Chapter 520 Arriving at the Manor (3k)
After taking a long detour, Su Jiu followed the route in her mind and started walking towards the city. Before long, she arrived outside the protective barrier of the southern gate’s great formation, the massive city-protecting light barrier rippling slightly.
“Miss, I see you have an Eastern appearance. Do you have anything to prove your identity?”
Seeing that she was alone and had no one behind her, the guards at the city gate’s expression became cautious. After all, high-level demons could shapeshift.
“I know Miss Catherine Winick, and I also have some ties to the Heber family. I hope you can open the formation and let me in to take shelter.”
Su Jiu smiled, then reached into her ring and took out the token that the old count had given her to prove her identity. She then flicked her finger at the token, sending it flying towards the barrier.
“This is a token with the count’s family crest.”
The guards looked at the token and exchanged glances. With their status, they had no way of knowing if the token was genuine. The team leader in front said to Su Jiu with some helplessness,
“Those noble lords are not here, and it’s difficult to determine the token’s authenticity. All instructions are now subject to government directives. We can inquire with the Snow Guard Leader here.”
“Thank you for your trouble.”
Hearing this, Su Jiu couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow, but she didn’t say anything more. She nodded lightly and observed the surroundings. She felt that the demons seemed to have retreated quite a bit on her way here.
However, logically, they shouldn’t have retreated. War was about “striking while the iron is hot,” “the second step is to lose momentum, and the third is to exhaust it.” If humans had time to breathe and reinforcements arrived, then the demons, as the attackers, would be in trouble.
Soon, the soldier’s team leader apparently made a call, and a burly Snow Guard walked down. He wore a commander’s medal on his chest.
“Open the formation and let her in. This lady saved us.”
After just glancing at Su Jiu’s appearance, the commander smiled without even looking at the token, then waved his large hand and said loudly to the soldiers.
“The identity of the arrival is confirmed, open the city gate!”
The soldiers dared not delay. They simply called a few alchemists walking on the city wall to activate the city-protecting array. With a rumbling sound, a large gate less than three meters high quickly opened, resembling the shape of a church door.
Su Jiu did not want to linger. She casually reached out, grasped the token suspended in front of her, and walked forward slowly, passing through the dim city gate passage.
Under the warm crystal lights, she also noticed that the entire passage was lined with neat soldiers, fully armed and looking at her with apprehension in their eyes.
The sturdy Snow Guard commander also followed her. Su Jiu glanced at him, feeling a bit curious about what the guards had meant by “everything is subject to government directives.” These soldiers’ appearances were also not normal. She then asked,
“May I ask, Commander, what does it mean for everything to be subject to government directives?”
“You don’t know?”
The commander was stunned at first, but then he thought that Su Jiu might have gone out before the emergency situation. After some consideration, he explained, “That’s right, you have the count’s family token, so you should be a royalist yourself. It’s normal that you don’t know about the new decree.”
“New decree?”
After walking nearly ten meters, light fell into her eyes from above. Su Jiu looked up at the now brightly lit street. Although the formation blocked the snowflakes, almost no one was out walking. There were only patrols of about five soldiers walking solemnly, filled with a sense of desolation.
“Yes, the new decree is the wartime emergency preparedness order. Due to Duchess Catherine’s disappearance, news came from the center that all city affairs are now decided by government councilors.”
The commander also walked out, secretly glanced at Su Jiu, and explained in a low voice, as if afraid of her displeasure. He then specifically added a few more words,
“This is not a sudden change. At the beginning of the harsh winter, Bear Country decided to reclaim some rights that were held by the old nobility.”
“Because the supervisory authorities found that in some eastern cities, nobles were privately raising vagrants or commoners to trade with certain gray industries.”
“Hmm.”
Su Jiu simply nodded. In fact, her true identity was not that of a royalist. Even if the two factions fought to the death, it had nothing to do with her. It was just that nobles were raising commoners and vagrants for trade with gray industries.
Was this gray industry simply gray and black industries, or was it related to the Ancient God Sect’s contingency plans?
“Where are you going now? I can give you a ride.”
While Su Jiu was pondering, the commander’s voice rang out again, seemingly with a hint of respect.
Su Jiu smiled and said softly, “Could you take me to Count Heber’s manor first? I want to talk to Councilor Heber about how to resolve this disaster.”
As an outsider, the only government official she could contact was Winick’s father. If possible, it would be even better to see the city-protecting cannon.
The commander quickly nodded, then asked a stationed soldier to drive a military jeep from somewhere. Immediately, a car horn sounded. He opened the car door and got in first.
