New World, deep within a forest somewhere.
In the mist-shrouded forest, the former sacrificial ground of Wooden Hoof had become a scene of devastation; broken and fallen trees lay everywhere, and scattered debris of various colors littered the ground. After the great battle, the environment here had completely lost its former tranquility.
And now, upon this chaotic ground, several figures stood. They were all dressed in the attire of the New World natives, and among them, standing in the middle, were a young man and an elder.
The young man wore a thickened hunting outfit made of linen and animal hides, his face marked with two streaks of paint, and his head adorned with eagle feathers; this was Kapak. And beside Kapak, the elder, dressed in a long robe, leaning on a staff, with countless beast teeth and bone objects hanging from his body, and with white hair and beard, was Kapak's teacher, the Old Shaman Uta of the Tupa Tribe. Surrounding the two of them were other members of the Tupa Tribe; judging by their attire, they seemed to be warriors.
At this time, within the chaotic sacrificial ground, an area had been cleared. In this area, the Stone table originally used to worship Wooden Hoof had been re-erected, with various offerings placed upon it. Before the Stone table, a large pattern had been drawn on the ground, depicting an abstract and strange image of a giant bull. Around the pattern, a circle of small totem poles was inserted, forming a ritual site.
The warriors of the Tupa Tribe stood around the sacrificial ground, holding firearms captured from the white people, their expressions focused as they guarded the surroundings. Meanwhile, Uta sat cross-legged before the ritual site, calmly puffing on his pipe, gazing at the sacrificial ground before him, exhaling clouds of smoke. And at this time, Kapak stood beside him, holding a pocket watch in his hand, his expression focused as he watched the movement of the hands on the watch.
"Kapak... Is it not time yet?" Exhaling another puff of white smoke, Uta said, looking at Kapak, while Kapak, watching the pocket watch, immediately replied.
"It will be soon, Teacher Uta. In a few more minutes, Captain can perform the spirit channeling ritual."
Watching the time indicated by the pocket watch in his hand, Kapak said this. After scrutinizing him again, Uta opened his mouth to ask.
"Does the ritual time have to be so precise? Can those friends you mentioned on another continent really free Wooden Hoof?"
"No problem, Teacher Uta. I was saved by them. Otherwise, I would probably have been sent back to their stronghold by those white Extraordinary who hunt Wooden Hoof and met with misfortune. Those friends on the continent across the ocean are also followers of Aka. They guaranteed that they would free Wooden Hoof. Captain just needs to perform the spirit channeling ritual to channel Wooden Hoof over then."
Kapak said this to Uta. Listening to Kapak's words, Uta took a few deep puffs of smoke again, and after exhaling a puff of white smoke, he slowly murmured.
"Akasha..."
Puffing on the lit tobacco in his pipe, Uta pondered a term. In order to explain to Uta why the spirit channeling ritual had to be held at a specific time, Kapak revealed some information about Aka's existence to Uta.
At this time, Uta already knew that the spirits suspected to be residing in Kapak's body might be far from the various spirit entities he knew, and perhaps the other party wasn't residing in Kapak's body at all, because not only were none of his spirit expulsion methods effective against it, but ordinary spirit entities also couldn't reside in multiple people's bodies.
In Uta's understanding at this time, this entity called Akasha did not seem to be attached to Kapak but had established contact with Kapak in some transcendent way. And Kapak was not the only one connected to that Aka; on the white people's continent across the ocean, there were many other associated individuals who also had a connection with Aka. And Kapak's knowledge likely came from Aka or those associated individuals.
'Aka... I wonder how it exists, a transcendent entity that can cross the ocean and connect people? It seems this is far from an evil spirit... no... far from something as simple as spirits...'
Holding the pipe in his hand, Uta thought deeply in his heart with a focused expression. He initially thought that some spirit entity was attached to Kapak, which was why he suddenly had knowledge of various medical practices. However, judging from the current situation, the entity that had contact with Kapak was far less simple than he had imagined.
'Getting involved with such an unfathomable existence, I don't know whether it is a blessing or a curse for the tribe... But at least so far, Kapak, influenced by that Aka, has not shown any harm to the tribe... But it's still uncertain what will happen in the future.
'If we can successfully rescue Wooden Hoof this time, perhaps it can also slightly verify Aka's stance towards us... at least there shouldn't be any malice...'
Holding the pipe and smoking, Uta thought this way in his heart. And just then, Kapak, who was watching the pocket watch beside him, suddenly called out.
"Teacher Uta! The time has arrived, Captain can begin!"
Listening to Kapak's words, Uta took another deep puff of the tobacco in his pipe. After a long exhale of white smoke, he placed the pipe on the ground beside him. After concentrating, he closed his eyes towards the ritual site before him and extended his hands.
...
Preet Kingdom, northwestern outskirts of Tivian.
In the distance from Gale Fortress, on a hill within the forest, the Netherworld Coffin Society and others who were originally loading goods suddenly encountered an unexpected situation.
