Pirate Kingship.

Chapter 646 Assassination of the Priesthood, Glacier Kiss (asking for monthly ticket)
The black-robed man wearing a skull mask raised his hand to send a signal, and something in the sky above the secret valley fluctuated.

The swift eagle circling in the air seemed to have finally found its target, and it turned into a black arrow and swooped down from the sky.

When he was three meters away from the man in black robe, red light flashed on his body and he transformed into a young assassin wearing a white hooded robe and with hidden blades tied to his wrists.

In addition to the assassin profession in the arena sequence, he also studied the indigenous forbidden knowledge "Book of Beast Families".

After landing lightly, he immediately knelt on one knee in front of the black-robed man, bowed his head deeply, and handed over a letter of commission with a bright red hidden sword painted on it with both hands:

"Lord Assassin, an unidentified client has secretly thrown this mission letter to our base.

Since the deposit was not paid according to the rules, we are not going to pay any attention to it.

But after examining the letter, we determined that the envelope contained a gold coin of hatred left by the first generation of "Old Man of the Mountain" Assassin 700 years ago.

The last time the Hateful Gold Coin appeared was eighty years ago, and the elders of the stronghold did not dare to make decisions on their own.

I can only ask you how to deal with it.”

The black-robed man known as Lord Assassin is this generation's "Old Man of the Mountain" and the leader of all Eagle's Nest Assassins.

He subconsciously pinched the envelope with his black-gloved fingers. The sharp senses given to him by the fifth-level legendary assassin allowed him to instantly figure out what was in the envelope.

Even the material, weight and pattern of the coin can be felt clearly.

“It’s really a hate coin!”

The body suddenly shook.

After confirming that there was no witchcraft trap, he quickly opened the wax seal without any trace of seal and poured out a shining gold coin from it.

It is different from any gold coin of any country circulating on the market.

On the front is an eagle holding a bloody hidden blade, and on the back is a circle of inscriptions:
"The end justifies the means!"

[The Old Man in the Mountain] stroked the gold coin, his eyes, sharp as knives, a little dazed.

"At the beginning, the first generation of ancestors sent out a total of seven gold coins of hatred, representing the assassin's eternal promise like gold. Each gold coin can allow the Assassins to complete an assassination mission unconditionally.

Over the past seven hundred years, we have recovered them one by one with our hidden blades.

This is the last gold coin. After seven hundred years, our Assassins, a branch of the Holy Spirit Church, have finally gathered them together again.

We only need to complete this last task to complete the ceremony!"

Everyone knows that the Church of the Creator has been divided since its inception.

With the birth of the Son of God, the "Church of the Creator" began to become independent from the "Remitism" that believed in the "God the Father" and set up its own organization.

They quickly came to dominate the religious system of the Old World, reaching their peak in the fourth century, when church states were everywhere along the east coast of the continent.

The Church of the Creator then obeyed the Oracle and assisted the Bound Creator in controlling the floods by blocking the water, thus ushering in a thousand-year-long dark age on the East Coast.

Next, around the seventh century of the Silver Age, a founder on the west coast, Cassim, received "divine revelation" and established the "Holy Spirit Church" which had the same origin as the Remit Church and the Creator Church.

One of them believed mainly in the Father, one believed mainly in the Son, and one believed mainly in the Holy Spirit. This completely established the pattern that the three religions were originally one family.

But after the death of this founder, the Holy Spirit Church immediately split into the "Orthodox Path Faction" and the "Followers Faction".

The disagreement between the two mainly arises from their issue of succession to the Imam (leader).

The orthodox path faction believes that religious leaders should be elected by the masses and should not be hereditary. This faction has the widest influence. The Star-Moon Empire, the most powerful country on the west coast, belongs to this faction.

The followers believe that leadership should be inherited by the descendants of the founder.

This difference led to the two factions not only having differences in religious rituals and beliefs, but also being hostile to and murderous of each other. The internal blood feud between them was even deeper than that of the nine Crusades!

Then, as the sects continued to pass, the two major sects continued to split.

