The bard fantasized again.

Chapter 203 Soul Coin

Chapter 203 Soul Coin (4k)

Do you still remember the fear of facing death? Do you still remember the days when you fled in a sorry state from the orcs?

Yes, you not only remember, but you also know how to seize every opportunity to take revenge and put an end to everything in the past.

But you know very well that as a discoverer of truth and a recorder of stories, you will always intentionally stumble into some trouble—

This makes you remember more enemies, and sooner or later you'll pay for it all.

You have obtained the 'Avenging Scimitar' (Extremely Rare):
When you synchronize this scimitar, you can mark an 'enemy'.

You can sense the location of your 'enemy' at any time and judge the distance between you and the enemy.

When attacking enemies, you will have a higher chance of hitting them and will receive a damage amplification effect.

The mark lasts for 1 hour, during which time you cannot generate any desire to attack other targets.

If you fail to kill your enemy before the mark disappears, you will be subject to a random 'curse', which can only be removed by spells like 'Remove Curse'.

When you are killed by your enemy, or when you kill your enemy, the soul of the dead is twisted by intertwined hatred and turns into a 'soul coin'.

You can hold any number of 'Soul Coins'.

Remarks:

This cut was for myself, and this cut was still for myself!

This is a bright red scimitar, like congealed blood, bent into the shape of a scimitar.

But Tang Qi had to admit its beauty.

When the blade is placed in the sunlight, one can vaguely see the bright yellow and shimmering light hidden within the scarlet edge—like a blazing flame burning within it.

"But this thing also has negative effects. When facing enemies that we can't catch up with, we'll probably have to think twice..."

If it's made into a Soul Coin, the [Resurrection] spell won't work.

As he pondered this, he quickly took out a palm-sized, dark brown coin that looked like it was made of iron from his bag—

The portrait of an old goblin is engraved on it, with a smirk on his lips, looking particularly cunning.

On the portrait were sharp, obscure words. Although Tang Qi couldn't understand them, he knew they were the language of purgatory.

As he gripped the coin tightly in his hand, a surge of intense anger rose from his fingertips to his heart, as if he were denouncing the murderer who had tortured and killed him.

Soul Coin (Non-Common):

A soul is imprisoned within the coin.

A non-evil person can only hold a limited number of coins, usually no more than five, while an evil person is not subject to this restriction.

This coin has a triple charge function, and you can use it to achieve one of the following effects—

To absorb a portion of the soul's essence and gain its vitality.

You ask a question to the soul through telepathy, forcing it to give a truthful answer, but the soul within the coin only knows about its past life. The answer is often only one or two sentences long, and may be obscure and difficult to understand.

The soul trapped within the coin will be freed, causing the coin to rust and be destroyed. The freed soul will travel to the kingdom of the god it worships. Evil souls will fall into the nine hells and become 'inferior demons'.

Saving a soul will be seen as a good deed, even if the soul itself is evil.

Remarks:

Everything has a price, and the soul is no exception—Mammon, the devil.

The coin in his hand was undoubtedly formed from Barbaya's soul.

Not long after her head was smashed open that day, a phantom of a soul howled and crawled out of her body, but in the next moment, it seemed to be enveloped in blood, turning into this coin, which landed in Tang Qi's hand—

According to legend, these coins were made by Mammon, the devil king who ruled the third level of Hell, and were often used as currency in Hell.

This miser would use the molten iron of hell to cast the captured souls into coins, which would then circulate in hell.

But now it seems that there is more than one way to mint Soul Coins.

Considering Barbaya's status as a sorcerer, she may have made some kind of pact with the sect leader, using her soul as a bargaining chip, thus being turned into a coin after death.

This coin could be used as the equivalent of at least three bottles of life potion, and Tang Qi didn't want to give it up.

After several days, it seemed that the sect leader of Babaya had no intention of causing him any trouble, so Tang Qi temporarily put it into his possession.

After finally tallying up the rewards, Tang Qi quickly turned to the last page of the log.

After crossing out previously resolved issues, such as the connection between orcs and Dragongold City, and the reasons for the migrations of various races, signifying that the doubts have been answered, new goals were written down instead—

Why did the log end up in my hands?

[The History of the Golden Kingdom: A lost empire situated in a vast desert. Princess Eve Edel led her people to establish Dragongold City. Due to Leon Lionheart's betrayal, she was forced to place her soul into a young dragon, awaiting its awakening.]