Unexpectedly by everyone, a violent explosion suddenly occurred within the stacked crates. A loud bang and flames erupted from deep within the crates, engulfing the entire stack of crates and the surrounding people and skeletons. The shockwave violently spread outwards, along with countless fragments blown away.
The moment the explosion occurred, the people and skeletons near the stack of crates were instantly gone. Skeletons were shattered, human bodies were torn apart, and the shockwave spread outwards, sending people a few meters away flying, and then continued to strike at more distant locations.
At the moment the explosion happened, Lareina, who was resting on a distant rock, was startled, and her body immediately reacted. The Ghosts around her quickly entered Carle's body beside her, possessing and controlling him, then grabbed him and held him in front of her as a shield. The shockwave and high-speed fragments shooting directly towards her hit Carle's back. Carle, used as a shield, let out a painful wail for a moment, and then both were knocked to the ground by the shockwave.
After the explosion, dust filled the air over the small hill. At this time, there were no people standing on the entire hill; everyone was either directly killed by the explosion or stunned, and some were injured by flying fragments, lying on the ground and wailing incessantly. All the skeletons were shattered, their bones scattered everywhere.
"Ah ah... It hurts..."
Carle, hit by countless fragments on his back, struggled on the ground in pain. As a Bonecrafter, he was not directly penetrated by these fragments due to the naturally hard skin of a """Stone""" Extraordinary, but it caused large areas of his skin to rupture, leaving him in great pain.
"Cough... cough cough..."
Lareina, who had successfully avoided being injured by the fragments by using Carle as a shield, slowly got up coughing. She held her dizzy head, scanned the chaotic environment around her, and finally fixed her gaze on the origin of the explosion, which was still enveloped in a large cloud of dust.
"Cough cough... Explosives... Damn... that thief... How dare he... scheme against me..."
Looking at the scene before her, Lareina naturally knew that this was the work of the thief who had just left. She said this with a face full of resentment and gritted teeth. Their transaction had no contractual nature from the start; everyone was only thinking of ways to trap and kill the other party during the transaction. And now, it was clear that the other side was one step ahead.
"Get up! You guys! This is not the time to lie on the ground, the essences are about to escape, get up!"
Lareina roared at her injured henchmen who had fallen to the ground around her. And just at this moment, her spiritual sense perceived something. After a slight pause, she suddenly turned her head and looked towards the dust cloud at the source of the explosion again. There, a giant phantom slowly appeared.
After the explosion destroyed the soul-binding iron coffin, Wooden Hoof's large bull spirit body slowly emerged from the dust. Countless essences were wandering around it. After losing their restraints, all the sealed spirit bodies gained freedom.
At this moment, Wooden Hoof was staring intently at Lareina with a look of hatred. Although his eyes were full of resentment, Wooden Hoof did not immediately launch an attack. His spiritual body at this time looked more transparent and dim than his normal state at the sacrificial ground.
Wilderness Spirits are land spirits chosen by the environment. They will be much weaker after leaving their own environment. Although the Wooden Hoof, who regained his freedom at this time, was full of anger, he did not immediately launch an attack due to his weakness. Seeing this scene, Lareina took out a pre-prepared ox-shaped straw doll from her clothes.
"Don't think you can escape just like that, beast! With this, you can't escape my grasp!"
Holding the cursed doll targeting Wooden Hoof, Lareina threatened Wooden Hoof's spiritual body, saying that she was not without a way to deal with the escape of these Wilderness Spirits and essences.
Wilderness Spirits are very weak after leaving their environment. It is relatively easy to suppress them by using a pre-prepared cursed doll. In order to prevent the Corpse Coffin from being damaged in the hands of the thief, they had prepared spare Corpse Coffins when they came. Now they just need to suppress Wooden Hoof and seal him back.
Lareina stared intently at Wooden Hoof in the dust, preparing to cast a curse to suppress him again. However, at this moment, a faint fluorescent light emanated from Wooden Hoof's body, and his entire spiritual body flickered in the faint light.
"What..."
Seeing this change in Wooden Hoof's spiritual body, Lareina couldn't help but widen her eyes. At this time, she felt that Wooden Hoof's spiritual body sense was disappearing rapidly, and his entire figure was gradually blurring in the faint light. In just two or three seconds, the originally huge wild ox spiritual body suddenly disappeared from the spot, and Lareina's curse also missed its target.
"This is... channeling!"
Lareina looked at the scene in front of her, and after a slight stunned, she said angrily with gritted teeth, and then directly crumpled the straw man in her hand and threw it heavily on the ground.
"Damn it! Did that thief collude with those natives too?!!"
Roaring, Lareina was extremely angry at this time. Since the goods were lost at the port, she had suffered a series of losses at the hands of that thief. The curse was backfired, the remaining goods were blown up, and now when she wanted to catch Wooden Hoof back, he was conveniently channeled away again!
