If possible, few lords were willing to fight the Devil who claimed to be a “soul merchant”. Those who could live in hell were not good people, but the Devil was definitely the one with the most murderous intentions among all the villains.

The huge black shadow rolled and hit, and all the mithril pillars it passed were broken by it. The Devil turned his wrist, and the black blood on the dragon bone sword that cut off the ancient python’s head flew out obliquely. He stood in the center of the hall, surrounded by piles of corpses.

You c an fi nd t he la te st cha pte rs at ( th e bl mu se . c o m )

The army of snakes controlled by the Basilisk was practically annihilated by him.

Hiss.

The rest of the snakes did not rush to attack again, the Basilisk straightened up, and its golden pupils focused closely on the Devil standing in the pile of corpses. In the battle just now, the pair of arms holding sickles on the Basilisk’s side were cut off by the Devil, and the flesh and blood on the wound slowly squirmed at this time. As the price, the Devil endured a bone spur stabbed from Manticore’s long tail.

At this time, the hall was quite empty.

After the battle between the Devil and the Basilisk broke out, the rest of the minor lords were either swept into their battle or began fighting with the bloodkin and withdrew from the hall. The battle here was no longer something small soldiers like them could intervene. The two armies were fighting, and the biggest stage was given to the most brave and terrifying generals.

Drip, drip.

Blood dripped from the tail end of his suit coat, and the Devil slowly raised his head, with that mask-like smile still on his face.

The Basilisk was faintly startled. The authority bestowed by the King on the Devil was stronger than they imagined, and the Devil actually managed to withstand their group attack. In fact, the Devil even took the lead in being on the offensive, subtly suppressing them.

“Aha.” The Trickster controlled the monster Manticore and retreated to the Basilisk’s side. Its shriveled and wrinkled face had a pair of eyes that shone frighteningly, “Your Majesty, do you know the true nature of authority? Do you know that in hell, breaking one’s word is the rule of conduct here?”

The Trickster glanced maliciously back and forth between the Devil and the King.

On the throne, the King sat with his wine goblet in hand and his eyes half-lidded, as if the fierce battle below had nothing to do with him. Countless black butterflies hovered beside him, and all the lords who approached the throne during the battle were stopped by them.

“It’s not a wise choice for you to trust a soul merchant so much. Have you ever thought that——your knight doesn’t want to need you to give him authority? It’s not as comfortable as having it yourself rather than having others give it to you, right?”

The army of snakes slithered around, and the sword in the Devil’s hand turned. He laughed cheerfully: “That’s not the way to sow discord.”

“I think, Your Majesty can be the judge of that.” The Trickster said, with a soft and sweet tone, “Your Majesty, please listen, what has arrived——why did the reinforcements come so coincidentally?”

As soon as the Trickster finished speaking, there was a piercing sound from above his head, like thousands of legions descending from the sky. The sound was screechy and oppressive, it was no longer the flapping sound of different birds just now, but like scales rubbing against rocks.

The King sitting on the throne raised his head subconsciously.

“Close your eyes! Your Majesty!”

The Devil realized the change and shouted.

But it was a step too late.

The moment the King raised his head, the Trickster made eye contact with him.

There was a secret smile on the deceitful lord’s face, and its pupils turned dark red at this moment. Countless spiral cracks were entrenched in its eyes, and those eyes were full of infinite attraction at this moment, like a vortex that could swallow everyone’s soul, boundless malice surging out of that vortex.

Countless overlapping phantoms exploded in the King’s mind. His ice-blue pupils expanded slightly, and his eyes became empty.

The flames of war, the color of blood, the killing…..Sorrowful cries echoed around the King. He felt as if he was walking at the end of a desolate world. There were countless bones under his feet. His royal robe was ripped, and blood flowed down his hands. His people had abandoned him…..he was betrayed, backstabbed.

A sword pierced through his heart, and he turned his head with force, wanting to see who betrayed him in the end.

Almost instantly, the Devil’s already pale face became even paler. The black butterflies hovering around the throne suddenly became weaker, and each one seemed to have its strength pulled back and fell to the ground.

The lords who had been waiting for a long time seized this opportunity. They jumped up, broke through the defense of the black butterflies from the left and right sides like lightning, and stretched out their sharp claws towards the King on the throne.

The Devil turned around without hesitation, and rushed towards the King.

On the wrinkled monkey face of the Trickster, the smile became more and more mysterious. The patterns in its pupils swirled, and the malice in the swirl flooded the King’s world.

…..The blade of the sword was so cold that it could freeze the soul, and blood dripped down. He turned his head forcefully, and the face of the traitor was reflected in his pupils.

——A pale face, a mask-like smile.

“No matter who it is, there will always be seeds of doubt hidden in the heart, especially that of the monarch.”

The smile on the Trickster’s face was extremely joyful. It was short in stature, but after it was attached to the Manticore’s back, it could still overlook the entire hall from a high position.

The Devil half-kneeled in front of the throne, and the corpses of the lords who had rushed to launch a surprise attack on the King fell around him, their heads neatly decapitated by his sword. But the head of the Devil who swung that stunning sword also slowly hung down——the snake tail of the Basilisk had pierced his heart.

Viscous blood flowed down the icy snake tail and fell to the ground like a trickle.

The deceitful lord looked at this scene triumphantly. In this world, there was no one who did not have a weakness in his heart, and as a lord who had mastered deceit, he was closer to the nature of a snake than even the Basilisk. There was no creature that could not be controlled by it. Human beings were the creatures with the most inner weaknesses in this world.

So what if he was the craziest Devil?

Didn’t he still die under the horrifying power of the human heart?

The King’s pupils were empty, his knight died in front of him, but he remained indifferent, sitting on the throne like an exquisite puppet.

The Basilisk pulled out its own snake tail, and it walked over the corpses on the ground, slowly approaching the throne, and its heart was filled with ecstasy. In the hall at this time, only it and the Trickster were left, and the rest, whether it was the army of snakes or the minor lords, were all dead, their bodies floating in a pool of blood.

As the Basilisk approached the throne, it suddenly opened its mouth wide, and the beak-like mouth tripled in size in an instant, as it was about to swallow the puppet-like King in one gulp.

Clang——

Sparks flew everywhere.

The smile on the Trickster’s face froze slightly. When the Basilisk stepped forward to devour the King, it manipulated the Manticore to launch a sneak attack on the Basilisk. But the Basilisk seemed to have eyes on its back, and the arm hanging by its side swung violently, a shield blocking the blow that was determined to win.

“Did you think I’d be overwhelmed by joy and forget to be on guard?”

A gloomy voice sounded, and the Basilisk, who had just been dazzled by the power within reach, turned its head slowly, staring at the Trickster with diamond-shaped vertical pupils.

“Ho ho ho, how unexpected.”

The Trickster wasn’t ashamed at all. It laughed loudly, still staring at the Basilisk with a trace of dark red eyes.

“The Basilisk, known for recklessness, is actually so vigilant.”

The allies just now turned into deadly enemies in an instant, and both the Basilisk and the Trickster were accustomed to this. In hell, this was no big deal, after all intrigue and cunning was what hell was about, wasn’t it? What was ridiculous was the Devil who called himself a “soul merchant” being as loyal as a true knight in front of his monarch.

The Basilisk sneered, and pounced towards the Trickster without hesitation.

There was only one throne, and those who coveted the throne could only sit on it if they were the last one left after a fight to the death.

The Trickster’s ability of control was indeed terrifying, but its body was too fragile. It was precisely because of this that after the battle broke out, the Trickster directly parasitized on the more powerful Manticore without hesitation. Seeing the Basilisk rushing towards him, the Trickster controlled the Manticore to back away without hesitation.

It blew a whistle vigorously.

After the sharp whistle sounded, a series of ear-piercing scraping sounds exploded. With a “boom”, the huge black stone collapsed, and several figures descended from the sky and rushed towards the Basilisk.

The rest of the lords who did not participate in the banquet left the battlefield outside, left their soldiers and charged directly into the Blackstone Royal Castle.

“You guys actually believe it?!”

An arm on the Basilisk’s left side was torn off, and it roared in shock and anger.

“It’s impossible for Deceit to share the authority with you! If you align yourselves with it, just wait to be bitten back!”

“Of course, my allies are not fools, Mr. Basilisk.” The Trickster hid outside the battlefield, “but have your brains been switched out by the humans? The denizens of hell, who of them are not a good hand at betrayal and backstabbing. We just think you are strong enough, and if the power falls into your hands, it will not be easy to redistribute it. Evenly distributing the power is better than not getting it at all, right?”

Its laughter was triumphant.

The wind poured down from the hole at the top of the hall, chilly and cold.

