Chapter 4: Sky Tower (4)
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“Lord Lin! Count Morris requests an audience!”
Edeline’s voice echoed from outside the door.
“Come in,” Lin Nan replied.
Morris pushed the door open, bowing and scraping as he entered, with Edeline right on his heels, clutching a notebook like it was a lifebuoy.
“What’s going on?”
Morris stood unnaturally two meters away from Lin Nan, afraid to take a single step closer.
He was gesticulating wildly while making a series of “uh, uh, uh” sounds like he was auditioning for a bad mime show.
Edeline observed intently while scribbling notes, clearly struggling to remember all the details she needed to convey.
“Well… Count Morris first respectfully sends his greetings to you, and then he inquires whether you’ve gotten used to the climate in Black Stone City and if the guest room beds are too hard…”
Lin Nan interrupted her, “If that’s all he has to say, I think you can leave now.”
Edeline, feeling a bit awkward, replied, “Of course not! The Count has a very confidential matter he wishes to report to you.”
Lin Nan raised an eyebrow, glancing at Edeline.
“I… I don’t know what the Count wants to say; I’m… I’m just a translator.”
“Hmm, ask him why he wants to do that?”
Edeline placed her notebook in front of Morris, who, to everyone’s surprise, “thudded” to the ground in a half-kneel before Lin Nan, making that desperate “uh, uh, uh” sound again.
“The Count says he wants to trade this secret for the right to pledge his loyalty to you.”
Lin Nan, “……”
Loyalty?
Did last night’s performance win over Morris completely?
This reason seemed a bit flimsy to explain his motive. But since he was now mute as a fish and couldn’t listen, asking directly would be awkward.
Still, if this guy wanted to spill some beans, she was all ears!
After all, her original mission was to investigate the reason for the demon race’s appearance in Black Stone City.
“Alright then, spill it. Let’s see if your secret piques my interest.”
Morris glanced at Edeline’s notes and nodded eagerly.
After a long, drawn-out explanation from Edeline, which seemed to take an eternity, Lin Nan finally got the gist of their real purpose for coming to Black Stone City.
As she expected, their target was the Sky Tower.
To get to that point, they had to rewind back two months.
Construction workers out in the outskirts of the Imperial Capital stumbled upon a tomb. Not very big, and the burial items were about as exciting as a soggy sandwich.
They thought it was just another boring ancient grave, but archaeologists who came along found an old book in the coffin, detailing the legendary Four Warriors connected to the Sky Tower.
400 years ago, the Monster King led the monster army in an epic battle against a joint human-demon coalition, and then poof—he vanished into the Small Thousand World.
After the monster race lost, humans took over Black Stone City while demons abandoned Cangyan City, leaving White Feather City to a monster self-rule.
Back then, demons noticed a hundred-meter tall white spire in Black Stone City, thinking it was just another monster sacrificial altar, so they opted for closer Cangyan City instead—because why not?
However, upon discovering that ancient book, demons couldn’t help but feel a pang of regret for their short-sightedness.
The book mainly chronicled an adventure from 4,000 years ago, where several heroes from the demon race (the future Four Warriors of the Empire) dared to tackle the Sky Tower.
Turns out, the Sky Tower didn’t just have an above-ground part; it also boasted at least one hundred layers of underground caverns.
Demon warriors found the Sky Tower in the wilderness and sensed it was harnessing some serious energy, so they decided to challenge its underground sections.
Levels 1 to 50 were relatively easy, but once they hit level 50, the enemies multiplied like it was a bad party invitation, yet they managed to keep up—barely.
When they reached level 60, they were suddenly swamped by an avalanche of undead creatures, taking heavy casualties, and by the end, only four made it to the next floor with the key in hand.
At level 70, they stumbled upon an opportunity that could change the entire fate of the demon race.
As they faced an onslaught of undead creatures reminiscent of a tsunami, the four were on the brink of d*ath and severely injured.
Just at that moment, the Goddess of Destiny, Lachesis, shone down on them like a ray of morning light, using her holy light to obliterate all the undead.
The four warriors wept and knelt, thanking the goddess for saving their lives.
The Goddess of Destiny bestowed upon them noble bloodlines and left behind her blessings.
The four warriors staggered back to the demon territory, their powers grew under the goddess’s guardianship, and they gradually became the ultimate warriors of the demon race.
Under their leadership, the demon lands expanded, driving away those pesky monsters and humans, ushering in a golden age for the demons.
Originally, the demon race had no class division. All of that began with the Four Warriors.
They founded the Empire, established the nobility, divided the lands, and brought all the common folk under the Empire’s rule.
In the official history of the demon empire, everyone knows it was founded by these Four Warriors.
However, the origins of their superhuman powers are conveniently omitted, or perhaps under the warriors’ instructions, shrouded in mystery, manifesting only their great achievements.
Meanwhile, the belief in the Goddess of Destiny started booming during the era of the Four Warriors, and before that? Crickets.
And this newly-discovered ancient book precisely details the Four Warriors’ adventures in the underground trials of the Sky Tower, matching many details with the official history.
Historians posited that the tomb’s owner was likely one of the last caretakers of the Four Warriors in their final days.
Maybe he couldn’t bear to see their true story buried in the sands of time, so he entrusted it to his nearest confidant before kicking the bucket.
That person recorded it down but was too scared to pass it around, fearing a possible d*ath sentence.
Thus, it was interred in the tomb, only to resurface 4,000 years later.
Right now, only the upper echelons of the Empire know about the ancient book’s discovery, but tales of the warriors gaining power from the Sky Tower quickly caught the Emperor of the demon race’s attention.
Soon after, a messenger was dispatched from Black Stone City seeking an alliance.
So the Emperor quickly assigned the task to the Foreign Minister, who happened to be Trissa’s father.
However, unbeknownst to them, Prince Eric had slyly inserted his relative, Count Morris, into the delegation, ordering through the Emperor for him to lead the envoy.
With no choice, the Foreign Minister had to include his precious daughter Trissa in the delegation to ensure they brought back some solid news.
The delegation’s mission was mainly to verify whether there really existed a 60-layer section below the Sky Tower.
Once confirmed, they would return straight to the Imperial Capital.
The demons would then dispatch a mighty army to completely conquer Black Stone City, digging deep to uncover the secrets beneath the Sky Tower.
After all, the Four Warriors only managed to scrape by to level 70.
At this point, Lin Nan had a pretty good grasp of the envoy’s purpose.
“In seven days… no, six days from now, you have to report back, right?”
Morris nodded vigorously.
“What if you don’t find anything?”
Edeline responded, “To prevent the Sky Tower from falling into the hands of anyone else, the army will immediately launch an assault on Black Stone City, no matter what. I reckon preparations are already well underway.”
