Coiling Dragon

by welyjesch

  Apothecary Holmer knew his own limits.

  He personally wasn’t that powerful. The most powerful weapon available to him was his poisons. Naturally, he wouldn’t want to offend this malicious person in front of him, who was the true power in Cerre city.

  “Madame Wade, don’t worry. Those siblings definitely will not live to arrive at Cerre city.”

  Holmer was very confident. “Even if they have an escort who is of the ninth rank, hmph. As long as he hasn’t reached the Saint-level, I am confident in my ability to deal with him. But of course…he can’t already know who I am.”

  If a combatant of the ninth rank were to recognize him and activate his battle-qi, the battle-qi would be sufficient to easily repel the poison.

  “Mr. Holmer, all these years, you’ve resided here in Cerre City. You aren’t a person who likes to show yourself either. How many people could have possibly seen you? What’s more, I’ve heard that you, Mr. Holmer, possess the ability to change your appearance?” Madame Wade laughed as she looked at Holmer.

  Holmer laughed happily. Stroking his beard, he said, “Haha. Madame Wade, change my appearance? You praise me too highly. All I do is to use some medicinal concoctions to change the color of my skin and hair. And then a little makeup…even people who know me, as long as they don’t carefully inspect me, won’t be able to recognize me.”

  Madame Wade smiled as she nodded. “Then I leave everything in your hands, Mr. Holmer. Tonight, I will stay in the nearby hotel and await your good news.”

  Holmer laughed confidently.

  ….

  But as time went on, Madame Wade, who was in that hotel nearest to the city walls, was beginning to grow confused. Because quite soon, the city gates would close for the night.

  The rule of Cerre City was that at ten o’clock sharp, the gates would be shut.

  But Jenne and Keane’s group still had yet to arrive. Based on Madame Wade’s information, Jenne’s group had arrived at Redsand City by lunchtime. Even if they travelled slowly, they should’ve reached here by now.

  Ten o’clock arrived.

  Those enormous city gates began to slowly close as a large number of guards pushed at them. Apothecary Holmer, who had meticulously prepared for this battle, descended from the walls with a belly full of anger. Madame Wade also walked out of the hotel.

  “Madame Wade, what is this?” Holmer was truly upset now.

  After receiving the news, he had run all the way back from the harbor to the city. The bumpy, long ride was quite miserable for this 300-year old Holmer.

  And then, he had stood up there on the walls for half the night, with the icy wind blowing at him the entire time.

  And now, the city gates were shutting. But no one came.

  “Who knows what is going on with that group of people. I’m afraid they might have taken a rest at Redsand City. Mr. Holmer, why don’t you rest here at the hotel tonight? Let’s see what tomorrow brings.” Madame Wade was not in a good mood either.

  “That’s the only option we have right now.” Holmer was extremely disgruntled.

  ….

  The next dawn, just as the city gates opened, Holmer began to quietly wait for them to arrive. By 9 o’clock in the morning, Holmer was truly furious.

  Holmer rushed down from the city walls and charged directly into the second floor of the hotel.

  “Madame Wade. If they aren’t coming to us, I’ll go to them.” Holmer said directly. “Give me some men, at least one of whom recognizes those two siblings.”

  Madame Wade approved of this idea. “Alright. Then I’ll have to trouble you, Mr. Holmer, to make this trip.”

  “This time, I really have to give these people a taste of my power.” Holmer said quietly, his eyes filled with a murderous look.

  After purchasing a carriage in Redsand City, Jenne and Keane entered the carriage, with the old servant, Lambert, being the driver. As for Linley, he rode on the back of his Blackcloud Panther, Haeru.

  Haeru was more than two meters tall and very broad-backed. His fur was very smooth and soft as well.

  Riding on the Blackcloud Panther, Linley couldn’t feel any bumps in the road as well. The ride was far more comfortable than that of a horse or a carriage. What’s more, the Blackcloud Panther ran up mountains as easily as it ran on prairies.

  “Big brother Ley. What time is it now?” Keane poked his head out of the carriage and asked Linley.