……………………

Griselda stood on the steel deck, the high-altitude wind made one feel that the cold was seeping in through the cracks in the bones.

The battleship flew at a high altitude where even the Walway pirates were a little terrified, quietly hiding in the thick dark clouds, like a lurking dragon. The Basilisk and the others felt that they recruited the army early enough and arranged it patiently enough, but the King was even earlier and more patient than them.

In fact, when the group of monster birds that besieged the Blackstone Royal Castle were disguised as clouds and entrenched in the sky, the Dragon Wing Battleships were already in the high-altitude clouds above their heads.

As the leader of the birds, the Basilisk was used to controlling monster birds to launch raids from the sky. It never thought that there were people who could fly higher than the birds.

Griselda wore special glasses and looked down. When the monster birds attacked the castle, the Dragon Wing Battleships set off silently, traveling all the way through the perpetual dark clouds in the dark red sky, which was the best protective cover for the battleships.

“Snakes eating each other.”

She sighed softly.

From Jenny, Griselda learned about the “Old Covenant of Hell” and the ancient curse that destined chaos in hell. Griselda, who was flying high in the sky overlooking everything, felt the existence of that curse more clearly than anyone else.

When the one-third of the lords who did not attend the banquet led the army out to attack the Blackstone Royal Castle, Griselda saw another army come out of the abyss and invade the territories of these lords in mighty force. The strength of the hell lord was composed of “domain” and “authority”, no matter which one was lost, it would severely suffer damage.

“Whose troops are those?”

Griselda asked Hawkins.

“The Trickster.” Captain Hawkins casually chewed a piece of grass  in his mouth, and opened the King’s order sent by a bat, “His Majesty has an order——”

“Attack!”

The Dragon Wing Battleship folded its wings, swooped down from the sky, and swept towards the Trickster’s territory.

………………

The smell of blood in the Blackstone Royal Castle was so strong that it was nauseating.

“What a pity. It’s time for everyone to call a curtain call together.”

The Trickster climbed off the Manticore’s back, and it bowed towards the corpses on the ground in a pretentious manner.

The battle between the lords who arrived later and the Basilisk was as fierce as the previous battle between the Devil and the lords. The Basilisk, who had turned into a trapped beast, had to use all its strength to survive. More than half of the lords who thought they could easily deal with the Basilisk were torn to pieces by it.

“What have you done?!”

Before the lord of doom was about to die, it asked in astonishment. It had thought that it was careful enough, and was always on guard against any sneak attacks from the Trickster after killing the Basilisk. But who would have thought, the Lord of Deceit directly launched a frontal attack, and at the moment it attacked, the Lord of Doom felt that most of its strength had suddenly been lost.

“A failed sneak attack only needs to be done once.” The Lord of Deceit smiled, and it bowed to the Lord of Doom again, “Thank you for your selfless help, I will accept your territory with a smile.”

The Lord of Doom’s eyes widened. Just before it died, it suddenly remembered that before attending the King’s banquet, the Trickster was the most active one in participating in the agreement. It was not that there were no lords who were not afraid of the ancient curse, but the Trickster spared no effort in fueling the flames. Finally, with today’s battle situation as the end result.

Two-thirds of the lords came to the castle without a single soldier, lulling the vigilance of the King and the Devil. After the battle broke out inside the castle, the remaining lords then attacked the King’s territory with all their strength, weakening the authority granted to the King by the Old Covenant of Hell.

“I didn’t expect that you would actually come out in full force.” The Trickster lamented hypocritically, “Who would believe that my little army could occupy one-third of the territory of hell.”

Its tone should have been a little more hypocritical, but it was so gleeful that its voice couldn’t help revealing a piercing quality like a night owl’s screech.

The Lord of Deceit stepped over the corpse of the Lord of Doom. It was so small that it didn’t even reach the chest of an ordinary person. Its monkey-like paws dragged a sword, and it walked towards the throne, clanging all the way.

“Gentlemen, I hope you can remember——in this world, strength is not the most powerful.”

It sang like a bard, baring its white teeth.

Just like there were so many powerful existences in the Wall of Insects back then, but in the end it was a short, deformed guy like it that crawled out.

On the throne, the silver-haired monarch of the Rose family looked down at the knight who died in front of him.

After the death of the Devil, the Trickster loosened its mind control over the King——after all, the old covenant still existed, and using that ability to control the monarch for a long time was also a great burden for the Trickster.

The King, who had regained consciousness, did not say a word during the ensuing melee. He just stretched out his hand and placed it on top of the dead Devil’s head, his fingers entangled into the Devil’s black hair.

From the beginning to the end, no lord spared him any mind.

Without the Devil, in this hell, a mortal king would not even be able to run, anyone could easily crush him to death. Probably because of this, after the death of the Devil, the King simply sat on the throne and watched silently, waiting for the birth of the final kingslayer.

Mortals, oh mortals, they were oh so sad.

“I believe that the crown on your head will suit me more.”

The Trickster grinned at the King, and it raised its giant sword high.

You c an fi nd t he la te st cha pte rs at ( th e bl mu se . c o m )

The King looked at it calmly, his icy blue pupils like the extreme north sea in winter night.

“Sorry, my good sir, but I don’t think it will suit you at all.”

An exceptionally polite voice sounded, and this voice could be considered quite familiar to the deceitful lord.

“In addition, I sincerely suggest that you learn how to sow dissension in a more qualified way.”

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The whole hall was quiet, and the King on the high seat sneered, confronting the Basilisk and the Trickster, who were the heads of the lords. The wind blew the candles, and the flames flickered, making the faces of those present flicker as well.

The Devil stood by the King’s right hand, rubbing his pale fingers against the hilt of the sword at his waist. His eyes swept over the faces of the lords, and seeing their ferocious expressions, he was so happy that he hummed a happy tune in his heart.

You c an fi nd t he la te st cha pte rs at ( th e bl mu se . c o m )

Hell symbolized the chaos and fighting in the world. It was destined to be powerful and be destroyed because of this. The Kingdom of God could still lower the ground, but hell could never end its chaos, could never form an army to attack the gods. Once a lord gathers an army to attack the gods, the moment the alliance was just established, red fire would roll down from the sky and burn their army to nothing. The lords who had already reached an agreement, even if they crawled out of the Wall of Insects together and accompanied each other for thousands of years, would have an unstoppable feud at that moment, baring their fangs and devouring each other’s flesh and blood.

This was the cursed fate destined to be brought about by the sins of hell.

The demons were destined to fight endlessly because of the greed and evil in their hearts, like a pit of poisonous snakes entangled together, devouring each other until they died together.

It wasn’t until hell signed the old covenant with the dragon slayer that the Blackstone Royal Castle was established on the barren sandy beach.

They raised mortals to the throne, so that they could cast a majestic crown, and gather an army of demons. When the doomsday comes, they would rush out of hell singing their resentment, and fight with the gods who were the favored ones among heaven and earth.

In the Age of Legends, the disagreement between the alchemists and the dragon slayers originated from this.

The alchemists did not believe in the infernal and capricious demons of hell. They believed that this hypocritical alliance where everyone could get what they needed would be broken one day, and the lords of hell would never be able to restrain their inner desire and greed. They would tear up the contract at any time and bite back viciously. So the Rose family who conspired with the treacherous, and their unscrupulous actions made them feel suspicious.

When the relationship between the two sides was at its most tense,  the alchemists even once went to war with the Rose family.

——They were too close to evil, so close that the alchemists at that time doubted whether or not the dragon slayers would eventually become evil dragons themselves.

The alchemists doubted the Rose family and the Rose family proved themselves over a thousand years, but they were not wrong about the demons of hell.

To conspire with the treacherous, one must be prepared to be backstabbed!

“The gods have rested in their tombs, and a new era has begun. The rules of the previous era no longer need to be followed, so they are no longer taboos!” The Trickster screamed, “It’s time for mortals to return the throne of hell!”

Its voice was sharp and shrill, and the moment the Trickster’s voice fell, all the candles in the hall were instantly extinguished. The lords who were still sitting quietly like guests stood up instantly, revealing their hideous faces. In an instant, countless terrifying black shadows in the hall exploded, overlapping like the deepest nightmare.

Killing intent suffused the hall.

“Kill!”

When the lords stood up, the King also snapped out an order.

The moment his order was uttered, the bloodkin servants, dressed in gorgeous court attire and standing behind each lord like delicate dolls, lifted the metal lid of the tray in their hands, and grabbed out daggers that emitted a cold light from the silver plate. This was a banquet destined to end in blood, and both parties participating in the feast already had murderous intentions in their hearts from the start.

The guests’ weapons were hidden in their bodies, turned into horns or bone spurs, and as for the King who hosted the banquet, what his bloodkin servants held was not trays of delicious food from the beginning, but cold weapons.

