't talk nonsense, he is stupid to begin with and has nothing to do with me!"

The rain is getting heavier.

A night of pouring water purified the air of Meng'en City, washed away the blood on the streets, and opened a bright and sunny curtain for the war.

Sunlight is the nemesis of undead creatures, which is why the Death Hand Order chose to launch in winter.

The next morning, the Fox family's army moved into the inner city.

Under the care of the priests, this army advanced at a staggering speed, and everything it passed was like a hot knife cutting through butter.

The Steel Legion, which withdrew into the inner city, also took advantage of the situation and launched a counterattack.

Even with the support of the bone dragon Grigory from the air, and Sacheni gathering a group of necromancers to release the withering fog again, the undead army suffered heavy losses, with nearly a quarter of the city alone lost.

After the rainstorm, the ground became extremely muddy, especially outside the city. However, under the encouragement of a group of nobles, the four temporary legions rushed out of the city and began to clear out the undead army outside the city. The strategic goal was the bone spire standing in the wilderness.

According to Bishop Thomas, this bone spire is called "Ghost Tomb", which can not only provide shelter for the undead army, but also absorb the surrounding souls into it, and continuously create undead creatures.

Conquering it and destroying it are both great achievements like wiping out the main force of the undead army.

The nobles bravely took the lead one by one, with high morale, but morale could not beat the muddy terrain, coupled with the low level of training and almost no cooperation, and it turned into a mess.

Some troops have rushed out hundreds of meters and penetrated into the encirclement of the undead army, while some are still behind, stuck in the mud and unable to pull out.

Fortunately, most of the necromancers are concentrated in the city at this moment, lacking a general commander, otherwise the four legions will definitely suffer heavy losses.

Even so, they failed to achieve the set tactical goal, but they did retreat safely.

Raven and Judra, the two "free men", also moved. Judra chose to get close to the Fox family's large army. As they advanced, there would always be a small group of undead troops squeezed out, and Judra would go along with it and eat some leftovers.

Although Raven had fewer people, he was not as elite as Judra. His familiarity with the terrain of the lower city, coupled with the help of the Silver Hand Brotherhood, made him like a fish in water.

At this moment, Raven was leading his personal soldiers to Klein Street, where the only alchemy shop in the lower city was on this street.

Today, this alchemy shop called "Fairy's Hut" has been surrounded by a small group of undead troops. Even though various alchemy bombs were constantly thrown from it, the effect was minimal and it was about to be completely breached.

Looking at the crumbling gate, the shepherd in charge licked his lips.

Waving the bone staff in his hand, he mobilized three first-level elite skeletons to rush to the door.

With a snap, a bottle of alchemical potion flew out of the window and hit the skull of one of the first-level skeletons, instantly exploding into a pool of sticky orange liquid, covering its entire body, and then a violent flame broke out, igniting the entire skeleton into a torch.

But this did not affect the herder's determination. The other two first-level skeletons had already rushed to the door with a clattering sound, raised their weapons, and chopped down fiercely with gray-white undead aura!

Crack--

Even the heavy oak door could not withstand such a chopping, and it had completely collapsed with wood chips flying everywhere!

A smile suddenly appeared on the herder's face.

However, at this moment, a burst of dense horse hoof sounds rang out, and the herder turned his head and saw a team of cavalrymen in full helmets and armor galloping over!

Even without the knights on horseback taking action, the warhorses, which were even more majestic than the beasts, were galloping, and the hooves as big as a bowl would directly kick the skeletons apart, and the bones would fly everywhere.

What the hell is this thing! ?

The elite of the Fox family came here! ?

The shepherd was stunned, and dozens of skeletons had been trampled into bone slag. His throat was shaking and his heart was cold. He looked at the alchemy shop unwillingly, gritted his teeth and turned to leave.

Anyway, he was born in the lower city, and there were still many undead creatures in the city. As long as he was alive, he would be able to come back for revenge sooner or later!

But what he didn't expect was that the elite cavalry actually rushed straight towards him, as if they had locked his position!

The shepherd was really panicked, and he commanded all his first-level skeletons to push up regardless of the cost.

However, it was meaningless to do so. Once the iron fighting spirit of the leading knight was urged, the rusty knives and swords in the hands of the skeletons would break into pieces of scrap iron, and then their bones would also shatter.

The crisp sound of broken swords, the sound of shattered bones and the sound of horse hooves intertwined, as if they were accompaniment to this picture!

When the knight rushed to the shepherd's face, he had even forgotten to release magic, and was stunned and waiting to die.

However, just when the iron hoof was about to pierce his weak chest, the knight suddenly raised the reins, turned nimbly, and passed by him.

Then the rows of cavalry also ran past him.

For a while, he could only hear the sound of horse hooves.

At this moment, the last warhorse slowly came towards him, and on the horse's back sat a man wearing black and shiny leather armor. He had a handsome face, three-dimensional features, and a short beard under his chin, which added a touch of majesty to him.

The most conspicuous thing is the badge on his chest. The shepherd does not know its meaning, but he is sure that this is a noble.

A glimmer of enlightenment rose in the shepherd's heart-he wants to capture me alive?

With a sneer on his lips, the shepherd held the staff tightly with both hands and began to chant the spell.

It's just right, let you, the ignorant noble lord, see my ability, your life is the capital for my escape!

At this moment, he saw that the noble also took out the staff, stopped the warhorse, and also began to chant!

…