Chapter 81

The storm magic circle was complex, yet it was completely visible beneath the destroyed house. The floating incantations were originally all the same, but after one of the incantations completed its fifth closure, it suddenly changed.

New spells were created, and some complex spells disappeared.

A brand new magic circle, a magic circle never before recorded, was born. The storm continued, and dark golden light appeared amidst the dust and sand, crisscrossing and passing around the wailing mercenaries.

The dragon stood on the ground, looking at the tornado, and scoffed, "It's so badly made that I can't eat it at all."

I was referring to that bowl of meat soup.

Veris waved his staff, and a whirlwind spell flew out, blowing away the dust on the ground. The entrance to the basement was blocked by a wooden plank, which was now being lifted into the air.

He walked to the entrance, knelt down on one knee, looked inside, and frowned.

The dragon walked over, twitched its nose, and said, "Aren't there too many dead people here?"

Veris shook his head, but instead went down the ladder at the entrance. Seeing this, the dragon quickly moved closer: "Are you going down?"

“I need to make sure there are any church members inside,” Veris said, his tone turning cold.

The dragon shrank its neck and simply stood at the entrance, staring at the still-raging tornado, then looking left and right to see if there were any other humans.

Despite the commotion, the village remained calm. The dragon could sense that humans were spying on it, but dared not approach.

Veris descended the ladder, putting away his staff. Before doing so, he cast a cleansing spell and threw it down, sending out streams of light that illuminated the entire basement.

The basement was larger than Lloyd's house above ground.

A strong stench of blood and rotting corpses wafted over. Veris stood expressionless beside the ladder, his eyes reflecting the basement littered with corpses. Most of the bodies were villagers, still wearing clothes. As the weather warmed, the corpses decomposed faster. A cleansing magic circle lit up on the ground, causing the flowing, unknown liquid to solidify.

Maggots and flies, which were flying everywhere, also disappeared under the capture of the cleaning magic.

The 25 bodies were found, and the time of death was approximately three days prior, which was about six days before the Phoenix County uprising.

There were only twenty-one mercenaries outside.

The light illuminated the entire basement, revealing the horrific scene. Veris frowned and circled the basement, eventually finding a corpse dressed in church attire in a corner.

He didn't feel disgusted at all. He squatted down and carefully examined the rotting face.

With the outstretched palm facing upwards, a cluster of golden flames appeared.

The flames flickered, illuminating his heterochromatic eyes.

Veris examined them for a while before standing up. The flame in his palm landed on the corpses dressed in church robes. Judging from the rank of the badges on their robes, they were four young priests.

Golden flames engulfed the rotting corpse, and the priests' bewildered souls finally regained some clarity. They stared blankly at the young man standing among the corpses, their expressions stiff, but tears slowly welled up in their eyes.

Veris whispered, "Go to the afterlife."

The priest's soul was annihilated by the golden light, and the four points of light dissipated.

The grotesque marks on the corpses were repaired by the golden flames, and their bodies were restored to their pre-death state, with their eyes closed, as if they were asleep.

Outside, the storm magic stopped, and all sorts of random things began to fall from the sky. Seeing this, the dragon quickly dodged to the side, but the things didn't hit it.

The mercenaries crashed down from a height of tens of meters, instantly losing their ability to move.

If they are too short, they can still climb up.

Veris emerged from the basement, dusting off his robes as if trying to shake off the foul odor.

He looked up at the blood spreading across the ground and sighed softly, "How cruel." But he didn't know whether he was referring to these people or himself.

"Who are you people?!" a terrified voice rang out.

Veris turned around and saw the scoundrel standing not far away, his face full of terror.

What role does this scoundrel play? Does he know that these villagers were murdered and that the mercenaries were disguised as villagers?

The scoundrel named Hyde saw the mess on the ground, with many villagers dressed in simple clothes lying haphazardly on the ground, blood beneath them, and the houses that had been neatly arranged were nowhere to be seen. The shock and fear on his face gradually faded.

"Are you here to arrest these people?" he couldn't help but ask, but he remained vigilant, keeping a relatively safe distance.

He was tense, his mind racing. He noticed that the two people didn't move, but remained in a posture as if they were about to escape.

Veris looked him over and said, "You saw it all."

Hyde didn't know what he was asking, hesitated for a moment, and then shouted, "That's right! You killed them, I saw it all, and I'm going to the city to report you!"

“No.” Veris shook his head and stared at him intently. “You saw it all, the scene of them killing the villagers.”

Hyde's face drained of color, and he couldn't help but take two steps back, only to bump into something.

A hand pressed down on his shoulder, and with immense force, he was unable to move.

Hyde turned his head, trembling, and met a pair of inhuman red vertical pupils—when did this person get behind him?!

