Chapter 689 Their Intentions
The moment Aidan and the others boarded Medev, they smelled blood. Dismembered corpses were strewn all across the floor. Some had rotten flesh, while others only had their bones left intact. The aftermath of the battle alone was enough for them to imagine how cruel and violent the fight was.
Vicador picked up a severed arm that was somewhat frozen solid. “This tattoo is the symbol of Charleigh’s corps. If they encountered the enemies, why didn’t any of them report the situation to us earlier?”
“Charleigh is an outsider, after all. He’s not trying to do anything stupid, is he?” Aidan muttered as he swept his gaze past the corpses. He was the typical Remdik supremacist. Back when Charleigh joined them, Aidan vehemently opposed the idea.
At the side, Antoine frowned and gestured for Aidan to shut up. “Charleigh came to Remdik with special permission from the tsar. I have met him before. He’s a crazy scientist who doesn’t care much about background or nationality. In fact, he’ll pledge his loyalty to anyone who is willing to fund his research, so don’t run your mouth.”
In response, Antoine scoffed and remained silent. After all, he was recently saved by Aidan’s elder. Hence, he couldn’t bring himself to do anything that would cause a falling out.
When the group arrived at the cargo bay, they grimaced at the chunks of flesh on the floor. “Chanaeans are so vicious! They actually slaughtered everyone on the ship!” Alexander sighed.
However, Vicador sneered, “This isn’t anything shocking. If we defeat Chanaea’s forces, we can massacre everyone in Horbah as vengeance. What war doesn’t involve wanton death?”
It only took a few sentences for a group of people who didn’t get along with each other well to make the atmosphere tense.
Meanwhile, more than a dozen people emerged from under the cargo bay floor. They were hoisting Two and the others. “Sir, only eight of them are still alive on the ship, but we can’t wake them up.”
Alexander stepped toward Sabino and grabbed the latter’s collar. After he injected spiritual energy into Sabino’s body, he was shocked. “His body is filled with parasites, but all are dead. It’s possible they were all poisoned.”
Upon hearing his words, Aidan’s group promptly examined Two and the others. They were relieved to discover that, aside from Sabino, everyone else’s bodies were doing fine and could be woken up with fairly conventional methods.
“General, these are the military-grade locators we found next to them. It seems like whoever came for a rescue intentionally left them behind,” the soldier reported.
Vicador examined the locators before waving his hand. “I want them to spill out everything they know. Make it happen by any means necessary.” That short order basically sealed Sabino and the others’ fates.
The art of interrogation, which included many methods of torturing people, never stopped developing over the span of thousands of years. In modern times, even drugs and technologies were utilized in the process.
That was especially the case for Remdik, who only cared about results. It was easy to imagine how cruel their approaches were when there was no mouth their intelligence officers couldn’t pry open.
…
As night descended upon the world, Jonathan prevented Karl from rushing down the crest of the mountain east of Redlington’s pier.
“Stop moving! Look at that tree ahead,” he informed as he pressed half of Karl’s body into the snow. Gritting his teeth, Karl stared ahead and finally saw a thumb-sized pen-like object hidden in the tree.
“It’s an infrared alarm network. Use spiritual sense to scan every inch of the ground ahead of us, including everything under the snow,” Jonathan reminded again.
Upon giving up his struggle, Karl expanded his spiritual sense forward and instantly mapped out everything in front of him in his mind.
For at least a hundred meters ahead of them, there were thirty-eight of those infrared sensors, and the ground was blanketed with mines. Each mine was connected by thin, sharp wires.
If one of the wires were tripped, it would cause a chain explosion.
While the explosions might not necessarily be lethal, their deadly force wasn’t something the duo dared to underestimate.
After all, cultivators were only tougher than ordinary people. They weren’t immune to all forms of damage.
“Killian and Layla’s signals originate from below. I can’t stop here,” Karl uttered with gritted teeth as he lay in the snow.
Jonathan was also lying in the snow as he gazed at the sky. “The signals moved a short distance two hours ago before its movements halted there. According to your descriptions, Stellario, Kathleen, and Winston have a high cultivation level. Even if they couldn’t defeat any Remdik forces they encountered, they could at least flee, right? Why did their signals stay at the same spot for hours, then? And why did they show up at Redlington’s military base?”
Still gritting his teeth, Karl growled, “I don’t give a d*mn. I only know that my wife and child may be down there and I have to rescue them—”
Before he could finish, Jonathan pressed a snowball on his face and uttered frigidly, “You’re getting too worried. I’m calming you down. On the way here, I thought about the most likely reason the signals hadn’t moved for so long, and I think I know why. They discarded their locators. After all, Stellario and the others also have to guard against attacks from others. But let’s say Killian and Layla really are down there, and they have been captured by Remdik’s army. If they aren’t dead, then there’s nothing you need to worry about. However, if they are, you’re not going to change anything by recklessly charging in there! That’s why what you need to do is calm down right now!”
It was hard to tell whether the snowball or Jonathan’s words was the thing that calmed Karl down as he flipped over and stared down the mountain after that. “Fine, we’ll do as we initially planned. First, we’ll create a distraction. Then, we’ll capture someone to help us sneak in.”
“You finally remember how to fight strategically,” Jonathan joked.
Moments later, they left as though they had never appeared at that spot before.
Unbeknownst to Jonathan and Karl, three other people were gazing at the brightly lit Redlington military base at the top of the mountain from a mountain peak across.
“Are you sure they’ll be here, Morris?” a bear-like man wearing the skin of a mink asked behind a rock.
He was Sirius from the Blackwood family.
Morris stuffed a snowball into his mouth to quench his thirst before assuring, “Don’t worry. There’s no way Karl won’t come when his child’s signal is here.”
Upon turning to Sirius, he reminded, “When we execute our plan later, you two would better not be a burden. If we kill Jonathan, we’d have removed half the obstacles laid for respectable families. Therefore, this isn’t the time for mistakes.”
Initially, they entered Remdik to rescue Karl’s family. Somehow, both their families received news that Jonathan had also stepped into the country. Hence, both the Welsh family and the Blackwood family adjusted the plan.
The Welsh family was one of the weaker families among the eight. Knowing they couldn’t get the kind of support the Salladay family and the Osborne family received, they wanted to destroy Asura’s Office. That way, the remaining seven armies under Asura’s Office would be reshuffled.
The eight families would enact their plans eventually, so they definitely would choose to do it again. That way, it would help balance the power of every faction and allow them to take a breather.
Xavion, who was staying in the distance, and Sirius already knew Jonathan was being threatened by the Osborne family.
They were aware of who they would attack once everything was set in motion.
