The Creators: From Night City

Page 438

With a scrutinizing smile, Jiang Bing asked softly, while flames slowly spread into the not-so-spacious 'audience room'.

"It seems it wasn't you."

Illusory light continuously surged from the other's body, and the magic, resembling dim stars, kept trying to teleport the enormous 'two fingers' out of this 'cage,' but it failed time and time again.

What a joke! Heiml has already surrounded this place completely; how could it possibly escape?

“Swearing won’t have any effect on the current situation, ‘Two Fingers,’ I think you’d better confess.”

Listening to Jiang Bing's monologue, all the faded figures in the round table hall could imagine the sound of 'two fingers'.

"You used a bit too much vulgar language. Since you're so rude, don't blame me for being impolite."

Jiang Bing's face turned serious, and a hint of anger appeared between his brows. This "two-finger" guy, putting aside everything else, has quite a rich vocabulary after living for so many years.

The next moment, the entire Great Blessing shook violently. The Faded Ones, tainted by the flames, rolled into gourds, and even the 'Sir Hundred Wisdoms' who was leaning on his cane almost fell to the ground.

next moment.

Five enormous fingers, like pillars supporting the sky and nails breaking through boundaries, were forcibly inserted into the round table hall from nothingness.

Amidst the earth-shaking tremors, the 'Appointment Hall,' constructed of bricks and stones, was forcibly ripped out by a gigantic hand and pulled into the boundless void.

Immediately afterwards, a gigantic golden eye, large enough to blot out the sky, peered through the turbulent cracks into the interior of the round table hall.

Behind that eye was a giant hidden in the darkness. The divine face dazzled Sir Hundred Wisdom, but it also made him successfully connect the giant with the 'visitor' who had suddenly barged into the Round Table Hall.

Everyone fell silent in fear; even the fearless and rebellious were forced to submit to this godlike power.

Fortunately, the next moment, the eye that seemed to be able to see through people's hearts flew away rapidly, and countless roots quickly intertwined to seal the spatial rift caused by the stripping of the 'Appointment Hall'.

Marika's two fingers were filled into the 'Ether Furnace', and a large amount of information was extracted from her body. The core secret of the entire handover site was opening its heart to Jiang Bing, but more unknowns were still emerging.

First of all, Marika's 'two fingers' are not of one mind with this goddess queen. At the very least, it is furious and terrified that the other party has destroyed the magic ring.

Secondly, it wasn't the tree that attacked him from the golden canopy, but rather the meteor that 'Supreme Will' had thrown into the border region.

That meteor was actually a wild beast.

Chapter 892 A Great Blessing for the Emergence of Talented Individuals

"Jazz Hundred Wisdom" has a brilliant mind and a sharp mind, as if his intelligence has really reached over 100.

In contrast, his adopted daughter Neferi Lou acted like a true Six-Wisdom Barbarian. All her strength had been drained by the 'Etheric Fire,' leaving her outwardly strong but inwardly weak. Yet, she still glared fiercely at Jiang Bing, displaying remarkable toughness.

Illusory and complex flames flashed from behind Jiang Bing, and an exquisite and intricately designed high-backed chair was created from the void, perfectly supporting his avatar.

"Greetings, great being." To everyone's surprise, the first to speak was the mad, finger-unraveling witch.

“I hate it most when people interfere with other people’s freedom of thought, so um~ you’re Enya, right?” Jiang Bing paused, flipping through the relevant information on Marika’s two fingers.

The witch prostrated herself on the ground, as if she were paying homage to the supreme will.

“You are free. I have unilaterally decided to terminate the contract between you and Marika’s two fingers.”

No matter how glorious the Golden Dynasty may appear on the surface, with its subjects living forever, free from hunger and disaster, and enjoying eternal peace, it could not conceal the truth that it was essentially a theocratic dynasty.

Since divine right exists, human rights often cease to exist.

Although the two-finger witches, representing the two fingers, are outwardly a highly respected profession in the Golden Dynasty, many cruel truths remain unknown behind the scenes.

First, in order to communicate normally with the non-human two fingers, the finger-unraveling witch must have a high level of spiritual awareness, and this hard requirement will tightly limit the range of candidates.

In most cases, the Unwitches had no choice in becoming Unwitches.

You have this talent, you have been discovered to have this talent, so you must embark on the path of the Finger-Untying Witch and become the mouthpiece of Two Fingers among humans.

Whether you are willing or not, the information erosion, physical distortion, loss of consciousness and autonomy, and becoming a puppet resulting from prolonged communication with the two fingers are not within the scope of the Golden Dynasty's consideration.

