Chapter 21: Returning to One’s Roots

The two stepped into the carriage as instructed.

From the outside, the carriage appeared unremarkable.

It was covered in signs of heavy wear and tear, dusty, and indistinguishable from a long-distance merchant transport carrying mundane goods; it wouldn’t draw a second glance if abandoned on the side of the road.

However, the interior of the carriage told a different story.

The space was far more expansive than its exterior suggested, clearly enhanced by space-expansion magic.

The cabin was luxuriously furnished and comfortable, the air fresh and scented with a faint, elegant incense.

It was evident that robust ventilation and air-purification spells were in operation.

The carriage walls were even etched with dense, intricate magic patterns designed to camouflage the vehicle and distort any outside surveillance.

One could say it was disguised quite thoroughly.

Lin Hong settled into his seat and marveled at his surroundings, looking around with interest.

At this moment, the isolation magic inside the carriage was inactive, and the clamor from outside drifted in clearly.

They were in a temporary staging camp.

The scale was not small; dozens of carefully disguised carriages were lined up in neat rows.

Beside the carriages, nearly 100 young people were boarding in an orderly fashion under the guidance of several individuals who looked like academy instructors or military officers.

These youths were generally around 20 years old, both male and female, their faces still retaining the glow of youth, yet filled with sharpness and confidence.

Among them, some wore refined clothing adorned with specific crests, clearly scions of the Empire’s various noble families.

However, the majority wore simple, standardized academy uniforms; they possessed a capable air and bright eyes, carrying an underlying sense of confidence that marked them as the top talents among the commoner students.

The entire camp was permeated with the taut, heavy tension of an impending departure.

“They are senior students from the Imperial Academy,” Lovella said as she lifted the curtain to gaze outside, her expression one of understanding.

Hearing this, Lin Hong remembered that the old Emperor Alfred had mentioned they would be traveling with a certain group.

Now, he had his answer.

It turned out that the old Emperor had signed a secret decree to carefully select this batch of elite seniors from the Imperial Royal Academy—those who were the most capable and possessed relatively clean backgrounds.

They included talents from various fields, all headed to the Wien territory on the border of the Empire.

They would be sent to towns of various sizes to undergo practical training, broaden their horizons, and increase their administrative experience.

For in the Imperial Capital, a bloody purge was unfolding.

Certain interest groups were being uprooted, and that would inevitably lead to a massive vacuum of power and a surplus of vacant positions.

These young students were the fresh blood the Emperor was preparing for the aftermath of the purge.

In fact, the blade of the purge had already fallen and had even met with a desperate, final counterattack from the targeted interest groups.

Over those 3 days, multiple conflicts had erupted within the Capital; although small in scale and quickly suppressed, they were extremely bloody and intense.

Therefore, the Emperor was moving these students away from the eye of the storm ahead of time to ensure these promising assets remained unharmed and did not become potential targets for exploitation.

Because this group was large and complex, it was essentially a template for the Empire’s future foundation.

“I see. Thank you for the explanation, Your Highness.”

Lovella offered her polite thanks, while Lin Hong listened until he felt drowsy.

Celestia, who had boarded the carriage shortly after the two of them, was the one who had just explained the inside story.

The Imperial Princess had changed out of her ornate gowns into a set of practical knight’s attire with clean, sharp lines, her silver-white hair tied back simply to look capable.

She sat next to Lovella as naturally as breathing, the two clearly sharing a deep personal friendship.

The carriage began to move, and the scenery outside the window began to retreat steadily.

Silence fell within the cabin.

Both women across from Lin Hong were accustomed to utilizing their time efficiently; they retrieved dossiers from their respective spatial storage devices, which detailed various arrangements for the trip, and began to converse in low tones while reviewing them.

Lin Hong, on the other hand, was quite idle.

He appeared to be enjoying the scenery outside, but his consciousness had already connected to the mysterious panel.

“Number Two.”

[The Host refuses to even use a different greeting.]

The mysterious panel flickered faintly, seemingly in protest.

“Ah, don’t worry about the small stuff. Tell me, what kind of place did you bring me to yesterday? Was it the birthplace of your universe? Or perhaps a fetal universe?”

[Information withheld. This was a hidden benefit of the beginner’s guide, and the opportunity has been exhausted.]

“…”

Lin Hong didn’t mind; he had received the benefits in reality, so the rest didn’t matter to him.

However, this opportunity had made him truly begin to value the worth of Fate Points, no longer looking down on them.

Previously, he hadn’t given much thought to them, regarding the mysterious panel merely as an Evil Clan radar.