The seemingly peaceful banquet turned into a battlefield in an instant.

The red carpet in the main hall ripped in an instant. It was spread on the ground to pretend to set off the luxurious atmosphere, but it was actually to cover up the countless magic formations engraved under the carpet. The core of the magic formations was each guest’s seat. And at this time mithril pillars rose from the ground, separating the erupting lords to form small cages.

With the help of the magic formations, the bloodkin fought with the ordinary minor lords, and they turned into swarms of bats like dark clouds, surrounding the lords.

Click.

The mithril pillars rising from the ground trapped the ordinary minor lords, but they couldn’t trap the powerful big lords. The Basilisk flicked its snake’s tail, and the mithril pillars broke in response. Its figure instantly swelled up, and it was as tall as a hill, almost touching the top of the tall ceiling. The Basilisk slithered outwards, and the black feathers on its body turned into iron-colored scales in an instant, covering its body densely. The wings on its back were half folded and half opened, and there were several pairs of arms on the side, each holding different weapons.

Countless swarms of snakes slithered out from the shadows of the hall, and a dense cloud of dark clouds covered the sky outside the hall. The sound of wings flapping was overwhelming, it was not a dark cloud, but a gathering of strange beasts and big birds.

The Basilisk, the head of all snakes and birds.

A war broke out.

………………

In the sky of the castle, strange birds gathered. Countless giant birds that were described in legends as eating human flesh dove down from the clouds and attacked the castle.

The castle’s flying buttresses stretched outwards again, and the bat bone wings that were once used to play music for the King turned into terrifying war weapons at this moment. The bat bone wings were as thin as blades, cutting through the air, splitting the monster birds that were rushing down one after another in half. Blood gushed out, pouring like a fountain on the top of the spear-like tower.

Blood was like pouring rain, bathing this ancient royal castle.

From the very beginning, this royal castle was built on a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood.

On the barren rocky beach not far from Blackstone Royal Castle, the people in the military industry department only felt that the ground was shaking. They were horrified to see in the distance, black smoke rising from the ground. The smoke was getting closer and closer, and from the black clouds, an army of hell appeared in the people’s eyes.

Warriors in black armor, chariots of monsters, gathering demons…..

The lords who came to the banquet did not summon their armies to lull the King’s vigilance. It was the remaining one-third of the lords who did not come to the banquet that really summoned the army of death. The whole hell joined in this usurper battle that tore up the old covenant.

At the moment when the banquet guests turned against the host and the castle fell into battle, these lords led the army to attack the King’s territory.

Authority was closely related to territory. Those who lose their territory, whether they were monarchs or lords, would die without a place to be buried.

The desolate sound of a heralding horn came from the Peak of a Thousand Knives, echoing between heaven and earth.

The long-awaiting army of skeletons crossed the River of the Departed and met the army that came to believe them.

The moment the two armies that only appeared in nightmares collided, a battle broke out. This was the cruelest and most uncompromising battle in the world. In hell, there was only one ending to a fight, that was, when one side was completely defeated and died.

The crow Mela swooped down from the sky. It let out a long cry, and its stature grew dozens of times in an instant.

Mela landed in front of the people who received the order to gather, lowered its wings, and rested them on the ground like makeshift steps.

“Let’s go!”

Raul reacted the fastest. He understood what Mela meant, and directed everyone to quickly climb onto the back of the crow Mela.

After the last blacksmith climbed onto Mela’s back, Mela flapped its wings, causing the sand and rocks on the ground to rise up in disruption. In the dust it had brought up, Mela flapped its wings and flew over the roofs of the military industrial base, and flew towards the Peak of a Thousand Knives not far away. There it was far away from the battlefield, a relatively safe place.

Although the King used the military industrial base as bait, he did not intend to destroy his own industrial sector.

All the things have been moved to the Peak of a Thousand Knives a few days ago.

The only ones remaining were the two sides in the bloody battle.

………………

With its scales flickering coldly, the Basilisk’s huge pupils, which were as tall as a man, stared fixedly at the King who was too small compared to it. The Trickster was attached to another lord, the Manticore, like a gecko. It had three rows of teeth, a human head, blood-red eyes, a lion-like body, and a scorpion-like thorn at the end of its tail.

They didn’t launch an attack immediately, because the throne where the King occupied was shrouded in a faint light at this time. It was the power of the original covenant, and it was still protecting the mortal monarch. However, for some reason, although the Basilisk and the Trickster and other lords violated the old covenant of hell, they were not punished by the contract.

Deceitful contracts have always been hell’s forte.

“Your Majesty.”

Despite being surrounded by this formidable enemy, both the Devil and the King looked equally calm. The Devil stepped out from behind the throne, as if he didn’t see the lords staring at them in bloodlust. With his hand on the hilt of his sword, he knelt down on one knee in front of the throne.

“In my name, I give you my authority. You shall draw that sword and kill all enemies.”

The King stretched out his hand, holding the bone scepter in his hand with the bone ring. The King touched the scepter on the Devil’s shoulder, and in an instant, a strong air current burst out around him and the Devil, fluttering his and the Devil’s hair. That was the oldest contract, and that contract was revived today.

“Go and fight for me, my knight.”

Seeing this scene, the Trickster which was attached like a parasite on the Manticore suddenly understood why the Devil who lost his name was able to kill the Lord of Gluttony who had power over one of the seven sins.

Because there was an extremely ancient contract between him and the King, the King had given him his own authority!

“Kill that ant first!”

The Trickster sternly ordered.

The Basilisk led several powerful lords to storm out and head straight for the throne.

The moment they set off, the airflow hovering around the King and the Devil exploded, and the Devil in black formal suit jumped up. He turned in mid-air, and pulled out the dragon bone sword at his waist in an instant, cold light flashing.

——Go and fight for me, my knight.

“For you, I fight!”

You c an fi nd t he la te st cha pte rs at ( th e bl mu se . c o m )

The Devil laughed loudly, and the black butterflies soared into the sky. Behind him was his contracted monarch.

A long, long time ago, a king who had nothing had signed a contract with a devil who had lost his name. From that moment on, the Devil was the King’s first knight. The King gave him authority, and he in return fought for the King.

And their contract would always be eternal, even if it was the end of the world.

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The candle flame was brilliant, illuminating the severed head that was placed on the exquisite silver plate, which only made it look even more hideous and terrifying. As an ancient lord who climbed out of the Wall of Insects, even after death, the head still retained an extremely oppressive power towards mortals. The King put down his goblet, and took the tray from the Devil.

He held up the silver plate with one hand, and raised the bloody head to eye level.

The eyes of the lords followed the King’s movements.

You c an fi nd t he la te st cha pte rs at ( th e bl mu se . c o m )

“Three horns and four eyes, shaped like a crocodile’s head, with old scales…..Nice to meet you, Mr. Bemos.” The young mortal monarch looked at the head as if admiring a work of art, his tone was soft and held sincere pity. “Unfortunately, it looks like you won’t be able to enjoy today’s feast.”

Some lords who were not born as early did not notice one thing until now. With so many evil lords from hell gathered together, the oppressive power they emitted alone was enough to crush ordinary mortals into minced meat. But the silver-haired monarch sitting on the throne did not even bat an eye from the very beginning.

Terge was the lord with scales on his upper half and compound eyes covering his body. Just now it had been dazzled by its greed for the ring of authority worn by the King, and it almost pounced forward directly. At this moment, after regaining its senses, Tild looked at the King who was holding up the silver plate on the throne while musing softly, and suddenly shivered, feeling an inexplicable danger and fear.

“Mr. Bemos is indeed very sorry.”

The Devil stood up, bowed slightly, and spoke sincerely.

“So, it has offered this thing to you as an apology.”

The Devil spread his hand, and a bone ring lay quietly on his palm.

When they saw the bone ring, the breathing of the lords in the hall became much heavier. They greedily looked at the bone ring that had become ownerless at this time, their eyes flickering.

That was the bone ring authority of “Gluttony and the Evil of All Things”.

The Devil seemed to notice something. He turned his head inadvertently, his eyes sweeping over the faces of all the lords, and the corners of his lips curled up, revealing a dangerous smile.

“In that case, please invite Mr. Bemos to take a seat.”

The King handed the silver plate to the bloodkin servant standing aside, and then stretched out his hand under many greedy eyes. He touched the bone ring on the Devil’s palm with the bone ring on his finger, and the bone ring, which symbolized the power of gluttony, shattered into some small specks of light and melted into the bone ring on the King’s hand.

Seeing this scene, the pupils of the lord who had stopped briefly to look at the military heavy industry base earlier dilated, turning into a thin line.

