Soul of Burning Steel

The news brought by No. 3 did not change anything in a short period of time. Everyone in the Lord's Mansion lived as usual without much change.

Hotaru and Black worked together to rectify some matters in the lord's mansion. They occasionally took the two daughters of Brandon and Verdani to walk around the main city and play around. Most of the residents of Moldavia have long been familiar with each other. The young maid of the lord's mansion is the head of the house, so no one disturbs their play on weekdays.

Rin travels between Winter Castle and the Lord's Mansion, handling most of the government affairs for Joshua. The boy with a slight tendency towards workaholics always works overtime until late at night. Joshua wondered if he was squeezing the young man's labor force too much.

Artanis also visited the lord's mansion several times. The old bishop expressed his gratitude to Joshua repeatedly after learning about the soldiers' experience in the holy mountain. Only at this time did the soldiers know how many of Artanis had Students and acquaintances are now on the western defense line of the holy mountain. After hearing the news that his friend is safe and sound, the sadness on the old man's face is gone.

Joshua himself, as usual, communicates with the world all the time. He strengthens his power bit by bit by resonating with the free energy in the atmosphere.

Recently, it has gradually entered late autumn, and winter in the Northland is approaching. Both farmers and hunters, explorers and adventurers have come to the busiest time. They are busy harvesting crops and hunting fat beasts. When I came to explore the mysterious Great Ajax Mountains for the last time and get paid by the lord's mansion, the whole Moldavia was rarely busy, and everyone had their own work.

But at this time, the soldier was standing in the center of a wasteland at least tens of kilometers away from the main city. His eyes were closed, the air flow from his mouth and nose was surging, and his chest and abdomen were rising and falling rhythmically. With the body as the center, it radiates in all directions like an oven, turning the wasteland within hundreds of meters into sand and scorched earth little by little.

'Breath of Burnt Prison'

Since the last time he faced the red dragon Evian, and realized a little bit of the "extreme intent of flame" from the self-destruction of the fusion star, which is the essence of the scorching sun, the warrior has been trying to master this power.

Today's Joshua, the basic quality of the body, the spirit of the will, the fighting spirit are extremely solid, and he is a real strong man in the extreme, but his expertise and talent have not kept up, similar to the permanent gain state of the steel armor breathing method There is no practice either.

After all, it has only been two years since he traveled to the present, and he kept on taking risks in the middle, traveling to other worlds. Although this made the warrior's level rise rapidly, it made him fail to keep up with other aspects. This time in the Blood Moon Abyss The battles against Mandagar and Evian on Mount Sanctuary exposed this deficiency - he doesn't have a reliable means of ranged attack other than throwing Hotaru and Rin out.

And the extremely terrifying special ability of Lieyang Flash is undoubtedly very suitable for Joshua. For this reason, the warrior specially spent time to create a brand-new power control technique to control the power of the flame and the sun, that is, the breath of scorched prison.

Breath of Scorched Prison is a special energy internal circulation system. Its performance is to improve the practitioner's resistance to single spell damage and master the corresponding supernatural ability. As far as the current actual effect is concerned, this unique breathing method The resistance exhibited is itself incidental to the supernatural abilities acquired by the practitioner upon completion of the study. And the ability in this aspect is even more powerful for people like Joshua who have a combination of elements such as high temperature and raging fire in their battle qi, and even the time required for cultivation is greatly shortened.

Now that the perfection of the Breath of Scorched Prison is coming to an end, as long as warriors use all their fighting energy, they can generate high temperatures exceeding the surface of the sun, easily vaporize steel, and break through most of the defenses in the world. At the end, it will undoubtedly be much easier to control Lieyang Flash.

The heat wave in the atmosphere gradually dissipated, and the distorted air returned to calm. Joshua stopped practicing fighting qi. The sun was setting, today's daily exercise was over, and he was going back to the Lord's Mansion to handle some government affairs.