[The History of Dawn: Heroes Before the Golden Kingdom?]

What caused the phlogiston leak in the desert?

[I visited the Sandalwood Forest and wrote "A Guide to the Sandalwood Forest".]

He led the orc tribes to the southern Great Wall and wrote "The Great Wall Guide."

After all, his ultimate goal was to increase his fame.

Uncovering the truth of history and stories, and writing it down in the "Guide" and his journal, naturally became his inherent goal.

And now they are all pointing south, making a southward move inevitable:

"There's also a place called Fengshazhou in the south, but it's quite remote. It's said to be a city of spices and desert. You can visit it after you've finished exploring the Great Wall."

At least I wasn't being chased around anymore, so I had more motivation to move around.

Tang Qi then called on Shyvana to set off immediately.

So he stepped onto the carpet, which was probably made of tiger skin, and lifted the curtain—

Orcs rarely craft doors or doors.

They didn't consider this thing valuable; outside the tent-like shed, only a curtain made of heavy leather hung.

Lifting the lid, Tang Qi stood on a platform constructed of logs, rough planks, and various large animal hides. The cold wind from above made him shiver.

"It's so cold, is it still fucking September?"

The place where he stood was roughly in the very center of the tribe, at the highest point of the building parallel to him, where only the three other giant tortoises had simple watchtowers, each topped with a tribal flag.

On the brownish-yellow deer hide, dark red filthy blood pooled to form a crudely made, roaring tortoise.

It can be inferred that they were a nomadic tribe that built their village on the back of a giant tortoise from the very beginning.

Although most orcs are not very intelligent, their years of accumulated experience have enabled them to accomplish the feat of making their home on the turtle's back.

"Shivana!"

Tang Qi called out a few times, but received no response.

They could only climb down the swaying ladder, then bypass the now empty market that occupied the main part of the turtle's back, and finally returned to the ground.

He saw Shivana counting people in an open area. The crowd wasn't dense; it seemed to be only slightly larger than the population of Starplum Town.

Orcs and goblins are roughly divided into three groups of six, with the last group consisting of ogres with giant blood. At first glance, however, females and children make up the majority.

Only two trolls remained, roaring violently from hunger, chained and shackled to a cage on the back of another tortoise.

As Tang Qi approached, he could feel the scrutiny of many orcs and goblins—

After all, from their perspective, 'flesh people' like Tang Qi would usually be kept in animal cages.

However, many people had witnessed the tragedy of Babaa being blown in the head, so they didn't dare to actually do anything to Tang Qi.

"Let's get ready to go," Tang Qi urged.

Shyvana didn't answer Tang Qi, but gritted her teeth and gripped the giant axe tightly in her hand:

"Damn Barbaya, what has she done to the tribe?"

"Which aspect are you referring to?" Tang Qi frowned.

"It hasn't been long since I left, and the tribe has already lost a full third of its men!?"

Even in orc tribes where everyone is a soldier, men are still the backbone.

Tang Qi finally understood why breaking through the orcs' encirclement was so easy for their team—the orcs who tried to surround them, numbering less than a hundred, plus a larger number of goblin soldiers, were actually the standard military equipment of the entire tribe.

"After you left, some ran away due to food shortages, some got lost in the forest, and you killed another batch... It's normal that so many old, weak, sick, and disabled people are left."

Tang Qi analyzed.

"But Barbaya slaughtered 'Tutes'! She cut off its flesh and used it as emergency food!"

"Shivana roared."

"Who is Tutes?" Tang Qi asked.

Shyvana pointed angrily at a giant tortoise in the sky.

Tang Qi initially thought that the giant tortoise was hiding inside its shell.

After all, it doesn't need to move.

But now it is discovered that the entire turtle shell has been hollowed out, leaving only a bloody and mutilated remains.

Although the tribe has hundreds of mouths to feed, a whole giant tortoise is enough to serve as emergency food during this period.

Tang Qi realized that something was definitely not right.

Driven by curiosity, I simply said:

"Why don't you just ask her?"

"You smashed her head in!" Shyvana gritted her teeth and muttered.

Tang Qi took out his only Soul Coin, felt the anger of the soul, and asked in his mind:

"Why did the Fierce Roar tribe lose so many people in less than a month?"

