Final Lord

Chapter 261 Hank's Caution

On the outskirts of the Black Forest, inside Viscount Hank's temporary military camp.

The last remaining blood-sucking serpent servant staggered into the tent, his black robe tattered, his body reeking of decaying earth, his vertical yellow-green pupils contracting violently with fear. He knelt on the ground, his voice hoarse and trembling:
"Viscount...the Black Forest...something's wrong!"

Viscount Hank slowly raised his eyes, his amber pupils gleaming coldly in the candlelight.

His fingertips tapped lightly on the Hydra ring as he calmly asked, "What did you discover?"

The snake servant took a deep breath, suppressing his fear, and recounted everything he had seen and heard:

"Satton's forces were completely wiped out. The corpses on the battlefield were almost all killed by each other, their wounds crawling with pink mycelium, as if they had been eroded by some kind of mind control."

During our search for Sutton's body, we encountered Wey Gru!

The Serpent Servant's voice suddenly rose, filled with barely concealed fear, "She...she's not even a second-tier Transcendent! She killed Printon with a single sword strike, and Charlie died at her hands too. Her strength is at least at the peak of the fourth-tier Transcendent, or even higher!"

Hank's gaze suddenly sharpened, his knuckles turning white from the force. "You have the ability to be immune to attacks, so why were you instantly killed?"

The man in black robes said sorrowfully:

"Moreover, she seemed to know our special skills and deliberately lured us to attack her. Princeton fell for her trick."

Hank remained silent for a moment, then suddenly let out a cold laugh, his eyes flashing with icy calculation.

"I see... I think I know what happened."

He slowly rose, his mink cloak casting a shadow in the candlelight, enveloping the kneeling snake servant.

“Wei Gru… she didn’t become strong because of the Sword Saint’s tutelage at all.” Hank’s voice was deep and certain. “Among my men, York Thomson and Yudo Sri Lanka both disappeared when Gru led them on missions. They were both definitely killed by Wei Gru.”

Your special skills information must have been leaked by Yudo.

As for Wei Yi Gru's strength... Hmph, she must have joined the Chaos Cult to gain power far exceeding her own level!

This explains both her treason and the deaths of Sutton's army at the hands of monsters.

The Serpent Servant was taken aback, then suddenly realized. "No wonder she's so powerful, she's sided with Chaos. It's no wonder a cultist who dares to betray even the God-Guardian World would dare to betray his own country."

Viscount Hank's lips curled into a cold smile.

"She deliberately revealed herself to lure me into the Black Forest, where she would use monsters and mind control to wear down my troops."

He slowly stroked the Hydra ring, a confident glint in his eyes. "But she made a fatal mistake—she exposed herself!"

He turned around abruptly, his gaze sweeping across the generals inside the tent like a sharp blade.

"Order the entire army to depart immediately!" His voice was as icy as ice. "Weiyi Gru has fallen into cultism. Does she think she can stand against my elite troops with the advantage of the Black Forest's terrain? How laughable!"

Upon hearing this, Salang's sheep-like eyes burned with vengeful fury, and he roared, "My lord, let's storm in and tear her to pieces!"

Viscount Hank nodded slightly, his eyes gleaming with confidence.

"She thought she was the hunter, but little did she know... I was the real hunter!"

He strode out of the tent, mounted his horse, and with a sharp spur, sent the warhorse neighing as it charged toward the Black Forest.

"All troops, listen to my command—target: the Black Forest! I will make Wei Yi Gru pay for his crimes in blood!"

……

Viscount Hank stood on the high ground at the edge of the Black Forest, his mink cloak fluttering in the humus-scented night wind. His amber eyes reflected the twisted mushroom forest in the distance, his fingertips unconsciously tracing the Hydra ring. "Viscount, the troops are ready and can enter the Black Forest at any time," Salang said in a deep voice. His eyes flashed with resentment; he was impatient to unleash a carnage!

