Chapter : 54

After meeting with Cornelia and getting the specific time of the banquet, as well as a list of potential attendees, Yan Yunqing found a corner, deactivated his cat form, changed his disguise, and continued to purchase materials.

The Mithril needed for the portable anchor point had been out of stock at the alchemy shop for the past two days.

The owner said that a new batch of materials would probably arrive today, so Yan Yunqing had to hurry over and buy all the Mithril he needed.

This portable anchor point was his most powerful means of escape so far.

If he couldn't get enough materials to make it, he would have to consider other methods.

Yan Yunqing switched back to his mage appearance.

He had also given this identity a name to use publicly, a very common and popular one, named Edward.

The setting for this identity was simple: Edward was a child from a commoner background.

His mother raised him and his younger brother alone.

He was lucky enough to meet a very powerful old alchemist as a child, who discovered that he had extraordinary talents in both magic and alchemy, and took him in to teach him.

However, the old alchemist was too old and passed away after teaching Edward for a few years.

Edward inherited all of the old alchemist's legacy. When he returned home, he found that his mother had already died of illness and his younger brother was nowhere to be found.

He now traveled the world with the old alchemist's legacy, searching for his younger brother's whereabouts.

His gloomy and strange personality was because Edward had lived with the old alchemist since he was a child and had never interacted with outsiders.

He was rich because the old alchemist's entire legacy was given to him.

He occasionally stayed in a certain place to search for his younger brother.

This identity was particularly useful.

Yan Yunqing had already decided to make this identity, along with the Joker identity, one of his permanent disguises.

It was perfect for Edward to be the identity that walked in the open, while Joker was the identity for doing bad things in the shadows.

Of course, it would be even cooler if he could get himself a mechanical right hand.

Tugging at the slightly slipped hood, Yan Yunqing lowered his head and walked into an alchemy shop.

"Mr. Edward, you're here!" Standing in front of the alchemy shop's counter was a girl of about fourteen or fifteen.

She had a round face with small freckles on her cheeks, and her hair was tied in a ponytail as she greeted Yan Yunqing enthusiastically.

This was the shop owner's youngest daughter.

She often helped her parents look after the shop here.

It was her father who had promised Yan Yunqing that the Mithril would arrive today.

Yan Yunqing coughed softly twice, his voice very light.

The fingers exposed under his wide magic robe tapped gently on the tabletop, "Has the thing I wanted arrived?"

He looked very gloomy.

"Dad already told me, Mr. Edward, you ordered a batch of Mithril and paid a double deposit, asking us to restock quickly, right?"

The girl crouched down and fumbled under the counter for a moment, then took out a small packaged box, "Found it!"

She opened the small box, placed it on the table and pushed it towards Yan Yunqing, "It just arrived this morning, would you like to check it?"

Yan Yunqing glanced at it, threw an appraisal at it, and after confirming that there was no problem with the item, he took out a cloth bag from his bosom and placed it on the counter, "This is the final payment."

As he spoke, he closed the small box and tucked it into his bosom, but in reality, he put it directly into his backpack.

The girl didn't treat him like a stranger.

Right in front of Yan Yunqing, she poured out all the gold coins from the cloth bag, counted them one by one to confirm they were correct, then put them all into the counter and took out a small notebook to record the amount of this new transaction.

"No problem, Mr. Edward." The girl smiled brightly.

Yan Yunqing nodded, continued to cosplay a gloomy little mushroom, and floated out of the alchemy shop.

The girl propped up her face and watched Yan Yunqing's departing back, muttering:

"What a strange person, are all mages like this?"

Walking in the shadows, Yan Yunqing was thinking about where to install the portable anchor point after making it, when he found that the crowd around him was a bit noisy.

He keenly stopped and pricked up his ears to listen.

"I heard that General Sawyer is about to arrive.

My neighbor's nephew saw their party when he was traveling as a merchant!"

"Really? Then let's hurry to the city gate to have a look, that's General Sawyer!"

...

So it was the General Sawyer that Cornelia had told him about who had returned... What a coincidence.

Cornelia had just finished telling him that General Sawyer would be back, and this General Sawyer was about to arrive.

Yan Yunqing thought for a moment and decided to join the fun.

A level 100 genius swordsman, and a general who had been guarding the border for many years.