As for the Fate Points earned as rewards, he felt they were of little use.

But things were different now.

The upgraded mysterious panel had first shown him secret texts that piqued his interest and then allowed him to seemingly touch the origin of the universe, absorbing large amounts of primordial energy—the benefits were immense.

And both of those things were linked to these so-called Fate Points!

He truly had to take this seriously now; the mysterious panel had demonstrated an incredible value.

Therefore, Lin Hong didn’t intend to stay passive; he took the initiative to ask how he could obtain more Fate Points.

Regarding this, the mysterious panel was no longer aloof, sending back a clear, wave-like response.

Generally speaking, there were two ways to obtain Fate Points.

One was to complete specific tasks—for instance, the long-term task involving the black-robed shopkeeper girl counted as one, which offered a large reward in Fate Points.

Mentioning this, Lin Hong looked at the progress bar for that long-term task, which showed no movement at all, and couldn’t help but mumble to himself, feeling a bit guilty.

He had almost completely forgotten about that person; he wondered how she was doing now.

The other path was to actively hunt down specific targets that posed a threat to the world.

In plain terms, that meant the Evil Clan and their cultists, dependents, and so on.

The mysterious panel would provide guidance and assistance.

This path had no limits; the more he killed, the greater the rewards.

Learning this, Lin Hong’s spirits were instantly lifted; he was no longer sleepy.

Wasn’t this his area of expertise?

He had been doing exactly this in his home universe.

The only reason he had trusted the mysterious panel before was its unfathomable power to locate the Evil Clan.

Now that he saw that slaying the Evil Clan was not only his duty and his source of hatred but also helped him grow stronger, what else was there to say?

They were all just walking, talking Fate Points!

The caravan traveled day and night, their journey smooth.

A few days later, they safely entered the vast territory of the Duke of Wien.

There, the massive group was broken down.

Nearly 100 students, led by academy instructors and a handful of Imperial guards, split into several smaller squads and headed toward different border towns for their training.

“I wish you both a smooth journey and a successful reunion with the Duke and Duchess.”

Celestia disembarked there as well to bid them farewell; she had her own destination and would not be traveling with them.

After watching the majority of the group depart, the number of people in the team containing Lin Hong and Lovella dropped sharply.

Including the two of them, only two carriages and about 20 knight escorts remained.

These palace knights had also been disguised; from the outside, they looked like a medium-sized mercenary escort team.

The carriage was back on the road.

Now that the annoying aura of “radiance” was gone, Lin Hong spoke up and asked Lovella about their destination.

Were they headed directly to the fortress where the Duke and Duchess of Wien were staying?

Because if they were, he needed to make some preparations; after all, he was about to face the biological parents of the original boy, Evan.

Lovella remained silent for a moment, appearing to suppress some emotion, then shook her head, indicating they were not going directly to the fortress.

They were first heading to Stone Town.

“Stone Town?”

Lin Hong frowned, searching through the memories of the boy, Evan.

There was no impression of it; it must have been one of the countless border towns.

Lovella’s voice was very low, tinged with sorrow, as she offered an explanation.

In the carriage behind them, the old butler of the Duke’s Mansion, Robert, was being transported.

During the attack that night, the old butler Robert and the personal maid, Isha, had been the two deepest victims of the evil cultists’ corruption.

Their bodies had been controlled by the cultists to fight against Lin Hong and Lovella.

Isha was just an ordinary girl with no foundation in cultivation; the corruption she suffered had mainly acted upon her spirit and drained her vitality.

Now, after intensive treatment by the Imperial palace’s priesthood, although she was extremely weak, her condition had stabilized and was beginning to improve, and she was being properly cared for.

However, the old butler, Robert, was different.

He possessed decent cultivation in Battle Aura, but that had only exacerbated his suffering.

The energy the old man had spent his life cultivating had been used by the evil energy as perfect nourishment, causing the corruption to run incredibly deep.

Examination revealed that the old man’s body had essentially been hollowed out; there was almost no flesh left, leaving only a shell covered in terrifying bite marks.

At the same time, his soul had been severely damaged.

It could be said that he was holding on by a single breath.

The Chief Priest of the Imperial Palace had admitted that standard methods could not save him; human resources were exhausted.

Now, he could only rely on precious medicine to keep his final breath from failing.

The old man had regained consciousness briefly a short while ago and had only one wish: he hoped to return to his hometown and rest there for eternity.

Therefore, their first stop on this journey was Stone Town; they were going to send this man, who had dedicated his life to the Wien family, back home.

Lin Hong fell into silence.