https://novelcool.info/chapter/Chapter-709-Lanchi-s-Perfect-Integration/12585138/
https://novelcool.info/chapter/Chapter-710-Lanchi-Will-No-Longer-Serve-the-Empire/12585141/
Chapter 709: Lanchi's Perfect Integration
Chapter 709: Lanchi's Perfect Integration
In the Krexe Empire, on the mountainous tracks of the Botswana Province, less than an hour's journey from the capital, Brierda.
The Brierda Magic-Powered Train had been stationary for a while now, with smoke rising from the front carriages, especially the severely damaged fourth carriage.
The brief burst of combat had ended, and silence had returned.
A large hole had been blasted in the roof, allowing the sunlight to stream in unabashedly, but it couldn't penetrate the black mist, only managing to dimly illuminate the aged figure standing amidst the wreckage.
The old man stood like a twilight emperor upon a dark reef, his body shimmering with a radiant light, and his eyes, flickering within the mist, shone with a faint, ethereal luminescence.
"Can we have a proper chat now, Miss Unity?"
His voice was complex, and as he looked down at the female assassin on the ground, his tone held a hint of entreaty.
Within this soundproof barrier, their conversation would remain private.
"..."
Unity lay on the cold, hard wooden floor, her teeth clenched tightly.
Even though her body was hers, she felt no sense of control over it.
The Imperial officer before her looked down at her with an air of superiority. With her night vision ability, she could clearly see the mocking, sickly gentle expression on his cruel face as he toyed with his prey.
She had never encountered such a terrifying mental manipulation technique. Once caught in his grasp, he could deduce personal information about her through her dreams.
Even though the content of dreams was vague and uncontrollable, they were hidden deep within one's memory and psyche, and they would always indirectly reveal some clues.
By repeatedly probing her dreams, he could eventually uncover the critical intelligence she was desperate to keep hidden!
She stubbornly raised her head, glaring at him fiercely, her phoenix eyes blazing with rage behind her mask.
"You're worse than a beast! An invader like you dares to put on such a merciful facade!"
Unity spat out her rebuke through gritted teeth, her hoarse voice echoing in the silent carriage.
Having invaded her dreams, this Imperial man earned nothing but her utmost hostility and hatred.
"What does that have to do with anything?"
Lanchi held his head, feeling a throbbing pain in his brain.
"That's also the truth," Talia prompted in Lanchi's mind.
"I don't need your help fact-checking right now!"
Lanchi felt like Talia was taking the opportunity to scold him!
But he didn't have the mind to arrest Talia, who had been increasingly unruly lately.
The most troublesome part of spy warfare was that you could never be sure who was on which side. Whenever you entered a new area, it was highly possible that your own people would end up fighting each other.
Nevertheless, he couldn't keep holding this woman down like this.
At Lanchi's command, Talia released the mental bondage on Unity, the Allied spy.
Unity instantly felt like her control over her body had returned.
She clenched her palm, testing it, then instinctively moved away.
It wasn't that she didn't want to escape from this carriage of the Brierda train.
But a psychokinetic magic barrier had been erected, blocking the fourth carriage, preventing both other passengers from opening the compartment door and her from leaving.
Although this psychokinetic force didn't feel particularly strong to her, probably around the fifth-rank level, she knew that against this old man, who was at least seventh-rank, escape was impossible. The opponent had confidently released her bindings merely to make her keenly aware of the gap in their strength.
"Shall we talk, Miss Unity? It will likely take more than ten minutes for the Imperial Army from Brierda to arrive."
Lanchi raised his hands in a gesture of peace, indicating to Unity that she could relax.
"..."
Unity remained silent, her eyes like an unquenchable flame in the darkness. Despite her disheveled state and the mental and physical torment she had endured, she still exuded an air of inviolable dignity.
It was common sense not to engage in communication with illusionists and mental manipulators.
Such people were masters of manipulating the mind.
At any moment, they could be deceiving you.
"Lanchi, don't you think that the more friendly you are to her right now, the more you're acting in line with your usual instinctive habits, and in the eyes of the enemy, your nonchalant, carefree, and often self-deprecating attitude is what makes you look like the most oppressive villain?"
Talia, watching the show, spoke in Lanchi's mind.
"..."
Lanchi was left speechless.
So, no matter what he did, he was the villain?
"Let's go."
After much hesitation, Lanchi finally shook his head.