It had a bird’s head, covered with black feathers from the chest up, and had two wings on its back, but the bottom half was that of a giant python. Its eyes were the shapes unique to cold-blooded reptiles, cold and sinister. It was the head of all reptiles and birds, and it was also one of the oldest lords who crawled out of the Wall of Insects.

The Basilisk.

The bloodkin servant walked up to the Basilisk with a silver tray, and respectfully placed the head of the dead Lord Gluttony on the banquet table.

The Basilisk’s snake tail with bony spurs slithered slowly, and patted the cold rock slab gently. The lord sitting opposite Basilisk raised its wine goblet and shook its head slightly at it.

Above, the Devil had humbly stood by the King’s right hand, replacing the bloodkin who sent the former Lord Gluttony to its seat as the King’s personal attendant. In a low voice, he introduced to the King that the one sitting opposite of the Basilisk was the lord of deceit, the Trickster.

The King glanced at the “Trickster” mentioned by the Devil. Among the many burly or hideous lords, the Trickster looked very shabby and inconspicuous. It was thin and small, as dry as an ugly old monkey, with a pair of crumpled bat wings trailing behind it.

Its strength was indeed as it looks, very weak. To put it bluntly, any ordinary hell lord could kill it head-on. However, the Trickster was also one of the first lords to climb out of the Wall of Insects, and one of the most stable lords in the realm of hell.

The lord in charge of the authority “deceit”.

The King casually raised the wine goblet again, and the Devil filled it for the King with the strong wine called “Night Rose”.

He raised the golden wine goblet.

“Although it’s a bit regrettable, some of our friends don’t seem to plan to come to this banquet.” The King gestured at the one-third vacant seats and toasted, “However, one thing to be happy about, everyone here is still bearing in mind the contract signed between hell and the Rose family more than a thousand years ago and still came to the appointment today. For the old covenant of hell, cheers.”

“We are also very happy to see that after more than a thousand years, the blood of the Rose family still exists and is able to fulfill the contract from back then.” The Trickster laughed, and its tone was very ingratiating. The King on the throne raised his goblet, “To the eternal friendship between hell and the mortal world, I would like to drink to all of you!”

After the Trickster raised its goblet, the Basilisk looked displeased and remained motionless.

At the banquet, those lords who were born later were astonished.

The Old Covenant of Hell.

This was a strange yet familiar existence to all hell creatures. Any creature in hell knew of the “Old Covenant of Hell”, which was said to have been practiced for a brief period as the rules of hell more than a thousand years ago. It was precisely because of the existence of the “Old Covenant of Hell” that the Blackstone Royal Castle was the symbol of the kingship of hell and the seat of the highest throne.

However, they didn’t know until today that the Old Covenant of Hell was actually related to a human family.

The little lords looked left and right, at the Trickster raising its goblet, then at the Basilisk who was sitting still, and then turned their eyes to the King and the Devil, wondering whether they should toast or not.

Although every hell creature knew the existence of the “Old Covenant of Hell”, after hell’s vitality died off, the Old Covenant of Hell had not been awakened for a long, long time. For ordinary hell lords, this was the first time they have received a call from the Blackstone Royal Castle. The moment they received the invitation, they did indeed feel the existence of the rules of hell, and the power of the rules warned them that if they did not come, they would be punished.

“…..When the order is issued from the throne, all the lords should answer the call to come.”

This was the first article of the “Old Covenant of Hell”.

The secrets related to the Old Covenant of Hell and the Blackstone Royal Castle were too ancient. Most of the ordinary hell lords who came to the banquet made up their minds to observe the actions of those ancient lords.

One must know, hell had been in chaos for so long, and the lords have long been accustomed to the days when they were kings, and no one wanted to bow down and become a vassal again.

——What’s more, to actually bow their head to a mortal?

“What a pity.”

The King shook the wine goblet. Looking at the dark red liquid in the goblet, he chuckled lightly.

“I thought that only mortals have a short lifespan, so it is difficult to remember what happened in the past. Unexpectedly, even the lords of hell, with long lifespans, cannot overcome the erosion of time. My many friends from hell, it seems that you don’t even know the original contract?”

“Please excuse us.”

The Trickster laughed loudly and looked around while holding his wine goblet.

“Old fellows, the old covenant of hell was signed more than a thousand years ago. At that time, the war of doomsday spread to heaven and earth, and hell was also shrouded in the dusk’s bloody sun. The lords of hell at that time formed an alliance and signed a treaty with the mortal world. Now you are all weathering fierce winds every day, and unable to absorb any power from the mortal world. But the previous hell was not like this. In the past, we were able to go out from the gate of purgatory and enjoy the pleasures in the mortal world.”

“In fact, my friends from hell, you can still go out from the gate of purgatory and leave the desolate and barren hell as before.” The King said with a smile, and he raised his goblet in the direction of Legrand’s military heavy industry department, “Lords, I believe you must have seen the humans working here, right?”

The eyes of the lords at the banquet flickered.

There was no one who wanted to crawl out of here more than the lords of hell.

At the beginning, the lord of “greed and ill-gotten wealth” tried every means to send his envoy ship into the mortal world through the gaps of hell, so as to secretly obtain wealth and power from the mortal world. In hell, the lords fight every day, just to seize more cracks that could communicate with the mortal world.

The living conditions here were too harsh.

“You can open the gate of purgatory?”

The Basilisk’s eyes fell on the King’s hand, its pupils as thin as silver threads. It was watching the Devil standing beside the King. They had fought each other before, and although neither side had used their full strength, they knew that the strength of the other party was about the same as their own without special outside assistance.

In truth, his power should even be lesser.

Because the Devil lost his name.

The older the lord, the more aware of the importance of the name. The Devil who had lost his name was a fellow who had been cursed and abandoned by the world, and there was no place for him even in hell. The Devil without a name had no authority whatsoever. The strength of Lord Gluttony was similar to it, but it died in the hands of the Devil. This made the Basilisk have no choice but to be vigilant.

Its tail beat faintly at the ground.

“The revival of the old covenant of hell is enough to prove this.” The King replied calmly. He waved his hand, and the bloodkin servant next to him came forward with another tray covered tightly in a metal lid, “Of course, it’s nothing to brag about, because we’re not the only ones recovering our vitality.”

The bloodkin servant lifted the metal lid, and all the lords in the hall subconsciously showed disgust.

A platinum cross was placed on the tray, and the cross was covered with a layer of faint light.

“The angels have descended from the clouds, recruited believers in the mortal world, and established their own kingdom.” The King said lightly, “While you all still have to stay where you are, waiting for the final judgment, they have torn open the sky and come with their heralding horns, and then let hell once again be destroyed in annihilation and death once and for all?”

As he spoke, he raised his head, his eyes seeming to pass through the icy rock, and looked up at the distant sky.

The Trickster’s heart skipped a beat, but he quickly calmed down again.

It was just thinking too much.

“Angels won’t step into hell easily. They would rather destroy the Rose family that had stubbornly resisted them for thousands of years.” The Trickster said calmly, separating the lords of hell and the King on opposite sides, “In fact, you have also seen that hell is not as powerful as before, although we are still willing to form an alliance with the mortal world, but the contract of the past is no longer suitable for today.”

The King’s expression was indifferent: “Then, lords and gentlemen of hell, which parts of the old contract do you want to change?”

“The part about the Blackstone Royal Castle.”

You c an fi nd t he la te st cha pte rs at ( th e bl mu se . c o m )

After the Basilisk spoke up, it slowly straightened up, staring at the King with cold eyes.

“The alchemists have already turned to ashes, and today’s human beings have long been ineligible to occupy the Blackstone Royal Castle in the contract. Hell is not the hell from a thousand years ago, and the Rose family is not the Rose family from a thousand years ago. Thus, the old order should be thrown into the fire.”

“For example, you want to cross the taboo and act as the ruler of hell yourself, don’t you?”

The King smiled.

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As the battleships slowly landed from the sky, it was like a thick dark cloud was surprising over them. The black iron dragon wings were driven by friction, bringing up a hurricane that could blow people into the sky. The Devil held the umbrella firmly with one hand, and wrapped his other hand around the King. The hurricane disappeared automatically when it reached him.

The bat bone wings flying over the buttresses in the castle flapped again, and the humming sound was like some kind of long-lost horn, echoing ring by ring from the castle.

You c an fi nd t he la te st cha pte rs at ( th e bl mu se . c o m )

The dragon wings of the battleships were slightly drawn, and the ferocious giant ships, like tame dragons that suddenly became docile, flew down from the sky and passed by the almost vertical cliff. The King clearly saw the unique cold gleam of the metal armor on the hull and the wings. Soon, the battleships landed steadily at the front cabin of the dock in the sea of fire.