  Linley glanced at him. “Don’t be impatient. It’s only ten o’clock. We most likely will arrive at Cerre City by eleven o’clock.”

  The Blackcloud Panther which Linley was riding on was very awe-inspiring. Everyone on the road who saw Linley all moved aside early on to allow Linley the right of way.

  “Giddyup, giddyup!”

  From far away, the sound of hoof steps could be heard. Soon, three mounted knights could be seen in the distance, but as soon as they saw Linley, all three were terrified and came to a halt.

  “What a massive panther.” One of the knights sighed, staring at the black panther Linley was riding.

  “Stop staring. Let’s move.” The other knight said.

  Just at this time, another stallion trotted past them. This stallion was ridden by a kindly looking old hunchback with pure white hair. The speed of the old man’s horse was fairly slow, and it clip-clopped its way forward.

  “Haha, look at him. He’s so old, but still rides a horse. Haha…” One of the knights laughed loudly.

  “Let’s go. We have business to attend to.”

  The three knights laughed calmly, continuing on their way. Right at this time, that hunchbacked old man raised his head to glance at Linley’s group. This hunchback immediately understood.

  Per their pre-arranged agreement, if they encountered the targets, the knights would say, “Haha, look at him. He’s so old, but still rides a horse.” What’s more, Holmer also knew that the mysterious expert had a black panther as a pet.

  ….

  “Those three knights don’t have any knightly chivalry at all.” Keane, who had seen all this through the window, said unhappily once the three knights left.

  But Linley frowned as he stared at the hunchback.

  The hunchback rode the horse in a manner that did indeed inspire concern. Just from the look of him, one could tell that he was extremely old. Although the horse wasn’t moving too fast, the hunchback continued to sway back and forth on the horse’s back, as though he could fall off at any moment. His legs didn’t seem to be too firmly clamped on the horse’s back either.

  Right at this moment, a carriage appeared from behind the old hunchback as well.

  “F*ck off, you old fart.” One of the knights cursed loudly. The hunchback immediately whipped his horse, moving it to the side of the road.

  “Ahhh!”

  When the horse was roughly ten or so meters away from Linley’s group, the old hunchback swayed again and fell off his horse.

  “The old grandpa fell off!” Keane, seeing this from through the window, immediately pushed open the door to come out and help.

  But just as the old man fell off, a light blue wave of gas emanated from his body. That light blue gas was extremely thin and light, so much so that if someone wasn’t specifically looking for it, it would be quite hard to discern.

  The wind just so happened to be blowing from the east, and it blew the gas directly towards Linley. But of course, the first people to be impacted by the poison gas was the people in the carriage which had just passed by.

  “Crumple.”

  One knight after another collapsed from their horses to the ground, fresh blood leaking out of their noses.

  “Hrm?” Linley also felt that something in his body seemed off, and his head felt a little dizzy.

  “Not good. Poison.” Attuned to the wind, Linley could clearly sense that a light blue poisonous gas was wafting in his direction. By now, Linley had already taken two breaths of it.

  The Dragonblood battle-qi in Linley’s body immediate
ly rose up, absorbing all of the poisonous gas in Linley’s body, with none of it harming him at all.

  This poisonous gas was a poison which Holmer had specially designed to be used against humans, based on human biology.

  But Holmer could never have imagined that Linley was very different, biologically speaking, from ordinary people. Within his veins was the bloodline of the Dragonblood Warriors, an ancestral bloodline that was many times more exalted than even the bloodlines of magical beasts. In the past, even the magicite core of the Armored Razorback Wyrm had been absorbed and consumed by just the small amount of Dragonblood that was in Linley’s veins at that time.

  Normal people simply couldn’t imagine or understand the special abilities and attributes of each of the Four Supreme Warriors.

  This sort of poison gas couldn’t hurt a Dragonblood Warrior at all.

  “Wind.”

  Based on his mastery of wind elemental essence granted to him by being a wind-style magus, Linley immediately controlled the air around him to blow the wind backwards. The poisonous gas immediately blew back towards the east. By now, the squad of knights that were between the ‘hunchback’ Holmer and Linley had all died.