Their encounter had been too disastrous; words alone could hardly build trust at this point. Only through actions could he gradually change her perception of him.
Prolonging the entanglement with this female assassin was unwise. He definitely couldn't harm her; he could only set her free, and perhaps they would meet again in the future.
Most likely, this Allied spy's usual disguise was also in the capital, Brierda, and they would likely cross paths again.
If she saw him as an Imperial officer, there would be no need for her to report him to the Empire, otherwise, it would be suicidal.
For now, she should get as far away as possible, and he would also need to come up with a new identity in the capital of Brierda. This old man's identity was not very convenient.
"?"
Unity's eyes flickered with confusion, then immediately returned to a vigilant state.
"What do you mean?"
She asked, her eyes sharp and piercing.
After probing her memories, he was letting her go, as if he were humiliating her.
Even though he could have simply waited for the military committee's search team from the capital to arrive and take her back to be interrogated in the military headquarters, never to see the light of day again.
"Anyway, you can go, I won't kill you."
Lanchi sighed softly.
"..."
Unity studied the old man before her, who appeared to be an Imperial officer, her gaze filled with suspicion as she tried to decipher his baffling change of heart.
"Are you with the Silver Moon Reformist Party? Or are you an extreme anti-noble?"
Unity stared at him, testing her theory.
Although her instincts told her that he was a loyal member of the Empire, she was well aware of the internal strife within the Krexe Empire, with various hidden factions and agendas.
Even within the Central Executive Committee and the Military Committee, there could be Empire factions plotting something.
"You should be able to judge for yourself whether we are more like friends or enemies."
Lanchi replied concisely.
Even though they were allies, he couldn't reveal too much, especially since Nigel's given identity belonged to the most secretive intelligence department within the kingdom of Bosman, rather than the Allied Parliament of the Kingdom Union. Nigel was his only contact, and the western hub region of the Canberra Kingdom was not part of the same system, so Unity wouldn't be able to match any codes with him.
Unity hesitated.
Logically speaking, if this man had the ability to probe her spirit without the need for interrogation, but chose to let her go, it indicated that he wasn't trying to play a long game.
If he truly wanted to extract her intelligence, he wouldn't be letting her go at this point.
Perhaps she was just incredibly lucky today.
Or maybe the spirits of her fallen comrades were watching over her, not ready to let her die just yet, allowing her to survive by a thread.
Unity decided not to linger any longer and made her way towards Landri's body, intending to take his belongings and magic cards.
However, Lanchi reached out and stopped her once more, causing her to pause.
"Why did you kill him?"
Lanchi asked.
If Unity had just left, he wouldn't have done anything, but the fact that she had designs on Landri's belongings suggested that killing Landri might not have been a coincidence but a premeditated act.
In Lanchi's opinion, Landri was a decent member of the Empire.
He needed to understand the reason behind this.
"..."
Unity's eyes held a look of disgust.
Although she was initially reluctant to explain, considering that this Imperial mentalist could dig deeper if he wanted to, and that prolonging this encounter would only worsen her situation, she decided to speak.
"Do you know why he was favored by the St. Krexe Monastery? This man has unimaginable talent in magical engineering, and his family has a history of researching demon magic texts for centuries. He could combine Imperial magic engineering with the lost magic engineering of the Demon Realm and might bring about a revolution."
Unity looked at Landri's corpse and coldly smiled.
Her mission had been to assassinate this border noble named Landri Washington and steal his research materials.
Things would have gone smoothly if it weren't for this exceptionally powerful Imperial interfering.
As a spy for the kingdom, she should have fought him to the death for daring to pry into her secrets. Now, her decision to leave was already an act of enduring humiliation.
But even after her explanation, he still didn't allow her to take Landri's belongings, indicating that her previous answer had given him something to consider.
"Don't you think that since I let you go today, you should do me a favor in return?"
Lanchi asked after a moment of thought, as if he had found a solution.
"..."
Unity's attitude was filled with reluctance.
"You must realize that the fact that you were discovered on the train by the Empire suggests that there's a traitor among your companions, which means your original organization might be in danger and no longer reliable. At this point, if you want to turn the situation around on your own, you'll need a new friend, preferably a third party with no previous ties to you."
Lanchi believed he didn't need to elaborate further.
The mental pressure Unity was under must be greater than he imagined.
"What do you want me to do?"
