Kingdom Bloodline

Chapter 685 The Bottle Isn't Wine (Part 2)

For... the Blood Bottle Gang?

Upon hearing this, Catherine's pupils contracted!
The next moment, the red viper's laughter echoed eerily.

“Two against one,” Nekra gradually increased the force in his arm, pressing down on the Phantom Blade’s sleeve claws. He grinned maliciously, “No objections, right?”

On the left, Ferguson let out a soft snort, and with a thrust of his longsword, Catherine's hand began to tremble.
“Catherine, do you know how difficult it is to lure you out of the capital, out of the heavily guarded crowds, and into the Emerald City?”

Luring into the Emerald City...

In that instant, Catherine understood something.

She took a deep breath, seething with resentment, and called out the names of her two most trusted subordinates:

"Matthew! Seidat! Charge!"

But before her subordinates could react, Ping tugged at her left hand again from behind.

Ding dong…

The next second, the chaotic divine weapon that Ferguson had knocked to the ground opened again and unleashed another round of blades.

This time, Catherine, who was firmly held by the two men, was unable to dodge and could only watch helplessly as the blades flew towards her and embedded themselves in her abdomen!

"Ugh!"

Catherine groaned in pain, but she gritted her teeth and twisted her body, breaking free from the two attackers amidst the crackling of her arms, leaving a trail of blood.

But her good fortune has run out.

As if he knew what she was going to do, Ferguson spun his longsword, which crossed with the spinning arm of the Phantom Blade.

laugh!
Flesh and blood tore open.

Catherine clutched her left shoulder and collapsed into a pool of blood. A second later, her severed left arm, still clutching her weapon, spun in the air and landed with a crack in front of her.

"Ah ah ah ah ah ah!"

Catherine's screams echoed throughout the warehouse—the pain in her abdomen and arms finally reached her brain.

In the blink of an eye, everything happened in just a few seconds.

Amidst the Phantom Blade's agonizing screams, everyone was stunned.

"Big sister!"

Matthew—Catherine's henchman—roared forward.

But Nekra, his face covered in blood, had already approached him with a sinister grin.

This time, he held nothing back, unleashing his full power. With two seemingly effortless strikes, he brought Matthew to the ground, then delivered a final blow to his throat, staining the blade with blood.

On the other side, Seidat had already fallen to the siege of Fogg's men.

what is this?
Golov stared in astonishment at all this, his gaze shifting back and forth between the indifferent Ferguson and the dying Catherine:
This is... the Blood Bottle Gang?

He wasn't the only one surprised; a few seconds later, everyone reacted, with Franco from Emerald City being the first to exclaim:
"Boss, Boss Fogg! Why, why—"

Ferguson sighed and turned away.

laugh!
As the blade pierced flesh, Franco shuddered and stared at Fogg in disbelief.

“I’ve wanted to do this for a long time,” Fogg said without changing his expression as he pulled the knife from Franco’s chest, pushed him down, and wiped the blood off his face. “Frango, you annoying, stinking production manager, of all these fish, you’re the most cunning. You can’t even get a clean bill.”

"Boss! No!"

Roger roared as he cleaved through two people blocking his path:

"Ferguson, you bastard—"

But the next second, he encountered an obstacle.

“You shouldn’t have gone back on your word, you dung beetle,” Gutierrez said, holding Roger’s arm tightly. “You shouldn’t have.”

Just as Roger was about to say something, Gamandia gritted his teeth, stepped forward, took a deep breath, and plunged a knife into his abdomen.

On the other side, Taremi, who had also switched her mind to Catherine's camp, turned pale and looked at everyone:

"You...you are all of you, all of you?"

Ferguson stared at him silently, as if he were a dead man.

Covered in blood, Nekra looked at Taremi with a sinister grin: "Guess?"

"No, Boss Nekra, no, no, I'm sorry, I just... I just..."

But before the panicked Taremi could even speak, he was surrounded by several of Ferguson's cronies and collapsed with a scream.

Amidst the figures, countless blades, gleaming with cold light and blood, moved up and down.

Of the remaining men, Jaga yelled and tried to run out of the warehouse, but Gutierrez knocked him down with a punch. Sangare clicked his tongue, stepped forward, and pulled out a dagger.
"It's for business, old buddy."

In an instant, script supervisor Franco, bad shoemaker Jaga, newspaper vendor Zeca, and good guy Tommy all fell down amidst screams.

"Ferguson, you'll die a horrible death—ah!"

"Kill me or torture me, give me the pain—scream!"

"Please, I didn't do anything—ah!"

Thus, with the cooperation of Ferguson's men and Nekra's men, along with some of the local rebels from Emerald City, they methodically began to suppress the forces loyal to Catherine.

Before long, only the sound of heavy breathing and the lingering smell of blood remained in the warehouse.

"So……"

At the round table, Balta, the barber who had been huddled in a corner throughout the battle, looked up and sighed: "Is it over?"

"It's still a long way off."