"Don't go in yet, launch the rockets."

At Hank's command, hundreds of burning arrows pierced the gloomy sky, falling like meteors into the mushroom forest. The flames sizzled as they touched the mushroom caps.

Lacking magical support, the fire spread extremely slowly. The charred marks spread like disease spots among the mushroom colony, and it took a full ten minutes to bring down the first mushroom tree.

“Continue. If the quality isn’t good, make up for it with quantity. Put the catapults on and keep burning with incendiary bombs.” Hank’s voice was eerily calm.

The fever lasted for three days!
For three whole days and three nights, the crackling sound of flames devouring mycelium echoed around the edge of the Black Forest. Hank, like a chess player playing against time, never stepped into the Black Forest with his gilded boots.

Salang was getting impatient, but Hank still refused to send troops.

Only when the outer cap of the Black Forest completely collapsed in the firelight did Hank nod to Salang beside him, whose eyes were red-rimmed: "The fact that no monster came out to stop us despite my destruction of the Black Forest's terrain proves that our guess was correct. Wei Yi has already embraced the chaos. All the monsters of the Black Forest are under her control."

Now that I've cleared our escape route, we can attack or defend as needed.

Your turn. Go.

"Yes, Your Excellency!"

Salang's bronze shepherd's bells trembled and rang out shrilly. The legion of half-goat men pushed their fire catapults deep into the scorched earth, burning a mushroom-free zone of flame every hundred meters they advanced.

The humus made a sticky, squeezing sound under Salang's hooves, and the broken mushroom stems crumbled like brittle bones. A few strands of pink mycelium were embedded in the crevices of his calloused hooves, wriggling slightly with his breathing.

"Sir! Battlefield discovered!"

As the vanguard's hoarse roar pierced the morning mist, the transparent liquid in Salang's abdomen suddenly froze.

His amber sheep eyes reflected the carnage before him—the miserable state of the human soldiers had already enraged him, and the half-goat appearance only fueled his resentment.

The layers upon layers of half-goat corpses remained in frenzied fighting postures, some plunging scimitars into their comrades' throats, others piercing their chests with goat horns. Strands of fungus sprouted from their ruptured eye sockets, swaying like living things in the morning mist, as if performing some kind of blasphemous dance of death.

"Damn it, don't fall into my hands, or I'll show you what cruelty is! Men, collect the body!" Salang's roar shook the treetops, causing spores to fall in a flurry.

Just as Salang's troops were about to advance, a voice suddenly rang in Salang's ears.

"Don't collect the body. Step back and let the catapults slam the oil and burn this place clean." Hank's voice was like a blade chilled to ice.

“What did you say?” Salang’s hooves dug deep holes in the humus, his deformed horns trembling with rage. “These are the corpses of our people! It’s one thing to burn human corpses, but we half-goat people are blessed by the Mother of Abundance. If our bodies are desecrated, we will not be able to return to the embrace of our Mother Goddess.”

Salang's thick fingers traced the body of a young half-goat man, who clutched a bronze shepherd's bell broken in two until his death.

"Burn all the bodies." Hank on the other end of the crystal spoke each word like a verdict, "Including your own people. Salang, obey orders!"

Salang's sheep-like pupils contracted sharply. He gritted his teeth and nodded forcefully, replying, "Yes!"

Salang loudly gave the order to his soldiers to burn the bodies, and the instant he gave the order, all the bodies of the fallen soldiers suddenly came back to life.

Under the control of the fungus, these soldiers grabbed the ankles of the Salang soldiers and tore at their ankles and calves like demons.

The sudden attack startled Salang, who immediately ordered his soldiers to retaliate.

Salang's hooves sank deep into the humus, the bronze shepherd's bells jingling shrilly from his trembling fingers. He took a deep breath, his sheep-like eyes burning with painful resolve, and roared at his troops, "Execute the Viscount's order—burn all the corpses! Leave no one alive!"

(End of this chapter)