Yan Yunqing had great respect for people who defended their country, and General Sawyer was no exception.

As for the matter with the Eleventh Princess... after all, it was the King of Barto who wanted to match the Eleventh Princess with General Sawyer, it wasn't General Sawyer himself who wanted to do this. Maybe he wasn't even willing.

Yan Yunqing quietly followed behind the crowd.

Dressed in a wide black magic robe and with his face obscured, Yan Yunqing was actually a bit conspicuous in the crowd.

However, this was the capital city, and mages were not uncommon here, especially mages with strange personalities.

So the passersby just gave him a few extra glances.

The commoners saw the magic robe on him and consciously knew not to provoke a mage, trying to maintain a certain distance from him to avoid dirtying the honorable mage's robe and being blamed for it.

As a result, Yan Yunqing somehow ended up in a position closer to the front.

Yan Yunqing: ...

Forget it, the view from this place was good, he could see the situation at the city gate entrance more clearly.

Yan Yunqing scanned the crowd at the entrance and found several luxurious Pegasus carriages parked not far away.

Just by looking at the magic items decorating the outside of the carriages, he knew that the people inside were either rich or noble.

Yan Yunqing tugged at his hood again, lowering his presence.

A notification suddenly popped up in the chat panel. Lilian had sent him a message.

[Lilian (Private)]: Why aren't you back yet?

Yan Yunqing glanced at it, replied that he was watching the fun at the city gate, and at the same time, opened his personal information and tried to change his ID.

It could actually be changed?

Yan Yunqing decisively changed his ID to Ri'an.

This was his usual game ID.

Seeing his own name appear in the chat box always gave him a sense of insecurity.

[Lilian (Private)]: Huh? Is it fun? I want to go too!

[Ri'an (Private)]: You'd better not.

I heard that this General Sawyer who is about to return is level 100. You might be discovered as soon as you come over.

[Lilian (Private)]: Is that so... Okay.

[Lilian (Private)]: Then bring me a box of the fruit pastries from the street corner when you come back.

[Ri'an (Private)]: Got it.

Yan Yunqing closed the chat box with Lilian, wondering why Lilian had been eating more and more recently.

Speaking of which, her figure seemed to have gotten a tiny bit bigger too, could she really be getting fat?

Yan Yunqing's mind wandered for a moment before the commotion at the city gate grew louder and louder again.

He vaguely heard cheers. Yan Yunqing looked up and saw a group of people riding Flying Cloud Colts coming over in a grand procession.

The man in the lead had sharp brows and starry eyes.

The middle of his right eyebrow was broken, crossed by a scar.

His thin lips were slightly pursed, exuding an air of grimness without any expression.

His short hair further accentuated the sharp angles of his face.

He wasn't particularly handsome, and even had a fierce look, but from the lingering smell of blood on his body, it was clear that he was that General Sawyer who guarded the border.

Adrien Sawyer rode his horse into the city.

He had intended to dismount at the city gate guard post to present his identification, but was stopped by his personal guard.

"General, you can't dismount now, so many commoners are watching.

If you dismount, isn't that equivalent to bowing your head to the King of Barto?

How long has it been since that old thing sent us any supplies?

If we keep being nice to him, he'll drag our Sawyer family down sooner or later!"

The personal guard said resentfully, "We must show a tougher attitude this time.

Even if the Sawyer family's foundation is deep, we can't keep being worn down like this!

We still have to guard against those demonic beasts!"

Adrien silently retracted his foot from dismounting and stared silently at the city guard at the gate.

When those emotionless, deep blue eyes stared at someone, they inexplicably made one break out in a cold sweat, as if their blood had frozen, unable to move for a moment.

The city guard was stunned, his hands and feet as if out of his control, his whole body stiffened on the spot, more like a corpse than a corpse.

Adrien: ?

Adrien frowned, his half-broken eyebrow like a ferocious beast, frightening the city guard into kneeling with a thud.

Silence...

The whole place seemed to fall silent.

Even the commoners who loved watching a commotion the most quieted down, as if anyone who made a sound would be cut down by this ferocious man with a single blow.

He looked at the city guard kneeling in front of them and subconsciously substituted his personal guard's words.

The King of Barto was trying to give him a show of force before he even entered the city.

Adrien's mood instantly worsened.

He looked the city guard up and down, thinking about what the King of Barto might do next.

