In the morning, Asa got up and dressed neatly in a suit of priestly clothes.

  "I've known you for so long, and the first time I see you getting up early to comb your hair and wash your face, and even dressing seriously. What's going on? Is Ronis going to introduce a girlfriend to you?" Shandru stared at him. This old man still had no respect for Asa, this future hero, just like always.

  "Just let me go and be a hero." Asa checked his attire to make sure it was properly aligned. This was what Bishop Ronis had demanded of him, the image of a hero.

  About the plan of Bishop Ronis, he only knew a rough outline, and the specific design was arranged by Marquis. This hunting trip is just a small prelude to the bishop's grand plan for the future. As for the protagonist Asa, he also wants to take this opportunity to show his face and lay the foundation for his future prospects. Although Asa has never been interested in the bishop's grand plans, this matter itself is indeed quite interesting.

  "When a hero?" Shandru frowned and shook his head, saying: "That's really a hard job, you must ask him for extra pay."

  "You go talk to him when you're free. If there's a salary, I can split it with you." Asa wore the long sword that came with his uniform on his waist. He wasn't very good at using this thing, but according to his current identity, he couldn't walk around with that rough-looking knife anymore. Besides, today's matter was supposed to be easy, so it didn't matter what he used.

  The hunting conference should have started by now, and Asa just left.

  As soon as he came out, he suddenly found that there were several people in the distance looking around here. As soon as they saw him, they immediately turned their heads and ran away. Asa didn't pay attention to it either. From their dress and movements, these few people seemed to be just street rascals, not worth mentioning. He rode his horse and set off.

  A Sa continued to walk slowly. The Marquis had instructed that the hero's appearance must be at the right time, in order to show the momentum of turning the tide. The scheduled time was noon, thirty or forty miles away, and it would take about this long to get there walking slowly.

  More than ten miles away from the capital, they began to enter the outskirts where people rarely set foot. A group of people suddenly emerged from the woods on both sides, and with a strong killing intent, they rushed up and surrounded Asa in the middle.

  It's impossible for there to be mountain bandits near the capital, and it seems that this group of fifty or sixty people armed with swords are mercenaries. Asa suddenly recognized the leader from the crowd, and he also understood what had happened earlier with the person who was monitoring him. He shook his head and sighed: "I'm telling you, I don't have time to fool around with you right now, it's best if you let me pass. I don't want my clothes to get wrinkled."

  "I'm telling you, you're not going to leave here alive today!" Marquis Mordo yelled. Now all the young nobles in the kingdom knew that he had been beaten by this god official, his face smashed, and even when he sent people for revenge, they didn't succeed, and in the end, he was robbed of this position as a god official that he had coveted. He is now an object of ridicule and gossip among his peers. In his life, he has never suffered such humiliation, his few rational thoughts have long since disappeared, and his father's warnings to him not to act rashly have been thrown out the window.

  "I've been waiting for you to come out since early morning. Don't think that just because you're a eunuch, I won't dare touch you. You think having the old dead bishop protecting you will keep you safe? What can happen to me if I kill you? There's no one around here, who would know it was me who killed you? And yet you still want to go participate in the hunt and try to win the emperor's favor? Let me tell you, forget about it. I've known what you were planning all along."

  "Do you really know?" Asa shook his head in doubt. "I shouldn't think so."

  The angry prime minister's son waved his hand and said to a leader-like person next to him, "Get up and kill this guy. I'll give you 50 gold coins as promised."

  "How can it be only fifty?" Asa frowned. He had expected the wanted posters for the kidnapping of the Imperial Envoy to be worth at least a hundred gold coins.

  At this time, the royal hunting meeting was in full swing.

  Young Godefroi XVII and the noble guests from various countries rode on high horses, shooting with bows and arrows at the game driven out of the woods. Without Roland and those stiff military ministers by his side, all were people who could keep him company in joy, the emperor had a particularly good time, he couldn't help but be delighted with his own wise foresight. He also shot hard, like all other boys of this age, trying to get the attention of the duchess's daughter next to him, unfortunately, the duchess's daughter put her mind almost entirely on chatting with her sister.

  "It's been a long time since you got married, sis. I'm really sorry, but I've been busy having fun and should have come to visit you more often. Father must be missing you too... Luckily, the Marquis allowed you to participate in the hunt today..." Chris suddenly whispered to her sister: "By the way, do you think that guy will show up today?"

  Already dressed in noble attire, Xiao Yi's expression was uncertain as she hesitated for a moment before suddenly turning her horse around. "Then I'll be going back."

  "Hey, you can't leave yet! It's not often that we get to go out, so why are you leaving already? Since it was the Marquis who invited you out, what are you afraid of? By the way, where is the Marquis? He's a really interesting person. I heard he even humiliated Mordo in front of many people. That idiot must have been so embarrassed to death."

  "Chris, today should be a fun day out, why bring up household chores again." The emperor finally couldn't hold back and said. "Look at how many things I've shot!"

  "Your Majesty, please grant my sister an official title as well, so she can come out and do things openly and honestly, without having to stay cooped up in that house every day pretending to be a noblewoman. My sister is very capable."

