Chapter 112#

The Holy Son of the Fallen Evil God#

Commander Ike’s words sent a shock through the people in the secret passage.

They held their breath, and in the extreme silence, they finally heard faint gasps coming from the darkness ahead.

But Lin Xiaodong soon discovered that this person’s physical condition must be very poor, as a normal person’s breathing frequency shouldn’t be so rapid and disorganized. He slightly brightened the light of the light ball spell in his hand and lightly tapped twice on the back of the black-haired man in front of him—

This was the signal they had set earlier, meaning “we can continue forward.”

Ike paused for a few seconds before finally deciding to trust the Holy Son’s judgment.

He walked forward cautiously and finally found a charred figure curled into a ball at the corner of the secret passage.

The person was not old; judging by the contour of his face, he should still be a youth. He was tightly clutching a roll of parchment in his hand. Hearing footsteps, the youth struggled to lift his eyelids and glanced at them. After seeing Ike’s attire, a sarcastic smile appeared on his half-carbonized face: “You… are people from the Church?”

“Yes,” Ike said solemnly. “Who are you?”

The youth did not answer him, but only closed his eyes wearily.

“Kill me.” He leaned against the base of the wall, murmuring in a low voice.

Almost 70 percent of the youth’s skin was burned, and even his clothes were stuck to his flesh. The tragic sight was almost unbearable to look at. If it were before, Lin Xiaodong might have tried to use light healing magic to help relieve his pain, but now he had become a “white-and-black” mix; if he made a move, it would be a wonder if the other party didn’t die on the spot.

So he just sighed, stood behind Ike, and shook his head at the black-haired man.

With such severe injuries, he couldn’t be saved at all.

But Ike was still unwilling; this was the only survivor they had found since entering the manor.

He took a blood-replenishing pill from his cloth bag, which contained a trace of precious, concentrated light magic—it could at least help the youth hang on for a few more breaths. However, because the youth was unwilling to cooperate, it took a lot of effort to get him to swallow it.

“You seem very repelled by people from the Church,” Ike knelt half-down in front of him, frowning and asking, “Why? Although we can’t save you, as long as you tell us the truth, at least we can avenge you.”

“Avenge?” Hearing this, the youth coughed, seemingly wanting to laugh, but because it pulled at the wounds on his body, his face instantly became distorted. “Do you take me for a three-year-old child? Knights of the Church, avenging commoners?”

“I am also a commoner,” Ike said.

The youth was stunned for a moment and finally was willing to look him in the eye. his gaze stayed for a moment on the black-haired man’s rugged and deep features, then fell on the golden-haired Holy Son holding the light ball behind him. His dead-gray eyes instantly erupted with two bright lights—

“Lynn, Lynn?” He looked at Lin Xiaodong dazed, with an expression like he was dreaming. A tear slowly fell from his eye. “Is it you?”

Lin Xiaodong looked bewildered, thinking to himself, Could this be an old acquaintance of the previous Holy Son?

But he still nodded to the youth and took a step forward so the other party could see more clearly.

“It’s me.”

Hearing the affirmative answer, the youth’s breathing suddenly became rapid.

He struggled to get up, but his severely injured body was simply not enough to complete the action. So, he could only tilt his head and use one relatively intact arm to support his body, leaning against the cold stone brick, trying to stare at the Holy Son’s face, which looked even more beautiful and delicate under the soft light, with a longing gaze.

“I’ve looked for you for so long…” he cried. “They all said you were dead, killed by the knights of the Church, but I didn’t believe it… I didn’t believe you were dead…”

The youth choked up for a moment, looking at him expectantly and asking: “Lynn, I’m Chris! Do you still remember me? The eldest son of the blacksmith shop in the North District! Every time you played the harp and sang, I would listen intently beside you!”

…Fortunately, not an old lover.

Lin Xiaodong finally breathed a sigh of relief. Just now he could feel it: the Evil God beneath the abyss was staring straight at him with those cold, dark eyes.

To cooperate with the investigation and find the truth, despite not having any relevant memories, the golden-haired Holy Son still walked to the youth, knelt on one knee, and cautiously grabbed the youth’s scarred palm, saying softly: “Of course I remember. But Chris, how did you end up here? And…” become like this.

Perhaps understanding what the golden-haired youth left unsaid, the youth gave a tragic smile and suddenly coughed violently.

The several people watched in silence as he coughed as if he were about to cough up his internal organs. They knew in their hearts that he probably wouldn’t survive the afternoon.