The echo he received, like a whisper of his own heart, lingered in his ears, hoarse and sinister:
“I lured them to kill each other, thereby turning their souls into coins, and then releasing them.”

Turning a soul into a coin and then releasing it is simply to transform the other person into a lesser demon in the Nine Hells—the lowest and weakest demon in Hell.

But isn't this more troublesome than taking them directly to the Nine Hells and twisting them?

Tang Qi pondered the purpose of doing this, filled with doubt.

But knowing his chances of asking questions were limited, he instead asked:
"Who is your sect leader?"

"I do not know."

With only one charge remaining, Tang Qi hesitated about whether to keep the coin.

If the sect leader of the other party is some powerful figure in the Nine Hells, then it's likely that they will inevitably attract the other party's attention...

"But so many days have passed. If he wanted to pay attention, he would have already been watching me. But I'm still perfectly fine. Either he's secretly observing me, or he's just unaware of it?"

With that in mind, he reserved one last chance to ask.

Based on initial assessments, Barbaya, who doesn't even know who the sect leader is, is probably just a lackey following orders and may not know much about the inside story.

This is also to avoid wasting energy.

He then looked at Sivana:

“Those people were lured into killing each other and were ultimately sacrificed.”

"How did you know?" Shivana asked hesitantly.

"I asked directly."

Tang Qi shrugged and urged, amidst the other party's surprise and doubt.

"Now that the truth has been revealed, can we set off?"

"Why did she sacrifice her own people...?"

"Because she doesn't care, understand? Do you expect a goblin favored by the devil to have any sense of belonging to the tribe? She's not as stupid as you—"

So, have you learned your lesson? Don't just recruit any sorcerer to lead your tribe in the future. Who knows what kind of monster is behind her?"

"But she has been living in the tribe for decades!"

“If you hadn’t interfered with her plans, she might have already sacrificed them all two years ago… or rather, she might have allowed them to reproduce in large numbers, thus enabling a sustainable sacrifice.”

"If she didn't care about the tribe, why would she distribute Thutz's flesh equally among everyone?"

Shyvana pointed to the goblins beside her.

What does she really want?

"Perhaps they are needed to do evil?"

Tang Qi recalled the unjust duel he had witnessed through the witch's eyes and finally understood.

"If the meat is distributed equally to everyone, but you run out of meat in your hand, you can only rob others."

Perhaps her true purpose is to make everyone commit the most despicable crime for your tribe—'the strong challenge the weak'?

Her goal was to twist the soul so that, by some means, it could be turned into the coin itself.

This seems to be the most reasonable guess.

But perhaps the existence of evil spirits was too far removed from her, and Shyvana seemed to still be pondering.

Tang Qi, however, lost his patience:

"What's done is done, there's no point in dwelling on the past."

All you need to know now is that if you drag this out any longer, it won't just be the tribespeople who have been sacrificed who die—the entire tribe will perish at the hands of Dragon Gold City's army.

Therefore, they immediately took the ground flour with them, and then tried to obtain other food along the way if needed.

We have to get going.

He only regretted that the [Contract] couldn't truly control Shyvana's behavior.

Otherwise, why go through all this trouble and have to consider the feelings of this orc?

Fortunately, she still understood what was truly important and immediately issued the order:
"Remove the chains from Tutes, move the goods to the main market, and then we'll set off immediately!"

A sudden commotion arose from the crowd.

Most of them were in languages unique to orcs and goblins, which Tang Qi couldn't understand.

But just by looking at their irritable and resentful expressions, one can tell that they are dissatisfied.

Fortunately, we were finally able to set off.

While the tribe was packing their belongings, Tang Qi climbed back to the chief's hut using a ladder and lay down on a bed made of haystacks and animal hides.

Ambi was curled up in the corner of the bed, taking a nap.

The bed was big enough, so Tang Qi lay down at the other end to conserve his energy for the upcoming guiding mission.

In his light sleep, he felt someone stripping away his clothes.

He didn't want to wake up, only saying in a daze:

"Ambi, don't touch it..."

But when he said the little girl's name, he almost suddenly came to his senses.
"Wait—I don't fucking want to commit a crime!"

He quickly opened his eyes and realized that the person straddling his waist was not the furry little girl. Tang Qi then breathed a sigh of relief.

Wine-red long hair, delicate skin.

It's Catherine.

Tang Qi began to taste the plum wine:

"It was just a dream, then it's alright."

anyway.