Chapter 402: Wanyuan Tomb
Three hours after the attack.

The battle in Carmel City just ended.

More than 50% of the street buildings were damaged, the population dropped by hundreds of thousands, and all you can see are ruins, as if they were crushed and discarded at will by a giant hand.

Smoke, burnt food and blood, all the smells that symbolize death, were intertwined together. Countless dead bodies were lying in the ruins. The faces of many citizens were frozen with pain and fear. The soldiers of the Burning Iron Legion, who had suffered heavy losses, barely maintained their patrol strength, shooting the victims one by one and smashing their heads.

In the distance, a few wisps of black smoke were still rising slowly.

The old priest who had rushed back from the wild came to the front of the church and heard faint crying sounds coming from the collapsed ruins.

The members of the End Society paid great attention to this conspicuous building in the inner city of Carmel. Although there was no strong resistance as expected in the end, the fallen demons that followed almost completely destroyed it.

Click!

The old priest accidentally stepped on the cervical vertebra of a short charred corpse. He held his breath and focused his attention on his surroundings. The lights of death appeared before his eyes. If nothing unexpected happened, among all the orphans, only the oldest Rorona survived.

“How can I live?” The old priest couldn’t help but kneel down and wail.

Jiang He, who was walking slowly not far away, was stunned when he saw this.

The old priest looked really grief-stricken. He turned around with tears streaming down his face and said sadly, “Amber, several years of hard work have been destroyed in an instant. Can you understand this kind of pain?”

“As a sin magician, I still have a few years to live! The idiot children who took care of the elderly and sent them to the end of their lives have suffered heavy casualties. It would be better to just let me die. The damn end will come, and I will avenge it!”

Jiang He took out a pot of dragon blood wine to rinse his mouth and said, “The Sword Sin Master probably didn’t go far.”

The old priest paused when he heard this, “Forget it then. The hatred of revenge is also the sadness of this era.”

Jiang He threw away the empty wine jug, hoping that the other party would have a conscience and be willing to fight to the death. It turned out that he was overthinking.

It stands to reason that the Sword Sin Warlock should not be determined to retreat before the arrival of the reinforcement team. For a terrorist organization like the Endgame, the punishment for failure is probably much more severe than that of the Empire. Unless there is really no hope, the enemy will not easily give up the opportunity to make up for it, such as sneakily stabbing an important person.

However, Jiang He had no plan to hunt down the Knife Sin sorcerer. If no one reported the capture of the Ninth Angel, then his capture would have been in vain.

Among all the angels, Jiang He’s real target is only the violator who defected from the origin.

In the ruins of the church, the old priest’s wailing cries were heard everywhere. He found the only remaining girl, Rorona, and they hugged each other, shedding tears.

Jiang He suddenly turned his head and saw a silver-haired woman striding towards him at the end of the street, with a very exquisite long sword at her waist.

In fact, the other party has a gorgeous face, which is more dazzling than the long sword at her waist. The school uniform fits her body well, revealing her beautiful curves.
Along the way, both the Burning Iron soldiers and the common people were involuntarily attracted by this rare beauty, but there was an extremely subtle weirdness about her from head to toe.

In this regard, Sugon Intelligence quickly gave an analytical conclusion.

“The distance of each step, the amplitude of each arm swing, and the depth of each breath all achieve the same goal. It seems that this person is a bionic humanoid or has a deep obsessive-compulsive disorder.”

Jiang He nodded secretly, and he took out a pair of white gloves that matched the general’s uniform from his imperial pocket. Then he reached out and wiped a mixture of blood and dust on the broken wall, and finally put on the white gloves as if nothing had happened.

The silver-haired woman did not slow down, but just frowned.

After a moment, when she realized that the other party had chosen to wear only one glove, her expression suddenly became solemn.

Hiss!

A finger protruded from the glove.

Jiang He lowered his head, as if somewhat surprised at the quality of the gloves. He kept adjusting the strength, and three consecutive sounds of cloth tearing were heard.

The silver-haired woman was a little annoyed at first, but as one finger after another appeared, her expression calmed down.

Suddenly, Jiang He forcibly stopped the last adjustment.

The silver-haired woman’s expression suddenly changed. When she saw the other party using his dirty hands with four fingers exposed to twist the collar of his uniform, she completely lost her self-control, even though she was able to remain calm in the face of a human killer.

“stop!”

Jiang He pretended not to hear it. He turned his hand and stroked it from the top of his head, easily messing up his neat long platinum hair.

The silver-haired woman tightly gripped the hilt of the knife at her waist, looking as if she was considering something, then loosened her grip. Finally, she couldn’t help it anymore and held the hilt tightly until it was half an inch out of the sheath.

Fortunately, someone has stopped the disturbing behavior.

Jiang He directly put the opponent into the category of no threat, showing too strong a weakness, which was fatal in the battle.