“It happened not long after you were taken away. That day, I went with my younger brother and sister to help move coal for our family…”

The youth finally calmed his coughing, but the intense pain and blood loss caused his body to start having neurological tremors again. Therefore, his voice gradually became blurred, and Lin Xiaodong had to lean down to listen carefully. “A carriage came by on the road. We didn’t pay much attention at first, but the driver gave us a silver coin and asked us to go to the alley in the East District to do work for them. That driver was a regular at my father’s place, cough cough, so we didn’t think too much at the time and went there very happily.”

“As it turned out, that bastard was a human trafficker,” the youth closed his eyes in pain, his lips uncontrollably trembling with rage. “Me, and my younger brother and sister, were all taken by them. At an underground auction, the three of us were sold to nobles in the East District. Because I was too old and my younger sister was too young, only my younger brother was chosen by them. From then on… he never came back.”

His tone gradually became numb: “Then, because that noble offended the Pope, he had to sell his family property. My sister and I were also sold again. To protect her, I started learning to fight and became a higher-class ‘fighting cock’ among the slaves.”

“I won a few matches and thought that even if I couldn’t gain freedom, at least I could make life better for my sister. Every time I went onto the field, I was more desperate than anyone else. I would split the rewards with my sister. Those nobles also told me that as long as I kept winning, they would set us free.”

“But I still lost. That day they brought an adult slave. That person was two heads taller than me and looked as strong as a small mountain. No matter how hard I tried, I simply couldn’t beat him. He knocked me down to the ground, broke two of my ribs, and knocked out three of my teeth. I thought I was going to die, but my sister knelt on the ground, desperately kowtowing and begging them to let me go… Count Lyle said he was moved by our sibling bond, so he bought us on the spot.”

“At that time, I thought I had met a good person,” the youth suddenly grabbed Lin Xiaodong’s hand and wailed intermittently. “I didn’t lose at all. That was an adult. I could definitely beat him when I grew up. Those nobles even asked for my opinion, and I agreed. I actually agreed to go with this beast!”

He coughed heart-wrenchingly again, and dark blood foam was coughed up along with fragments of internal organs. Lin Xiaodong was helpless; he couldn’t even reach out to pat the youth’s back. He could only hold his hand tighter: “Don’t worry… Chris, take your time.”

The youth shook his head, seemingly understanding his time was running out. He ignored his body and instead sped up his speech: “Count Lyle was a big customer in the cockfighting arena. He not only bought but also trained slaves himself to sell. After coming to his manor, I realized that the opponents I met before weren’t worth mentioning at all. The slaves here were too strong; I hardly won a few times.”

“I was afraid. Once I had no choice, because in the East District even if I escaped, I would soon be discovered and caught by the nobles’ servants. But Count Lyle moved to the West District, where he could more easily pick ‘good seeds’… Finally, one night, I discovered that the steward in charge hadn’t locked the cage properly. I really couldn’t resist the temptation and escaped from the basement.”

Hearing this, Ike nearby sighed deeply.

Although he wasn’t a noble, he had also heard of some methods those bastards used to “train” slaves—after a new batch of “goods” arrived, they would deliberately let one relatively important one escape, and then execute all the slaves who were close to him.

As long as this was done once, these slaves would watch and report on each other from then on, and no one would ever dare to think about escaping again.

Sure enough, the youth soon said intermittently: “Although my sister was a slave, she was taken away by the Countess’s personal maid and usually helped them with tasks like serving tea and water. I thought that at least they wouldn’t lay a hand on her casually, but… when I came back a day later, wanting to take her away with me, I found that she had already been drowned in the well.”

“And several other slave children who were usually locked in the same cage with me were also put on dog chains and thrown into the cockfighting arena to be beaten. By the time I found… found them, they no longer looked like humans.”

The golden-haired youth was silent for a moment and asked in a very light voice: “So, you killed Count Lyle’s entire family?”

“Yes, I only regret not being able to tear him apart and scatter his ashes with my own hands!” Chris suddenly became excited. Using his last bit of strength, he stuffed that blood-stained roll of parchment into the youth’s hand. “Lynn, this, this is what I’ve memorized over all these years—the names of those nobles and slaves. I…”

Lin Xiaodong thought he would ask to be avenged, but unexpectedly, the youth just stared fixedly at his face, tremblingly reaching out his hand as if he wanted to touch him. But the moment his fingertips touched the golden-haired youth’s fair skin, he suddenly withdrew his hand.

