Chapter 420 That Could be the Best News (1/2)
Naturally, Joshua was not interested in what the priestess wanted to do.
With a flick of his fingers, a jet air stream knocked the woman unconscious, the brute strength churning her brain and leaving her with a deep concussion.
”Black, watch over this one. If she makes any false move, incinerate her with dragon breath,” said the warrior, before changing his order after some thought. ”No, wait. I have some questions… If she attempts suicide, knock her out again.”
”Yes, Master!” The black dragon girl had quickly replied before she really understood her instructions. Staring at the fainted Gold-tier priestess's half-skull face, her own was soon filled with curiosity.
”So am I supposed to burn her or knock her out?”
”Both would work, just act accordingly,” the warrior answered crisply as he walked towards the mountainside.
When he came across a large mound of snow that juts out, he deliberately gave it another look. The mound then started to shudder, the snow above sent flying.
”Seeing as you did not cause any trouble, I'll spare you this time.” Joshua nodded slightly. ”Hurry home.”
The behemoth within the mound felt relieved. With a rumbling sound, the iron-plated mountain dragon that had left an entire Cult team helpless quickly dug a hole into the earth and hurriedly escape into the ground below.
Arriving where Ivan was buried within the avalanche, the warrior pointed out with a finger, melting a huge hole into the hoard of snow with formless heat flow and revealing the young hunter who was hiding within a stone crevice more than ten meters below. Raising his hand again, the warrior pulled up the youth with boundless lifeforce, and placed him on the snow.
Ivan was still unconscious. He did not take the brunt of the avalanche's impact since he hid within the stony crevice, but the tremendous concussion and shockwaves were enough to knock out and heavily injure a Steel-tier mage. Right now, his organs had varying levels of damage—it would probably fester into internal injury if he did not get treated in time.
Still, Joshua was here, and he would never let any accident befall his own student. He activated the lifeforce in the Azurite and lightly adjusting it to the threshold that Ivan could withstand its energies.
Soon, the energy streamed into the youth's body.
In just three seconds, Ivan's injury was mostly healed, stopping short of a full recovery only because he lacked a powerful physicality like Joshua's. Indeed, hurrying the treatment would cause harm instead.
”Three more underneath the mountain,” Joshua mumbled as he looked to the other side of the summit. In the blink of an eye, he arrived where they were as if by teleporting, before applying the same healing on the trio. After that, he carried them back to the mountainside and placed them beside where Ivan was.
Only now did Joshua started pondering why the cultists would come to the Icy Plains of the Extreme North.
”Although there weren't many patrol groups guarding the perimeter, it's impossible for them to escape detection and arrive here…”
Touching his chin, Joshua swept his gaze across the snowy land. Underneath the thick ice, more than a dozen cultists were struck senseless. Even if quite a few were slowly coming to, most were slowly dying due to the extreme cold. Joshua, however, did not intend to help—he simply waited for them to climb out.
While Silver-tier warriors could not hold against calamities, their resistance was definitely much better than that of ordinary individuals. In not more than ten minutes, five cultists who possessed stronger composition awoke under the sleet, and quickly dug and crawled out towards the surface.
But what welcomed their return was an irresistible horror.
Joshua did not waste too much strength, but was quickly able to learn how the cultists had entered the Icy Plains as the abominations fell to their knees in fear, crying and screaming for mercy.
They had disguised themselves as traders, and using a merchant ship to traverse the Magel's Unfrozen River, then managed to bypass the Northern patrols' perimeter. Then, slipping through the Dark Forest on the outskirts of Moldavia, they arrived at the Icy Plains. They had intended to excavate the entombed bottom layer of the dragon lair where toxic plague gases might exist. The gas is also related to their next mission, but only the Gold-tier priestess was privy to the specific details of that task.
Nonetheless, although Joshua did not ask much about other issues, the cultists kept vying to the first one to spill their own secrets. They explained things with such detail and passion that Joshua almost thought he was a high-ranked priest of theirs.
The cult members, of course, had learned of Joshua's terror and power; they were outstanding cultists who slipped into Moldavia after all. Only those who had seen the man himself would know that rumors never compared to the real truth. None would be so foolish as to lie in the face of this being that triggered every alarm in their souls.