The flying speed of the extreme-level powerhouse is far faster than that of gold. It didn't take long for Joshua, who didn't use his full strength, to return from the wasteland to the sky above the main city of Moldavia. He stood high in the sky, looking down at his territory, watching The bustling flow of people in the city, and the people outside the city who are gradually returning.

The Harvest Festival is coming soon. Joshua thought of it this way, this is a large-scale celebration that is held every autumn, and as the lord, he needs to preside over the whole process. It's not just the Northland, all over the country, even His Majesty the Emperor will host similar festivals.

"Since that's the case." The soldier murmured softly to himself, "It's about time..."

At this moment, Joshua suddenly felt something, and turned his head to look into the distance. At the end of the horizon, he saw a white horse galloping along the road towards the main city of Moldavia.

The blood of this horse is excellent, and it was obviously mixed with dragon beasts. After running for a very long time, its physical strength can still make it make a long hiss, so that passers-by and carriages that walk slower ahead quickly avoid it. And on the horseback was an extremely exhausted red-haired young man who seemed to be dying after going through the bumps of a long journey.

Watching the white horse approach the main city bit by bit, Joshua's eyes flickered.

He landed slowly at the gate of the city, waiting for the arrival of the other party.

A person fell from the sky, causing bursts of chaos and noisy noise, but after a few seconds, the scene quieted down.

Most of the citizens have seen their young lord in festivals and ceremonies, and even a small number of them have children who are studying at the Academy of Winterhold. Seeing Joshua's arrival, the gate of the main city of Moldavia was suddenly silent. Cars and horses did not dare to move forward, and pedestrians stopped uneasy, until Joshua turned his head to signal that those who were crowded at the gate of the city should hurry up. The world breaks out of its stillness only when it is in the city.

As they walked, everyone stared at their lord with awe until they left the city gate.

As time passed, the number of people coming and going at the gate of the city has gradually decreased, the sun has completely disappeared, and night has fallen. Joshua stood at the gate of the city, and he waited for the galloping white horse.

At the end of the road, the red-haired young man on the horse naturally also saw Joshua, he hastily tightened the reins and stopped the mount under him, and then the young man dismounted immediately and rushed towards the warrior.

The skin of this red-haired young man has a sickly paleness, which is obviously the result of staying indoors for many years without seeing the sun. His hands are full of blood blisters from riding a war horse, and he can tell at a glance that he rarely goes out and uses a mount on weekdays.

As soon as he came in front of the soldiers, tears filled his eyes. The red-haired young man seemed to want to speak, but he couldn't say anything. He didn't have time to think why Joshua happened to be at the gate of the city, so he straightened Kneeling down, the body fell to the ground, expressing endless respect and fear.

"Aardman Carlos."

After waiting for a long time, seeing that the other party was kneeling without saying anything, Joshua said, "Alfonso's eldest son, why did you return to Moldavia?"

After hearing the soldier's question, the red-haired young man, that is, Adman Carlos, trembled violently. He raised his head slightly, not daring to look directly into Joshua's eyes, and said in a trembling voice: "My lord... ...I ... my father ..."

Joshua looked down at the young man who didn't dare to look directly at him, his eyes narrowed, and he recalled the first time he saw this young man two years ago - when he was still a teenager. Alfonso introduced his eldest son to the soldier, and revealed that he was willing to take him as a hostage under the lord's mansion, but Joshua saw the loyalty of the other party and felt that there was no need for such trouble, so he simply refused.

But now, much has changed. The soldier said: "Alfonso Carlos, your father is dead, I know that."

Perhaps because of Joshua's slightly cold words, Aardman's expression was a little stiff, but after hesitating for a while, he immediately replied in pain: "My lord, my father is dead, uncle, Daliq Uncle and the others are all dead too!"

His words caused a commotion among passers-by. Many people looked at each other, not knowing what was going on, but no one dared to stop and continue to listen to this matter.

Joshua didn't care about this gaze, he said, "Be more specific, what happened."

"One night two weeks ago, my father was calculating the bill." Now that Aardman has calmed down, he swallowed dryly, and then quickly said: "But when I brought the hot drink to the study, I found that Father, he is already dead—without any warning, he just stopped breathing, and I even greeted him a few minutes ago!"

