Chapter 505: Subst.i.tute
“Have you heard of it? Royal Highness Regent’s army lost 2 consecutive battles in the Dark Moon!”
“I also heard that General Samoer of the Nether Hydra Legion was killed and General Nesta of the Magic Shadow Legion surrendered to the enemy.”
“General Nesta’s surrender to the enemy was because of Samoer’s private revenge, okay? General Nesta stayed in the Bloodmist Valley for dozens of days. In the end, Samoer came to the valley, not only he didn’t reinforce General Nesta, but he even wanted to eliminate the Magic Shadow Legion. He even killed the heir of the Red Spirit Estate, Kanita. General Nesta was so infuriated that he turned his side to the Dark Moon.”
“That’s it? The Demon Overlord elder Zeta of the Kamon Family was released by the Dark Moon and returned to the Red Spirit Estate, but he was killed! Do you know who did it? It is said that it is the regent’s way to deal with the elder families…”
“Lower your volume!”
“Hehe, who in the capital doesn’t know this now?”
“…”
Chen Rui sat in a tavern in the northern suburbs of the capital as he was listening quietly to the discussion while drinking. After experiencing the last setback, the reestablished Dark Demon was more capable. The news about the war , including some “intels”, had spread quickly in every corner of the capital in the shortest time.
It only took a few hours from the teleportation entrance through the Dark Moon residence to the Rainbow Valley and then to the capital.
Chen Rui didn’t enter the capital, but he got on a carriage at the outskirts of the city and headed north toward the White Feather Estate.
Lord Sicali of the White Feather Estate was of the Lucifer Royal Family. His ancestors also had the royal blood. They were allocated to the White Feather Estate because they were descendants of the concubine. After several generations of management, development and wasteland reclamation, their strength gradually increased and became 1 of the 4 major estates of the Fallen Angel Empire.
Among all lords, Sicali was the one who was good at getting benefits from both sides. He had also sent some soldiers for the coalition army this time. It seemed a bit perfunctory, but he focused on the “conflict” with General George at the Warlock Fortress.
Obsidian spared no effort to send troops to crusade against the Dark Moon. As Shea’s most steadfast supporter, the first general of the empire, George, would certainly not sit by and watch. Sicali’s intention was self-evident to raise a conflict with George at this time.
In a sense, once the Dark Moon was destroyed by the Obsidian, Sicali’s credit even surpa.s.sed most of the lords who joined the expedition.
After Chen Rui helped his father-in-law at the Warlock Fortress last time, he returned from the White Feather Estate to the Dark Moon via the capital and the Red Spirit Estate. He overlooked many matters as he was in a rush to go back at that time. Now that he had specially made a trip to the White Feather Estate, he had learned more about this relatively low-key estate from his experience and observation along the way.
The White Feather Estate was slightly smaller than the Dark Moon and larger than the Red Spirit Estate. Although there were no such conspicuous and prosperous towns like the Red Spirit Estate’s Town Mordo and Town Moling, the population was widely distributed and the development was more balanced. From the a.n.a.lysis of the various intel from the Dark Demon, the combat effectiveness of the White Feather Estate was by no means inferior to the Red Spirit Estate.
The reason for the conflict between the White Feather Estate and the Warlock Fortress this time was the rations. The rations of the Warlock Fortress were provided by the capital and the White Feather Estate. Due to the capital’s “fundraising scandal”, the original military pay and rations had been greatly reduced. Meanwhile, the White Feather Estate had been delaying the supply of rations under the excuse of poor harvests. This caused the anxious Warlock Fortress soldiers to ransack several towns in the north of the White Feather Estate, causing great resentment among the people of the White Feather Estate.
White Feather Estate Lord Sicali publicly expressed his condemnation of the Warlock Fortress guards. He demanded General George to hand over the soldiers who committed the evil deeds.
General George refused to admit that the looting was done by the Warlock Fortress’s soldiers. He directly pointed out that Sicali was purely making up stories because Town Nimbus, which was the closest to the north of the Warlock Fortress, was untouched. He delayed the supply of military supplies while deliberately causing an issue in order to please the capital’s Regent Obsidian.
Since both sides insisted on their own words, the conflict remained deadlocked. It was just that the people in the White Feather Estate had a kind of blind faith in Sicali, especially in the deeply-affected towns. They didn’t believe General George’s explanation at all. They showed extreme hostility toward the Warlock Fortress and supported Sicali to go against General George. Now Sicali had sent a large number of troops from the estate to the northern towns to “protect” the townspeople from looting.
From Chen Rui’s point of view, this matter was already obvious. As General George said, Sicali was purely deliberately making excuses to delay General George when the Obsidian crusaded against the Dark Moon.
Chen Rui went all the way to the north and came to the White Feather City, the core of the estate. The area of White Feather City was very large which was not smaller than the Dark Moon. It could be seen that it was built after a lot of painstaking efforts. Similar to the plagiarized versions in many places of the Demon Realm, many buildings and facilities had the shadow of the Dark Moon. For instance, the newly built battle ball arena in front. It had all the ticket sales, gambling ticket sales, battle ball merchandise stores and so on. It was simply complete plagiarism. Judging from the audience entering the arena, the ball market was quite happening.
“Great, I heard that sir lord will personally play this time! Tickets were sold out long ago!”
