Chapter 598 — A Visit to the Typhon Encampment

In Ansul, in that suddenly risen Duchy of Cecil, they seemed to have walked farther and more thoroughly than Typhon on the road of "employing transcendent power for development"...

Was that road the more correct one?

A rhythmic thud of military boots broke into Luoyan's musings. He turned his head and saw that the young woman knight—firm of gaze, tall of stature, grey hair falling over her shoulders—had already taken her place behind him.

"Your Majesty," the young wolf general, Anluo Wendell, bowed her head in salute, "Lady Silva Farwalker has received word from the courier Soryu. The visitor will soon arrive."

Luoyan was slightly taken aback, but still nodded faintly. "I understand."

Shiva Farstrider was the courier the Silver Empire had dispatched to Typhon, while Soyu Frostleaf was the courier on Anseth's side. Elven couriers were a singular profession; their work was not, as most imagined, merely the delivery of letters and parcels. In truth, they were masters of message-conveying magic—especially the special transmission spells that only couriers could weave among their own kind.

A courier could pass word among kin at negligible cost in mana, so long as the distance was close enough. Shiva Farstrider had now received the signal, which meant Duke Gaoyang Cecil was already near—and that was precisely what caught Royan somewhat off guard: he had not expected the man to arrive so quickly.

"Anluo," the Typhon Emperor said suddenly, "how do you suppose that ancient duke, risen from the dead, has made his way here?"

"Made his way here?" The young wolf general paused a moment, then swiftly grasped the deeper meaning behind the Emperor's question.

For men of the caliber of a guardian duke or an imperial sovereign, a single journey, a single visit, always carried special significance; every gesture along the way was in fact speaking a different "language of negotiation"—

Gaoyang Cecil was coming to the Typhon Empire's encampment, and to do so he had to cross a journey none too short—a journey across the wasteland.

Here monsters roamed everywhere; the outer outposts of the Spire Base came under attack on average once every three days, and in the open, unsheltered wilds, bereft of any protection, the peril could well be imagined.

The very act of crossing the wasteland was itself a display of strength.

He plainly could not borrow an elven giant eagle for the sake of safety and convenience—that would cost him all face.

He could choose to come with a well-equipped, fully provisioned, and sizable guard—and that would be a display of his army and his duchy, even, to a degree, of the might of the Kingdom of Anseth.

He could also, relying on his own legendary strength, come with only a handful of top-tier masters, challenging and crossing the wasteland with a mere few—and that would be a display of his formidable personal martial power.

To an imperial ruler, Royan Augustus was plainly more wary of the former.

"He came quickly," Anluo Wendel said, having worked out the deeper meaning behind the matter, and quickly formed her own judgment. "If he had brought an army of ordinary men, he plainly could not have traveled so fast—so it is very likely he brought only a few guards and crossed this stretch of wasteland on the strength of his own legendary power."

With that, the young female knight could not help shaking her head slightly. "Perhaps the ancient hero of legend is simply a hothead... he has only come to show off his personal might."

Royan Augustus regarded Anluo quietly for a moment, seeming about to say something—but before he could speak, a faint stir of commotion and a vague sound, like the shrill note of some flute, suddenly drifted over from the distance.

The Emperor and his knight exchanged glances.

At that same moment, outside the great gate of the Typhon Spire Base, Gaoyang and Amber sat in the back seat of the magitech vehicle.

Before them, a high stone wall loomed ten meters away; a few somewhat startled and flustered Typhon soldiers stood atop it pointing and gesturing toward them, while two mages who had come to investigate were flying in from afar. Behind them, a convoy—three magitech vehicles and four "Iron Ambassadors" serving as escorts—was drawn up in a single line.

Amber craned her head, ceaselessly sizing up the Spire Base the Typhon had built, unable to resist comparing it with the Cecil Spire Base. "This was probably 'pulled up' directly with wall-building and rock-shaping spells... it's not as pretty as a reinforced concrete wall, but it does look pretty striking, and their base looks a size bigger than ours."

"The Typhon reached their engineering site earlier than we did," Gaolan said.

"Hey, hey," Amber could not resist leaning in beside Gaoyang, "do you think that Typhon Emperor will be interested in your proposal?"

"Then I won't much care—either way, I mean to show off the car first."