After he received the invitation and decided to come to the capital to attend this banquet, the elders and seniors in his family had repeatedly warned him that everyone living in the capital was a black-hearted ghost.

Whether talking to them or interacting with them, he had to be extremely careful, as someone might have dug a pit waiting for him to jump in.

Having lived for a total of thirty-eight years, thirty of which were spent concentrating on swordsmanship and killing demonic beasts on the battlefield, Adrien was powerful and unrivaled, but his emotional intelligence was not even as good as a child of eleven or twelve.

When he decided to go to the capital, all the elders of the Sawyer family were worried, afraid that their strong-limbed but simple-minded precious treasure would be tricked in the capital by the King of Barto, whose schemes were more numerous than the cells in a honeycomb.

A month before Adrien set out, they had been repeatedly telling him how to avoid being deceived, to the point that when Adrien saw the city guard frightened into kneeling by him, he had to wonder if the King of Barto was up to his tricks again.

Adrien: "...Not letting me in?"

Hearing Adrien's cold voice, the kneeling city guard couldn't help but tremble twice.

Fortunately, another old city guard behind him reacted quickly enough and pulled the young city guard who was kneeling on the ground up.

"I wouldn't dare, I wouldn't dare, how could I dare to stop you?"

The old city guard quickly waved his hand and said to the other city guards behind him, "Quick, move the barriers away, didn't you see General Sawyer has arrived?"

Hearing the old city guard's words, the people behind him finally started to move, albeit a beat late.

In less than a minute, the barriers that had been blocking their way were all moved away.

"Um, the barriers have all been moved away, General, you see..."

The old city guard wiped away a bead of sweat, "How about you and these... um, get down first?

There are a lot of people in the city, and today they heard you were coming back, so they all came to watch the fun."

He pointed behind him, and indeed there was a dense crowd of people by the city gate.

"If someone gets accidentally stepped on, that wouldn't be good."

The old city guard's reason was very valid, and Adrien thought so too, but he had been warned by his personal guard before entering not to dismount casually, as it was all a conspiracy by the King of Barto.

Adrien remained silent and secretly glanced at the personal guard beside him.

This personal guard was the smartest in the entire Sawyer army and was also sent by the Sawyer family to be his external brain.

That personal guard had no reaction, so Adrien didn't say anything either.

Following what he had been told before, he simply remained silent and didn't move.

He didn't move, and the Sawyer army that followed him was even less likely to move.

For a moment, the air stagnated, as if the pause button had been pressed, and everyone was playing a game of '1, 2, 3, wooden man', whoever moved first would lose.

The old city guard was the first to give in to the pressure.

He smiled obsequiously and came forward, making a gesture of invitation, "Since the General doesn't want to dismount, then please come in quickly.

I'll have a few young lads run ahead and tell those commoners not to get too close, that way they shouldn't get stepped on."

Adrien nodded.

He thought to himself: So tired, I can finally go in.

He tugged at the reins, and the Flying Cloud Colt under him obediently took a step, walking towards the city.

It wasn't until this moment that the crowd, which had just quieted down, finally dared to make a sound.

However, the original cheers had turned into whispers.

No one had expected this long-famous general to be so intimidating.

Even the city guard who was usually so arrogant at the city gate was frightened into kneeling by the great general!

How impressive!

Adrien heard a few of his personal guards whispering to each other.

"I told you our general is most intimidating when he just keeps a straight face and does nothing.

He doesn't even need to say any harsh words. See, didn't this city guard obediently let us in?"

"Putting other things aside, the general's face is indeed useful.

I heard some families in our area use our general's name to scare children, saying that if they don't sleep at night, they'll be taken away by that evil ghost from the Sawyer family.

I laughed for a whole week when I heard that last time!"

"Hahaha, I even used the general's name to scare the new recruits before.

Those newcomers are both afraid of and fond of the general. Last time, I used a cup the general had used as a reward for a drill,

I never expected those guys to fight over a broken cup.

The training effect for that one week was better than the previous month."

Adrien: ...

So tired, my subordinates are so annoying, I already want to go home.

If it weren't for the rations of the tens of thousands of Sawyer troops, he wouldn't have bothered to make this trip.

***

The aura was truly incredible.

Yan Yunqing took in everything that happened at the city gate and silently evaluated it in his heart.