Speaking of this, Adman's expression showed extreme pain, and tears came out of his eyes: "Every few days, someone in the family will die like this, first Uncle Xindal, and then Uncle Daliq, I don't know when I was on my way No one has left during this time..."

"enough."

Joshua shook his head in disappointment, his voice was indifferent: "Other than that, is there anything else you want to explain?"

Aardman was forced by the momentum and was speechless for a while, but looking at this, the soldier knew that the other party really didn't want to explain other things.

Joshua looked up at the black night sky, and the double moons were slowly rising. He was silent for a while, and then said: "I knew about Alfonso's death a few days ago. I originally planned to go to the imperial capital at that time. Find the murderer, avenge him, but number 3 reminded me of one thing."

Looking down at the red-haired young man whose body was trembling violently, Joshua said softly: "Although I don't know why, but you are the one who forged the financial report, Aardman. Although you imitate your father's handwriting skillfully, but for me and 3 It’s just too clumsy in numbers.”

"Your concealment delayed the reporting of your father's death by two weeks." The soldier's tone was calm: "Explain it."

After hearing what Joshua said, the red-haired young man immediately raised his head in horror. He seemed to want to explain, but he was speechless under the cold gaze of the soldier. In the end, Aardman could only lower his head little by little. , and then tell the truth.

The financial report received on the 3rd at the beginning was indeed forged by several deputies of Aardman and Alfonso in order to conceal the news.

They thought that Alfonso's sudden death was just because of his hard work and the hidden injuries he suffered from running a business in the early years. No one thought that it was a planned murder. Fearing that the Lord's Mansion would send someone to replace the Carlos family to take over the property of the imperial capital, Adman, Sindar, and Dalic decided to temporarily forge the report on the flow of funds, preparing to first grasp the rights that Alfonso had obtained after Alfonso's death. Go and tell of Alfonso's death.

For power and money, even ordinary people will muster great courage until the second and third sudden death appear.

Sindal, Daliq, and even other attendants in the house died one after another, which scared Aardman out of his wits. He instantly understood that this was a temptation aimed at the Radcliffe family and Joshua. The young man's concealment and non-reporting behavior was considered by the other party to be Joshua's weakness, which made these unknown people even more rampant.

Aardman, who was frightened to a mental breakdown, took his seldom-used mount and fled all the way to a small city outside the imperial capital. He immediately teleported back to the border of the Northland, and then ran all the way to the main city of Moldavia. Fa Youth originally wanted to hide his drama of fighting for power and profit and not report it, but he didn't expect to be seen through at a glance.

"It's ugly."

Shaking his head, Joshua closed his eyes. He didn't want to see the embarrassment of the other party. The soldier said calmly: "You have stayed in the imperial capital for a long time than me, and you must know the situation better... Aardman, you Who do you think assassinated your father and his deputy?"

He didn't pursue the other party's concealment, because there was no need for it. Joshua only wanted to know one thing now, and that was who the enemy was.

"...The Fertao family runs the 'Imperial Iron Fist' series of chain weapon stores, and the Seward family owns the largest ore producing area in the Northwest."

After realizing that Joshua didn't bother to punish him for hiding, Aardman thought for a while, and then reported the names of the two families. After a while, he thought about it again, and said the name of the third family: "Perhaps the Toledo family is also possible... Their property is magic scrolls, which have nothing to do with us, but it is rumored that the old earl injured their contemporary family when he was young... These are just speculations."

After saying this, the red-haired young man immediately added the suffix with some fear. He didn't know if it was done by these families, but they are the ones who competed the most with the Radcliffe family recently, and the same is true when it comes to suspicion.

"very good."

Nodding slightly, Joshua ignored the young man kneeling on the ground, whose body was still trembling: "The crimes you committed cannot be forgiven, but that is not now."

"Repent."

His body slowly floated up and disappeared into the darkness of the night sky, leaving only an indifferent voice from the sky: "Before the revenge is over."