“Beep beep—”
Just as Su Jiu was about to get in, her phone suddenly rang. She raised an eyebrow, opened the car door, and got in. She took out her phone and looked at the contact person written in the text message. She was slightly surprised—
[Huainan Ren]
[Found some interesting things, the Ancient God Sect’s small meeting.]
[Materials: 4.7M]
“Are they coming?”
Her eyes narrowed, looking at the time on her phone. It was exactly “13:00.” Unlike the locals in Bear Country, her phone and Ren’s both used the time in Dragon Country’s imperial capital as the standard. Since he didn’t send a text message at one o’clock last night, this information must be from him.
Then, her gaze shifted down to the material package he had sent. After a moment, two photos appeared on her phone. They seemed to have been taken from a very narrow corner, showing several figures sitting as if they were having a meeting.
Su Jiu was slightly puzzled. Why would they take the first picture?
Then, her gaze strayed to the second photo, and her eyes narrowed slightly. Her gaze fell on the man with pointed ears and blue eyes in the center. She subconsciously blurted out, “This is…”
She immediately typed and asked,
[Is this a Snow Demon?]
After less than a second, a reply quickly came:
[They have that special scent, so we can confirm they are Snow Demons.]
Su Jiu licked her lips. Although she had speculated that Snow Demons might connect with the Grand Prince, she didn’t expect to find concrete evidence now. She then slowly typed and asked,
[Do you mean that these people from the Ancient God Sect are all connected to the Snow Demons?]
The other side was silent for a moment, then quickly replied,
[Yes, and I found that among those believers, there are more wearing veils, and they all have a special scent.]
[I have sufficient evidence to suspect that the Ancient God Sect has begun to obtain ordinary Snow Demon population through the Snow Demons to compensate for the population shortage in blood sacrifices.]
Su Jiu fell silent. Then, have Li Ziwei and the other two that Ren had contacted made any progress…
Before Su Jiu could type, the other side quickly sent another text message:
[One more thing, I pretended to help deliver messages for the believers and have arrived at the neighboring city of Gunazha City. I will soon be in contact with the informant. The contact method is: Small Park, left bench, cream bun with whiskey. The time is only about three days.]
Su Jiu replied with a message:
[Okay, if you meet again, you need to prepare another communicator for him. His communicator has reached its limit. I’ll also give you a codename, “Falcon.” Meet the other party with this codename.]
It seemed that Li Ziwei had not contacted this side for some time, and she didn’t know what he had been up to recently, nor had he contacted this side. If it was within three days, she could only find a suitable time to call him, or wait for his call.
[👌🏻]
Ren sent a gesture and no longer replied.
Su Jiu put away her phone. Just as she was about to look outside, the car stopped. The commander said with some helplessness, “We have arrived at the count’s manor, but it seems that because the secretary just lost, they are discussing how to face the demons.”
“The secretary lost?”
Without rushing to get out of the car, Su Jiu asked with slight surprise. If the city defender, also a War God, had lost, then it was highly likely that this city could not hold tonight! Even if the War Gods from other places wanted to reinforce them, it would be too far away.
If the city were to fall, and without Battle King level cultivation, in this mountainous environment, one would likely become food for these demons in less than half an hour.
“Yes, he is currently angry, seeming to be because the other three Demigod-level figures in the city did not play any role at all.”
Speaking of this, his face also became somewhat unsightly, and he continued with a bitter smile, “Moreover, the city-protecting cannon controlled by the Alchemist Association is not only slow, but it also accidentally affected the secretary.”
“Ah? They even friendly-fired?”
Hearing this, Su Jiu could not hold back her emotions. This was a large second-tier city, but even their city-defending measures were handled halfway. In times of war, this would have been an execution.
The commander shook his head, his expression helpless, and continued, “It was just an accidental involvement, and the problem is not big. Only they can jointly control that city-protecting cannon. If others were to operate it, they probably wouldn’t be able to connect to the energy array in the alchemical cannon.”
Soon, Su Jiu bid farewell to the commander. However, as soon as she got out of the car, she saw two groups of people confronting each other by the gate.
On one side were a few middle-aged men in suits and ties, standing with their heads bowed stiffly. The leader was the Heber family head, whom Su Jiu had met several times. His face was somewhat angry as he reprimanded their opponents,
“Normally, the nobility provides you with good food and drinks. Now it’s your turn to be useful, and you turn out to be a bunch of useless idiots?”
Opposite them were several people wearing alchemist attire, who looked quite young. Their faces were somewhat pale, but they were all standing with their chests slightly puffed out, with an indescribable pride on their faces.
A young man wearing elaborate patterned clothing stepped forward, patted his combed-back hair, and said with a playful smile, “Uncle Heber, don’t be angry. This was just an accident this time. If you had been willing to provide some tonifying mental energy medicine last time, we might have succeeded.”
