The First Order

When the patriarch of the Winston family heard what Ren Xiaosu said, his expression turned even darker. "Burn him to death!"

Sea of Fire was a ridiculously hot spell. When the heatwave hit him, Ren Xiaosu understood that this was probably the Winston family's trump card. He could not take the attack head on.

It was no wonder Fortress 178 was bullied by this group of sorcerers before they rose to power in the Central Plains. Frankly, the sorcerers' methods were indeed very ruthless and bizarre.

Ren Xiaosu had a chuckle inside the armor. The commotion he had caused tonight was still not enough to dispel the House of Berkeley's determination to invade the northern counties. The approaching war would come sooner or later. By then, he should already be waiting patiently in Ghent City for an opportunity.

Tonight's battle was just to collect some interest payment on the blood debt owed to the 200,000-odd martyred spirits. He had not experienced a high-intensity battle like this in a long time, so it was a good opportunity to warm himself up.

A moment later, the steam locomotive he had just dispelled drove out of thin air again. The Winston family's patriarch said anxiously, "Stop him! Don't let him get away before he is enveloped by Sea of Fire!"

But his angry roar fell on deaf ears. The youth of the House of Winston were so frightened by Ren Xiaosu that no one dared to step up to stop him.

It was not that the people of the Winston family were timid, but that they knew very well they couldn't stop the attackers based on their strength. In that case, there was no need to make any unnecessary sacrifices.

Moreover, so what if they really managed to stop them? If those two ruthless people were to put up a desperate fight to the death, the archmages could still use them to take their place in death. At that time, who could the younger generation go to reason with?

Bloodline spells were not something they could simply learn even if they wanted to. The meditative visualization diagrams were generally only held by a few archmages.

When the steam locomotive arrived next to Ren Xiaosu and Old Xu, they grabbed hold of the train's metal handrail and went with it towards where Wang Congyang had disappeared.

Just as the members of the Winston family thought Ren Xiaosu was leaving, Ren Xiaosu suddenly took out a large black sniper rifle from somewhere and fired it casually across the fiery sea.

The ear-piercing explosion startled the young sorcerers. Right after, they heard an exclamation from Archmage Alston coming from the other end of the fiery sea. "Abel! Abel, what's wrong?!"

This shot was taken too quickly and suddenly. Archmage Abel did not even have time to use his Bloodline spell before he was dead!

Ren Xiaosu was sure the other party still had to go through the process of reciting the incantation to use the Bloodline spell to find a scapegoat to die in his place. It was an active skill, not a passive one!

As long as it were not passive, it would be easy to deal with the archmages of the House of Winston if he encountered them again in the future.

The archmages of the House of Winston had wanted to join forces to pursue Ren Xiaosu, but this shot had blown all of their plans awry.

Ren Xiaosu did not try to use Shadow Door to get across the fiery sea to seize the opponent's Eye of True Sight this time. He still wanted to keep this ace hidden for other purposes.

He had already gained a lot tonight. Ren Xiaosu put away the Eyes of True Sight Old Xu was carrying into his storage space. The number of stones in his possession almost exceeded 70, and one of them was even a red one, while the others were orange.

On the Winston family's side, the raging sea of fire had burned the manor down to ruins. The Winston family's patriarch stood in the manor in a daze and looked quietly at the corpses of his family and the ruins around him.

The Winston family's patriarch said, "Fucking—"

Before he could finish speaking, another rumbling sound came from the west side. It sounded like something had collapsed.

The Winston family's patriarch roared, "Hurry up and check what's going on. What are you all still standing there for?"

When the Knights of the Hymn heard the order, they hurriedly mounted their warhorses and rushed west. About half an hour later, they returned to the ruined manor and panted out, "Patriarch, the city walls were destroyed by that first steel monster that escaped!"

"I-It collapsed?" The Winston family's patriarch was stunned. A city was a symbol of a clan's authority. If the city walls were breached, they would get mocked by the other families.

After all, if you could not even guard your own door, it just meant you were not strong enough.

The chaos had come to an end. After being attacked in Winston City tonight, it was one thing for the clan to suffer heavy casualties, but now that someone had also broken past their city walls and escaped, they would not even have the chance to seek revenge anymore.

The commander of the Knights of the Hymn hesitated for a moment before saying, "We checked the area where the walls collapsed and found that only the outer surface of the walls was made of brick. The rest of the insides were filled with sand, and there was even straw mixed within…."

The Winston family's patriarch froze for a moment. Although they were not as rich as the House of Berkeley, they should have had more than enough money to construct the walls.

Although the outer surface of the walls looked a little dilapidated, the House of Winston had paid a lot of money to erect them. They even used the toughest materials in its construction.

It was done this way because the Winston family's patriarch knew they would have a war with the northern counties sooner or later, so he didn't hold back on expenditures.

The Winston family's patriarch's voice turned even grimmer. "Which section of the walls is this?"

"The section built seven years ago," the knight commander replied. "The enemy who fled seemed to know there was a problem with this section of the walls, so they dared to charge right into it."

This was where the brilliance of Wang Congyang lay. Ever since that guy arrived in the Kingdom of Sorcerers, he concentrated on figuring out a lot of details from the sidelines first. For example, he found out from some of the fringe groups that certain parts of the city walls were shoddily built, so he decided to use them in his future retreat route.

If it really came down to the critical moment, who would expect him to crash straight through the city walls to escape instead of going by the main entrance?

The Winston family's patriarch flew into a rage. "Seven years ago? Daniel, get your ass over here!"

"Sir, Daniel is dead," a sorcerer at the side replied.

The Winston family's patriarch was momentarily taken aback. Then he stood there numbly and did not say anything more. After a long silence, he said, "Search the entire city. Although those two enemies have fled, the people whom they plotted with might still be around. Also, watch the north of our clan's territory and see if any suspicious people appear, especially if they're coming from Ghent City. If this matter were really orchestrated by the Tudors, they must still have a contingency plan in the north. This might be the prelude to their expedition to the south."

The knight commander reminded him, "Patriarch, do you think this was really done by the House of Tudor? That person might not be telling the truth."

"Of course I know that. That's why I asked you to investigate." The Winston family's patriarch said, "Also, send a chronological writeup of everything that happened tonight to Vaduz City and hand it personally to the head of the House of Berkeley."

"Yes, sir." The knight commander obeyed and left.

News of what happened in Winston City was relayed by the spies of the various clans. There was no such thing as an absolute secret in the world. In just one night, news of someone causing a ruckus in the Winstons' territory spread.

In the end, Ren Xiaosu did not manage to catch up to Wang Congyang. After leaving the Winston Manor, he chased after Wang Congyang in the direction he had escaped, leaving through the section of the collapsed city walls.

However, Wang Congyang had fled far away while Ren Xiaosu was busy dealing with the young sorcerers of the Winston family.

As such, Ren Xiaosu scaled the walls and went back into the city to wait for the next storm to arrive.

Actually, he had deliberately activated his armor many times tonight because he wanted the Northwest's intelligence agents to know their future commander had arrived.

But Ren Xiaosu was still a little worried. What if the sorcerers were not accurate in their transmission of intel and the Northwest's spies did not realize that it was armor?

Now that Wang Congyang had crashed right through the city walls, Ren Xiaosu felt relieved. Surely that signal was obvious enough, right?

…