The two sides were in a standoff. After the old priest came to his senses and realized what had happened, he carried Rorona out to smooth things over.

“This is Lady Ashes Sylvia, the only S-rank chief student of Ashes Academy and also the Obsidian Special Envoy sent by the Council. There was an accident on the way, so the others can’t come for the time being.”

The old priest chose his words carefully. The “can’t come” was naturally a euphemism for being completely disappointed.

“This is an unknown strong man, Amber Ashes, currently under the command of Asheye. His life level is not important. What we know is that he is a good fighter. He is my right-hand man.”

The old priest secretly reminded the silver-haired woman that although the overlord was only silver, it was easy for him to bully ordinary gold. Considering that the other party had survived the pursuit of the gold elites for several hours, and theoretically had undergone a huge strengthening after the battle settlement, it was probably only a matter of time before he killed the two golds including himself.

Without any hesitation, Lady Ash silently put the knife back. When it came to fighting, she was very rational.

Jiang He stood there, his expression normal.

“Then let’s start cleaning up the mess.” The old priest clapped his hands and said, “Carmel is in such a miserable state. We have to report it in a nice way.”

Lady Ashes waved her hand lightly, releasing the sinful energy. The ground deviated from its original shape. With manipulation and shaping, a set of stone tables and chairs suddenly appeared among the ruins of the building.

The three of them took their seats.

The old priest gestured with his hand, and Lady Ash said bluntly: “I hope you can become a temporary student of Ash Academy.”

She pulled a folded draft document from her pocket and pushed it across the table. “It was three days ago.”

Jiang He took the document. It was obviously something drafted on the spur of the moment, with neither the wording nor the format being revised.

If he had become a temporary student three days ago, then the Obsidian Task Force would not have made no achievements in this Carmel incident. At least the merits of destroying Emperor Yuan Gui, killing the Cardinal, and capturing the Ninth Angel could cover up the fault of the team’s destruction.

“Battle damage” and “failure” may lead to completely different results based on the same fact.

Jiang He put down the document and nodded slightly.

He doesn’t care about fame for his contributions, nor does he mind others offsetting his demerits, as long as he gets a commensurate reward.

Seeing that the other party agreed, Lady Ashes said, “In Ashes College, the final winner of the annual competition can get a chance to go to the Ten Thousand Abyss Tomb to practice sin energy. In the past four years, the winner has always been me.”

“The Ten Thousand Abyss Tomb is located beneath the academy. It holds more than 4,000 Abyss Ghosts. The hatred that fills it serves as energy to supply the entire Holy City, including but not limited to daily operations, defense facilities, and industrial production.”

“According to the rules of the academy, if you win three times in total, you will be eligible to redeem a masterpiece-level surgery. The chief instructor, Alchemist Master Arska, will personally be in charge of it. It is expected to take three months.”

“One of the masterpiece surgeries can replace the contracted abyss ghost of the recipient. Generally speaking, the contract cannot be changed, so it is equivalent to giving the sinner a new life with a new choice.”

“And most importantly, this surgery contains a key premise, which is that the recipient can enter the Ten Thousand Abyss Tomb and freely choose a suitable Abyss Ghost that he likes, provided that he has the ability to gain a foothold in it.”

Lady Ashes said slowly, “You are probably not a sinner. You can choose the Abyss Ghost and then refuse the operation. The chief instructor is often not in the academy, and he would like to save wasted time.”

Jiang He asked a question, “How do students of Ash Academy become Sin Magicians?”

If the college has arrangements in this regard, then the so-called opportunity will not be that valuable.

The old priest added: “The students of Ash Academy are divided into four levels: A, B, C, and D. I don’t think it’s necessary to elaborate on the additional S level. Only gold has the corresponding qualifications. Among them, A level corresponds to the peak of silver, and C level corresponds to ordinary silver sinners.”

“As for the D-level, they make up the majority, referring to those guys who have not been able to contract with the Abyss Ghost for the time being.”

“The academy has always been committed to the policy of preparing for war. The students must be able to immediately fill positions at all levels in the empire. Therefore, there is no unified arrangement for the capture and contracting of the Abyss Ghosts. Basically, everyone has to figure out their own way, and there are not many restrictions.”

The old priest explained the general situation. All students who can enter the Ashes Academy have the qualifications of sin. The blood of local nobles and the descendants of officers of the Burning Iron Legion have obvious advantages.

The fact that students capture the Yuan Ghosts by themselves does not mean that they cannot obtain off-field assistance. This policy is intended, firstly, to save the cost of training at the academy, and secondly, to increase the intensity of the crackdown on the Yuan Ghosts by local strongmen.

As a price, those with ordinary criminal qualifications have great difficulty in contracting Abyss Ghosts. Therefore, the Speaker of the Parliament specifically supports the academic faction, adopting a system similar to the ancient master-apprentice system to fight against the aristocratic faction, and balance the two.