Nekra snorted coldly and turned his head:

In a pool of blood, Catherine, the "Phantom Blade" who was severely injured and had only one arm left, crawled toward the wall, her face covered in blood, and tried her best to sit up.

Golov instinctively glanced back at Rolf: the latter sat blankly in the corner, watching the Phantom Blade struggle endlessly despite the tide having turned against it.

Before the zombies could react, Zimicas suddenly rolled up from under the two corpses and pulled Golov down to squat down: "It's alright, it's alright, I think I understand the situation now. We're Boss Fogg's men, we'll be fine..."

On the other side, Catherine trembled as she tore open her clothes and tightly wrapped her severed arm, trying to stop the bleeding:

"Why, Ferguson, why?"

Step, step, step, step.

Ferguson slowly stepped forward and threw down his longsword.

"Because he wants you to experience this."

The wanderer's gaze was incredibly complex at that moment:

"The taste of betrayal."

Catherine, in a daze, was startled by what she heard:
"Who?"

Ferguson smiled but didn't say anything.

Catherine was silent for a moment, then smiled desperately and turned to the other person:

“Neklava, so you pretended to come and seize power from Fogg, and then had Fogg come to me for help…”

The red viper clicked its tongue and shook its head:
“I told you, I’m just here to help.”

help?

Catherine turned around, trembling.

“Little Red, you’re not that smart,” she said haltingly, as if each breath was an immense struggle, “and you, Fogg, you’re not that brave…”

Catherine, her body covered in blood, hugged her shoulders and gave a weak smile.

"Tell me, who's backing you up? And who's been giving you bad advice behind the scenes? Is it Polaris?"

Upon hearing this, Golov frowned.

Just now.

"And what about you, Little Knife?"

A sound that had never been heard before came from the shadows of the warehouse:

"Back then, who backed you up and gave you the idea?"

This is……

Upon hearing the voice, Golov paused for a moment, feeling a strange sense of familiarity.

As the voice rang out, a figure gradually approached from the shadows and slowly walked up to Catherine.

Nekra and Fogg didn't say anything; they just stood there silently.

"You, who are you?"

Catherine frowned as she watched the approaching figure:

"Why are you wearing a mask?"

Masked?

The figure gradually became clearer:

The newcomer was completely covered from head to toe in an airtight black cloth, with even his eyes protected by a pair of black goggles.

The next second, Golov's pupils contracted!
It's him.

he!
"Who is that? Is he from our gang?" Zimicas asked, puzzled.

Golov ignored him and instead instinctively turned to Rolf in the corner, looking anxious.

Rolf frowned deeply and nodded at him.

That's right.

he.

It's that... black-clad assassin with superpowers.

The man who broke into the house and killed the wool merchant...

Then they utterly thrashed the arriving Xinghu Guards!
"Damn it, no wonder I was spacing out for a moment. I thought..."

Golov sighed and smacked his head hard.

Oh no. What if he finds out...

Don't think about it, don't think about it, don't think about it...

Wait, the assassin in black... what is he doing here?
Thinking of this, Golov pulled Zimicas in front of him and lowered his posture even further to avoid attracting attention.

The assassin in black passed by the gang members one by one, and each of them was momentarily stunned as he passed by.

Finally, he stood before Catherine, looking down at her as she struggled helplessly.

"I wear a mask because I am ugly—revenge is always ugly and hideous."

revenge……

Catherine managed to focus her gaze for a moment.

and many more.

"Your voice sounds familiar... Who are you? What grudge do we have?" She forced herself to sit up.

The assassin in black gave a cold laugh.

“Guess who I am, Little Knife,” he whispered to the badly injured woman at his feet.

Little knife, little knife...

Catherine's breathing quickened.

"Why, why are you calling me that?" Her tone was filled with inexplicable panic.

"You've forgotten? I've called you that for many years," the assassin in black said calmly, as if chatting casually. "If you didn't like it, why didn't you just say so from the beginning?"

He lowered his head, his tone affectionate:
"A small knife?"

I've called you that for many years...

Catherine struggled painfully to her feet, but ultimately fell down again.

"Take off your mask! Who the hell are you?" She started to panic, instinctively looking at the red viper and the homeless man.

But Nekra and Fogg simply turned their heads away and remained silent.

A silence fell over the warehouse.

Until the man in black spoke again:
“I remember we specifically chose that day to make our move because it was raining heavily that day, which would help us better conceal our movements.”

The rain is heavy...

Catherine was taken aback.

“Qincha, Rhoda, Morris, and other experts in the capital at the time… as always, we were fully prepared for every enemy who might obstruct us,” the man in black said softly.

Catherine's eyes slowly widened.

The man in black continued, "As for the location, we initially chose the underground street, but then the intelligence changed, and we moved to an abandoned house—the intelligence said that the more unrelated people present, the more they could disrupt Black Sword's modus operandi..."

Black sword?

Catherine stared at the man in black in disbelief:

"impossible……"

The man in black chuckled softly, a sound that seemed to hold both a sigh and a touch of sadness:
“I remember, everyone was there, following the steps and cooperating with each other, including you, Little Knife.”