To this day, there are hundreds of sects, large and small, including the Kaysani, Zaydi, Ismaili, Twelver Shiites, etc.

The Assassins are one of the subordinate branches of the "Nizaris" under the "Seven Imams" under the "Followers".

How should I put it? Although it feels a bit crowded here and there is not enough space for so many sects, the fact is that just like the Creator who is constantly splitting apart, the division will never end!

The Assassins, as a professional killer organization and terrorist group within a religious sect, were born seven hundred years ago and were founded by the first generation "Old Man of the Mountain" Hassan Sabbah.

Since then, this terrifying "title" has been circulated within the Assassins.

Every generation of the [Old Man in the Mountain] is a descendant of Hassan’s bloodline, and every generation has a fifth-order legendary rank, but no one knows their true appearance or even their real names.

It was also by the first generation of the Old Man in the Mountain that the seven gold coins of hatred were forged as proof that the Assassins were determined to complete the mission 100% at all costs. They were each given to a friend or friendly force that had provided him with great help.

During this long period of seven hundred years, descendants have slowly recovered six of them, and the Assassins' "Eagle's Nest Assassins" have also completed six assassination missions that shocked the entire continent at a huge cost.

Until today, the long-cherished wish of every generation of "Old Man in the Mountain" has finally been fulfilled.

How could the 35th generation of the Mountain Old Man not be excited?
The face of the [Old Man in the Mountain] beneath the skull mask showed a hint of a sneer:
"All we know is that we will complete the commission of the Hateful Gold Coin at all costs, but no one knows why we do this.

The holders of these gold coins thought they were taking advantage of the Assassins, but in fact, you have built a perfect stage for the Assassins to dance in the long river of history."

Noticing that the man in black robes hadn’t responded for a long time, the hooded assassin kneeling on the ground couldn’t help but remind him again:

"Lord Assassin? Do you want to send a signal that you accept the mission?"

The old man in the mountain didn't even look at who the target of the mission was in the envelope, and nodded decisively:
“Send a signal to employers.

No matter who the target is, our Assassins' commitment to assassination will never waver. This is a golden reputation forged over 700 years and the lives of dozens of generations of our ancestors.

Nothing in the world is more valuable than the promise of our Assassins!"

The hooded assassin nodded in agreement, then transformed himself into a swift eagle again and soared into the sky, disappearing in an instant.

The Old Man in the Mountain has reason to be proud.

Countless victories have made generations of mountain elders develop the habit of assassinating without asking who the target is, but only where he is, because no matter who they want to kill, they will always find an opportunity to kill him.

Even the saints of the church have to admit this.

Why is this assassin organization so powerful? Just look at the drunken reserve Eagle's Nest assassins in the secret valley below and you will know it clearly.

Every generation of the old man in the mountains would select spiritually awakened reserve assassins from the outside world, use drugs or supernatural powers to knock them out, and then send them to this incredibly beautiful secret valley.

The land flowed with milk and honey, and there were seventy-two virgins to play with.

In the Alborz Mountains where living conditions for the middle and lower classes are extremely difficult, this is the paradise described in the scriptures of the Holy Spirit Church!
Let them enjoy themselves here for a while to see their potential and cultivate their value, no longer than one month, and then release them again after being anesthetized.

Tell them that you have been to heaven before, and as long as you work hard to assassinate the targets for the Assassins and are not afraid of sacrifice, you can return to heaven after you die.

At this moment, the assassins' hormones exploded, their eyes turned green, and they even faced death with indifference and took death as pleasure.

During the assassination, each of them risked their lives without regard for their own safety, just to die early and return to heaven to continue enjoying themselves.

Therefore, all assassins from the Assassins are like crazy people who only care about success at the cost of their lives. No assassins of the same level can be compared with them.

In this situation, they can even endure all kinds of harsh environments that ordinary people cannot endure, just for the opportunity to kill with one blow.

For example, you could embed yourself in a wall with only one breathing hole, not eat, drink or move, and wait for a month. When the target of the mission approaches, you could blow out a poison arrow, and the target would not even know where the attack came from.