The old priest joked, “If the students refuse to join any party, it is equivalent to refusing to serve the empire to some extent. Then the Abyss Ghosts they can contract with are nothing more than tomato Abyss Ghosts, mushroom Abyss Ghosts and other types that are just for show.”

Jiang He pondered for a moment and said, “I will be responsible for imprisoning the Ninth Angel and will not hand him over to anyone else.”

Lady Ash replied: “Someone will probably cause trouble for you, but it has nothing to do with the present, so I have no problem with it.”

With strength as guarantee, the three people reached the first round of agreement.

Seeing someone signing the recruitment documents, the old priest said in a serious tone, “The next step is to discuss the destruction of the extraction tower.”

Lady Ash’s face darkened slightly. Before the team set off, Principal Ash repeatedly reminded them that even if Carmel City became a dead zone, the extraction tower could not have any mistakes.

This imperial weapon took decades to manufacture, and massive resources were invested in its defense. It could withstand a half-day attack from an ordinary gold warrior without any problems. However, it encountered the Emperor Yuan Gui, who specifically targeted imperial buildings, and it shattered at the first touch.

“Eye of Ashes, one of the great nobles and the legion commander must die to stop this. All the powerful barons in the thirty-six satellite cities of this state will be stripped of their titles, and the senior officers of the Burning Iron Legion will be demoted by three ranks.” Lady Ashes sighed, “There is a precedent for this.”

During the manufacturing period before the extraction tower was fully completed, they would eventually get the news and launch a massive attack. At that time, the plan had just begun and the severity of the punishment was still within the scope of discretion. If it were now, there would probably be a lot of deaths. Compared with the golden creatures, even if a truckload of barons died, it would not cause fundamental turmoil.

At this moment, the old priest and Lady Ashes were still unaware of the death of the Legion Commander. The aftermath involved gold, and the complexity increased exponentially.

Jiang He tapped the table and said, “I can restore the extraction tower, provided that the nobles and officers pay the price.”

The old priest was filled with emotions when he heard this. He had participated in the siege against this person and knew that unreasonable special ability. However, this ability was not only limited to himself but could also affect external objects. Wasn’t it a bit too amazing?

Lady Ashes showed a flash of surprise on her face, and she confirmed again and again: “The extraction tower you restored must not be a fake. The abomination energy collected by the Holy City is different from what we expected. It will only take a short time to verify its authenticity.”

Jiang He looked calm and said casually, “I have my own place to daydream, I won’t joke around here.”

Lady Ashes’ attitude was solemn. If this was really the case, then the other party was a strategic-level existence, and her importance to the empire was self-evident.

“What does your Excellency want?”

“Five hundred thousand tons of gold, or five million tons of silver, a ten-to-one ratio. The total will be sufficient. There is no requirement for the percentage.” Jiang He said, “In addition, there are 50,000 complete silver bodies of fallen ghosts in the wild. Gather the nobles and officers later. I will repair the Scarlet Theater first. Once the reward is received, the extraction tower will be restored immediately.”

Jiang He planned to make 5,000 evil guards. The originally estimated number of 50 million complete corpses needed could be significantly reduced by using silver bodies instead, and the effect could even be better.

Lady Ash hesitated to speak.

As a player and the leader of a secret force, the old priest knew a lot of information. Facing someone’s request, he could only respond with a bitter smile, “Amber, even before the Ashes, the world’s gold and silver reserves were only 20% of what you requested.”

“It has nothing to do with me.” Jiang He was indifferent and said, “We can mine it now, or use the ore-type Yuangui, or ask the alchemy master. In short, I will not give in to my offer.”

“This……”

“Difficulties can be overcome, but facts are hard to change. Restoring the extraction tower and collecting gold and silver are not of the same level of difficulty.”

The old priest was speechless. He was glad that the other party did not ask for a huge amount of hatred crystals, otherwise the nobles and officers might not be willing to give in.

After a while, Lady Ashes stood up and said, “I will coordinate and resolve your request, but please restore the Scarlet Theater tomorrow morning.”

“Okay.” Jiang He nodded.

The post-conference meeting ended here.

[Obsidian History (revised): On January 130, 1 of the Ash Calendar, the second day of the Bone Bell Festival, the Order of the End launched an attack on the Scarlet Theater in Carmel, causing more than 1 casualties]
[Special Abyss Demon: Birth of the Ash Emperor]
[The First Angel Human Killer intercepted the special task force, resulting in the death of 33 A-level students and 1 combat instructor]
[Under the command of Special Envoy Sylvia, the Ash Emperor finally dissipated, the Academy successfully imprisoned the Ninth Angel, and XXXX was responsible for its specific custody. Cardinal Deborah confirmed his death]
[That night, order was restored in Carmel City]
(End of this chapter)