CHAPTER 357: CHAPTER 223: WINDSWEPT REMNANTS, BLOODY TURMOIL

The gust of wind blew in, lifting Xia Pingzhou’s long hair. He leaned down, pressing close to the Paper Dragon’s spine, his eyes lowered as he gazed at the island below.

The kimono-clad girl silently raised her hand and clutched his sleeve tightly, as if afraid he would fall off the dragon’s back and meet his end.

From an altitude of two hundred meters, the entire island’s situation was visible at a glance.

When Xia Pingzhou saw the situation on the island clearly, his expression showed slight surprise. He had expected the battle to finish quickly, but not with this outcome.

At this moment, over the ocean, the grand silhouette of the Loch Ness Monster emerged at twilight, drenched in an endless stream of black muddy water, obscuring its true form.

The Phoenix screeched as it descended from the sky, entangling with the Loch Ness Monster. A white-haired boy on a Christmas Sled turned into a great white serpent that thundered forward, crashing into the side of the Loch Ness Monster;

On the other side, an enormous hundred-meter-long shark was facing off with a giant cruise ship, while Ruth stood on the deck with her arms crossed.

The wind swept in, yet she remained unfazed, her sea-blue hair and pendants swaying together.

Ji Minghuan had somehow become accustomed to multitasking, able to calmly think using Xia Pingzhou’s "thought pattern," even as Yaguba still fiercely battled Ruth, and act accordingly in compliance with logical actions.

"Where’s Bernardo?" Xia Pingzhou asked.

He suddenly noticed a missing member from the island, the holder of the Black Death fragment, the former "Black Death Sect Leader" — Bernardo Edward.

"He left just now..." Ayase Origami said, "He took a carriage towards the Imperial Palace."

Xia Pingzhou was taken aback, then furrowed his brows slightly, "Bernardo left alone?"

He thought, the highest rule of the White Crow Travel Brigade is to never disobey the leader’s orders. Bernardo Edward left the island on his own, leaving the enemy he was supposed to deal with to Jack the Ripper, which surely hid some reason behind it.

And perhaps, for this reason, Bernardo had painstakingly remained undercover within the brigade.

...

...

Two minutes earlier, on a barren field on Whale’s Mouth Island.

The White Crow Travel Brigade’s member number 5, Bernardo Edward, was walking step by step.

He was a white-haired man wearing white gloves and a white long coat, his attire, skin tone, and hair color all uniformly pale.

Opposite him stood a man with long black hair and a stubbled beard, holding a dark golden long sword that shimmered with golden ripples.

This person was "Laine" of the Royal Court Team, the bearer of the generational legend "Sword in the Stone."

He was also the man who personally beheaded the Red Dragon.

The two of them faced each other on the desolate field until finally, the former broke the silence.

"Long time no see... Laine."

"You’ve fallen so low, Bernardo."

Laine lowered the Sword in the Stone, took a deep breath with his head down, then slowly lifted his head, meeting his gaze:

"Collaborating with a band of thieves... plundering your own country, worse than an animal."

Bernardo removed the Single-sided Mirror, placed it in his coat pocket, and then pulled up his white gloves.

He lifted his head, meeting Laine’s eyes:

"You’re right... although the White Crow Travel Brigade is a band of notorious thieves, they have a merit—they offer a place for those not accepted by this world. No matter what kind of person you are, they will accept you, which is why it attracts so many rebellious, cornered fighters."

Laine enunciated each word: "Don’t paint yourself as a victim; you violated the rules of the sanctuary from the start."

"Indeed, that’s true, which is why for those trivial rules, my former best friend led the charge to expel me." Bernardo laughed, "I am grateful that you personally drove me away back then. Do you know what I’ve been doing all these years outside?"

"I don’t care; all I know is you deserve to die now," Laine said in a deep voice, "Making a mistake means paying for it, that’s the rule of this world. The Red Dragon was wrong, so he couldn’t escape judgment, and you... do you think you’re better than the Red Dragon, that you can escape from our hands?"

"Killing the Red Dragon doesn’t make you better than him," Bernardo spread his hands, "You’re still as insecure, dark, and cowardly as before, only able to watch from afar at that boy crowned a genius."

He lowered his voice, taunting with a lukewarm tone:

"And you’ll never match up to him... because you used the most despicable means to besiege him to death. Of course, even in a one-on-one duel, you’d lose, just like you did years ago when you challenged him in the duel arena, only to end up kneeling at his feet."

"I don’t need to match up to him; he doesn’t deserve it," Laine said, "From the moment he conspired with you all to rebel against the country, he became an outright criminal."

"Yes... a criminal, in such a narrow country, once you all label us as ’criminals,’ there’s nowhere left to escape; where else can we go?" Bernardo laughed coldly.

He took out a thoroughly dark card from his coat pocket and crushed it.

A flash of dark orange light markings disappeared, and a pitch-black fog suddenly spread outward, with people wailing within the mist.

"The Black Plague..." Laine paused, "The rumor is true, were you the Black Death Sect Leader?"