Chapter 007: Red Potion

Quested began to restore his combat energy as if no one else was around, forcing Du Fan to sit in seiza position and regain his strength. This was a life-or-death battle—whichever side could restore more combat energy first would hold a deadly advantage over the opponent, leaving no room for carelessness.
After a while, Quested slowly stood up. Glancing at Du Fan, who was still closed-eyed, recovering, Quested sneered as he slowly approached.
At that moment, Du Fan opened his eyes and slowly propped himself up, holding Frostfall Snow in his hand. In a battle without combat energy, having a weapon was a huge advantage, especially since Du Fan’s weapon was no ordinary one.
When he was about ten meters away from Du Fan, Quested stopped. “Xi ge lu gu lu, qi huo qi huo, de yang po ye”—a tongue-twisting phrase that even Du Fan couldn’t understand came out of Quested’s mouth.
“Black magic! The black magic of the demons! Lord Du Fan, be careful!”
Hearing the spells recited by Quested, the two Temple Knights’ expressions changed instantly. They immediately shouted to warn Du Fan.
But what could Du Fan do now? With his barely restored magic power, he couldn’t even cast the simplest spell, let alone use the magic scrolls in his space ring. Within the Death Barrier, only two peak-level ninth-tier warriors could rely on their own strength to defeat their opponents. It seemed like a long time passed before Quested finally finished chanting. Suddenly, a black sphere the size of a fingernail appeared in his hand. Though small, the black aura emanating from it was so powerful that even Du Fan felt terrified.
“Die!” Snarling, Quested threw the black sphere at Du Fan.
Thwack! Du Fan couldn’t dodge—it was beyond his strength. As the black sphere approached his body, an immense pressure surged. He could no longer stand; the sudden gravity forced his straight back to bend downward. The little strength and combat energy he had regained vanished because of this black sphere.
The black aura lingered, pressing Du Fan until he slowly sat on the ground.
“Hehehehehe! Your death is near.” With heavy steps and a cruel smile, Quested acted as if Du Fan was already in his grasp, ready to kill him at will.

Step by step, Du Fan approached, and Quested’s face grew even more terrifying. Known as the Dread Death God, he had numerous methods of torturing people, and countless souls had died at his hands. Yet he had never killed a warrior at the peak of the ninth rank—a regret for a being who took pleasure in killing and prided himself on tormenting others. But today, that regret could be resolved. How could this not make Quested unhappy?

“You must never have seen your other eye. Today, I’ll let you experience a pleasure no one else has ever known.” Reaching in front of Du Fan, Quested stretched out his long left hand to grab at Du Fan’s eye. The Temple Knight and Leoport immediately closed their eyes; they didn’t want to witness such a bloody scene.

Ah! A scream came through. Wait—that should be Prince Quested’s voice. Why was he screaming? Hearing the sound, Leoport quickly opened his eyes. He saw Quested kneeling in pain in front of Du Fan, his outstretched arm lying on the ground. In agony, he didn’t even have the strength to pick up his own arm.

Slowly standing up, Du Fan’s signature smile returned to his face. Looking at Frostfall Snow in his hand, which still hadn’t absorbed a drop of blood, he marveled at the power of this divine weapon. With just a slight swing, Frostfall Snow seemed to encounter no resistance—Quested’s arm had already fallen to the ground, and blood only started flowing after some time.

“Why? Why does black magic not work on you?” Quested glared at Du Fan in frustration. He wanted to tear apart the man who had severed his arm, but the black magic he had just used had depleted his already limited magic reserves. With his arm cut off, not only was blood flowing, but he had also lost a great deal of strength. It was already a miracle that Quested could even sit on the ground and ask questions.

Chuckling, Du Fan said, “It seems you’ve forgotten. Besides being a duke of the Gavin Empire, I am also a devout priest of the Church. Your black magic may be powerful, but I grew up in the temple. Even if I didn’t study light magic, I’ve still been exposed to it to some extent. Against such weak black magic, my body is more than enough to handle it.”

“You pretended to be weak just to lure me here, didn’t you?” With a bitter laugh, Quested knew he had no chance of survival today.

“You’re clever,” Du Fan said, looking at Quested as he slowly raised Frostfall Snow.

