This young master truly has the ambition of a hero.

In fact, if it weren't for the fear of causing unforeseen complications, Dick could have simply released the news that Hammuradi had appeared in Lagug, and who knows how many top experts would have come to kill him!

Dick was slightly surprised by Behemoth's appearance alongside him.

The appearance of the two old magicians was very cool, and the lightning cage they jointly cast played a crucial role.

The purpose of this barrier magic is simply to completely isolate Hammuradi from it.

To put it simply, this cage is like an electromagnetic shield, cutting off Hammuradi's internet connection and preventing him from continuing to draw power from the evil god he had sworn a pact with.

In his prime, this cage would have been unable to contain him; he would have had ways to break free even without the power of the evil god. But now he is at his limit, and without the support of the evil god's power, his fatal wounds alone are enough to take his life.

It is no exaggeration to say that Dick's men and the two old magicians, without prior coordination, executed a near-perfect "combination attack".

Hammuradi, finally exhausted, collapsed to his knees in despair.

He lost!

Looking at his crumbling body, Hammuradi looked up at Dick, who had led him to this predicament, and a bitter smile appeared on his face.

"It seems Her Majesty is right. I am just a simple-minded warrior, and I am indeed no match for these schemes and tricks. But the Withered Tree Party will still exist without me, and my companions will not let you go."

“In life, you’re bound to offend some people. I can handle it, so please don’t worry about me, Grandpa.”

Everyone present could see that Hammuradi was already exhausted. At this point, instead of going up to finish him off, it would be better to continue maintaining the barrier and simply keep it in a "disconnected" state.

Hammuradi's gaze remained fixed on Dick through the barrier, his expression seemingly complex.

"Is there anything you'd like to say before you die?"

"Last words? I don't care about those things anymore. Instead, while I'm still breathing, let me tell you a few interesting little secrets."

When Hammuradi said this, he had a half-smile on his face, clearly indicating that his dying secret was not a well-intentioned remark.

And that's exactly what happened. The things he said were all incredibly shocking, the kind of secrets that are better left unknown than known.

First, there was the nameless demigod he encountered in the palace when he attempted to assassinate the Black Forest Emperor. This demigod was a demon who, theoretically, had been exterminated by the elves ten thousand years ago, and was also a rare sorcerer.

For an emperor to keep such a monster is truly defying the world!

However, the demon did not kill Hammuradi on the spot, but instead cast a curse on him.

This curse turned Hammuradi into a living dead in unbearable agony, his soul and body constantly subjected to indescribable torment.

So, Hammuradi, who had fled in a sorry state, went to great lengths to find Dick's grandmother, a succubus girl of extremely pure blood, named Lilith, in order to break the curse on her. This name is very common among succubi, just like Chinese girls being named Cuilan or Cuihua.

Succubus sex magic is the most powerful antidote in the world. Although succubus fluids are addictive, the problem of mere addiction is insignificant compared to the torment caused by the curse.

However, the curses of demigod-level sorcerers are no small matter. Although Lilith has a pure bloodline, she could only alleviate the power of the curse at first, but could not truly remove it.

So, for his own sake, Hammuradi began to train Lilith and help her improve her strength.

During this process, Lilith seems to have truly fallen in love with Hammuradi.

Succubuses generally have average talent in magic and martial arts, and their cultivation level improves very slowly. However, Hammuradi was at the peak of the Saint rank after all, and he also had all sorts of rare and precious materials that he brought from the Elven Holy Kingdom. It took him a full hundred years to finally bring Lilith into the Saint rank.

Lilith was probably the first Saint-rank succubus in this world.

The Saint-level succubus's ability to break curses was naturally extraordinary, successfully lifting the curse cast by the demigod. However, because the undead constitution had not been eliminated over time, Hammuradi looked like a strange, bloodless dead man.

At the same time the curse was lifted, Lilith also gave birth to a daughter for Hammuradi, who became Dick's biological mother, Yelena.

Things had come to a perfect end, but unfortunately, Lilith's sincere feelings were all wasted on Hammuradi, that cold-blooded and ruthless ingrate.

