Chapter 455: Commander, You Saved Me Again
Cang Xu's heart was in turmoil.
“I do not fear death, I do not fear...” At this moment, he desperately tried to convince himself of this truth.
He told himself: “On Mystifying Monster Island, in that cave, I was even willing to sacrifice myself, to offer myself as food...”
A scene from the past flashed before his eyes.
Cang Xu addressed the youngster: "Eat this food, and you'll regain your strength. Not only will your chances of survival increase, but you'll also protect your fiancée. Perhaps it was because you ate an extra piece of meat that she managed to survive the breakout attempt tomorrow morning."
The youngster, Zhen Jin, erupted in fury: “Are you forcing me?!”
Back then, Cang Xu had smiled. "Yes, I am forcing you. But please forgive me, Lord Zhen Jin. I am about to die. A dead man fears no worldly authority. I wish to fulfill my dying wish. For this, my life is but a bargaining chip."
Now, Cang Xu wanted to laugh too, but he couldn't.
Because his own words of persuasion had failed.
At this moment, he suddenly realized, he feared death!
Back on Mystifying Monster Island, he had truly been cornered, with no choice but to entrust his final wish. But now it was different. Deep down, Cang Xu knew he still had hope. This wasn't a complete dead end!
Why not take a chance? If he sold the secret, he was almost certain he could survive!
But without a doubt, this was—betrayal!
Guilt surged like flames within him, burning fiercely, bringing agonizing torment.
“Am I betraying the commander?”
“Betraying someone like him?”
In Cang Xu's mind, the sincere and resolute declaration of the young Zhen Jin echoed—."
"I once vowed to do everything in my power to save everyone, to abandon no one.. This is my promise, and my duty.” Zhen Jin had said this to Zi Di and Cang Xu.
“Lord, your noble character makes even the brightest stars in the night sky pale in comparison!” Cang Xu exclaimed from the bottom of his heart, “You are the very epitome of a templar knight.”
The memory surfaced: the speech before the final battle at the underground factory, the alchemy hub.
“Even my own appearance looks like someone else, this should have been caused by War Merchant’s modulations and transformations.”
“In fact, as you can see, I am a beastified person, at most I could only be considered a comparatively special beastified person.
What a stirring speech!
At that moment, Cang Xu admired the youngster's courage immensely.
“We were betrayed by a close relative.” The youngster looked at Cang Xu.
The old scholar narrowed his eyes, shaken by these words!
“We seem to have lost our direction in life, but as a matter of fact, our hearts understand how we want to move forward.”
“You were always more suited to knighthood and nobility than Zhen Jin. I've always believed that.” Cang Xu spoke softly then, wiping his lenses to mask his surging emotions.
Victory was theirs. They had eliminated Jia Sha and seized the divine artifacts.
Compared to the templar knight Zhen Jin, the beastified youngster earned Cang Xu's deeper admiration and approval.
Cang Xu recalled how, after escaping the Mystifying Monster Island, he had averted total annihilation through necromancy magic, only to face growing alienation and suspicion from his companions. It was the dragonman youngster who publicly declared his loyalty, tirelessly mending the rifts between Cang Xu and the others.
And in the battle at the Underworld River, it was the dragonman youngster who entrusted Cang Xu with a substitute puppet, saving his life!
“It was the substitute puppet that revived me.”
“No, it was the commander who saved my life!”
Amidst the lingering dread, a wave of warmth surged through Cang Xu once more.
Now, as Cang Xu revisited this memory, the original intensity of that emotion had faded considerably. Yet it still stirred his heart.
“The commander saved me time and again. Without him, I never would have escaped Mystifying Monster Island or returned from the Underworld River.”
“He never wronged me. And now I intend to betray him?”
“To expose secrets that would bring him enemies of the saint level?”
“Am I to... repay kindness with betrayal?”
The flames of guilt erupted from his heart, spreading rapidly as if consuming his entire being.