The pirates standing on the deck took off their hats and waved them cheerfully to the King.

These Walway pirates grinned happily. They didn’t think there was anything wrong with the ghost ship becoming like this, and even looked a little proud.

The Devil didn’t let go of his hand until the last ship landed. He closed the black umbrella and casually touched the rock wall with the umbrella in hand. A circle of invisible black mist rippled away, followed by the sound of gears twisting from behind the platform where he and the King stood, and the rock under his feet trembled slightly.

When the mechanism was activated, boulders protruded one after another on the originally smooth cliff, forming a ladder leading to the dock from top to bottom.

Hawkins chewed on a piece of grass dangling from his mouth and looked up at the silver-haired King walking down the stone steps, the air current fluttering at the King’s hair. For a moment, Hawkins had the illusion that the person walking down the stone steps was the young William III, or the young Duke of Buckingham.

Always insane and incoherent, the neurotic captain was silent for a moment before spitting out the piece of grass he was chewing.

“Oh, my noble sire! Long time no see! It seems that you are doing well in hell.” Captain Hawkins exclaimed like a rooster crowing, and he stepped forward to meet him first, “Charles, that nagging fellow can rest easy. The brave and fearless Walway Pirates offer you our highest regards!”

As he spoke, he took off his black hat and bowed to the King as he did when they first met.

The other pirates had just gathered together, and couldn’t help showing a look of “Damn, why was this disgraceful guy our captain”.

Griselda who just took a step forward: “……”

Miss Witch reconnected with Jenny with a deadpan face.

Captain Hawkins, who stood up straight, had no time to comment on the King’s dock when the iron plate under his feet suddenly flipped down. Mr. Captain only had time to shout “hey!” before he fell down, and the iron plate closed again with a “clang”. Griselda stepped over the restored deck and bowed to the King.

“Our Miss Jenny has grown up.”

The King stepped up from the step that Jenny let down voluntarily, and he reached out to touch the iron railing.

At the iron railing that the King touched, dark green rose vines appeared again with a “swoosh”, and a branch with a crimson rose bloom stretched out in front of the King, gently touching the King’s fine-boned hands.

“Good day, Miss Jenny.”

The King plucked off the blooming rose and lifted it up slightly.

The sails of the Jenny, which transformed from an ancient wooden ship into a giant iron-clad battleship, “squeaked” and looked very happy.

“Your Majesty, come this way please.”

The witch bowed slightly to lead the way for the King.

Jenny, who had turned back into a Dragon Wing Battleship, was obviously also very excited. Wherever the King went, roses would bloom there. A pirate’s hands were itchy, and he stretched out his hand to try to pick one off, but was whipped firmly by the vine, and could only hiss in pain.

The cabin of the Dragon Wing Battleship was divided into three floors. In the control room, the King saw the core of this alchemical living ship.

A cloud of blue flame was suspended in the transparent crystal tubular column, and danced happily when the King entered. It obviously had its own consciousness. Beside the crystal pillar, there was a thick stack of scrolls. When he saw these scrolls, the King looked at the Devil.

Griselda had already prepared all the work in the early stage, and she had already picked out the contract scrolls corresponding to the pirates who died in battle.

The ancient contract scrolls were spread out one by one, and the words on them shone a strange power under the firelight. At the end of the scrolls, the blood dripped from the pirates took the place of their names and served as the point of the contract. The witch lit a strange candle, and a faint white smoke drifted away in the cabin, at the same time the dripping blood on the scroll began to spread out.

“According to the principle of equivalent exchange…..”

The witch read the lengthy contract words in a low voice, and she read out the contents of the contract concluded at the beginning one by one. The Walway pirates signed a contract with the ghost ship that included a contract of the soul. From the moment their blood dripped on the scroll, they were destined to belong to these ancient alchemical ships.

Even if they died, their souls still belonged to the alchemical living ship.

The witch took advantage of this point of the contract to forcibly summon their souls from the River of the Departed.

The flame flickered on and off, and there was an invisible wind in the air. Cold sweat dripped down the witch’s forehead in big drops. As the contract took effect, she felt another resistance, which was the rules of hell preventing the undead from returning to the Dragon Wing Battleship——all the souls that entered the River of the Departed belonged to the ruler of hell.

“May the supreme and eternal sovereign bear witness to the covenant in his power and majesty.”

All the scrolls floated up, and Griselda couldn’t bear the pressure from the rules anymore, she knelt down with a plop, and begged with her head bowed in awe.

The King raised the bone scepter in his hand and tapped the crystal pillar.

His Majesty has granted permission.

The contract took effect.

The next moment, a bright light erupted from the secret room of the battleship, sweeping all the other battleships as well.

On the deck, the palms of the anxiously waiting pirates were covered with cold sweat. They didn’t know what was going on in the cabin, the jokes and laughter that were used to cover up the tension just now were gone, and they stared at the stairs entering the cabin without daring to let out a breath.

Suddenly, a faint blue light burst out from the stairs, drowning everyone. There seemed to be another kind of heavy majesty contained within that light, and the pirates all knelt down involuntarily.

“Was it successful?”

After the light gradually faded, a pirate climbed up from the deck, and he spoke nervously.

What answered him was arrogant laughter:

“Hahahahaha! No pustules! I’m still so handsome!”

The pirates got up from the deck and saw the familiar faces of their companions. The guys who had jumped into the sea were ecstatic to see that they were clean and without pus-filled hands, and they were glad that their souls did not retain the disgusting look when they died.

“Why did our ship become so big all of a sudden!” A blind ghostly pirate floated around the mast twice, easily flew to a high place, and stared dumbfounded at the mighty Dragon Wing Battleship, “Mama mia, don’t tell me the captain went and swindled someone, right?”

The pirates cheered, and a pirate wearing a turban wiped his face and shouted at the one-eyed ghost: “Quick! Pay me back my money! You bastard, you owe me the wine money, hurry up!”

“Hey, hey! What does the money you owed when you were a human have anything to do with the dead!”

“F**k! You f**king don’t want to pay back the money!”

……

Hawkins crawled out of the cabin, broke off a rose twig and chewed it in his mouth: “Stinky boys.”

The King also came up, the Devil turned his black umbrella, and the always calm and steady witch showed a faint smile on her face. The laughing and cursing pirates saw the King, and they waved their hats at him, cheering in unison:

“Long live Legrand!”

“Long live the King!”

The cheers echoed above the magma sea of fire, and the fiery light was plated on the faces of the fearless pirates. The warriors who were like brothers were finally able to stand side by side again, with dragon wings flapping and sails hunting.

…………

Blackstone Royal Castle.

On the seventh day after the King’s arrival, the gates of the castle were thrown open, and the dragon’s head lay in docility on the ground. All the candlesticks were lit at the same time, and all the windows were opened at the same time. The bloodkin servants dressed in gorgeous court clothes filed out of the icy cold castle, wearing swords on their waists, and stood on both sides of the bone stairs leading to the main hall of the castle.

The banquet held by the King was today.

These days, there had been a lot of movement in the Blackstone Royal Castle, but the rest of hell was quiet, maintaining an anxious dead silence, and turbulent undercurrents in private.

After coming to hell for so long, people in the military heavy industry department finally have a little bit of feeling that they were truly in hell today.

They stared dumbfounded at the ferocious giant beasts passing overhead on black clouds, and at the arrival of all kinds of strange creatures with rumbling noises. During this day, they saw almost all monsters that only appeared in nightmares, monsters with horns and hoofs, monsters with countless arms and long snake-like creatures with countless compound eyes…..

The monsters gathered to attend the King’s banquet.

And until today, people in the military heavy industry have finally realized that the skeletons who have been getting along well with them were not only friendly colleagues, but also terrifying soldiers. Today, the skeletons didn’t work any more, but cold flames danced in their eye sockets, holding spears in their hands, they gathered into a chilling death army, waiting quietly on the barren beach.

When a serpentine lord passed by the military heavy industry base, he looked down at the people in the base who were frightened pale: “Humans…..”

Its deep voice reached the people’s ears like billowing muffled thunder.

On the barren rocky beach, without further ado, the skeleton captain waved his hand, and the skeleton soldiers raised their spears at the same time. The spear points were cold, and they were all pointed at the lord who had stopped.

The lord snorted coldly and swam towards the castle.

In the castle.

The King was alone, perched on the throne.

Many hell lords have already arrived, and they all turned into human-like appearances and sat in their seats. However, horns, wings, snake tails and other things that human beings could not have declared their identities. The forms of the lords were different, the only thing in common was that they all possessed a bone ring on them.

The ghostly court musicians played beautiful melodies dutifully, but the atmosphere in the hall was still very weird.