Hammuradi had been using Lilith from beginning to end, treating her as a tool to break the curse. Moreover, after helping Lilith advance to the Saint rank, he discovered that the bloodline enhancement that succubi gained after entering the Saint rank was extremely strange, so strange that it made Hammuradi somewhat uneasy.

So Hammuradi killed Lilith, who loved him deeply, with his own hands!

As for Lilith's daughter Yelena, although the child looks no different from a pure-blooded elf, she does indeed have half succubus blood. In the eyes of elves, who are deeply prejudiced against race, this is an unclean offspring, and in Hammuradi's eyes, it is a disgrace.

So Yelena was sold by her own father to Duke Best. The transaction was conducted face-to-face, as the Duke happened to have a "business" opportunity with Hammuradi at the time.

At this point, Hammuradi smiled sinisterly, looking at Dick, whose complexion wasn't so good, and said, word by word.

"Your father actually knew that your mother had half succubus blood from the very beginning, and he bought your mother for that half of her blood."

Chapter 091: The Great Revenge of the Sect is Avenged

The fact that Dick had a quarter succubus bloodline had always been a secret known only to a very few people; even Dick himself didn't discover it until he was fifteen or sixteen. This was all thanks to Belfast and Rita; in a sense, it was the two of them who "tasted" it out.

The secret of his bloodline was kept hidden thanks to his mother, Yelena, who had the appearance of a "pure-blooded elf," making it impossible for people to tell that she was actually mixed-race, thus leading to misunderstandings about Dick's lineage.

Therefore, after understanding his actual bloodline composition, Dick deduced that the reason the Duke wanted to kill his Yelena was most likely because he discovered that Yelena had succubus blood, and he had unknowingly been poisoned by the succubus's bodily fluids, and wanted to kill her in order to quit his addiction.

But now Hammuradi tells Dick that his father actually knew all along that his mother had half succubus blood, and that it was precisely for this half succubus blood that he bought Yelena from Hammuradi.

Considering Hammuradi's earlier statement that he was under a curse and specifically sought out Dick's grandmother, Lilith, to break the curse, Dick immediately made a connection.

Seeing Dick's thoughtful expression, Hammuradi knew he had achieved his goal.

Why are you telling me this?

Hammuradi, whose entire body was on the verge of shattering, smiled without saying a word. Then his eyes slowly lost focus and quickly dimmed to the point of being lifeless.

Grandor and Behemoth, who were maintaining the barrier, were about to stop and dispel the spell when Dick spoke up to remind them.

"Teacher, don't stop yet. Maintain the barrier for a while longer. He might be faking his death."

Hearing Dick's reminder, the two old magicians nodded silently and continued to maintain the magical flow to the barrier. With their magical power, the barrier could easily last for another three days and three nights.

Hammuradi, who appeared to be dead inside the barrier, suddenly came back to life, turned his head to look at his good grandson outside the barrier, his eyes filled with boundless rage and murderous intent.

Hammuradi was indeed faking his death, but fortunately Dick was very cautious.

By this time, the battle on the beach was nearing its end. Five hundred fully armed soldiers arrived from their ambush position a kilometer away and quickly surrounded the stranded pirate ships.

Some of the pirates on the ship tried to put up a fight, but the rabble was no match for the well-trained soldiers and was quickly wiped out. The remaining henchmen all surrendered.

After the soldiers boarded the ship, they quickly rescued a large number of slaves from the cabins.

These poor souls were "cargo" brought by pirates for trade. When they were forcibly dragged ashore, they felt like dumplings being shaken in a tumbler inside the hold. Many were injured as a result, and they were all dizzy and disoriented, completely unaware of what was happening outside. As soon as their feet touched the ground, they immediately knelt down and vomited profusely.

It is worth mentioning that when the soldiers searched the ship, they also found more than a dozen elven girls. They were also wearing collars and shackles, which symbolized slaves, but their living conditions were better than those of ordinary slaves.