  The poisonous gas blew back towards Holmer, but he didn’t dodge. He was not afraid of his own poisons. But what he was afraid of…was Linley.

  “Giddyup, giddyup!” Holmer suddenly became quite agile, leaping back onto his horse and then sending it galloping east as fast as he could.

  “Haeru.” Linley said in a cold voice.

  “Swoooosh.”

  The Blackcloud Panther’s speed was terrifyingly fast, many times faster than an ordinary stallion.

  In the blink of an eye, he traversed several hundred meters, and actually passed by Holmer, landing in front of him. All that had been visible during this motion was a black blur.

  Seeing Linley suddenly appear in front of him, Holmer immediately grew frantic.

  “My friend, I was paid by others to do this. If you are willing to spare me, I will give you as much gold as you wish.” Although Holmer was more than three hundred years old, he didn’t want to die yet.

  Thinking back to what just happened, Linley still felt afraid.

  Fortunately, he had managed to react in time and blow the poison gas back before it had entered the carriage.

  “Poison gas? Are you a necromancer?” Linley looked at Holmer.

  “Necromancer?” Holmer was startled, then shook his head. “No. I’m an apothecary. My friend, I am quite wealthy. Ten thousand gold coins? Twenty thousand? Or perhaps, a hundred thousand?” At a time like this, Holmer was still trying to save money.

  But Linley couldn’t even be bothered to speak to him.

  “Haeru, deal with it.”

  Linley hopped off the black panther, heading back towards the carriage. As for the Blackcloud Panther, he revealed his sharp fangs, and then pounced directly towards Holmer.

  “Ah! A million! Ten million! Ah!!!!” Before Holmer had even finished calling out, he had been flattened by a single blow from the Blackcloud Panther’s massive paw.

  Book 8, The Ten Thousand Kilometer Journey – Chapter 18, The Prefectural City of Cerre

  The desolate wilderness.

  The tens of people escorting the carriage were all dead. The black blood oozing from their bodies made the scene all the more sinister. Holmer, in turn, had been smashed to death by a single blow from Haeru. Jenne and Keane, who had watched this all from the carriage, were totally stunned.

  “Big brother Ley.” Keane called out in alarm. Jenne’s face was rather pale as well.

  Just as Linley was about to respond, that old servant, Lambert, who was driving the carriage suddenly called out in surprise as he stared at the corpse of Holmer. “Him! He’s the deadliest killer in Cerre City, Holmer. That old freak who styled himself an apothecary.”

  “Holmer? Grandpa Lambert, who are you talking about?” Keane looked at Lambert.

  Lambert took a deep breath. “Young master, young miss, this Holmer was an extremely dangerous individual within Cerre City. In the past, when I was serving your mother in the city, I encountered him a few times. At the time, Count Wade had mentioned this Holmer to your mother as well. This Holmer is an extremely skilled user of poisons. Although he is only a warrior of the sixth rank, he once killed a combatant of the ninth rank.”

  Only now did Jenne and Keane understand.

  Linley, listening to the side, nodded as well.

  “This Holmer is extremely greedy. Most likely, his actions this time were at the direction of the senior madame as well.” Lambert’s face was extremely solemn. “The senior madame really has her mind set on killing you!”

  “With big brother Ley, we have nothing to fear!” Keane was very confident. Jenne also looked confidently at Linley.

  “Enough. Let’s head out immediately so we can arrive sooner at Cerre.” Linley said directly. Linley’s group immediately made haste towards the prefectural city of Cerre, leaving behind a cloud of dust on the desolate road.

  The prefectural city of Cerre. This was a city with around two to three hundred thousand people. Its red walls stretched off into the distance. In terms of architecture, the buildings of Cerre tended towards the ornate.

  Keane pushed open the door to the carriage. Seeing the beautiful, majestic city in front of them, Keane’s heart was filled with boundless ambition. His eyes lit up, and he said, “From this day forth, I shall be the master of this prefectural city.”

  Outside the city gates.

  “Black panther?” When the gate guards saw Linley’s mount from the distance, they had immediately called out to the other guards nearby, “Quick, someone go speak with the madame. The person she spoke of is arriving.”