Though a necromancer who no longer needed to breathe, Cang Xu felt the illusion of suffocation.
He recalled the moment he learned the secret of the Bloodcore.
It had been utterly staggering.
Cang Xu was stunned not only by the Bloodcore's ingenuity, but also by the dragonman youngster's magnanimity and vision!
“Without his sharing, I would never have known the Bloodcore's secrets.”
“And now I must use this very secret to bargain for my own survival?”
Cang Xu's head drooped lower and lower, his back growing increasingly hunched. It was as if an invisible mountain weighed upon his shoulders.
Overwhelming guilt transformed into a burden life could not bear.
His hands braced against the sand and stones of the seabed, fingers splayed wide, clawing viciously into the mud.
His eyes had clearly lost their focus, unable to see the scene before him, lost only in his own world.
“But I don't want to die...”
“I truly don't want to die!”
“Dying here now, I refuse to accept it!”
“It's too unfair...”
"If I hadn't known about the Bloodcore, it would have been one thing, but now I have new hope. Why must I lose my life here?"
"I still had hope! I had a future! A bright future!"
“Truthfully, I don't need to reveal the Bloodcore. Just exposing the secret of the Mermaid Fairy Tale would make Zhou Zhang spare me for now.”
“Perhaps I could buy time, then later join forces with the commander and the others to defeat Zhou Zhang?”
“Even if... even if Zhou Zhang wins, perhaps the Bloodcore won't be exposed. I could secretly obtain it and gain a new life!”
Cang Xu's expression twisted into a grimace, his gaze unfocused. His mouth gaped open as he gasped for breath unconsciously.
“Wait... there's still the magic contract.”
To bind themselves, the survivors had once purchased magic contracts, pledging mutual secrecy.
“If exposed, the contract's power would kill me!”
“But there's still room to maneuver.”
"That contract was low level. Zhou Zhang is saint level! And she's the archbishop of Charming Blue Goddess, the deity most skilled in deception and disguise. Deceiving the magic contract should be no problem..."
“Wait, what am I even thinking!?”
“Do I really want to do this?”
“Become a shameful traitor and betray the commander?”
Cang Xu's thoughts wrestled fiercely within him.
Amidst his struggle and hesitation, it felt as though he heard the dragonman youngster's speech once more.
It was during the battle of Snake Rat Island, when they lay defeated beneath the Domain of the Light of Contrition, their fighting spirit shattered.
“We are guilty!”
But it is precisely because of our sins that we repent and weep sorrowful tears. We can then understand more the importance of pursuing justice, no?
“We should be guilty!”
“Who hasn’t done wrong? Who can guarantee that throughout their life, they never made erred?”
“Survival, survival!”
“Only by continuing to live can we have the chance to admit our mistakes, to redeem ourselves, to feel remorse, and to set back onto the path of righteousness.”
The dragonman youngster's words had rallied his comrades and allies, marking the pivotal turning point of that battle.
“Yes, yes.”
“I am guilty, deeply guilty!”
“But I must live on, I must survive...”
“For survival, I must bear this guilt!”
“Thank you, Commander. You saved me many times, but now I must betray you.”
“Forgive me, forgive me this once.”
“As you said, I do this for survival!”
“I will repent. I swear I will.”
Cang Xu made his final decision within his heart.
He slumped completely, his cross-legged posture resembling a kneeling stance.
Strangely, once the decision was made, his chaotic, agitated state began to settle.
“Since the decision is made, it's time to act.” Cang Xu told himself.
His gaze grew resolute, his vision sharpening.
Then.
He saw the mark etched into the seabed gravel.
The emblem of the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps!
In that instant, time seemed to freeze for Cang Xu. He froze in place, motionless, like a stone statue.
The Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps' mark, or more accurately, a secret signal.
It was designed by Tripleblade.
He had once been a mercenary leader, and its members often used secret signals in various situations. For instance, scouts would leave them along reconnaissance routes as directional markers. Or they'd mark city street corners to indicate target buildings for missions.