At this moment, Joel's duel with the pirate captain Tiger is the only battle on the beach that has not yet ended.

Some soldiers wanted to help when they saw this, but were glared at fiercely by Joel and could only stand in a circle and watch.

Joel was determined to kill Tiger alone, regarding him as his "prey".

Fortunately, although Tiger had high attack and health and was particularly resistant to beatings, he was ultimately much slower than Joel. Joel seized the opportunity to flip over his head, grabbed his head tightly with both hands, and suddenly rotated his upside-down waist. Relying on the powerful inertia, he directly twisted Tiger's head 180 degrees to the left, and then slit his throat with a knife, using brute force to pull his head and spine out together.

Blood gushed from Tiger's severed neck like a fountain. Joel, bathed in the blood rain, held the enemy's head high and gave Dick a bright, sunny smile.

The striking and contrasting scene left many people in the audience stunned.

"It's over, we won!"

Amid cheers, Dick finally breathed a sigh of relief and ordered his troops to set up camp on the spot.

They gained a great deal from this battle, including rescuing slaves and capturing over a thousand pirates.

Finally, the medical team, led by Natasha and Shizuka Marikawa, entered. The medical staff conducted a simple physical examination on the slaves and found that the vast majority of them had significant health problems; they only appeared to have rosy complexions.

After inquiring, it was learned that these slaves had suffered all kinds of abuse at the hands of the pirates. Before they were about to reach the shore, the pirates gave each of them a cup of strong liquor mixed with gunpowder, which made them look good, but in reality they were very weak. Many of them were injured when they were beached.

If they were to move on foot under these circumstances, many would likely die on the way, before even reaching the nearest village.

So before nightfall, a makeshift military camp was set up, and the cooks carried the 350 pounds of goods that Dick had brought for the trade directly into the kitchen, added water and oil to make fragrant flatbreads, and distributed them to the freed slaves along with meat broth.

The captured pirate henchmen could only eat cold, hard coarse bread (anotherworldly baguette) with cold water. Dick specifically instructed the cook to give these prisoners only one-third of their rations, just enough to keep them from starving.

After nightfall, once they had confirmed that Hammuradi was indeed dead, the two old magicians lifted the barrier. When Black Gunner stepped forward to examine the body, he simply touched it lightly with his hand, and the corpse immediately shattered into ashes, leaving only a spatial ring.

As for the artifacts on Hammuradi's body, not a single one was found.

Grandor and Behemoth speculated that Hammuradi possessed artifacts of evil gods bound to his soul, and that these artifacts would self-destruct once Hammuradi died.

This is a defense mechanism devised by the evil gods. They do not want their creations to fall into the hands of righteous people, because righteous gods are very likely to use the divine marks on these artifacts to find their true forms hidden in the demon realm and beat them up.

It's like accidentally revealing your real IP address while doing something wrong, and then getting your home inspected.

After emptying Hammuradi's spatial ring, Dick looked at the mess on the ground and thought to himself that his cheap grandfather was really poor!

The most numerous items in the entire spatial ring were diaries, stacked like a small mountain, totaling more than five hundred.

Because of their long lifespan, even the most intelligent elves will gradually forget many things over time. Therefore, many elves have the habit of keeping diaries to help them remember.

These diaries could help Dick understand Hammuradi’s experiences over the past thousand years and learn a lot about the Dead Tree Party, but other than that, they were of little use.

Aside from these diaries, the rest of the items were all daily necessities, with only a few enchanted daggers worth a little money.

Clearly, Hammuradi is not the type to carry his entire fortune with him.

Dick and the two teachers discussed it and decided not to make the news of Hammuradi's death public for the time being. Although the bounty on Hammuradi was very high, a real fortune, they knew they would never actually receive the money, and the trouble that would follow would be endless.

The two old wizards wanted nothing but to kill Hammuradi. Their mentor, Dick's grandmaster, the renowned Archmage Levid, had been assassinated by Hammuradi.

Now that the great revenge of their sect has been avenged, the two can finally put an end to a knot in their hearts.

