Origin Player.

Chapter 636 The Fugitives
Castle bedroom.

A warm, orange flame burned in the fireplace, and the glow of beehive candles illuminated the surroundings. The room was filled with the precious aroma of flowers and spices. Several portraits of the Augusta ancestors hung on the walls, and under the gaze of these ancestors, the current Marquis almost fainted.

Jiang He calmly got up, casually grabbed a goose down robe and put it on, and Zhuang Ya came over and brought her a glass of chilled Divine Blood Wine.

"Finish?"

Zhuang Ya tilted her head, her clear voice filled with curiosity. From her observation, whether it was the imperial concubines, Lilith, or the Marquis, everyone faced the giant serpent and ended up looking like they were about to die. But this was the first time the battle had ended before even a candle had burned out.

"It's pointless," Jiang He replied, sipping her wine. "Pei Xuanran might have been killed too early."

Zhuang Ya realized it was a joke, looked up with a faint smile, and said seriously, "Shall I go catch it?"

"Let's wait until the right prey comes to provoke me first." Jiang He sat down on the balcony and said calmly, "It's too low-class to bully a common woman, and besides, Lao Hei will probably be angry too."

The legendary secret technique, Destiny, is activated. Under the influence of the power of destiny, what you have obtained will be obtained again.

Zhuang Ya sat down next to someone, hugging her smooth knees with her small hands. The night view of Augusta Castle was relatively barren, but she still watched with great interest. There were countless different worlds, something she had never realized when she was deep in the mountains of the ancient martial arts world.

Under the bright moonlight, Zhuang Ya suddenly heard the sound of turning pages. Turning her head, she saw that Jiang He had taken out the Ancient Book of Fortune at some point. Her face froze for a moment, and then she immediately took out her own preschool version. The Great Serpent usually spent his days either practicing the Dragon Spear Technique or studying alchemy, which was so engrossed that it was unsettling.

After a while, a glimmer of light returned to Eleanor's empty eyes. She sat up, drenched in sweat, and quickly caught sight of the two people on the balcony.

"Rhine," Eleanor called softly, her expression somewhat apologetic. She knew very well that the other person's experience wouldn't be good; failing to fulfill the duties of a wife was a dereliction of duty.

Jiang He did not answer.

Zhuang Ya turned around and made a shushing gesture.

Eleanor was helpless. In fact, she had almost no memories of her past and had no deep feelings for the deceased old marquis or the Augusta family. As her only relative at present, Rhine undoubtedly held a very important position.

Several hours passed.

A crow circled down.

"Boss, the Imperial Inquisition team has arrived outside the Great Wall via the Alchemy Guild's teleportation array, and the Dragonborn Church left Dragonstone Castle, which is close to the Great Wall, an hour ago."

Jiang He nodded and said, "I'll go take a look."

Whether to kill or save depends on the value of the Dragonborn Church.

……

Dawn is approaching.

Edge of the Earl of Dragonstone.

Earl Dragonstone led his entourage to a manor farm, his previous perfunctory attitude completely gone.

On the farm, hundreds of slaves are working hard, and the temporarily harvested tobacco will be transported to the Holy Wall by caravan.

"The Lemon Merchant Guild is a recently emerging business organization, and it is said to be the purse of Earl Rhine of Rock City."

"Because of the strong expansion of the Augusta Territory, the Lemon Merchant Guild's development momentum is getting stronger and stronger. Grand Master Lawrence of the Holy Great Wall is the Countess's uncle, so the Lemon Merchant Guild directly won the supply orders of the two Great Knight Orders of the Great Wall."

Earl Dragonstone lit a cigarette and said, "Originally, supplying the Holy Wall with resources was the responsibility of the White Wolf Earl's territory, but with the death of the White Wolf Earl, it is naturally out of the question. I'm afraid we'll have to wait until a successor to the White Wolf Manor emerges before we can even compete for a share."

The Dragon Bishop had no interest in this information, stating only, "I'm only concerned with security."

Several church knights nodded to each other.

“There is no absolute safety,” Earl Dragonstone said, spreading his hands. “But the Lemon Merchant Guild is the youngest, and because of a shortage of manpower, most of its members are freed slaves from overseas, compared to other merchant guilds in the North…”

Earl Dragonstone glanced at the masked man and said, "The chances of recognizing this person are the lowest."

“Agreed.” The Dragon Bishop pondered for a moment before agreeing to this channel.

"Upon reaching the Holy Wall, my eldest son, serving as the Grand Knight Commander, will escort you all to the Ice Forest," said Earl Dragonstone.

For the free people of the Empire, the Ice Plains were a very dangerous place. At the beginning of the Divine Era, the Son of the Conqueror defeated the kingdoms in various places, causing the First Men to flee to the Ice Plains and eventually become barbarians.