His gaze had always been on this young general. Yes, very young.

Perhaps thirty-eight years old would be considered middle-aged among ordinary people, but for swordsmen and mages, it was indeed very young.

After all, with each level up, their lifespan would increase accordingly.

At Adrien's level, his lifespan could basically reach three to four hundred years.

This was on the basis that the human race was not a long-lived species.

For those races that were originally long-lived, reaching this level basically meant starting from a thousand years.

The lifespan above level 100 was even longer, possibly two to three thousand years.

This was also why Yan Yunqing felt that Silf shouldn't have died so early, because during the Demon King era, Silf's level had already broken through one hundred and thirty.

At the age of thirty-eight, compared to Adrien's lifespan, he could basically be considered to have just entered his youth.

As he was thinking this, Yan Yunqing's eyes suddenly met with that general on horseback. It was a pair of deep blue eyes with a bone-chilling coldness.

An icy aura rushed towards him, making Yan Yunqing subconsciously take a step back and avert his gaze.

Did he just make eye contact with that General Sawyer?

Why was that person looking in his direction?

Could it be, as Cornelia said, that the intuition of such a high-level expert was extremely accurate, and he had already discovered that he was up to something before the banquet even started?

Yan Yunqing was filled with suspicion. He looked back in Adrien's direction, only to find that the general had already ridden away on his horse.

A coincidence?

...It should just be a coincidence, right? How could anyone really have such a bug-like intuition?

However, those eyes did remind him of an old acquaintance.

Doubt arose in Yan Yunqing's heart.

He took two steps back, preparing to hide himself in the crowd and head back. It was too dangerous outside, it was better to go back to the inn and lay low.

Before he could make his next move, the city gate became noisy again.

Another two carriages drove over.

The exterior of the carriages was not luxuriously decorated, but the beasts pulling them were very precious demonic beasts, fifth-tier Flame-winged Horses, with combat power equivalent to level 50-60 mages and swordsmen.

This is...?

A sharp-eyed commoner in the crowd shouted loudly:

"Princess Alice and Prince William are back!"

The voices that were originally whispers suddenly grew much louder.

A few lively children had already squeezed out of the crowd and shouted at the carriage: "Alice! Alice, are you back?"

His parents, who were following behind him, were anxious.

They quickly grabbed their son who wanted to rush forward and pulled his ear, loudly educating him, "You must call her Princess, you rude little brat!"

"Alice doesn't mind that!" The boy, whose ear was being pulled up, screamed and flailed his arms and legs, not forgetting to look at the carriage.

The next moment, the curtain of the carriage parked at the city gate was lifted.

Yan Yunqing saw a neatly dressed little girl jump down from it and wave at the boy whose ear was being pulled, "Little Hardy! I'm back!"

Her cheeks were rosy with the joy of seeing an acquaintance.

She paid no mind to the carriage still blocked outside, and instead ran straight into the city, diving into a crowd of small children.

"Hardy! Long time no see, how come you're getting your ear pulled by your uncle the moment we meet again!"

Alice, who had returned home after a long absence, was very excited and teased her former little friend.

"It's all because of you!" Hardy stomped his feet.

The other little friends also gathered around, laughing and chatting, sharing interesting stories that had happened during their time apart.

The carriage that was originally blocked at the city gate was also allowed to pass.

Another carriage swayed in, and a young boy jumped down from it.

He had light golden hair, a straight back, and an arrogant expression that kept people at a distance. "Alice, you're hanging out with this group of commoners again, you're so..."

Before he could finish his sentence, another hand landed on his shoulder, hooking his neck. "Hey, William, long time no see.

Your little frame has finally grown a bit, you really look like a swordsman now."

The little blond prince: ...

William awkwardly pushed away the arm and muttered: "If you have something to say, just say it. Don't be so handsy."

"Hahaha," another tall and strong young man laughed, "Isn't it because of your foul mouth, William?

You're so harsh every time you speak, we can only physically interrupt you."

After speaking, everyone looked at each other and started laughing like crazy.

Alice also covered her mouth and giggled secretly, making the little blond prince so embarrassed he was about to stomp his feet.

Yan Yunqing, who had already recognized who these two children were, stood there for a while, then glanced in the direction where General Sawyer had left.

Finally, he cursed in a low voice: The King of Barto is truly a piece of work.