The lords who arrived first were all minor lords. When they entered the hall, they sat down directly on their seats in a disrespectful manner, without showing any respect to the King above them. This behavior itself was a silent statement and provocation.

The atmosphere in the hall was tense, the lords had deliberately released their aura. The candles flickered constantly, and the light and shadow swayed.

The King sat on the highest throne with the crown of thorns, and while the lords did not salute, he did not speak either. He held a golden wine goblet, lowered his eyes expressionlessly, and drank on his own.

The lords kept looking maliciously and greedily at the King’s hand holding the wine glass. The gold wine goblet matched the bone ring and the rose ring on the King’s finger. Some lords with lower IQs and stronger killing instincts practically had their blood-red eyes stuck to the King’s fingers. They were suppressed by the power symbolized by the bone ring, but at the same time coveted and wanted to rush to snatch it.

The one who held those two powers was just a mortal.

But that mortal wore a rose ring and had silver hair and icy blue eyes that made them wary. The lunatic who called himself a “soul merchant” was obviously working for him again.

Wariness and greed were constantly clashing, and there was much heavy breathing in the hall.

Lords kept arriving.

Gorgeously dressed bloodkin attendants with gloves on, carrying silver plates with metal covers, filed in and stood on both sides of the banquet hall. These bloodkins seemed completely unaware of the greed and killing intent surging in the hall, and just stood like sculptures.

Just when a lord with scales on his upper body and compound eyes covering his body couldn’t resist the greed for the ring of authority on the King’s finger and was about to pounce, the King suddenly raised his eyes.

Drip, drip.

The sound of liquid dripping on the stone was very soft, but held an inexplicable chill. Along with the sound of the liquid dripping was the sound of light footsteps. These footsteps made the lord shiver solidly, as if ice water was suddenly poured down over his head, and he remained motionless.

The Devil in a black formal suit came in from the door of the main hall.

He was the most human-like hellish being in the audience. He wore  black formal attire, and the tail of the coat was elegant like a swallowtail. If it wasn’t for the overly pale skin and the dark and gloomy aura that couldn’t be concealed, then he would look like an ordinary handsome young man. But all the guys here knew he was not.

The Devil held a white long sword in his hand, the candlelight shone on his face, and there was a smile familiar to the lords on his lips.

The sound of liquid dripping came from his other hand——

A hideous and terrifying head was held in his hand, and thick black blood was continuously dripping from the detached part of the head.

The lords suddenly settled down.

They recognized that head, it was an ancient lord who crawled out of the Wall of Insects.

The Devil passed directly in front of all the lords.

You c an fi nd t he la te st cha pte rs at ( th e bl mu se . c o m )

Under the eyes of everyone, he knelt down on one knee in front of the throne, and the bloodkin servant next to him opened the metal cover on the tray. The Devil placed the ancient lord’s head on the metal tray and offered it as a gift to the mortal King who sat on his throne.

“Your Majesty, it disobeyed your order and was unwilling to take part in the banquet.”

The Devil spoke politely, as if he were a knight carrying out any one of his sovereign’s orders.

“So, I let it come to you personally to make amends.”

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“This is the dock of the castle?”

The King stood facing the wind on a flat stone like a stand, looking down from a height. Blackstone Castle was built with a huge sharp and steep mountain as its skeleton. From a distance, the whole castle looked like a forest of iron spears pointing directly at the sky, with spiers and peaks of different sizes mixing together.

The place where the Devil brought the King was on the west side of the castle, where there was a huge mountain wall that fell straight down as if it had been split by someone. Under the mountain wall, there were continuous sand and wilderness that spread out. One couldn’t see any place that could be equated with a dock at all.

You c an fi nd t he la te st cha pte rs at ( th e bl mu se . c o m )

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

Looking at this barren beach, the Devil seemed to recall the past. He took the King’s hand and guided the King to touch the mountain wall.

“It has sensed your arrival.”

The King put his hand on the mountain wall, and felt a vibration coming from the deep underground through the rocks. There seemed to be an indescribable joy in the vibration.

“It has been waiting for you for a long time,” said the Devil, “please give it an order.”

He handed the bone scepter to the King.

At some point, black butterflies were already swirling around the King and the Devil. The wind blew at the King’s silver hair, he withdrew his hand from the rock, and took the bone scepter handed to him by the Devil. On the King’s finger, the bone ring, a symbol of authority, had some new changes at some point, and the patterns on the bone ring became more complex and elaborate than before.

The Devil’s eyes glanced over the ring, and he hummed an ancient melody in his heart while holding the black umbrella.

Greed and ill-gotten gains and pride and ill-judgment were back in place and reunited. This time, how would those guys stop him and His Majesty?

“Things that have been forgotten, shall all come out of the ground.”

The Devil heard the order from the King beside him.

The pale cold moonlight in the sky condensed into a beam, gathered together, and suddenly fell from the sky, cutting down from the sky like some god’s sharp blade, and spearing through the hard rock.

At the base of the Legrand First Military Department near The Thousand Knives Peak, the skeletons who were mining rocks rolled down from the mountain. Blacksmiths in the iron-smithing department stood in front of the fire and saw the hammers and pieces of iron they had placed on their tables jump and clank as they were shaken. The military designers on the experimental field had to hold on to the heavy iron cannons to stand firm amidst the shaking of the ground.

Everyone looked at the Blackstone Castle where the beam of light fell, not knowing what happened there.

“Minister! Look, Minister!”

A military designer suddenly shouted, and he pointed to the sky.

“The sky——the sky is broken!”

His voice was sharp and shrill, frightened and shocked.

Everyone raised their heads upon hearing the voice.

In the dark red sky, the beam of light had gradually dissipated. Instead, a crimson and almost black crack appeared in the sky instead, and there was a ray of molten gold-like light spilling from the crack, getting brighter and brighter, and finally as if the sky couldn’t bear the pressure, the blocked things burst out from the crack.

At that moment, Raul only felt that he saw a long river.

It was not the Milky Way flowing down from the crack, but like a crack in the thick soil, the magma that had been suppressed in the depths of the earth for thousands of years roaring out and turning into a waterfall, connecting the sky and the earth. Compared with that long river of magma, the rain of sulfur and fire that fell from the sky in the past instantly appeared more like a drizzle.

A long river of lava cascaded towards Blackstone Castle.

Everyone could only hear the sound of rushing water like waves, and they looked at each other in amazement.

Click.

With a slight sound, the Devil opened the black umbrella and held it above the King’s head, blocking the rain of magma for the King. The place where they stood was just right, on the sharp cliff, and the magma waterfall spilled down over their heads, continuously pouring into the barren rocky beach at the bottom of the cliff.

The vicissitudes of life that could only be completed in hundreds of millions of years were being staged in front of the King at that moment.

With the filling of magma, an increasingly large lake gradually appeared under the black rock cliff, and it continued to encroach outwards, like a dry seabed slowly recovering. The magma poured from the sky created thousands of layers of huge waves, and hit the hard cliff with great force, rumbling like thunder.

“How can it be a dock without the sea?”

The Devil explained to the King with a smile.

The King stared at the gradually accumulating magma sea of fire, in which a huge black shadow slowly floated upwards.

Raul and the others couldn’t see clearly what happened after the moonlight beam fell just now, but the King and the Devil could see it clearly. The beam of light cut through the solid rock on the ground like a sword, and something was slowly rising from the ground.

——That was the dock of the castle.

“Splash”, “splash”, amidst the loud sound of water, the dock that had been buried underground for many years broke through the billowing sea of fire and appeared in front of the King bit by bit.

The walls on both sides of the gigantic dock were as high as hills, and the front and rear ends were open. It floated on the sea of fire, shaped like a huge sunken ship. Above the dock, there were many closed compartments divided vertically and horizontally. The metal winch rotated, and the friction made a screeching sound. The water tanks of the dock were opened one by one, and the magma was discharged from the front and rear ends along the exquisitely designed drainage grooves. As the magma was gradually drained away, the entire dock, which was as huge as a small town, was completely visible again.

“Your battleships are here.”

The Devil raised his umbrella, looked up into the sky and said to the King.

At this time, the barren beach on the west side of Blackstone Castle had been covered by magma, turning into a sea of molten gold. The magma falling from the sky gradually lessened, and finally turned from rivers and waterfalls into a pouring rain of fire.

And from the crack, several black shadows sailed out, heading towards the Blackstone Castle, getting closer and closer.

The King looked up, and he somewhat understood why the Devil said that they would surprise the lords. The gradually enlarged shadow of the battleships were reflected in his pupils.

From Blackstone Castle to the military heavy industry base, everyone was looking up to the sky, and they saw——

An evil dragon.