Catherine rolled over abruptly, screaming in agony.

But she seemed to be doing everything she could to get as far away from the man in black as possible:
"Who, who are you?"

"who!!!"

Phantom Blade screamed, her voice filled with terror.

No one answered her.

Nekra turned his head to the side, seemingly unwilling to look at the man in black, while Fogg frowned, hiding everything in his eyes.

Damn.

Golov quickly pondered: It seems this assassin in black is connected to the Blood Bottle Gang, but... what exactly is that connection? What kind of grudge does he hold against Catherine?
The man in black chuckled softly, then looked up and surveyed the dark, dimly lit warehouse.

"A century ago, King John the Red King was tyrannical and cruel, waging wars and imposing bans on alcohol and grain, plunging the entire Star Kingdom into misery and making the people suffer."

He suddenly began to tell a story, his tone ethereal.

Catherine was stunned.

"Desperate and impoverished, a demobilized soldier risked his life to smuggle grain and liquor from the desert to support his family."

"The world is tough, people are suffering, people need alcohol, they need to get drunk, they need to dream, they need to numb themselves and deceive themselves, so Da Bing's business is getting bigger and bigger, his trade routes are getting wider and wider, and his team is getting bigger and bigger..."

The next second, the man in black suddenly changed his tone:
"Until one day, he was finally caught by the king's guards."

As Catherine listened to the story, she couldn't help but tremble.

"The inspectors, carrying his smuggled liquor, asked him if he knew what was in the bottles, and if he knew that the prohibition order was personally issued by the King..."

"And that soldier, he drew his sword one last time, and laughed heartily..."

The man in black's words carried an indescribable chill:

"The bottle contains not wine, but the blood of the people."

He stopped speaking and looked at Catherine, who was standing by the wall, her face covered in blood, her hair disheveled, and trembling.
"So, do you remember the second half of his sentence, little knife?"

Catherine looked up in a daze, staring incredulously at the assassin in black.

As if controlled by some force, even when she was distracted, she still managed to finish the sentence:
"Country, country, country, country..."

Whether it was fear or nervousness, she was in a daze and couldn't utter a word.

The next moment, the man in black suddenly erupted in fury:
"Say!"

Catherine shuddered violently, as if she had seen the most terrifying thing in a dream, and broke out in a cold sweat.

Ferguson, who was standing to the side, couldn't bear to watch any longer. He sighed deeply and continued with the next sentence:

"There is no king in the country, only a tyrant."

Ferguson sighed:

"This is the story that Chief Turnbull told that night, before setting off to ambush Blacksword, as he was wiping his battered old armor—the origin of the Blood Bottle Gang."

There is no king in the country.

He was just a tyrant.

Blood Bottle Gang?

Catherine gradually came to her senses. Upon hearing this, she gritted her teeth and glared angrily at the man in black.

"No, this is impossible, who are you...?"

This time, the man in black did not hesitate. He pulled down his mask, revealing a handsome face.

Golov frowned: He didn't know this person.

But judging from his age... he's at most in his thirties.

Who is he?
But Catherine was different.

She scrutinized the face closely, her expression growing increasingly shocked.

The next second, Catherine shuddered and collapsed to the ground.

"No, no, no, there's no wine in the bottle, there's no wine in the bottle..."

Phantom Blade's voice trailed off; her eyes were vacant, filled with disbelief.

"How is this possible?"

The man in black snorted coldly and pulled his mask up again.

“You’ve tasted it, haven’t you, little knife, the taste of betrayal?” He turned around. “Go ahead and do it.”

Ferguson nodded slightly.

Grover, who was watching from the sidelines, closed his eyes and sighed softly.

That's what it means to "get by in the game".

Just like Mertessa, who guards the abandoned house in the royal capital.

Alright, now they should finally leave and report back to—

A gentle breeze swept by, ruffling Catherine's disheveled hair.

Hmm, wind?
Grover, hiding behind the gang members, was startled.

He instinctively turned his head and looked towards the corner:
Rolf was no longer there at some point.

"hu~hu~"

The wind grew stronger and stronger, making the warehouse doors rattle loudly.

Golov anxiously searched for any trace of the Wind-Walking Ghost, but suddenly he noticed that on the wall in front of him, several specks of dust had been blown away by the breeze, leaving blank spaces that perfectly formed two words:
You, escape.

In that instant, the zombie understood something.

He gasped, shoved away Zimicas who was clinging to him in fright, and stood up abruptly!

No no no no……

Do not!
Damn it! That bastard, no!

“Hoo, ho, ho—”

Amidst the rustling of the wind, the man in black was the first to look up alertly.

“This is…” Ferguson asked, puzzled.

When the rumors became unusually strong, everyone sensed something was wrong.

Amidst the piercing whistling of the wind, the desperate woman lying in a pool of blood clutched her severed arm, her eyes lifeless as she raised her head.

At that moment, Catherine, the former leader and top leader of the Blood Bottle Gang, "Phantom Blade," vaguely realized:

got windy.

(End of this chapter)