After the Lord of the Abyss Awakens - Chapter 33.2

Perhaps it was recovering from its injuries now, and once healed, its target would be the next person in the empire, or even the next major city.

It wanted to destroy the Aust Empire step by step, plunging the citizens into complete despair.

However, Eilinson still insisted. “Believe in the hero. We just need to do our part and wait for the moment of destiny. Whether it’s destruction or survival, it will be the result of our efforts.”

Eilinson’s persistence wasn’t blind faith, nor were her words empty.

Because she was Hero Luo Jie’s student.

When Teacher Luo Jie was teaching her how to level up, he would always teach her some shortcuts, rather than following the textbook rigidly.

Teacher Luo Jie couldn’t have died just like that.

Absolutely not.

Eilinson pulled herself together and emphasized to everyone. “Return to your posts and perform your duties. We’ll discuss everything after the scene analysis is complete.”

Everyone’s expressions became solemn, and they immediately nodded.

In another place, near the Imperial City.

Duke Feman was walking in the woods, coughing up blood as he walked, but with a smile on his face. “Dead, dead, dead for good. Hero Luo Jie, you were strong, you once fought against the gods, but you were human, you could die, so you died, hahaha.”

He was equally battered, visibly severely injured, but the wounds were healing at an eerie speed, seemingly about to fully recover.

Last night’s battle, he had successfully killed Luo Jie. What an accomplishing thing this was. His god would surely praise him.

“Hahaha.”

Duke Feman couldn’t help but laugh wildly again, looking back at the Imperial City, he said in a low voice. “You just struggle, if you still have any way to struggle.”

Hero Luo Jie’s death had driven despair into people’s hearts. The destruction of the Aust Empire was now a foregone conclusion! Even gods couldn’t stop it!

Meanwhile, in a nearby great empire.

The Sword Saint heard the news and stood up in shock, saying, “Is it true?”

The attendant nodded. “Yes, the Aust Empire couldn’t contain the news. Last night, a battle occurred at the Hero Memorial Hall in the Aust Empire. This morning, Hero Luo Jie was confirmed dead.”

“It’s a bit sudden, but also just right.”

The Sword Saint thought his wishes had come true. He was silent for a few seconds, then smiled, showing no sorrow for the hero’s death, but rather feeling it was inevitable.

The old must perish; this was the truth of the universe. Six of the seven great heroes were already gone. With this last one gone, it marked the end of an era and the beginning of a new one.

Wasn’t this actually a good thing?

The Sword Saint sat back down and said in a calm tone. “After the otherworld god descends, two things will happen. First, the Aust Empire will fall. Second, the entire region will be emptied. In other words, that territory will become unclaimed.”

The attendant listened attentively and responded, “Are we going to occupy the original territory of the Aust Empire?”

The Sword Saint smiled, very pleased that the attendant was becoming smarter and more attuned to his thoughts.

“Of course. A great empire must have vast territories. The more territory occupied, the stronger the country. As the world’s eighth-ranked great empire, our territory is still relatively small. With the Aust Empire destroyed, we must naturally take their land.”

The Sword Saint chuckled, his eyes slightly cold, and continued, “But I’m certainly not the only one who has thought of this. The neighboring countries must already be eyeing it greedily, so we need to prepare quickly.”

As for what preparations to make.

Did that even need to be asked? Of course, preparations for war.

The attendant nodded vigorously, quickly agreeing, then turned to spread the news.

The Sword Saint’s lips curled up in a satisfied expression. He then muttered to himself, “Teacher Luo Jie, I told you that siding with the Aust Empire was a foolish decision. You could have retired peacefully and spent your twilight years in comfort. Why did you have to intervene? People really do become less capable as they age.”

After your death, I’ll take over the Aust Empire.

The Sword Saint was ambitious, seemingly already envisioning the grand blueprint for the great empire’s future.

Meanwhile, in the antique shop.

Xiu Si was still in shock and hadn’t come to his senses. On the way back to the antique shop, he had been pondering who could have killed Luo Jie.

Luo Jie was currently a world hero. Who would want to kill him?

But after the initial shock, Xiu Si’s eyes were filled with disbelief. He didn’t think Luo Jie had died just like that.

As a comrade, he knew Luo Jie better than anyone.