………………

Witch Griselda and Captain Hawkins stood on the deck, the sailors staggering to and fro. After they sailed into the whirlpool that appeared in the open sea, everything went dark. Only the sound of rumbling water could be heard in their ears, and the ghost ship was shrouded in a layer of black mist like a dome. They didn’t know what the sound of water outside was, they just felt that the world was spinning.

Time seemed to have passed as long as a century.

Gradually, the sense of dizziness of constant rotation finally disappeared, and after the hull shook, they felt themselves rushing out of the tunnel-like vortex.

The thick black mist covering the ghost ship seeped into the gaps of the ghost ship’s hull like flowing water, and the vision of Griselda and Hawkins gradually ceased to be completely dark.

They had arrived in hell.

When this cognition flashed through their minds, they soon realized that they were floating in the sky. Over their heads was a dark red and depressing sky, as if it was just within reach, and a huge, thin and cold crescent moon hung not far from them. There were also large swaths of fireballs falling around them, and the air was cold and dry and full of an acrid scent.

As Griselda quickly surveyed this true hell, she heard the pirates exclaim.

“Jenny? Jenny?”

Feeling something, Griselda subconsciously took two steps on the deck, calling out to the autonomous consciousness of the ghost ship with which she had a special contract.

But before Jenny could answer her, Griselda had already seen the changes on the ghost ship.

The decks turned over one by one, and liquid metal flowed out from nowhere, covering the spliced wooden boards. Some pirates were caught off guard and fell from the deck into the cabin. Just as the pirates exclaimed, the ancient ghost ship seemed to have wiped off a thick layer of dust, revealing a brand new brilliance.

In a short moment, the ancient wooden ship turned into a huge black iron ship that they had never seen before.

“What happened?”

Hawkins put his hand on the railing, and the cold touch told him that he was seeing correctly, and the railing had turned into cold metal.

Griselda was not able to get an answer from Jenny because the changes were still going on.

A series of “click”, “click” like gears sounded. Under the surprised eyes of the pirates, every structure of the ghost ship’s hull was rapidly changing and expanding, giving people the feeling that the bones that had been curled up for a long time were being unfolded one by one. The deck was extended, the mast was raised, and the giant sails like dragon scales were raised automatically, while on both sides of the hull, the slanted and drooping oars were raised automatically, and the liquid metal also covered them.

The oars showed jaw-dropping changes. They were brought together to form iron bones like bat wings, and the black iron spread thinly, covering those iron bones, like sails and like wings. After the last piece was reassembled, gigantic wings spread out on both sides of the hull——how could these be bat wings, they were so ferocious and huge, more like the wings of a legendary dragon instead.

It was indeed a dragon.

The hull was still deforming, the dragon bones of the hull was bent upwards, and the ramming angle on the bow imitating the dragon became lifelike at this moment, as ferocious and majestic as the rebirth of the dragon. The metal mechanism turned, and the dragon head on the bow let out a frightening roar.

It had been covered in dust for thousands of years, but one day the dust finally faded away, and the taboo works of alchemists thousands of years ago finally reappeared in the world.

This was the work of mortals who truly frightened and angered the high gods for the first time in the age when the gods prevailed.

The Dragon Wing Battleship.

As long as anyone sees it, they would never doubt why in the age of legends, alchemists were regarded as the strongest power of mankind. They had wisdom beyond imagination, wonderful ideas, and arrogant pride. When the evil dragon flew over people’s heads, ordinary people trembled and crawled on the ground, but the alchemists traced the shape of the evil dragon and proudly created  wings that belonged to humans.

They were the genius representatives of human beings in the age of legends.

They created the Dragon Wing Battleship, giving human beings the wings to soar into the sky.

Four Dragon Wing Battleships lined up in the sky, casting huge shadows. The dragon head of Blackstone Castle sensed something, raised itself upwards again, and roared to the sky.

You c an fi nd t he la te st cha pte rs at ( th e bl mu se . c o m )

The sky and the earth were full of the roars of dragons.

The majestic creations of the ancient times shocked the viewers thousands of years later, the magma galloped and converged into a mighty river, and mortals slaved the dragon to maneuver in the sky.

All the sleeping, lurking, and buried things would eventually break out of the ground and be reborn from the ashes.

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The witch Griselda brought good news for the King.

After such a long time, she had completed the preparations for other aspects of the ceremony. All remained was the King’s help, and then she would be able to summon the Walway pirates who died of the Black Death back to the Jenny as ghosts. She hoped that the King would grant the Walway pirates permission to leave the River of the Departed in hell.

Seeing this, the King looked up at the Devil.

You c an fi nd t he la te st cha pte rs at ( th e bl mu se . c o m )

The Devil smiled: “Your Majesty, hell is the place where all the sins finally converge, and this here is the ending point of death. However, before the Millennium Kingdom opened, the River of the Departed was stagnant, and the souls were just stuck in layers inside and cannot enter the last Abyssal Fountain…..Of course, this will be different in the future.”

The King also knew what he meant by “different”.

Today’s River of the Departed had gradually begun to flow, and some new souls have begun to appear. However, the number was still very small, which did not match the mortality rate of this era…..It could be seen that hell had only just recovered, and there was still a long way to go before it reached its peak.

Witch Griselda also mentioned another thing in the letter:

The witches in the Kingdom of Bressi hope to be accepted by the King.

“Witches…..”

The King pondered.

In the letter, Griselda briefly introduced some things about witches to the King.

In fact, the original residence of witches should be in the extreme arctic ice terrain. On the “cloth of the world”, cartographers filled the blanks in the ice terrain with giant pythons and poisonous snakes. And in the beliefs of the witches, the “snake” was a very important symbol. They believed it was a symbol of women, sin, and darkness. But after the end of the legendary era, the power of the witches was weakened. They could not endure the severe cold of the ice terrain as before, and left their original residence.

In the witches’ own history, the first century AD was called the “Hundred Years Migration”.

Witches gradually mixed with ordinary people, but the good times didn’t last long. With the development of the Holy Court, the life of witches became more and more difficult. Now with the establishment of the Holy Empire, it became increasingly difficult for them to survive in the country ruled by the Holy Court. The Holy Court could allow astrologers to survive under their noses, but there seemed to be an absolutely unforgivable line between them and the witches.

A group of witches contacted Griselda, and through her, they expressed their hope of taking refuge with the King.

If there was any other place in this world that could be a shelter for these heretics, Legrand was the only one left.

“Now, let’s talk about the so-called surprise.”

After the King read the letter, he already had a solution to the witches’ request for help in his heart, but he didn’t show it on his face.

“The ghost ships that your pirate gentlemen steer are products of forbidden alchemy that astonished the gods,” said the Devil. “Do you know what they were designed for?”

“As battleships?”

The King had guesses.

“Yes, they were originally meant to be battleships against the gods.” The Devil replied, and then he suggested to the King, “You can let your pirate gentlemen steer them into hell, where they can be restored to some extent. En…..It just so happens that we can use them to surprise the lords.”

The King thought for a while and agreed to his suggestion.

……………………

Southeastern Legrand, Koszoya Port.

As the Black Death on the other side of the Abyss Strait receded after the “God’s Miracle”, the blockade of Legrand’s southeastern coastline was also lifted. The chambers of commerce, which suffered heavy losses, left the port almost immediately on the hour, hoping to make up for the losses endured from the over half a year long blockade as soon as possible.

Free Chamber of Commerce headquarters.

The head of the Royal Chamber of Commerce previously appointed by the King, Madam Venomous Spider and the patriarch of the Dawson family have been busy non-stop since the “Southeast Coast Emergency Blockade Regulations” was lifted. The King’s newest order had reached them before the lockdown was lifted.

There was only one core content of the order: after the blockade was lifted, to strengthen the royal family’s control over commerce in the southeast.

The King’s intentions were obvious. He clearly wanted to take advantage of the impact of the Black Death on Legrand’s southeast commerce to establish the royal family’s economic and commercial status. The “uncrowned king of the sea” like the Five-Port Alliance would not make a second appearance. During the blockade period, under the requirements of the “Southeast Port Ship Register”, the royal family’s understanding of the Southeast chambers of commerce had reached an unprecedented level.

Affected by the blockade of the coast due to the Black Death, almost all the minor chambers of commerce in the southeastern coastal area went bankrupt, and the major chambers of commerce also suffered huge losses.

It was at this time that Madam Venomous Spider and Patriarch Dawson received the “Temporary Chamber of Commerce Protection Law” drafted by the King.

It was a “protection law” in name, but it was actually a bill of incorporation. According to this bill, bankrupt minor chambers of commerce could obtain royal assistance at the expense of direct incorporation of the royal family. And the major chambers of commerce could also obtain preferential tariffs after further concessions. But no matter which one it was, they were destined to fulfill more responsibilities to the King from now on.