“Wait, can you tell me why you knew I would come to kill you today? Let me die with peace of mind.”
“Your plan is indeed clever, but you overlooked too many details,” Du Fan said, shaking his head with regret.
“Our plan was flawless; I don’t see where we made a mistake,” Quested still couldn’t figure out how he had been discovered.
“Let me explain it to you clearly,” Du Fan sat down and said, “First, you deliberately claimed to have the Queen of Sands’ orders, so that Leopold would think he was at a dead end. You left him only one option: kill you to seize the gold coins. But you forgot that the Queen of Sands is not only the mother of the first prince but also the mother of the fifth prince. How could a mother send her own son without trusting him?”
Quested smiled bitterly. He never imagined such a trivial detail could be noticed by Du Fan.
“And there’s more,” Du Fan said, tapping Quested’s head with Frostfall Snow, “At first, I thought it was all true and didn’t doubt it. But you shouldn’t have revealed this information to Archbishop Anthony. How could such a confidential matter reach Archbishop Anthony? Although the Church has excellent intelligence, they don’t yet have the ability to know the secrets of the empire’s king. So I immediately concluded that it wasn’t Prince Fischer who approached you first, but rather you who approached Prince Fischer.”
“But none of this proves anything.”
“And then there’s your deliberate display of strength, making everyone think only I could kill you. You conspired with Prince Fischer to have me urge you to withdraw your troops. You were sure I would go after those fifty million gold coins. That’s when your plan truly began.”
Du Fan continued as if telling a story, “As long as I went after those fifty million gold coins, you would return to kill the fifth prince and then have the palace guards attack the soldiers of the Laney Empire, creating chaos. Finally, since the Church’s Templars would prove that only I had the ability to kill the fifth prince and steal the gold coins, you could blame everything on me. Then Prince Fischer would get those fifty million gold coins, and your eldest prince would get rid of the fifth prince as a rival for the throne. It’s killing two birds with one stone. Unfortunately, I didn’t do as you wanted!”
“That still doesn’t explain how you knew I would return to attack you,” Quested asked.

“Hehe, actually, if it weren’t for Prince Fischer’s distrust of you and his order to bring back the gold coins once you left the capital, I would still have tried to seize them.”
“That can’t be right. I saw with my own eyes when the gold coins were inspected.” Leoport, sitting outside the barrier, still had no idea where those gold coins had gone.
“Do 50 million gold coins fit in twenty boxes? Moreover, when an envoy enters another empire’s capital, the guards can bring at most 500 people—Prince Quested is no exception. But why did his guards number nearly 2,000 when we left the city?” Du Fan chuckled and said, “Now you understand everything. So go ahead and travel in peace.” With that, Du Fan thrust a sword into Quested’s abdomen, destroying all of his cultivation skills.
At that moment, there was a pop sound, and the death barrier that had existed just moments ago disappeared. Smiling at Quested, Du Fan refused the help of the Temple Knights and stepped closer to him, sneering, “I heard you often take pleasure in torturing people. You even wanted to make me see one eye with the other. Hehe, I’m not that cruel. I’ll let you die happily.” Saying this, Du Fan took out a small vial filled with red potion from his space ring.
Caringfully touching the vial, Du Fan said, “This is something I first created when I became an alchemist. I haven’t even dared to use it myself, so I’ll give it to you.”
Qested, who had already given up on life, didn’t need Du Fan’s persuasion. With his remaining hand, he took the red potion and drank it all.
“No, no, no!” Du Fan tried to stop him, but it was too late—Qested had already drunk the entire vial.
“Ah! Didn’t your parents tell you that potions shouldn’t be drunk carelessly, especially alchemist’s potions?” Du Fan shook his head regretfully.
“What’s the difference between death?” Quested smiled bitterly. He already knew he wouldn’t survive. Even if Du Fan spared him, going from a peak ninth-level warrior to an ordinary person would probably drive him mad.
“Leoport, have your soldiers bring over a few hundred horses. I want Quested to die happily.” Looking at the empty vial in his hand, Du Fan felt immense regret—he had yet to use this potion even once.
Before long, several hundred horses were brought over. Not understanding what Du Fan intended, Leoport asked, “What are we going to do with these horses? You’re not planning to trample Quested to death, are you?”

“Ah! The bottle of aphrodisiac I painstakingly prepared was completely drunk by him. How can he die like this?” With a laugh, Du Fan turned and walked back to the camp. From that day on, sounds of physical collisions and Quested’s screams could be heard from time to time behind the camp, and it wasn’t until the last day, when all the armies of the Lanny Empire gathered, that the sounds ceased. By the time everyone went to look behind the camp, Quested had turned into a skeleton, with only one thing standing out on his body. Moreover, among the hundreds of warhorses, three died from severe bleeding caused by worn-out hind legs.