He remembered when they used to run dungeons together. Although Luo Jie’s level was low, only slightly stronger than him, the weak had to be more resourceful and adaptable.

The weak had their own methodology.

The weak had to be more inventive because they needed methods more.

In his memory, Luo Jie was a sentimental guy, but also a clever one. Someone who had survived so many deadly situations couldn’t possibly die so quietly. Even if he died, Luo Jie would surely have taken a chunk out of his opponent.

Xiu Si came to his senses and felt that something must be amiss.

He thought that after living for so many years, Luo Jie must have many god-level items. It wouldn’t be strange if he had items that could replicate his body.

Perhaps it was a fake death?

Perhaps the “corpse” in the forest was just to deceive the enemy?

He remembered that Luo Jie had once helped him fake death before. At that time, monsters were chasing them, and seeing no way out, Luo Jie came up with a plan. He used an item to fake their deaths, and they eventually escaped successfully.

“He must still be alive.”

Xiu Si suddenly spoke, his eyes full of certainty.

Meanwhile, the gray cat on the table glanced at the red cat.

Morax turned his head and finally started communicating.

“Father has figured it out. Should we say anything?”

Inpos: “Should we mention that we were at the scene last night? It’s not easy to explain. No matter how mischievous we are, we couldn’t possibly have run from the antique shop to the Hero Memorial Hall in the middle of the night and happened to witness the scene.”

Yes, they had sensed that battle and went to check the situation that night.

Luo Jie was Father’s old friend.

Father valued his old friends, and they knew this better than anyone.

Back then, because of Father’s fall into the abyss, they more or less suspected there were bad people among the heroes, so they had complex feelings about the remaining six heroes and didn’t really want to interact with them.

But now, Father had been resurrected, things couldn’t be the same as before.

Think about it, if something happened to Luo Jie, wouldn’t Father be heartbroken?

How could they let Father be heartbroken?

Once Luo Jie died, that news would eventually be known to the whole world sooner or later.

You couldn’t hide it either.

Therefore, they went overnight and witnessed that battle, knowing the true process and outcome.

That is–the process of Luo Jie knowing in advance that the apostle was coming, fighting with the apostle all night, and ultimately being defeated.

Morax sighed: “Last night was really dangerous, that guy Luo Jie almost died, I really didn’t expect he would fight so desperately.”

Inpos: “Fortunately I brought Buer’s magic potion, and finally managed to save his life.”

Morax: “It’s hard to say if it was the effect of the magic potion, right? I feel that guy Luo Jie could have resurrected himself without our help, his vitality is too tenacious, and he also has the blessing of the Goddess of Fortune.”

Inpos tilted his head slightly and said calmly, “What you say is also true.”

Last night, Luo Jie had a life-and-death battle with the apostle. Luo Jie initially had the upper hand, but midway through, the apostle forcibly summoned an otherworld god, turning the tables and pushing Luo Jie to the brink.

Luo Jie knew he was no match for the apostle possessed by the otherworld god and had no power to turn the situation around. He was going to die either way, so he might as well take a gamble. So he went along with the killing momentum and let the opponent “kill” him.

Morax: “As expected of an old thing that has lived for thousands of years, he must have some skills.”

Inpos: “But playing dead was more dangerous than struggling to fight back in that situation, yet he still dared to do it. Was he certain that the apostle wouldn’t think too much? Who could have thought that a world-renowned legendary hero would play dead when faced with an unfavorable situation in a desperate battle?”

Morax nodded. “He used unconventional thinking, but I didn’t expect him to be able to put aside his status like that.”

Inpos stroked his paw, pondering. “He wasn’t that kind of upright and honorable person to begin with, right? It’s more like he’s been pretending all along until now, and only showed his true colors on the battlefield.”

To be honest, this kind of tactic could easily backfire. What if the opponent completely blasted your body to ashes, frantically dealt additional blows, and killed you until nothing was left?

But Luo Jie must have known that the apostle definitely wouldn’t do that.

Because what that apostle wanted to bring was despair.

It wanted to plunge the Aust Empire into complete despair.

So, which would you choose: to make the hero disappear without a trace, presumably dead, or to let the hero die miserably and pathetically in a place where no one pays attention?