Unity remained on guard against Lanchi, her clenched jaw trembling slightly, her lower jaw stiff.
Despite the possibility of cooperation with the enemy's enemy, it did not prevent her from hating the other party.
Or rather, she hated the Imperials.
The smoke of war shrouded the entire southern land. Now, her hometown had been occupied and shattered, and countless comrades-in-arms had also perished at the hands of the Imperials.
The blood feud ran deep.
In her eyes, she could not accept any faction of the Empire, and every moment she spent infiltrating the Krexe Empire was torturous.
But for victory, no matter how much she hated, she would find a way to do what was beneficial to the Kingdom.
"Do me a favor and take his body away for burial. His identity temporarily belongs to me. A living Landri who can cooperate with you is definitely more valuable than a dead one, right?"
Lanchi proposed to her.
He remembered Landri mentioning that as a border noble, he had never been to the capital, Brierda, and had no acquaintances to rely on. So, as long as he disguised himself as Landri, it should be difficult to be exposed.
Moreover, it was easy for Lanchi to impersonate Landri. He only needed to apply simple makeup, and then, in the capital, Brierda, he could create a [Transformation Technique: Human] magic card to transform into Landri more easily.
"You're quite bold. Do you know who the principal of the St. Krexe Monastery is?"
Unity instantly understood his plan and looked at him incredulously.
This guy, who was clearly an insider of the Empire, actually wanted Landri's identity to infiltrate another department of the Empire!
"...Yes."
Lanchi nodded slightly and began to squat down to pick up the items on Landri's body.
The principal who had been stationed at the St. Krexe Monastery for many years, Violet Water Jade, also known as the Sixth War God. If she were to be exposed by her, it would basically be the end.
In the heart of the Krexe Empire, exposing one's identity was tantamount to a death sentence. This formula was almost unchangeable unless one could accumulate enough strength to confront the city's defenses directly, similar to the Flower Capital Incident instigated by Perlman. This would require not only opportunity and location but also people, and theoretically speaking, the difficulty of causing an incident in the capital, Brierda, of the Krexe Empire, was not on the same level as Flower Capital Pariel, as the scale and concept of these two cities were completely different.
"Moreover, Landri is a genius in magic engineering and proficient in Demon Magic. What kind of ability do you have to replace him without being discovered?"
Unity asked with contempt.
She felt that this man was a bit too arrogant.
If he turned out to be a fool, not only would he die, but Landri's belongings would also not fall into the hands of the Allied forces.
"You're right to trust me."
Lanchi replied simply, exuding the confidence of a professional.
"..."
Unity felt that this man had probably done this kind of thing before.
This confidence was not solely derived from talent but was also steeped in extensive experience.
He seemed like a repeat offender!
Not to mention how daring he was, she couldn't even feel his heartbeat at the moment, as if he didn't find this high-risk behavior the least bit frightening.
There was a sense of calm madness, powerful and sinister, shrouded in mystery, and utterly untrustworthy.
The crucial problem was that she couldn't beat him in a fight, and agreeing to his proposal might not lead to a win-win situation.
However, if she continued to drag this out, it would definitely result in a loss for both sides, with only the Krexe Empire benefiting.
"You mark my words, you despicable dream-peeping wretch. I hope you can survive a few more days in St. Krexe Monastery."
After a brief hesitation, Unity made her judgment, shouldered Landri's body, and disappeared.
She didn't believe for a second that this man could successfully impersonate Landri in St. Krexe Monastery.
But if he wanted to commit suicide, she had no reason to stop him.
Imperial officers were her mortal enemies, and betrayal was only a matter of time. She didn't expect this Imperial officer to help her to the end.
As the black mist dissipated, the broken furniture, shattered glass, charred metal, and other remnants of the battle were strewn about the carriage in chaotic disarray, resembling the aftermath of doomsday. Smoldering flames still flickered amidst the ruins, sending tendrils of black smoke and a pungent, throat-tightening stench of blood into the air.
Lanchi breathed a sigh of relief as he returned to Compartment 404 and began his swift transformation.
After a long while, perhaps more than ten minutes, the door to the compartment was opened once more by an incoming Imperial officer. However, this time, there was only a young man with black hair and blue eyes, his hands raised in a gesture of peace, indicating to the officer that he was harmless and not one of the extremists who had attacked the train.
(End of Chapter)
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