Following the direction of Bai Qi's finger, the Knight Commander arrived at a wall and forcefully pushed the bookshelf aside. Behind it was a wall identical to the surroundings.
"Use your runeblade, you fool."
Prompted by Bai Qi, the Knight Commander drew the knight's sword at his waist and slashed at the wall in front of him.
The expected sparks did not appear. The knight's sword seemed to slice through air. Then, the wall in front of them dissolved into an illusion and vanished, revealing a passage over a meter wide.
"My Lord, this..."
Bai Qi knew what the Knight Commander meant. He wanted to invite him to explore together. However, Bai Qi was not interested in such endeavors. Once he dealt with the so-called great serpent, all the treasures within the volcanic manor would be his.
Seeing his disinterest, the Knight Commander did not press the matter and, sword in hand, entered the passage alone.
After walking through a long and dim passage, the Knight Commander pushed open the large door at the end.
The moment the door opened, a beam of light shot in.
As he stepped out of the door, the Knight Commander discovered that behind the volcanic manor lay a small city. He was standing at a vantage point that allowed him to survey the entire city.
Just as the Knight Commander's gaze was fixed on the small city, his body suddenly trembled. Years of combat had honed his instincts. The moment the scimitar fell, he sharply dodged to the side, narrowly avoiding the ambush from behind.
Dodging the attack was only the first step. While evading, the Knight Commander turned, drew his sword, and slashed. In a flash, the attacker was killed on the spot by his knight's sword.
Once everything settled, the Knight Commander stepped forward to examine closely.
He was shocked to discover that his attacker was not human, but a grotesque-looking serpent-man.
This serpent-man had human hands and feet, but its main body was a long snake with flesh-colored scales. One hand held the scimitar that had attacked him, while the other held a shield resembling a snail shell.
Years of combat experience told the Knight Commander that this town held significant secrets.
However, compared to exploring the town, the Knight Commander was more interested in the massive structure built on the cliff face at the far end of the town.
Reaching it, however, would not be easy. Not only were there wild dogs gnawing on corpses in the streets, but also serpent-men wielding swords and shields. The interconnected rooftops were guarded by many serpent-men armed with bows and arrows, as well as desiccated corpses.
There were only two paths to proceed: the rooftops or the streets.
The advantage of the rooftops was fewer enemies, with no fear of surprise attacks from hidden assailants. However, the drawbacks were obvious: the flat, open environment offered no cover, despite the lack of surprise attacks. The streets below were the opposite.
Weighing the pros and cons, the Knight Commander decided to take the rooftops.
With his agile skills, he took out a sentry serpent-man by surprise, seized its bow and arrows, and quickly advanced a distance, swiftly shooting down several more sentry serpent-men.
The Knight Commander's reason for choosing the rooftops was simple: fewer enemies. As long as he was fast enough and his shots were accurate, he could eliminate them all before they could react.
Unfortunately, the Knight Commander overestimated his own strength and greatly underestimated the strength of the serpent-men.
Initially, relying on his high mobility, the Knight Commander moved and shot down sentry serpent-men on the rooftops with ease. However, an unexpected event soon occurred.
The opponent was a desiccated corpse, resembling the corpses found in Feng'an. These creatures usually remained still, either leaning or lying down like corpses, waiting for prey.
This desiccated corpse was no different, leaning against a protruding rooftop. The Knight Commander's arrow hit its temple.
However, the corpse's head was exceptionally hard. The arrowhead pierced its skull but did not kill it instantly.
Alerted by the attack, the desiccated corpse immediately became vigilant, stood up, ignored the arrow in its head, reached behind its back, and threw a fist-sized sphere at the Knight Commander.
Seeing the flying sphere, the Knight Commander quickly dodged to the side, successfully evading it. To his surprise, the sphere exploded upon hitting the ground, releasing a cloud of green gas.
The Knight Commander had not anticipated the sphere exploding and was instantly enveloped by the gas from behind.
It was a smell akin to rotting flesh, accompanied by corrosive and paralytic effects.
Fortunately, although the Knight Commander possessed consciousness, he was a hundred percent pure puppet. The gaseous paralysis had no effect on him. As for the corrosive effect, his heavy knight's armor would likely withstand it, even if he stood still, until the gas dissipated without much damage.
The Knight Commander, now reacting, quickly rose and fired another arrow at the desiccated corpse, successfully eliminating it before it could raise an alarm.
So, was the Knight Commander lucky?
No.
Coincidentally, the body of the killed desiccated corpse swayed a few times and then fell from the rooftop, landing directly in front of a mysterious figure wearing an ogre mask and wielding two flaming sabers.
The ogre-man's hollow eyes looked at the corpse before him, then at the rooftop, as if contemplating something. The burning sabers in his hands crackled. After a moment of consideration, the ogre-man ultimately did not pursue the Knight Commander. Instead, he turned and disappeared into the dark alley.
All of this was observed by the Knight Commander. In that instant, he had been prepared for a fierce battle with the ogre-man, or to face a pursuit by more monsters. He was surprised that the ogre-man had not attacked him, nor even sounded an alarm, but had simply left.
However, the Knight Commander did not know that the ogre-man had not attacked him because he knew that the path the Knight Commander was taking was a dead end, and the monsters behind him would take care of him without his intervention.
Thus, the Knight Commander quickly passed through the area of the town. However, to reach the structure on the mountain, he still had to traverse a considerable uphill path.
The Knight Commander leaped from the rooftop and, upon landing, swung his sword, cleanly dispatching two serpent-men on the ground.
Just as the Knight Commander thought he had escaped danger and was advancing with large strides.
*Clank, clank...*
A sound of gears came from the side. Then, the iron statue by the roadside suddenly activated. Chains drove a sickle at the top, swinging towards the Knight Commander.
At first, the Knight Commander had assumed this thing was merely a decoration. He hadn't expected it to be a real threat.
This device was called an "Iron Maiden." It was entirely constructed of hard steel, and its two sickles could slice through metal. But this was not its true killing blow.