It must be the latter.

That would have more impact, enough to shake those soldiers with firm hearts.

Of course, besides analyzing the enemy’s psychology, the key to successfully escaping was also skill.

You need to have the skill to deceive the apostle’s eyes.

Speaking of this, Morax was a bit unhappy, “But by doing this, he almost made Father heartbroken, although he didn’t know that Father had been resurrected.”

Inpos was also somewhat dissatisfied about this.

But there was no helping it, that was a gamble and decision between life and death, who could consider so much?

Without them there, Luo Jie might have really died.

Inpos turned his head, glanced at the thoughtful Xiu Si, and pondered. “But Father could also vaguely sense the truth. Is this the tacit understanding between heroes?” How enviable.

At this moment, Morax seemed to suddenly remember something and said in surprise, “By the way, doesn’t Buer’s resurrection potion have some side effects?”

Inpos was stunned, also just remembering that the side effect seemed to be – making people return to their true nature.

In everyday terms, it would be like letting oneself go wild?

The two cats exchanged a glance, their faces immediately darkening, feeling that something big was going to happen. But before they could say anything, they were picked up.

“I just thought, you two were walking around in such a dangerous forest, did your paws not get cursed?”

Xiu Si held one cat in each hand, with quite the momentum of taking them to be “cleaned”.

The two cats were dumbfounded. No, no, they couldn’t!

But half an hour later, they still had holy water poured over their heads, being viciously mocked by two little birds hiding in the system space.

Heaven knows how much Abyss Lords, as abyss creatures, reject holy water. Although it had no effect, their whole body would feel burning hot, not even bathing in lava would feel like this, ugh.

The two cats shook vigorously, finally managing to completely shake the holy water out of their fur.

They couldn’t complain about their dear father, they could only complain about Luo Jie who had caused them this trouble.

Hmph, that detestable Hero Luo Jie, if it weren’t for you, how could we have suffered such misfortune!

“But, come to think of it, if Luo Jie didn’t die, where would he be now?”

Xiu Si thought of the key point and couldn’t help but fall into deep thought.

After a long while, he slowly said, “He must have gone to deal with the enemy.”

At this moment, Inpos, wrapped in a towel and feeling dizzy, suddenly thought of a solution to the current situation.

Yes, their Father…could totally try that thing!

Meanwhile, in the underground gathering near the Imperial City, hundreds of underground believers gathered here, cheering excitedly.

“Hero Luo Jie is dead, the Aust Empire is completely without anyone, our great god is about to descend!”

“Praise the apostle! We can’t wait any longer, please let the apostle destroy the Imperial City and let our great god return!”

They were bloodthirsty and frenzied, all mad perverts who would stop at nothing, gathering here to make the country collapse and the world fall into chaos, because they couldn’t live under order, only chaos was their home.

The death of Hero Luo Jie as the guardian of order was no different from the mountain pressing on them finally collapsing, it was a joyous occasion!

They had waited for so long!

But the cheering only lasted for a few minutes.

A few minutes later, the underground altar was filled with wails and screams.

Someone screamed. “Why is there an outsider? Who is he? Who is he!”

“Where is the apostle, quickly call the apostle!”

“Wasn’t this place supposed to be undiscoverable? Why is this person here!”

A few minutes later, the altar fell silent.

Everyone was quiet and completely still, except for the young man standing in the center of the blood pool.

The young man casually tossed a few daggers.

The snow-white blade flashed, splattering drops of black blood.

He seemed to be in a very good mood, even humming a folk tune, wiping the blood off his knife while laughing and saying,

“A young body is still better to use.”

“When you get old, you get looked down upon, these otherworlders really don’t respect the elderly or care for the young.”

His face was reflected in the blood pool.

If Xiu Si were present, he would definitely recognize him as the young Luo Jie.

Only his temperament was a bit different, now he had obviously become colder, his killing intent extremely restrained, yet appearing frosty and chilling, like a poisoned blade that had harmed billions of people.

There was a believer who wasn’t completely dead, whom he dragged out from the pile of corpses.

“You were laughing so happily just now, why aren’t you laughing now?”

Luo Jie leaned close to the terrified believer, whispering in his ear.

“Don’t you like to laugh anymore?”