  “Okay.”

  A gate guard immediately ran towards the hotel located nearest to the city gates, rushing up to the second floor. At this moment, there was a warrior stationed outside the stairway. Seeing that it was a gate guard who was running this way, the warrior allowed him passage.

  “Madame Countess.” The guard fell respectfully to one knee.

  “Madame Countess, the expert riding a black panther which you spoke of has arrived. There is a carriage behind him.”

  “What?” Before Madame Wade had reacted, the two brothers of her who were standing behind her called out in alarm.

  Madame Wade frowned. “Leave for now.”

  “Yes.” The guard respectfully withdrew.

  Right now, both of Madame Wade’s brothers were growing frantic. Her eldest brother hurriedly said, “Sis, they actually survived their journey to Cerre. Can it be that Holmer, that old freak, failed?”

  “Hard to say.”

  Madame Wade was frowning. “Perhaps that expert with the black panther who was escorting those two countryside-raised siblings didn’t come on the main road from Redsand City. Perhaps they intentionally took a detour and caused Holmer and the others to miss them.”

  Hearing her words, her two brothers couldn’t help but nod.

  Indeed, it was very possible that their opponents had craftily taken a roundabout path enroute to Cerre City.

  “Then what should we now do?” Madame Wade’s two brothers looked at her.

  “Go down and welcome them.” A hint of a smile was on Madame Wade’s face. “My two darling children have returned, after suffering for so many years. They are finally back. As their loving aunt, how can I not go welcome them?”

  And as she spoke, Madame Wade headed down the stairs.

  Right as they walked out of the main door of the hotel, Madame Wade saw the tall and sturdy man with a heavy sword on his back who was riding a handsome black panther, as well as the familiar face of Lambert.

  “Oh, Lambert, long time no see.” Madame Wade immediately called out in a high pitched voice.

  Linley, Jenne, Keane, and Lambert all swung their heads to look at her. Lambert started, then respectfully said, “Senior madame.”

  Madame Wade laughed warmly. “T
hese two children should be Jenne and Keane. Jenne is even more beautiful than before, and she looks more like her mother now as well. Keane isn’t the child that he used to be either. He’s even more handsome now.”

  Jenne and Keane could both recognize Madame Wade.

  Although nearly eight years had passed, Madame Wade’s appearance hadn’t changed much, with the exception of a slight wrinkle at the corner of her eyes.

  “Senior madame.” Jenne and Keane both paid their respects.

  “Wonderful, wonderful. And there’s no need to stand on courtesy.” Madame Wade chortled, then looked at Linley. “And this is?”

  “This is big brother Ley.” Keane hurriedly answered.

  “Ley?” Madame Wade’s eyelids flickered, then she laughed. “Oh, Mr. Ley. I imagine it must have been you who protected and escorted them to Cerre City. I absolutely must thank you on behalf of Jenne and Keane. Come, let’s all go to the castle. Tonight, I am going to arrange a magnificent banquet for my two poor little children.”

  The castle of the city governor was a square block, and was quite an imposing sight.

  “What a useless fellow.” After hearing the news which the messenger knights had delivered, Madame Wade was even more furious.

  Holmer had been a chess piece that she had trusted.

  But now that Holmer had failed, Madame Wade felt extremely frustrated.

  “With that Mr. Ley present, it will very hard for me to kill Keane.” Madame Wade was extremely angry. “Poison? The poison used by ordinary poison experts won’t be able to escape detection. Assassins? How many can deal with this Ley?”

  Madame Wade’s eyes slowly sharpened.

  “Looks like there’s only that one method left.” The worry disappeared from Madame Wade’s eyes. The only thing left was confidence and callousness.

  Within the enormous dining room of the castle, the giant glass chandelier had been lit, casting its resplendent, bewitching light upon the room. All of the nobles of Cerre City were present today.

  “I’ve heard that Count Wade’s son has returned. I wonder how Madame Wade will deal with this.”

  “Who knows? But Madame Wade definitely will not give up her authority.”