Those fanatical religious believers will shout the Golden Law above all, long live Queen Marika, and emphasize to you that it is all your honor.

As for whether you are willing to enjoy this honor, I'm sorry, it's not up to you.

If you want to be honored, I'll grant you honor; if you don't want to be honored, I'll help you be honored.

The structural oppression from the collective is everywhere. Jiang Bing has always been far away from Night City from the perspective of the plane, but he always feels that he is still in Night City and has never left.

Because of this, he quietly lowered the heat of the 'Ether Furnace' by one level, so that the slow simmering would allow the flavors to penetrate more deeply.

The witch who had freed her fingers did not say much. The long years of having her life and death in the hands of others had left her speechless. She simply knelt down and remained silent.

"And you."

An elderly Chaos Blacksmith, covered in scales and sharp horns, had just peeked in furtively from the doorway when Jiang Bing pointed him out, leaving him completely bewildered.

The rhythmic clanging of the hammer earlier was his doing.

Under everyone's gaze, Jiang Bing uttered a completely irrelevant statement.

"I'm talking about you, Xiu Gu, right?" Jiang Bing continued to flip through Shuangzhi's memories and found information about the old blacksmith.

He was like a master blacksmith with a wealth of experience, offering his insightful critiques in this serious setting.

"His blacksmithing skills are good. His hammering technique and rhythm are quite good. He looks like an expert. However, he still needs to practice his 'listening to the hammer.' He is lacking. Several times he struck the hammer either too early or too late."

Experienced blacksmiths can judge whether the temperature and condition of a material are in the optimal range for forging by the sound it makes when hammering.

Of course, Jiang Binghe, the blacksmith named Xiu Gu, was the abnormal type.

The two can not only sense whether the current temperature is within the appropriate range for forging by 'listening to the hammer', but also detect the subtle internal defects of the material and the imbalance of the overall structure.

However, it was clear that Jiang Bing could hear more and more accurately.

"I'll talk to Marika about the curse on you later and try to help you 'peacefully terminate' your contract, but the prerequisite is that you need to sign an employment contract first."

What level of blacksmith is Jiang Bing? Xiu Gu only had a few flaws in his opinion; his forging skills can be described as reaching the pinnacle and being extraordinary.

As [Reverse Entropy] has developed to this point, there are countless talented people who can fight, but there is a severe shortage of skilled logistics personnel.

Development relies not only on fighting and killing, but also on a well-developed logistical and technical team and productivity support.

Talented people, especially high-end talents, are in high demand everywhere.

In Marika's two-finger memory, Xiu Gu was a blacksmith master personally arranged by the Eternal Queen Marika to be in charge of the logistics of the Faded Ones in the Round Table Hall. In order to make him work obediently, she also spent a lot of effort to cast a curse, binding his soul and mind.

The fact that this eternal deity, who possessed the entire border region, insisted on keeping the old blacksmith by force speaks volumes about the value of this hunchbacked, deformed, mixed-race old blacksmith.

Xiu Gu is a blacksmith with a story. Under the scorching of the 'Ether Flame', he was temporarily able to break free from the curse and regain his free will. Faced with Jiang Bing's recruitment, he didn't think much and chose to vote with his feet.

After all, things couldn't get any worse.

As for you...

Jiang Bing looked at the group of weaklings in the hall and gently tapped the back of the chair.

The one thing that anti-entropy has no shortage of is 'thugs'.

“Show me your worth, give me a reason to spare you.”

What value do reckless brutes who only know how to fight and kill have? The competition is most intense in professions like killing people, which have no barriers to entry. For a moment, the group couldn't think of a reason to redeem themselves.

Of course, the priests of the Golden Law, dressed in their priestly robes, were unwilling to submit to the tyranny of the 'outer gods' and chose to remain steadfast to the death. Most of the faded ones were not die-hard loyalists of the Golden Law and the Two Fingers.

Especially Sir Hundred, that old guy is practically living up to the label of "scab". For him, the Great Blessing is more like a platform to realize his ideals. It doesn't matter if the platform collapses, as long as he can live.

Although he was quite capable in combat, he was no match for the ruthless "Outer God" who could easily take away the "Appointment Hall" with a single hand. However, he had one advantage: he was intelligent.

A person can be bad, but they cannot be stupid, because bad people usually still have a place to live, while stupid people often meet a bad end.

The name 'Sir Hundred Wisdom' suggests that he is an exceptionally intelligent person.

After a brief moment's thought, he presented what he believed would surely interest this 'Outer God' avatar before him.

"My greatest value to you is that you may need my 'eyes and ears,' which are spread throughout the entire border region, and no movement can escape my sight and hearing."