Or they would soak their entire bodies in foul-smelling sewage, breathing only through a reed tube, and then kill their target with a single strike while the target was using the toilet.

The latter method has a very high success rate, and the target will die in humiliation and pain.

Because in the past, there would be protruding defensive facilities designed on the castle walls, part of which would be used for military purposes and the other part would be used as toilets.

After using the toilet, things will fall directly into the moat along the passage or outer wall.

At this time, the Eagle's Nest assassins would use a spear to stab the person who was using the toilet from bottom to top to death on the spot, with the white tip of the spear going in and the yellow tip coming out, or the white tip going in and the green tip coming out, and it always worked.

Who can stop such an assassin?
Even if it can hold out for one day, can it hold out for ten days, thirty days, or a hundred days? No matter what you do, you have to be on guard against assassins, and forcing people to do so can drive them crazy.

In the past, they had killed the prime minister of the Seljuk Empire and two emperors of the Abbasid Dynasty, making the subsequent emperors afraid to appear in public.

Basically, they kill anyone they dislike. Gradually, they also start to accept paid services, and countless politicians from various countries have been killed.

For quite a long time, all countries were terrified of the Assassins.

Even the word Assassin in the common language evolved from "Assassin", which shows their power.

During the Crusades, although the Eagle's Nest stronghold was breached and the training methods and prerequisite knowledge were looted, the profession of "Phantom Blade" in the Kingdom of Hastings was derived from a variant of the Eagle's Nest Assassin.

However, this organization is extremely tenacious and will obviously not disappear just because a stronghold is destroyed.

It has been passed down to the 35th generation [Old Man in the Mountain] and is still very famous in the Silver Continent.

By making friends with the upper class for hundreds of years, it has become an important and powerful political force among the "followers" of the Holy Spirit Church, able to influence the political powers of many Holy Spirit Church countries on the west coast.

Even the upper echelons of the most powerful Star-Moon Empire have their supporters and agents.

"The time has come, send them all out."

[The Old Man in the Mountain] gave orders to the 72 virgins in the secret realm.

After watching the naked beauties quietly and calmly knocking out the assassins, he unfolded the letter in his hand and saw the target of the mission.

next moment.

"hiss--!"

Even with the arrogance of the "Old Man in the Mountain", he still couldn't help but gasp when he saw the name clearly, his eyes flickering violently: "The Emperor of the North Sea Empire, who single-handedly integrated the five nations of the Bay People to establish the North Sea Empire, and condensed the supreme "Crown" Byron Lancaster?!
this."

In fact, he had already prepared himself mentally. Every gold coin that contained hatred had changed the continental structure to a certain extent and had far-reaching consequences. Only those who were not big shots deserved to be killed by them.

Therefore, even though the target of this mission is the current Sultan (roughly equivalent to the king) of the Crescent-Star Empire, the one who completely recaptured the Holy City in 1453 and whose royal title is "Lord of the Two Lands and Two Seas", Muhammad II.

The old men in the mountains remain calm.

But at this moment, it seemed that the ones who were paralyzed were not those assassins, but himself. His whole body was numb.

"Why is he the target? Who is the employer?"

Every killer organization must first be an intelligence organization with extremely well-informed information.

The Assassins, who have forged their notoriety over dozens of generations, know better than anyone where every bit of legend of the legends on the Silver Continent came from.

This assassination target's record is really fierce.

When he was a pirate, he almost killed the Puppet King, and was crowned the Pirate King [The Uncrowned King].

Then he took back the throne of Hastings, unified the five nations of the Bay People, and withstood two colonial wars between the Abaddon Esoteric Cult and the six old god churches.
It solved the two sixth-level "natural disasters" of Kraken's Touch and Noah's Ark at one time, and was the first to completely open up the second circulation belt.
Protestantism has taken the lead in recognizing him as the Messiah and the one favored by the Holy Spirit.

The number of high-sequence fifth-order warriors or those of equivalent combat power who died at his hands was close to double digits just for the documented numbers.

The Assassins' intelligence department has done statistics and found that the number of people he killed in just a few years since his debut is probably much more than the number of people assassinated by his own Assassins over dozens of generations.