After the bill was promulgated, all the chambers of commerce cursed in private.

Because just before the holy miracle appeared on the other side of the Abyss Strait, the blockade southeast of Legrand was still a long way from being lifted. And all merchants could only look anxiously at the countless backlogs of goods.

Just before the Holy Court called down the “God’s Miracle”, the King issued the “Temporary Commodity Remedy Law”, which used a lower price in the name of “relief” to buy all those backlog goods, causing many merchants to rush to sell their goods to the kingdom.

As a result, now, the Black Death was solved.

The great chambers of commerce, which sold their goods to the royal family with the intention of trying its best to save their losses, almost wanted to spit out blood at this time. What made them even more angry was that the King’s assistance to those bankrupt small chambers of commerce was to provide them with the goods purchased from them at low prices.

——Oh, they too had to pinch their noses and sign a series of treaties with the royal family before they could receive the first batch of goods from the headquarters of the Free Chamber of Commerce.

Too shameless, too despicable.

During this period of time, the heads of the great chambers of commerce in the southeast scolded the King countless times.

However, the other small chambers of commerce accepted this well——they did not have the strong capital of the great chambers of commerce, and if the King had not purchased their backlog of goods, they would have starved to death in this winter and spring. And there was nothing wrong with accepting the complete incorporation of the royal family. Anyway, they had not been doing well in the first place due to being squeezed out by the great chambers of commerce.

“How wonderful.”

Witch Griselda leaned on the railing, watching the merchant ships sailing out of the port one by one.

After the blockade was lifted, the Walway pirates were in no hurry to leave the southeast——they were now also a member of the Royal Navy——but continued to patrol the coastline on the border of Legrand.

This was the order of the King.

On the one hand, they have to hunt down other pirates who want to take advantage of the opportunity to intercept merchant ships after the blockade was lifted. After the Black Death, the businesses that suffered huge losses could no longer afford the harassment of the pirates. One must know that the merchant ships that have been incorporated were now the King’s property, and the King would certainly not sit back and watch the situation where pirates interfering with business routes continue to develop.

On the other hand, they were ordered by the King to be on alert for any possible attack from the other side of the Abyss Strait.

“Are you ready?”

The first mate, Charles, had a bit of worry on his face, and hesitated to speak.

“Are you…..sure?”

When Griselda turned her head, she saw some pirates shrank their heads and pretended nothing happened, some of them wiped the decks, some of them pulled the cables…..She laughed a little: “You guys don’t trust me and Jenny this much, Jenny will be angry. “

As soon as she finished speaking, a guy who was pretending to be fixing the cables tripped over the ropes, and with a “plop” fell through the hole that suddenly appeared on the deck.

Charles smiled, too.

The sky gradually dimmed, and after night fell, all the ghost ships of the Walway pirates——plus one hell ship——had all returned from their patrol and moored here. Charles, who needed to stay to deal with things, stood on an ordinary clipper ship, watching the ghost ships at a distance.

Griselda stood on deck with Hawkins in her black pointed hat.

Charles waved them off as a farewell.

These special ships quietly left the port under the cover of night and sailed to the vast sea. When they were out of sight, a storm broke out.

Jenny had already sailed to the uninhabited open sea.

During the storm, Hawkins turned on his gold compass to check the direction. After they gradually arrived at the coordinates mentioned in the letter from the King, Griselda saw that the sea water gradually became as black as ink, and in the frenzy of the storm, a huge vortex appeared on the sea not far from them.

The vortex was so deep and black, thick black mist rising from it, and the storm howled out from it, making people feel chills at first sight.

It seemed to lead straight to hell.

“We’ve arrived.”

Hawkins said he closed his gold compass and stood motionless on the heaving deck in the storm.

“Go, Jenny.”

The witch said.

Without batting an eye, they directly steered the ships into the vortex that swallowed everything.

……………………

Hell, Blackstone Royal Castle.

The Devil knocked softly on the King’s door. There was no day or night in hell, and the Devil played the role of a considerate servant, enjoying it immensely and seeming to never tire of it.

After getting an answer and pushing the door to enter, the Devil found with some regret that His Majesty had already got up and was reviewing the documents at the desk——even if the King was in hell, he still had to continue to take care of the political affairs of the mortal world.

“Your battleships are about to arrive, but there is a small problem…..” said the Devil, “The dock of the castle hasn’t woken up yet, and you need to wake it up yourself.”

The King put down his pen. He had some suspicion that the Devil told him about the ghost ships to actually have him further awaken the castle.

“Your Majesty?”

The Devil took the cloak from his arm and looked at the King inquiringly.

“Let’s go.”

The King stood up.

When the Devil stepped forward to put the cloak on the King, the King asked a question seemingly casually: “If hell exists, what about heaven?”

He had thought about this question for a long time.

“There has never been a heaven.”

After the Devil put on the cloak for the King, he took a step back and gave an unexpected answer.

“At least…..there is no heaven like what those guys talk about.”

“Then, what is it?”

“The dwelling of the gods.” The Devil whispered, “However, after dusk, everything had changed. Since then, the eternal night has resounded, and the stairs to heaven have been cut off…..What a pity.”

Dwelling of the gods?

The King subconsciously thought of something else.

The Holy Court was not the spiritual ruler of the world from the beginning.

Taking the end of the legendary era as the boundary between before and after AD, the King could infer from the history of the alchemists that at least in the legendary era, people believed in more than just one god known as the Holy Lord.

The Age of Legends could also be called the “Age of the Gods”.

The establishment of the Holy Court should have been in the 1st century AD, and at that time the gods had gradually withdrawn from people’s sight, and since then, the number of representatives of the Holy Lord in the human world had gradually increased. In the King’s memory, the earliest and clearest record of the display of the Holy Court’s power was the history of Bressi.

217 AD.

The predecessor of the Bressi Kingdom, the Crow Kingdom, surrendered to the Holy Court. With the help of the angels, they unified many states on the east coast of the Abyss Strait, established the Bressi Kingdom with a vast territory, and accepted the Holy Court as the state religion. “…..the priests drew crosses on the chests of heroes, and the brave knights were invincible from then on.” It was from here that the view that the outcome of a war was determined by the Holy Lord gradually took root in people’s minds .

This was a more objective origin of the Holy Court.

One thing worth noting…..

The origin and development of the Holy Court have always been hidden in the mist. For more than a thousand years, the Holy Court had spared no effort to combine the holy book with history, and had rooted an impression in people’s minds that the omniscient and omnipotent God who was in charge of everything opened up this world, and the will of God ran through the history of mankind, that the development history of the Holy Court was the evolution history of human civilization.

It must be said that the Holy Court did a great job on this part. Countless theologians have developed theology to an extreme generation after generation, and have found corresponding theological explanations for every major historical event known to mankind. It eventually evolved to the current situation: belief in God ran through all aspects of people’s lives.

And earlier, the era of polytheistic belief had been subtly forgotten. All polytheisms have become “heresy”.

The King raised his hand and pressed his forehead, feeling that he had touched some hidden truth.

“What does the age of the gods look like?”

He asked.

“The age of the gods…..” the Devil looked at the King, “the gods were worshiped by different names, and each of their names points to different attributes and different authority. Who doesn’t want to hold the ultimate supreme authority? That was an age of battles, packs of wolves fighting each other.”

“What was your name?” the King asked suddenly as he listened.

“I?”

The Devil seemed to be taken aback for a moment, but he quickly replied in his usual frivolous manner.

“That’s an unremarkable name, and I don’t think you want to know, Your Majesty.”

The King did not speak, but silently watched his contractor, the Devil who always wore a smiling mask and power that manifested as black butterflies. The Devil finally put away his smile gradually under those icy blue eyes, and became sinister and cold, like a blood-quenching blade drawn out of its sheath.

A long time later.

“I have no name,” said the Devil, “I have long since lost it.”

The King was slightly taken aback. The Devil’s voice was very calm, but the King clearly felt that there was overwhelming bloodlust in his words. The moonlight shifted, and the figure of the Devil was hidden in the darkness. The King couldn’t see his expression clearly, but he could only feel him standing there silently, silent and full of anger.

The room suddenly became quiet.

You c an fi nd t he la te st cha pte rs at ( th e bl mu se . c o m )

“That’s nothing.” The King said lightly, “It’s just a name, what do you want?”

The Devil looked at him, realized that the King was not joking, and burst out laughing.

The stiff silence of the scene was shattered at once, and the Devil returned to his handsome gentlemanly appearance. He smiled and bowed to the King: “Then please help me get my name back when that day comes. My dear sire.”

“Fine.”

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