“He will suppress his strength at the level of Intermediate Demon and lead the private team to compete with the strongest Ice Feather Legion Team!”
“All income from the tickets and gambling will be donated to the children and the weak who need help.”
“Hmph! Sir lord is too benevolent. The weaklings are not worthy of sympathy at all!”
“Benevolent? 5 years ago, the horse thieves burned and looted Town Ma.s.simo. The sir lord was furious and led his army to kill 3,600 horse thieves alone. Those heads were hung high in Town Ma.s.simo and piled up into a hill! I never heard any more news of the horse thieves until now!”
“Sir Sicali is the most benevolent and powerful lord. As long as he is around, our the White Feather Estate will surely become the richest and most powerful estate in the entire empire and even the Demon Realm, far exceeding the Dark Moon!”
“Hmph! What’s the deal with the Dark Moon? Didn’t Princess Shea often come to the White Feather Estate to ask for help? Sir Sicali generously donated money every time. However, when Sir Sicali visited the Dark Moon not long ago, Princess Shea was actually ungrateful and so stingy. She deserves to be punished by the capital this time!”
“…”
Chen Rui frowned as he listened. Judging from the rumors along the way, Sicali’s prestige in the White Feather Estate has reached an unimaginable level.
Although this sir lord is a hypocritical fence-sitter outside, in the estate, he is a perfect G.o.d-like existence whom the people blindly wors.h.i.+pped. No wonder almost all the people of the estate showed strong hostility toward General George and the Warlock Fortress once an order was issued. Regardless of whether Sicali is a n.o.ble lord who “serves” the people, it is really not easy to reach this level.
Chen Rui’s initial intention was to go to the Warlock Fortress first, but now he was quite curious about the lord of the White Feather Estate whom he somewhat despised previously. After thinking about it, he bought a ticket from a “scalper” at a high price and followed the crowd into the arena.
Nowadays, the battle ball had faintly replaced traditional martial fighting as the top sport of the Demon Realm. Many people also regarded the battle ball and martial fighting as 2 major sports because one was a collective and the other was an individual game, so there was no conflict. The arena was full of people. With the appearance of Sicali leading his team, the atmosphere reached a climax. The audience shouted the name of the lord in unison. Everytime he touched the ball could cause a deafening cheer from the audience. Driven by this atmosphere, the athletes and the audience of the arena showed raving excitement. This state was no longer toward a lord or a star, but they were like fanatics looking at their G.o.d to show miracles.
This terrifying fanaticism made Chen Rui secretly surprised. Shea’s prestige in the Dark Moon was already quite strong, but it was far from the influence of Sicali in the White Feather Estate. He had no doubt that as long as Sicali raised his arms, not only the army, but also the vast majority of the citizens of the estate would not hesitate to point their fists and knives at anyone, including the capital. This made Chen Rui automatically think of a sir dictator of the historical “Third Reich” in another world.
Chen Rui’s mind s.h.i.+fted, and he stood up instead of continuing to watch the game.
The first half of the game was over amidst the loud shouts. The score was 4:3. The civilian team led by 1 goal. Although Sicali was very strong, the battle ball was not a one-man sport. Furthermore, the Ice Feather Legion’s elites did their utmost unreservedly under Sicali’s prior orders. This made the compet.i.tion more realistic and fierce, and the audience’s reaction was even more intense.
In the player’s lounge, the team doctor rushed to treat the wounded individuals. A few words of the part-time coach Sicali ignited the morale of his teammates to the highest point. Then, he began to arrange offensive and defensive tactics for the second half.
Suddenly, Sicali paused and signaled these players to leave first. Although the players were a little surprised, they didn’t ask much. They all walked out, leaving only Sicali in the lounge.
“Come out.” Sicali said lightly.
Chen Rui’s figure slowly appeared from the shadow in the corner. He learned this concealment technique from Ms. Secret Intelligence. He could hide his breath and figure. So many people didn’t notice him just now. He didn’t expect to be seen through by Sicali.
In fact, Chen Rui was just slightly distracted just now, and he was unable to maintain the best state of unity between man and the environment. In a fleeting moment, he revealed a slight flaw, but Sicali was aware of it. Sicali’s keen sense was evident.
The reason for Chen Rui’s distraction was the information of Sicali in the [a.n.a.lytical Eyes].
Race: Pride Royal Family (mutated).
Comprehensive Strength a.s.sessment: E (A).
Physique E (A-), Strength E (A-), Spirit E (A+), Agility E (A).
[a.n.a.lysis]: Dark attribute.
Due to the needs of the game, his surface strength is suppressed at the Intermediate Demon level, but the real strength of the intermediate stage of the Demon Emperor’s data is completely different from the Sicali who visited the Dark Moon Estate last time. At that time, Sicali’s true strength showed A+, which was the peak stage of the Demon Emperor. [a.n.a.lytical Eyes] will not be wrong. As such, the Sicali in front of me is not the real Sicali!
A subst.i.tute who is also the intermediate stage of the Demon Emperor!
After realizing that “Sicali” was probably just a subst.i.tute, Chen Rui’s thoughts turned. He cancelled the initial beheading operation. The prototype of a new plan quickly appeared in his mind. (To be continued)
What would be the new plan? Maybe replace the subst.i.tute with himself?