“You… don’t need to do anything. Just help me remember them, and stay away from them… that’s enough.”

The youth’s voice became weaker and weaker, but his gaze still lingered on the golden-haired youth in front of him. A hot tear slowly dropped from the corner of his eye: “Lynn, I really…”

He didn’t finish.

Watching the last trace of light completely fade from the youth’s eyes, the golden-haired Holy Son was silent for a long time before reaching out and slowly closing his eyes.

Commander Ike and the several knights behind him bowed their heads and performed a standard knight’s salute to this youth.

Although his life was humble and tragic, he still deserved a decent funeral.

The parchment, although stained red by blood and dust, mostly remained legible. By the light of magic, Ike took one look and felt a wave of dizziness—more than 60 percent of the nobles in the capital were essentially on the list!

This was just what a high-level slave could come into contact with; the crime chain hidden behind it was truly buried deep.

When Lin Xiaodong flipped the parchment to the back, the knights present showed expressions of extreme anger. Most of Ike’s knights were of low birth, with almost over 80 percent coming from the North and West Districts.

Therefore, they were also often mockingly called “settlements for lower-class people” by the Church.

In this era where information exchange was not developed, if something happened to the neighbors, the whole street basically knew. Cases of lost children or childhood companions who went out to seek their fortune and never returned happened basically every year or two.

When children were lost, everyone knew it was human traffickers, and naturally, everyone would hunt them down.

But for those who went out to seek their fortune, it was originally thought that the journey was treacherous and they encountered natural or man-made disasters, or died suddenly from disease—there was nothing that could be done about that. But now, looking at these familiar names, the knights realized that their relatives and friends had actually all been forcibly taken away by these nobles and turned into slaves. They not only had to fight for their lives to provide entertainment but even died without a clear reason… how could they not be angry?

“This is simply… pushing things too far!”

Ike had known before that the human trafficking trade in the capital was very rampant, but he never expected it to be so audacious. He even saw his little nephew’s name on it!

Not even the nephew of the Church’s Knight Commander was spared. Those nobles had actually gone to such a crazed extent!

“Maria…”

The parchment was passed around. In the living room, a knight fell to the ground on the spot, crying out loud.

Other colleagues also had red eyes and distorted faces. They risked their lives to protect these nobles, yet the nobles were selling their wives and children behind their backs!

“Commander, have you considered the consequences of doing this?” The golden-haired Holy Son looked at the black-haired man who was clenching his teeth and sighed.

The number of nobles involved in this parchment was too extensive. Since Ike had revealed it to his subordinates, how could they willingly serve the Church and the nobles in the future?

“Don’t worry, I know what I’m doing,” Ike squeezed a sentence through his teeth.

The parchment could only be considered a fuse. What was truly unbearable for him was the nauseating discriminatory treatment of the Church, and the day-after-day cold eyes, mockery, and verbal abuse from the nobles, wasn’t it?

Without the protection of these knights, those defenseless nobles would have been eaten alive by the lower-class people long ago!

The man kept his head down, strode to the end of the secret passage, and gave a heavy kick.

With a “boom,” the originally shaky wooden door fell down.

An underground fighting arena, at least half the size of a football field, appeared before everyone’s eyes. It featured circular seating that could accommodate hundreds of spectators, stone cages for slaves, and a fenced “cockfighting arena” in the center wound with thorns—sure enough, just as Chris had said, Count Lyle was a well-known “expert” in this industry.

Standing at the entrance, Lin Xiaodong seemed to see the grand occasion when this place was full: well-dressed gentlemen and ladies sweeping away their usual arrogance, screaming and yelling for the slaves in life-and-death duels on the stage regardless of their poise. Blood and pain were their stimulants, and the pleasure of fist-to-flesh combat made these nobles lose themselves…

He stood in front of a wall, staring at the various sharp iron mouthpieces stained with dried blood. He finally understood why these nobles liked to call slaves “fighting cocks.” And why an ordinary human trafficker was a regular at the blacksmith shop.

The golden-haired youth reached out, took down a huge black bird-beak mouthpiece that looked the most terrifying and had the name “Chris” engraved on it. He silently wiped the dust off its surface with his hand and placed it on his own cheek.

White hair scattered, ink-colored stains.

Under the firelight, the youth’s long and tall shadow looked like a vengeful ghost from the abyss.