This emperor won the second [Crown] of the Silver Continent after fighting numerous wars and stepping on countless corpses.

"The most important thing is that he is young!
A big river often floods and changes its course. A village is on the east side of the river for thirty years and on the west side of the river for thirty years. Youth represents infinite possibilities.

Especially this kind of existence that has already emerged and soared to the sky.

I don’t know what destiny they inherited from the collective subconscious of mankind. It might be an exaggeration to say that anyone who stands in their way will die, but they are all extremely difficult to kill.”

[Old Man in the Mountain] It seems like he is recalling some not-so-good memories.

"As an assassin, I have encountered so many people who are favored by fate that some prophets even jokingly call them the protagonists of the times.

His entire family died except him; a knife pierced his heart, but his heart was on the right side; he was chased by a large group of people and jumped off a cliff, not only did he not die, but he also obtained secret forbidden knowledge or powerful magic potion, and his strength greatly improved.
Similar examples often occur in the summary reports of the Assassins' failure cases.

Many bizarre things may seem like fantasy stories to others, but to us assassins they are terrifying realities, and each one is a fatal accident.

Assassinating such a being is much more difficult than assassinating the elderly and in poor health of the "Lord of Two Lands and Two Seas" Mehmed II."

After a while, the old man in the mountain regained his composure, his eyes became sharper:

"However, no matter what the target is, it cannot stop the Assassins' hidden blade!

The ceremony that started 700 years ago must not be allowed to end at this last step.

My power may be limited, but the power of the 'Old Man of the Mountain' is unlimited."

He slapped the storage item on his waist and took out a cursed object [the world's first glass mirror].

The misty mirror reflected another beautiful secret garden, but with a slight hint of dirty blood.

This is actually a world that exists in a mirror, and its reality is not much different from Byron's Flower Mountain Paradise.

There are still many differences between the details and reality.

The most special thing is that in the mirror, surrounded by the mountains, there are thirty-four tombs built of huge stones.

On the stone pillars in front of each mausoleum is inlaid a skull mask that looks like the one on his face, symbolizing his identity as the "Old Man in the Mountain."

Most of them were covered with scars, and some even had dried blood on them, proving that each of them died on the way to the assassination, rather than dying in their beds of old age.

The 35th generation old man in the mountain did not look at his ancestors, but looked at the blood-red sun in this small world.

One could vaguely see a hidden blade whose shape kept changing, with thirty-five chains extending from it, extending to the bodies of all thirty-five "Old Men in the Mountain".

Every chain exudes a strong smell of blood and murder.

If Byron were here, he would have discovered that this hidden blade exuded a similar aura to the priesthood of the [Craftsman] that was symbolized as a forging hammer after losing its owner, and the priesthood of the [Disease] that was symbolized as a poisonous mushroom with a red umbrella and a white stem.

This thing turned out to be a demigod priesthood that had been collected for who knows how long!
The old man in the mountain looked at the priesthood, and confidence returned to his face:

“The Assassins may fail temporarily, but why are we always the ones who win in the end?
It is precisely because I cannot defeat them, there are still my fathers, and my fathers cannot defeat them, there are still my grandfathers, and my grandfathers cannot defeat them, there is still the first generation of elders in the mountains!

Nothing is ever truly real, and there are no fetters on means.

Even a seemingly invincible elephant can be killed by a tiny poisonous snake.

[Assassination Priesthood]! Tell me the target's greatest weakness, soft spot, and the most successful assassination method! "

Upon hearing the order, the mirror surface suddenly fluctuated violently like water.

The clergy are nearly omnipotent within the areas under their jurisdiction.

This [Assassination Priesthood], which was accidentally captured from the world rift by the first generation mountain old man Hassan, is a perfect match for the assassin profession.

In other words, the earliest assassin profession in the Ladder of Glory sequence was born from this.

It can display its power through this cursed glass mirror, help its master complete assassinations, and it never lies.

But this time the reaction time was longer than ever.