Veris strode towards him, and Hyde's face instantly broke out in a cold sweat. Looking at the young man with heterochromatic eyes, he couldn't help but shout, "I won't report you! Let me go! I'm in debt in the city, I can't go back there—"

“No.” Veris finally stood in front of him and slowly said, “You have already sent out the message… You used a flying bird. You were afraid the flying bird would be intercepted, so you also used a magical artifact.”

The afternoon sun was bright, making Hyde sweat profusely, but he felt as if he had fallen into an ice cellar. His panicked expression stiffened and finally turned cold.

Veris continued, "Your idea is to gain our trust, isn't it... Let me guess what you'll say?"

“You are a native of the village, and also a scoundrel. You went to the city to do some small business, but you like gambling or other forms of enjoyment. In short, you owe money, and that's when someone came to you.”

"You returned to the village and witnessed the mercenaries killing the villagers you once knew. Then you disguised yourself as a villager and lived in the village. You loudly spread the falsehoods of the church and the army in the village. You were with the mercenaries, but you weren't with them either."

"You all have the same person behind you, but as you guessed, the mercenaries don't know that."

"You ran into us, and then you made up a story, hmm... or maybe a story about secretly observing the mercenaries and waiting for an opportunity to take revenge. That's not important. Your goal is to gain our trust by stepping on the corpses of those useless mercenaries."

Veris said with a smile.

"A lie that is seven parts truth and three parts falsehood is easy for people to believe. But those three parts falsehood are the most dangerous."

The dragon is completely confused.

Hyde looked up, stared at the handsome young man, and sneered: "Your imagination is quite rich. You are definitely not an ordinary priest, are you? A pioneer from the capital."

Veris accepted the praise and said, "It's just a speculation based on your few words. How much of it is true is not important. The army has set out from the capital. There are spies in the army. I will send a message to warn them to be careful."

Hyde remained silent.

Then the young man said slowly, "You acted very quickly. You sent out the message the moment you discovered these people gathering. The magic artifact must also be high-level. That's really rare in a border town."

"It's such a pity that you've run into me."

Veris raised his hand, his eyebrows curving upwards, and a small magic circle appeared. With a flick of his wrist, the magic circle flew into the sky and then spread at a terrifying speed.

"A pair of high-level magical artifacts that transmit messages using special incantations, with a maximum distance of approximately... 300 li."

He looked at the magic circle, then turned to Hyde and smiled, "Do you think my magic circle can keep up with the spell of a magical artifact?"

The incantations on magical artifacts appear simultaneously, but if the distance between them is too great, the incantations need to be transmitted. Magical elements are active on this continent, and the transmission of incantations relies on these magical elements. Only magicians can glimpse a part of it.

Hyde looked at him in horror: "You, who are you?"

The pale gold magic circle covering the entire sky is easy to miss if you don't look closely, but as long as you stare at the sky, the pale gold flowing incantations will make it hard to look away.

Veris was still smiling, but the smile didn't reach his eyes: "I am who you think I am."

"Should we kill him?" Long asked, feeling a bit irritated from the sun.

Hyde's face was as ugly as it could possibly be.

Veris's smile vanished, and he said coldly, "What about the rest of the villagers?"

Hyde flinched in fright before saying, "They're locked up in the barn...it's a bit far from here."

“They killed the church pastor. I was just here to monitor them. I didn’t do anything!” Now that things had come to this, Hyde had given up and felt a little more confident.

It's probably because he didn't kill anyone.

Veris glanced at him, then said to the dragon, "Throw him into the basement."

Hyde's face changed drastically. He tried to struggle, but the dragon was too strong. One hand twisted his neck, and the other hand held down his arms, making him afraid to move. His face turned blue and purple.

He was terrified that if he moved, the dragon might accidentally snap his neck.

They were led to an entrance where a stench wafted out, and Hyde's pupils constricted, realizing what was happening.

He was thrown down, landing on a rotting corpse, and a shrill, hoarse scream rang out.

The dragon pulled the ladder out by force.

"Hmph, you dare spit on me!" Clearly, dragons hold grudges. In the dragon world, there is no concept of retribution. Whoever provokes it should be prepared to die.

Veris walked over, glanced at the magic circle above, and said, "Let's go rescue the villagers from the barn. This spell should be able to stop them, but..."

Long also looked at the sky, puzzled: "Why do I feel like I can't catch up?"

"No, we can make it."

Veris stroked his chin: "They probably intercepted it a moment before anyone could see the contents of the incantation."

The dragon's eyes widened, and then, as if struck by a sudden realization, it exclaimed excitedly, "Wouldn't that be infuriating?"

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Author's note: See you tomorrow! [kissing emoji]