During his time on Two Eyes Island, Xu Ma had left such codes, successfully aiding other mercenaries in accurately assessing the situation.
Cang Xu had no idea how long he stood there before his hand moved instinctively, wiping away the code etched into the seabed sand.
The code itself was formed by small, slightly raised grains of sand, distinct from the surrounding sandy terrain.
With a light sweep, Cang Xu destroyed the grains forming the mark.
Yet the next moment, the grains coalesced once more, recreating the original signal.
Cang Xu's lips twitched, his expression growing intensely complex and peculiar.
Then the markings shifted again, the sand grains forming a brief message - I'm nearby.
Without reason, Cang Xu knew this “I” referred to the commander!
His Adam's apple bobbed as overwhelming emotion threatened to breach his defenses, making him want to shout - even cry out.
"Commander…"
“You've saved me once more.”
Cang Xu sighed deeply within his heart.
Inside the cockpit of the Deep Sea Monster Fish, the fishman youngster watched the magic projection silently, his expression unreadable.
The substance forming the pebbles was, of course, not actual sand, but precision eel drillers.
These delicate, miniature alchemy automatons could bore through the walls of the Ocean Mother Nest, creating countless minute cavities.
Through these intricate networks of tiny cavities, the dual-eared detectors could relay sonar feedback, revealing the world beyond the Mother Nest.
After testing the conditions of faith, the fishman youngster's plan to teleport his disguised self out had failed. After deep contemplation, he resolved to take a risk and conduct a test.
The test's purpose? To determine whether his Deceptive Disguise spell would be exposed by Zhou Zhang!
Zhou Zhang was a saint level magician and divine spell wielder, as well as one of the archbishops of the Charming Blue Goddess. The survivors had never faced an opponent of this caliber. She was highly likely to see through the Deceptive Disguise spell, being an expert in such matters. Moreover, the Deceptive Disguise Formation was merely a design by the War Merchant, failing to fully harness the potential of pearl bubble's alchemy technology.
The probe carried significant risk. If exposed, Zhou Zhang could trace the deception back to them and come knocking.
Yet the fishman youngster understood this reconnaissance was essential!
For once the Mother Nest broke, the Deep Sea Monster Fish, still cloaked by the Deceptive Disguise spell, would still face Zhou Zhang. Rather than react passively then, it was better to gather intelligence beforehand, allowing the fishman youngster to prepare for escape.
Naturally, the fishman youngster wouldn't risk himself. After brief consideration, he decided the precision eel drillers were the optimal choice.
Thus, several drillers eventually bored their way out of the Ocean Mother Nest into the outside world.
The Mother Nest did not shatter from these small holes; in fact, they were rapidly sealing themselves. The Mother Nest possessed self-repair capabilities.
The drillers were cloaked in the Deceptive Disguise spell, designed by the fishman youngster to blend as seabed gravel.
They slipped beneath the feet of countless believers, even deliberately circling several times right under Zhou Zhang's nose.
No issues arose.
The test results showed that the Deceptive Disguise spell, utilizing god level materials, surpassed Zhou Zhang, a saint.
The fishman youngster then dispatched these drillers to locate Cang Xu's residence.
Soon after, he communicated with Cang Xu in advance by manipulating the drillers to form written characters.
This step, of course, carried a greater risk of exposure.
But the fishman youngster had scouted beforehand and found no overly sophisticated surveillance methods here.
On one hand, Zhou Zhang likely relied on her immense power and legions of believers, assuming these prisoners, heavily restrained, couldn't cause any trouble.
On the other hand, the presence of the golden altar, covered by an extremely vast hybrid formation of magic and divine script, played a role. Deploying any magic or divine detection methods here could interfere with the grand formation. Put another way, each time the blood sacrifice was held, the immense power unleashed by the formation would likely neutralize most reconnaissance measures.