In addition, the Icefield is also a pilgrimage zone for the Frost and Death Titans. Frost Giants, born with great power, roam the land, and the creatures killed by the Frost Giants will basically become wandering Frost Undead. The powerful enemies, combined with the harsh living environment, make the Empire's control over the area outside the Holy Wall extremely low.

It is worth mentioning that gods are natural beings, usually residing in the "heavens," while Titans are a primitive belief. Just like the nine-headed sea serpent that symbolizes the ocean Titans, they have corresponding physical forms. The peak strength of a hero is also a big problem for the Empire.

After a brief rest, Count Dragonstone urged the Lemon Caravan to set off immediately, as it would take a day or two to reach the Holy Wall from here.

The caravan consisted of nearly three hundred people, stretching for miles. The leader was a middle-aged magic swordsman of the rank of Grand Knight. He originally came from a small principality outside the western border, but his homeland was ravaged by war, and he unfortunately became a slave. He was recently bought by the Lemon Merchant Guild and became its captain. Through accumulating merits, he regained his status as a free citizen.

"Sir, the carriage is still empty."

The middle-aged magic swordsman looked at the young man who appeared in the night. The young man was wearing a scarlet cloak and his face was indistinct. Caravans usually refused to let such mysterious people in, but the young man produced a token from a high-ranking member of the merchant guild.

Jiang He casually sat on the carriage shaft and asked, "How many fugitives are on this trip?"

The middle-aged magic swordsman estimated and replied, "There are roughly forty people. We have already reported to the guild leader and the grandmaster."

Jiang He nodded.

The difficulty of getting Si Ning to run an honest business is no less than his own quitting drinking. The profits from supplying the Holy Great Wall are far less than the exorbitant profits from smuggling. The murderers in the territory, the defeated minor nobles, the adventurers who have angered the church, and so on—these guys are all lucrative opportunities to survive.

Jiang He glanced at the caravan out of the corner of his eye. Earl White Wolf had been killed in action, and his sons had fought over the succession to the title. The defeated second son was in the caravan. The Lemon Merchant Guild guaranteed that the two great knight orders of the Holy Great Wall would not discover his identity. As a reward, the second son of White Wolf paid three thousand gold coins and prepared to flee abroad.

"Selling lemon tobacco in the capital is probably just an expansion of distribution channels." Jiang He knew that Si Ning had recently been eyeing the mermaid tribe, and the story of the mermaid had already quietly spread.

Seeing Jiang He sitting on the carriage shaft, the middle-aged magic swordsman took the initiative to pull open the carriage curtain, revealing a wooden box piled with thousands of gold coins inside. Several elven women of different appearances were in tears, with magic steel shackles on their ankles and wrists.

Clearly, the middle-aged demon swordsman, now freed from slavery, showed no pity whatsoever towards his former slaves.

"My lord," the middle-aged magic swordsman explained, "elves can live for three to five hundred years, and their beauty remains undiminished. Some elves in minor noble families have even been passed down for more than ten generations." In the world of gods, the lifespan of human powerhouses is similar to that of ordinary people. To some extent, this is the price the world pays for entering a golden age. Many nobles pursue longevity, giving rise to a corresponding culture, and raising elves has long been a fashion among the nobility.

When Jiang He first arrived at Augusta Castle, he received a warm welcome.

"Are there elves in the Whispering Forest of the North?"

"Yes, sir, an elf can sell for several hundred gold coins," the middle-aged magic swordsman said. According to the map, Whispering Forest originally occupied half of the northern territory, and the duchy's fertile land mainly came from the reclamation of the forest.

“From today onwards, you are the leader of the Rock City slave-catching team.”

Jiang He casually pinched a thread of fate. The middle-aged demon swordsman possessed a great legacy inherited in his bloodline, indicating that his ancestors were nobles. However, the legacy had been passed down too many times, causing it to become diluted. It needed to be revived to activate it.

A significant number of noble knights are trapped here, unable to advance to the rank of Grand Knight and become high-ranking nobles.

As the power of the Great Sin and Wrath amplified Great Achievement, his previously thin bloodline began to boil again. The middle-aged demon swordsman's expression changed drastically. He felt as if his entire body was on fire, with the ghosts of countless demons roaring in his ears. The ancestral Great Achievement of hunting demons across the land was being revived.

With his body strengthened and his energy sublimated, a guardian spirit resembling a hunting dog was born. The middle-aged magic swordsman could smell the scents within a hundred miles and even identify information about monsters he had never seen before based on the scents.

Jiang He calmly replied, "Name."

The middle-aged swordsman bowed his head, knelt on one knee, and presented his sword.

“Fischer Melentes, your servant.”