Since they were being so tactful, Joshua did not prepare to kill them at once. With a light spring from his finger, he shot out streaks of air current and knocked them out. He intends to hand them over to the Church, allowing Artanis and the others to interrogate them.
Through his observation, Joshua could also ascertain that these men were not carrying the plague's virus. They appeared to be middle-ranked cultists and were starkly different from the others that had self-destructed last time around. Questioning them would definitely be more fruitful.
Carrying the prisoners as well as the four-men party, Joshua returned to the black dragon girl beneath the foot of the mountain. The priestess had regained consciousness when she arrived; she sat, a look of abject failure on her face. The soulfire on the skull part of her face was so weak it was almost dying out—the backlash from her concussion appeared to be very serious.
Either way, she did not appear to have any intention to resist, and never thought of running even if it was just Black beside her. Her lips twitched when Joshua came over slowly as if mumbling, but there was ultimately no sound.
”Why are you here in the North?” Joshua asked curtly without any courtesy as he placed the prisoners and students over the icy ground. ”Is it for the prehistoric ruins that were recently discovered?”
”… Yes, my liege.” She replied with pure deference and great care after a brief pause since she feared that her behavior had enraged Joshua. ”Our fellowship had already confirmed some time ago that there was a prehistoric ruin in Moldavia's Dark Forest. With the High Priest's prophecy and records from the prehistoric scripture, the higher-ups believed that there was something we need from within… But for reasons unknown, the news was leaked and many adventurers came to obstruct us, which was why we intended to…”
Then, she smiled bitterly in a self-mocking manner. ”Brandon Kaos and Vale Dani Scarlet are both Gold high-tier—or even Gold-pinnacle combatants. Still, the Moldova they watch over is just slightly inferior to yours, which was why the High Priest decided to come himself to inspect the ruins as soon as possible.”
”As for us, we're here to ensure that the High Priest could move freely. That's we're here to find some toxic gas and try to raise a ruckus in Moldavia…”
Joshua's brow shot up at that. Sharing a look with the clueless black dragon girl once, he said, ”So your cabal were the ones who find the ruins in Moldavia, huh. With your raising a ruckus amongst the adventurers, no wonder Brandon and the others could not sit still every day—they can't even take care of their daughters.”
The priestess did not say a thing, but drops of cold sweat started to appear on her head.
Be it demon worshipers or the cult, certain binding methods tend to be applied on their members to ensure that their own secrets would not be revealed. Whether it was blood oath or spirit lock, it was fine if it were the average confidential information the cultists fell over themselves to spill for Joshua.
There would not be any reprisals for those cases, but for the priestess who had just revealed some vital knowledge, she would definitely be punished. From her expression, she appeared to have been constricted by spirit lock—she should be dealt a spirit blow now.
Still, Joshua simply waited it out until she breathed in relief again.
”Who is that High Priest? What is his depth?” He asked dispassionately. ”Since your cult is confident you could disregard Brandon and Vela Dani's hindrance with his arrival and explore the ruins anyway, he must be quite strong, isn't he?”
”Of course, he's very powerful.” The soulfire in the priestess's eye sockets flashed upon hearing the warrior's words, but she somehow calmed. Her tone then turned unusual when she spoke again.
”Rumors had it that the head of the Radcliffe family is a berserker who craves nothing but combat, fearless even when he's up against a Legendary warrior like the Emperor… I've thought that it was impossible for the liege of a territory to have such a personality, it never crossed my mind that it was true.”
”I also don't think that being a liege suits me.” Joshua shrugged, staring at the priestess who, all of a sudden, became dauntless and could speak calmly.
”It seems like he is formidable indeed,” he said thoughtfully. ”Just thinking about his existence returned your bravery and allowed you to speak with me on equal terms.”
”That's for sure… Joshua van Radcliffe, I admit that your capability is above my imagination and a notch above the hearsay. Just one look and I could tell that I couldn't escape whatever tricks I employ or however lucky I am. That's why I won't fight back.”
Sitting down, the ashen-faced priestess closed her eyes and laughed coldly. ”You are so incredible that illusions are appearing in my psyche, my soul was pressed back within my own body through instinctive fear, so much so that I can't even energize my mana… The only thing you lack is a breakthrough point to become Legendary, although you would definitely rank in the top ten of Supreme individuals.”
”But there's still a gap between you and the High Priest.”