The letter had specifically pointed out that the one to deliver the demanded item must be a non-Pugilist, and that after the item was left there, they were forbidden from approaching it for one hour.
After this period, Parry would naturally be released, considering they didn't want to cause the city lord to go completely berserk.
However, as the delivery person reached the first address, they found nothing but a letter that directed them to another location in the sewers, telling them to bring the item there within half an hour.
…
"Shifting the delivery location to tire out the person tasked with delivery, these thieves sure are sly" Bastin Faye was currently dressed in a black robe.
As an upper brass of the military, it wasn't a particularly good thing for him to be personally acquainted with the city lord or a border town, let alone having a good relationship with them. Only by separating the military from the cities would the royal family and the church feel assured.
For that reason, it wasn't convenient for Bastin Faye to publicly wear his military uniform during this operation.
"However, this thief's understanding of top-level Pugilists is too shallow. Even at this distance, I will still be able to detect and lock onto an individual's life signatures. As long as that thief tries to retrieve the item, they will not be able to escape my pursuit"
"I'll trouble you during this matter, mister Bastin Faye, please ensure the safety of my son" Dolan was very timid during their conversation. He only managed to convince the other party to help this time around by threatening him with their relationship.
Bastin Faye curtly glanced at Dolan without saying anything else. Being threatened wasn't the only reason he had agreed to help Dolan, but rather because those who had a clear weakness like him were also those easiest to control. As long as he held Dolan's weakness in his hand, it would be beneficial to his plans later on.
The delivery person had to travel to several more locations, each of which contained only a single letter directing them to the next location.
This level of patience drew Bastin Faye's interest in these thieves. The one who came up with this was quite the talented individual, so if he could hold back during his pursuit, he would leave that person alive and see whether or not they could be used for his benefit.
"Hm? So this is the final location huh?" the delivery person seemed to have discovered something at the last location, as their life signs fluctuated ever so slightly.
A few moments later, the delivery person left that location and returned straight to them.
"There weren't any approaching living beings" Bastin Faye maintained his surveillance on that location while asking the delivery person: "Your life signs changed slightly while you were in there, did something happen?"
"The newest letter told me to put the item there, but I found a newly-deceased body in the vicinity" the delivery person hurriedly explained: "I've already stabbed a dagger through the head to confirm that it was a real dead body"
"But very strangely, the other party's face seemed to have been mutilated by something, I couldn't discern their appearance at all"
Hearing that, Bastin Faye's expression changed and hurriedly ran towards that location. His body was bulky and muscular, but he leapt on the rooftops as lightly as a feather.
From a distance, without already knowing where he was and keeping a close eye on him, no one would be able to tell that he was approaching them.
…
In the sewers, the dead body with the mutilated face suddenly stood back up. Even though there was a deep and long gash on his face, that didn't impede him at all.
Simply being stabbed in the heart by the Ceremonial Blade would only turn people into reanimated corpses. The difference between these people and the Ghostmen was the fact that without Impure Origin or the Spring of Life to support them, their bodies would gradually decay until there was nothing left of them except bones.
Catho knew very well that he couldn't possibly resist a powerful Pugilist, so he had already conducted the ritual ahead of time to turn himself into a rotting reanimated corpse. He used the constantly changing locations to wear down the other party's patience while also ensuring that they couldn't arrange for people to block out all of his exits, then disguised himself as a dead body not too far away from the delivery location.
As a reanimated corpse, other than the fact that he could move, he was literally no different from a corpse.
After picking up the Bone of God, without examining it at all, Catho swiftly ran through the sewers and jumped into the dirty water. As a corpse, he had no problem with this little bit of filth.
While fleeing, he also plunged the piece of bone into his heart, which caused his blood that had clotted up to also become fluid again.
This made Catho very glad, as he didn't have a way to confirm whether or not the other party had given him the real article. The only thing he could do was gamble that the city lord would be wary of his nonexistent accomplice, as well as the fact that he valued his son highly enough.
And now, everything seemed to have paid off. As long as he could escape pursuit right now, he would have already succeeded with his plan, he could always choose a secondary soul later on.
Of course, there was also the problem of the aftermath. For example, how to heal his face so that he still looked like a normal person, but this shouldn't be an issue after he obtained the Spring of Life.
The ritual hadn't been conducted for very long, so his body hadn't completely rotted away, and with the Spring of Life's help, the damage done up to now could be healed.
…
Bastin Faye quickly landed into the sewer water and paused. He was examining the surrounding movements, then swiftly leapt forward in the direction Catho was fleeing.
It was quite interesting for the other party to be able to play around with him like this. Although he could only utilize the abilities of a Pugilist for now, being able to achieve this in the first place was already extraordinary.
…
Sitting on top of a building, Negary's gaze somewhat changed as if he had seen something interesting. His previous expression of enjoyment also turned to seriousness, as something unexpected seemed to have found itself into the script Negary had written.
…
While Bastin Faye was quickly giving chase, a loose brick from the wall of the sewers fell out, seemingly due to a slight tremor. The brick fell onto a certain poisonous bug that just happened to be crawling by, squeezing just enough poison from its innards through its mouth to form a jet of poison that shot towards him as he ran past, accurately targeting his eyes.
Even a first-rate Pugilist was only human, so if poison had directly shot into his eyes without any protection, it was possible for him to be blinded.
Bastin Faye immediately closed his eyes, causing the poison to be blown away by a force that exuded from inside his body.
His expression then turned serious. That poison jet had attacked him just as the forces in his body reached the peak of circulation; if it had attacked just a second earlier or later, he would have had a better way to deal with it, but right at that moment, it took a lot of force just for him to blink.
This definitely wasn't a coincidence, but somebody actually helped that kidnapper.
However, would someone with such capabilities be interested in a piece of bone without much Source Energy left in it?
"So this is your game, huh?"
The military man stopped his advance and observed this seemingly mundane sewer tunnel. He could almost confirm that if he continued this pursuit, more 'coincidences' would occur.
That was why he stopped, because nothing would have come out of this even if he continued his pursuit.
"Because my strength had already exceeded the limits of this game?" Bastin Faye muttered: "Then I hope that you won't interfere with my plan as well, otherwise, we'll have no choice but to match blows"
…
"What's the matter?" Lan Shan slightly opened her eyes and asked.
Negary had been relatively relaxed throughout this entire journey, and this was the first time that he had shown such a serious expression.
〖 It's a clone of some other entity 〗Negary opened his eyes and replied: 〖 Apparently, they didn't bring their own powers, relying only on this world's native power system, so I can't accurately discern their true capabilities 〗
At this point, Lan Shan sensed a change in Negary's human aspect, some information was rapidly flowing back and forth, causing even more changes to occur…
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