Jiang He waved his hand, indicating that he had no interest in bestowing titles upon a person of great achievement; at the very least, only those at the Saint Realm would be worthy of serious attention.

The birth of the Knight of Great Achievements drew the attention of the Dragon Bishop and others.

"What a coincidence."

"How could there be a revival of a great cause!"

"Be on high alert, and watch out for the people in the courtroom."

The members of the Dragonborn Church were abuzz with discussion. The guard they had lowered because of Count Dragonstone was raised again. The masked man looked thoughtfully at the carriage at the front, sensing a great power.

……

The caravan set off, heading towards the sacred Great Wall.

Dozens of wagons were loaded with large quantities of lemon tobacco and some imperial-standard magical swords produced by the alchemy workshops, but the main cargo was still grain and frozen meat.

Heavy snow fell, and the North was gripped by the harsh winter.

More than two hundred slaves, imprisoned in prison carts, were sold in turn to minor and medium-sized nobles along the way. Cheap sea salt produced in Rock City was hard currency here.

The two-day trip has come to an end.

On the horizon, a colossal barrier, seemingly the end of the world, appeared before everyone's eyes.

The height of the Great Wall is breathtaking, with its top piercing the gray, cold sky. The three-hundred-foot-high ice wall, when you look up, your vision is swallowed by the pure, overwhelming verticality, and the top seems to melt into the low-hanging clouds and the endless cold wind.

The wall is not a smooth, one-piece structure, but rather made up of countless huge blocks of ice that are stacked, piled up, and then frozen again. Layer upon layer, the ice layers display varying shades of blue and white. The magic steel supports, as thick as ancient tree trunks, are like the ribs and sinews of giants, deeply embedded in the ice wall. The ice surface is covered with crisscrossing cracks and wind-eroded ravines.

The jagged crenellations and platforms on the city wall are faintly visible, like the jagged back of a giant beast. Some small watchtowers and fortresses are scattered on them, connected to the ground by huge winches and baskets.

The ice flowed like mist, and the weather was freezing cold.

Ordinary gold miners here have to fight tooth and nail just to survive.

The two Grand Knight orders stationed at the Holy Great Wall have a total of no more than two thousand men, but all of them are Grand Knights. There are more than twenty captains of the Great Knight rank. By guarding the Great Wall, they can inherit the great cause of protecting the world. Among the Grand Knights who come from all over the empire, after being killed and tempered, nearly one-tenth of them have successfully advanced to the next rank after returning home.

Of course, this corresponds to an alarming mortality rate.

As the caravan arrived, a large gate rose at the base of the wall, and a group of great knights came out to meet them. Each of them had an extremely fierce expression. The sacred city walls did not allow unauthorized persons to enter, but in recent months, as long as one had permission, no one cared if one fled to the ice plains.

At this moment, on the city wall, a majestic old man sat cross-legged on the ground, his blood boiling all day long, with pale red smoke swirling around him. A lion-like helmet covered his head, and blood was dripping from the sword at his waist. Although both were from the Holy Domain, his aura far surpassed that of the Storm Bishop.

Lawrence Augusta.

In pursuit of the realm of the heavens, he voluntarily guarded the sacred Great Wall, and proactively relinquished his right to inherit the throne as the eldest son. After the old marquis passed away, he never returned to the territory, for he now belonged entirely to this place.

"Forty-three people will pass this time, and we will receive 37,000 gold coins, which can be used to exchange for a batch of magic armor."

The young treasurer came to report. The knight, who was in his early twenties, was a promising young man. He was dressed in a wolf fur coat, had a handsome face, and a particularly resolute expression.

Lawrence said, "Send them a batch of guiding torches to continue probing the situation in the Ice Forest. The great knights in the group cannot be wasted in the north. Let them explore."

"Understood." The young man in the wolf-fur coat replied, then hesitated before continuing.

"Still thinking about Eleanor?" Lawrence turned his head.

The young man in the wolf-fur coat lowered his head and said somewhat weakly, "Count Rhine's combat strength is superb, and he manages his territory in an orderly manner. It is said that he is also a handsome man. I just admire the old marquis's taste."

“It has nothing to do with my brother,” Lawrence said. “He’s always been idealistic but lacks his own opinions, and he won’t ignore me in this kind of thing.”

The young man in the wolf-fur coat looked bewildered.

"It was Eleanor's own decision to marry someone; the rest is just talk. As for why she took a liking to Rhine Augustus, I don't know the specific reasons."

Lawrence's eyes flickered, but according to Nuselli's report, Eleanor now genuinely believed that the marriage was arranged by the old marquis, a strange behavior that he found hard to understand.

The cold wind high in the sky was biting. The Holy Great Wall paid the Lemon Caravan a large amount of monster materials as payment, and the caravan members returned the way they came. Only the fugitives walked through the gate.

(End of this chapter)