Behemoth, in particular, vaguely felt that his state of mind had changed slightly. He immediately said that he would go back to seclusion to cultivate, because he might really have a chance to break through to the Saint rank and enter the realm of the Demigod.

Watching his senior brother leave in a hurry, Grandor sighed with envy.

“Your senior master is more talented than me, this time he might really have a chance.”

"Teacher, you can do it too, I believe in you!"

Hearing the compliments from his most prized disciple, Grandor smiled and patted Dick on the shoulder. The two apostles returned to their tent. Belfast and Rita, who had already prepared dinner, withdrew at Dick's signal.

Grandor glanced at the two beautiful girls and teased Dick.

"You little rascal, you acted like a bookworm back in the academy, but you've been governor for less than a year and you're surrounded by beauties. Don't neglect your cultivation."

"Don't worry, teacher, I've already gotten the hang of it."

"Reaching the threshold isn't difficult; the real challenge is crossing it. It took me a full thirty years to reach that point, and even your senior uncle, who was more accomplished than me, took seventeen years. But at this stage, talent and opportunity truly matter more than hard work."

"Let's not talk about that for now, teacher. You just came from the capital. What's the situation there?"

Upon hearing Dick mention the capital, Grandor knew exactly what Dick was asking about. After a moment of contemplation, the old magician frowned and sighed.

"I don't care about politics, but the situation in the capital right now is quite turbulent. With the Crown Prince dead, many people's minds have become active. It's disturbing the Magic Academy. It's so annoying! I don't want to get involved in those messy things, but people keep coming to test me every few days. It's making me want to leave the capital for a while and find some peace and quiet."

Grandor was, after all, a Saint-level mage. Even if he couldn't compare to a strategic weapon like a demigod, he was at least tactical. Therefore, even if he declared neutrality, some people would still be uneasy.

"Then you can stay here with me, as long as you like."

"Don't do that, lest you bring trouble upon yourself. You'd better stay away from the capital for a while and try not to go back."

"That's the troublesome part. I have to go back at the end of next month."

Dick shrugged helplessly. As the governor of the fiefdom, reporting on his duties was another hurdle he had to overcome besides cultivation.

Chapter 092: "Root" Cures All Diseases

Grandor didn't stay in Lagug for long; he left in a hurry the next day.

Dick and his men stayed in the same spot for two more days, building a simple camp and leaving two hundred soldiers to garrison there and guard the seven pirate ships they had captured.

Dick planned to build a port here, and then send a group of craftsmen and shipwrights to repair the captured ships.

These ships are all three-masted sailing ships with a displacement of about 400 tons. They are not as good as the paddle steamers that the Empire has developed using Earth's technology, but they are still usable.

Having experienced this battle, Dick had made up his mind that his main naval force would be composed of ship girls who were loyal, reliable, and capable, while conventional ships would be used primarily for civilian purposes.

It is worth mentioning that after capturing these ships, Dick sent men aboard to search for the suspected artifact that could create fog, but after searching for a long time, they found nothing.

Just as everyone was wondering what was going on, someone noticed that the fog was slowly moving towards the open sea. They immediately realized that someone was trying to run away with the treasure. Belfast and the other ship girls were about to give chase when they heard a shrill scream from the fog. A short while later, they saw a pirate rowing a small boat desperately toward the shore, shouting at the top of his lungs as he rowed.

"Help! There's a Kraken in the sea!!!"

After the pirate landed, he immediately surrendered to the surrounding army. The crew found an antique-looking bronze lantern on his small boat.

Grandor was still alive at the time and immediately recognized the lantern as "Sea Wraith Illusion." It was indeed a divine artifact, but not one of the proper gods; it was a creation of the sea goddess, the Mother of Whirlpools.

In mythology, this wicked woman creates terrifying whirlpools in the sea and then uses mirages to lure passing ships toward the whirlpool.

This lantern can not only create fog, but it can also create many illusions at sea.

The one who tried to escape was the second-in-command of the Sea Tiger Gang, and also the distant cousin of Voluf, the leader of the Blood Wolf Gang.