  "Oh, okay." The young emperor's hand was grasped by that slender hand and he nodded in agreement with an unsettled mind, making up his mind to make a good impression today.

  If some monster were to emerge from the forest and let itself be slaughtered, that would be best, thought the young emperor.

  It's almost noon, deep in the forest, five rascals are huddled together watching the sunlight filtering through the leaves. They all pray in their hearts for the light to move quickly to the top of their heads.

  On the ground behind them, several magic circles were drawn, and the objects in the magic circles were covered with black cloth. However, one of them was constantly writhing, emitting a low growl, giving off a pungent smell unique to ferocious beasts, even birds in the forest didn't dare fly over. The thugs didn't dare face this writhing thing, fearing that the object under the black cloth would suddenly break free and jump out, so they turned their heads away and looked back.

  It's actually not that bad, the thing in the magic circle next to it is what makes them feel uneasy. Although it's still covered with black cloth and there's no movement at all, as soon as you get close, you can feel a chill running from your spine to the top of your head. According to the customer's instructions, they carefully lifted the whole thing into the magic circle, and once, a curious and brave adventurer used a branch to lift it open a bit, saw a small part of it, but when his companions asked him about it, he refused to talk, his face pale and shivering all over.

  In the unbearable wait, a vagabond pulled out a gold coin from his bosom, and his companions also took one out without prior agreement, holding it in their hands to carefully admire this lovely little thing. This was what they were waiting for here, and now it seemed to give them courage.

  "It takes five people to move this stuff, so why are all five of us still waiting here until noon?" a thug said. "These rich folks do things that really make you wonder..."

  "What's the point of asking so many questions, as long as you know there's money to be made, that's all that matters." Another ruffian scolded him, saying he was the leader of these five men. "Anyway, as long as we complete what we're told to do, each of us will still get three gold coins, if you don't want it then leave on your own."

  Everyone calmed down a bit after hearing these encouraging words, looking at the gold coins in their hands and imagining that they would immediately become four, which was indeed an exciting scene.

  "It's about time, isn't it?" A hoodlum looked at the sun and estimated, "It should be noon by now. Can we leave yet?"

  "Wait a minute, I have something else." The leader pulled out an object from his pocket and placed it on the ground. It was a pile of very fine grayish-white powder, as if it were ash left over after something had been burned. As soon as the leader put down the object, he curiously picked it up again. Only then did he discover that this pile of powder seemed to be an integral whole, with the dust particles seemingly having some strange attractive force between them, so that when one part was grasped and lifted, the other parts would stick to it and move along with it.

  "Stop messing around, let's get things done quickly and leave." The others urged.

  The leader put down the dust, took out a dagger, and lightly cut his own fingertips. A few drops of bright red blood dripped onto the pile of powder. The fresh blood immediately soaked into the strange powder, turning it from grayish white to pink.

  "That's it, let's go." The leader stood up and called on his companions to leave.

  Suddenly, the powder on the ground moved, accurately and unerringly like a starving flea, jumping onto the head of the still-bleeding finger of the leader. At the same time, everyone heard a sound similar to that of someone drinking soup, a 'sizzling' sound.

  The boss let out a terrified shriek, he could feel the blood in his body circulating in an unusual way, he violently shook his hand, but the pile of powder seemed to be nailed to his hand and didn't move at all, and its color was getting deeper. He hastily used his other hand to pull that strange thing, but his other hand also sank into it immediately. The other thugs stared at the boss's actions with their eyes wide open in shock.

  The leader hysterically let out meaningless screams, constantly waving his arms with all his might, even stumbling in his footsteps as he charged everywhere, rushing into the magic circle that had terrified him just moments before, trampling the symbols on the ground and pulling down the black cloths.

  Under the black cloth, things were exposed. There were about ten skulls wearing tattered armor and holding swords, several zombies with grayish-black bodies like smoked meat, and two floating in mid-air, hazy like fog but with half-skull outlines clearly visible. The magic circle that bound them had lost its effect, and these undead monsters all started moving.

  The skull raised the knife and sword in its hand and hacked at the headmaster who was already rolling on the ground. Although these weapons were almost rusty, they still cut into the headmaster's body. However, the headmaster did not react at all, as if it was no longer his own body, still holding his hands and rolling around screaming, but already powerless like a dying worm writhing. There was no blood flowing from his wounds, only white bones and slightly reddish muscles exposed. The strange thing in his hand had turned dark red and started to churn and boil like boiling water.

  At the sight of this, several other thugs let out equally shrill cries and took to their heels. The two dark spirits quickly gave chase, using their intangible hands to grab the thugs' throats, and they immediately fell silently to the ground, their limbs twitching like frogs for a moment before going still.

  That cluster of dust jumped off the head of the already pale and thin corpse, pounced on another corpse, and continued to make that sucking 'hissing' sound.

  When the five corpses had all shriveled up like empty cloth sacks, the cloud of dust began to grow and change shape, suddenly bursting into a puff of smoke, which gradually coalesced into a human figure.

  Skeleton warriors, zombies and dark souls all stared at the smoky figure without moving. The three-headed dog that had been struggling in the magic circle also quieted down, letting out a shrinking whimper.