Just when the old man in the mountain was about to be in a state of panic, a line of hideous bloody words finally appeared on the mirror:
"In early July, Byron Lancaster fell to the honey trap, lost all his weapons and armor, and was completely defeated. His physical strength was also exhausted to the limit.

This is the biggest defeat he has ever suffered since his debut, and it is also the best time to kill him."

"An emperor succumbed to beauty?"

The old man in the mountain couldn't help but laugh.

Then he took a look at the 72 extremely beautiful virgins in his own valley secret realm, and a hint of coldness appeared at the corner of his mouth under the skull mask:
“Young people are really easy to deal with.

No one knows how to deal with this kind of lecher better than our old man in the mountains. I have 72 solutions, 72!
What delicious food have those emperors, sultans, and kings ever eaten? What stunning beauties have they ever seen?
It's nothing more than a "honey block" like the favorite concubine of Sultan Abraham I of the previous Star-Moon Empire, who is 150 cm tall but weighs 92 kg.

What beauty can compare to my 72 virgins?
When the time comes, I will personally take action to make him die in a very ugly way.

Besides, the Lancaster family has long been in decline. How could the sudden rise of one generation possibly rival the hard work and accumulation of 35 generations of my Sabah family?

You are not facing the [Old Man of the Mountain], but the [Old Men of the Mountain].

As long as I kill you, seven gold coins of hatred that will forever change the history of the continent will forge the broadest ladder to godhood for the Sabah family!"

Time flies and it is already early August.

Starting from the starting point, Dolphin Bay, the Mermaid Kingdom, and reaching about one-third of the way to the third circulation belt, the north is already covered with snow.

As summer temperatures rise, the edges of the frozen polar ice sheets break apart, scattering numerous huge icebergs that drift slowly with the ocean currents.

At this time, two huge sailing battleships were fighting fiercely between countless icebergs.

boom! boom! boom! boom!
The cannon fire flashed.

The quasi-legendary battleship Blue Dragon King was refitted by Violet and her whale oil mechanics, and all of its heavy guns were replaced with alchemical cannons seized from those whale oil wonder warships.

Its range and power are not inferior to those of a breech-loading rifled cannon.

Under the precise control of Prince Thornburg, a fourth-rank [Storm Lord] and fourth-rank [Ship-Bound Spirit], orange-red flames exploded one after another on the ghost ship opposite, which was glowing with frost-white light.

The latter was not to be outdone, and the entire warship was shrouded in the shadow of a white dragon.

The frost-white shells, riding on the howling north wind, have a range far beyond that of ordinary sailing warships.

If it falls on the sea surface, the sea will freeze, and if it falls on the [Blue Dragon King], countless ice spikes and cold air will explode.

Obviously, this is the ghost ship "Glacier Kiss" that the Queen mentioned, active in the polar ice sea.

As long as he can capture this powerful quasi-legendary battleship by himself, Edmund Lancaster will be able to advance to the fifth rank and become a fifth-rank pseudo-god-level ship spirit!

The battle was fierce, and the icebergs between the two sides were blown into ice crystals all over the sky, turning into gorgeous rainbows.

Byron, who was standing next to him, felt that the scene was very appropriate, so he hugged Violet's slender waist from behind and stood at the bow of the steam battleship [Dreadnought] to watch the battle silently.

He held a handful of melon seeds and nuts in his hand, and while cracking them, he stuffed the cracked kernels into his wife's pink little mouth.

"Ah, Byron, aren't you worried about your father at all?"

Violet, chewing the nut like a cute little squirrel, raised her elbow and gently poked Byron in the chest.

"Ah? Is this something to worry about?

Dad’s conditions are much better than when we challenged the impossible.”

Byron looked up at the other three warships that formed a triangle surrounding the battlefield: the legendary battleship [Dreadnought], the legendary battleship [Golden Deer], and the legendary battleship [Pirate City].

The spiritual light rising into the sky almost illuminated the ice sea.

Noticing the captain's gaze, the three legendary ship spirits patted their chests and nodded vigorously:

"Three with one, guaranteed win!"

(End of this chapter)