Sir Hundred Wisdom stroked the ear and eye reliefs on his armor, and spoke words full of profound meaning.

“Unknown great being, please give me a chance to prove to you that I am capable of answering some of your doubts.”

This powerful figure, whose armor was adorned with eyes and ears, was behaving like a sycophantic courtier, almost bowing and scraping.

In Marika Twofinger's memory, "Sir Hundred" was considered the head of the Golden Dynasty's top secret service, and was deeply trusted by Twofinger, Marika, and Radagan.

There are very few secrets about the border region that he doesn't know.

So, as the other party waited anxiously and nervously, this 'great being' suddenly leaned back in his chair and uttered three keywords with great interest, accepting the test.

"Blood Dynasty, Blood King Monger, Fragments of the Elden Ring"

Chapter 893 Eternal Queen Marika

As it turns out, "Sir Hundred Wisdoms" was just bragging; he knew absolutely nothing about the three questions Jiang Bing posed.

He knew nothing about the Blood Dynasty or the Blood King Munger, and was even surprised to learn that Munger, the ominous twin, was the Blood King.

Fortunately, he gave a satisfactory answer to the third question.

The perfect outcome was a great surprise to Jiang Bing.

"Your esteemed and great being, the Elden Ring has been utterly shattered, and its fragments were personally distributed to the kings by Queen Marika before her complete demise."

As expected of the head of the Golden City's secret service, 'Sir Hundred Wisdom' revealed a secret as soon as he opened his mouth.

Jiang Bing had previously learned that Shuangzhi had orchestrated the distribution of the Great Rune and instigated the Fragment War, but he never expected that the truth was that the plan was actually devised by Marika herself.

In other words, this is tantamount to Marika personally instigating the War of Fragments and severing the fate of the golden dynasty she created.

"And thanks to the information you just provided, I have collected all the information on the fragments of the Ring of Law." Sir Hundred Wisdom's behavior was very unusual, and his actions seemed completely out of character at this moment.

He was too proactive.

As a member of the Golden Dynasty, he seemed eager for the Golden Law to perish. He even took the initiative to tell Jiang Bing, the "Outer God," about the location of the crucial Elden Fragment, which seemed to be stirring up trouble and adding fuel to the fire, trying to help the "Outer God" collect the Ring.

Jiang Bing didn't care at all whether he was a traitor or what his plans were; the two were simply not on the same level.

Sir Hundred Wisdom pursues omniscience and reveres knowledge. Although he is subject to others, he still unconsciously exudes a sense of pride when discussing knowledge.

"A total of nine fragments of the French Ring have been identified so far."

'Leg-Protecting King' Grik, located in Stoneville.

Queen Renaura of the Full Moon was given an amber egg by King Fraldagan, which contained the Great Rune, located in Lienia.

'Shattered Star General' Rataen, Red Lion City.

'Judge' Lakad, Volcano Residence.

Although the 'Blessed King' Montgomery is nowhere to be seen, he should be in the royal city.

'The Invincible Blade' Malenia, the Sacred Tree of Michaela.

Michaela, the 'Pure Gold' 'Sacred Tree', was abducted during the Shattered War after the Sacred Tree was broken open, and her whereabouts are unknown.

Lani, the 'Princess of the Moon,' abandoned her Great Rune, and the location where she abandoned it is unknown.

And regarding the 'Blood King' Monger you mentioned, if my information is correct, he should be the younger brother of the 'Blessed King,' and also possess a Great Rune.”

'Sir Hundred Wisdom' has some knowledge, but not much. Although these secrets are very valuable to ordinary people, they are of little use to someone like Jiang Bing who can directly read 'information'.

Fortunately, this intelligence was enough to temporarily save their lives.

As for whether the intelligence was true or false and accurate, Jiang Bing planned to seek verification from the Eternal Queen.

After all, Heiml had already located the other party's position.

Within a void, illusory golden tree shadows layered around a stone platform.

The space suddenly began to shake.

A tuft of roots pierced through the curtain of space and entered this 'microcosm'.

Then, more roots spread and intertwined, eventually transforming into a door.

Jiang Bing stepped out of the door and immediately saw the woman hanging high above him.

Marika, the Eternal Queen.

Jiang Bing was already very familiar with her image, after all, the entire royal city was filled with her statues and patterns.

As he gradually climbed the steps, the situation on the stone platform came into view.

The first thing Jiang Bing saw was a stone platform with a simple and ancient-looking stone hammer on it, which was very different from the style of the royal city of Rodel.

The platform and the stone hammer were covered with scattered gold fragments, indicating that it was on this stone platform that Marika used that stone hammer to shatter the Elden Ring.