In addition to her anger, a trace of fear arose in the depths of Lareina's heart. She found that almost all of her actions had fallen into the thief's calculations. She, a Chalk Extraordinary and a middle-level cadre of the Netherworld Coffin Society, was actually being played with in the palm of his hand.
Facing such an opponent, even the usually confident Lareina couldn't help but feel fear in her heart at this moment.
'Hoo... hoo... truly... a terrifying guy, but don't be too smug too early, I will get this back sooner or later... Those who are enemies of the Corpse Coffin will not have a good end!'
Lareina thought this way. Seeing that there was no hope of resealing Wooden Hoof, she decided to immediately abandon her injured companions on the hill and retreat first. However, as soon as she took the first step, a sudden gust of wind swept across the entire hill, blowing Lareina so that she couldn't open her eyes.
"Hmm..."
After the strong wind, Lareina took her hand away from her eyes, and when she looked around after the strong wind had swept through, she was stunned in place, and then all the emotions in her heart turned into deep despair.
Above the hill at this time, countless figures in black uniforms were floating, surrounding Lareina in a circle in the air. Behind the masks covering their faces, their indifferent eyes stared intently at the stunned woman below.
Among the floating Hunters, Edmund held a lens in front of his eyes and looked down. Seeing the countless Ghosts floating, he muttered to himself.
"Is it actually... someone from the Corpse Coffin?"
After speaking, he looked at his colleagues around him and continued to speak.
"Capture them alive."
Afterward, the Hunters moved towards Lareina below together, and the blowing wind blew again on the messy hill.
...
In the distant forest several kilometers away from the hill, on the road in the forest, Dorothy's carriage was slowly moving towards the City.
Dorothy was sitting in the carriage, holding a pocket watch in her hand at this time. Just now, she was slowly counting down on the pocket watch until she heard the huge sound from afar at the last moment before stopping the timer, and a faint smile appeared on her lips.
"Twelve fifty-three minutes and four seconds... Subtracting the sound propagation time, the detonation time is exactly the same as the preset time. It seems I also have a talent for mechanics~"
Listening to the sound of the explosion coming from afar, Dorothy muttered with a smile. That's right, the time bomb hidden in the interlayer of the wooden box was made by her personally. She applied the mechanical engineering knowledge she had learned in the Crown University library before and paid a little tuition to ask Beverly for advice. Under absolutely high-quality teaching resources, it was easy for Dorothy to make a time bomb device.
For this transaction, since Lareina was prepared to double-cross, why wasn't Dorothy? Dorothy never intended to trade Wooden Hoof to the other side, so she had already tampered with the goods in the transaction.
For the convenience of transportation and to avoid attracting attention, the Corpse Coffins that restrained Wooden Hoof and the essences were packed in freight wooden boxes. Since the Corpse Coffins could not be opened, Dorothy shifted the target of her tampering to those wooden boxes.
First, Dorothy spent some money to get explosives from Tivian's black market, and then bought parts from Beverly and made a mechanical time-detonation device with the explosives. Afterward, Dorothy spent a sum of money to ask Beverly to help her modify the wooden boxes, adding interlayers to the wooden boxes with the most exquisite craftsmanship.
The craftsmanship provided by Beverly was extremely exquisite. Under her modification, many wooden boxes were added with interlayers that were extremely difficult to detect. For her, this was just taking on a normal carpentry job. It was Dorothy's own business to put explosives in it afterward. As for Beverly herself, she did not make weapons for anyone to attack other societies.
Dorothy's time-detonation device was mainly installed in the interlayer of the Wooden Hoof iron coffin wooden box, and there were also more or less explosives hidden in the other wooden boxes. Beverly's craftsmanship was so professional that people who were not extremely professional would not be able to see the existence of the interlayer at all, and the explosives and detonation device were not Extraordinary things, so the Hui Jian Lamp's inspection could not detect them either. Therefore, the henchmen of the Netherworld Coffin Society did not find the tampering on the wooden boxes at all. As an Extraordinary society, they mainly focused their energy on finding Extraordinary traces.
These explosives would explode when the time preset by Dorothy arrived. During the explosion, all the Corpse Coffins could be easily destroyed. Since Wooden Hoof and other essences in the Corpse Coffins were pure spiritual bodies, they would not be damaged by the explosion in any way, so they would all be released.
And on the New World side, Dorothy had already arranged for Kapak, asking his teacher to immediately start the channeling ritual after the explosion to channel Wooden Hoof back, to avoid being captured by Lareina and the others again. At the same time, the commotion of the explosion would alert the An-Yin Main Bureau in the distance, and they would definitely send people over as well.
Judging from the current situation, this plan is going very smoothly. Dorothy got the reward, and Wooden Hoof also returned safely. All of her goals have been achieved.
"So, double-crossing is also a skill..."
Holding the King of the Underworld Holy Emblem that was traded over in her hand and observing it, Dorothy muttered, and then she looked out the car window at the distance, at the direction where the explosion occurred.
"May you all have a comfortable time in the bureau, members of the Corpse Coffin."