Chapter 166: Lines Drawn

Words : 1186 Updated : Oct 10th, 2025

Chapter 166: Lines Drawn "The Sand Hammer got blocked that easily?" The three garrison soldiers looked stunned, then scowled and barked: "What kind of... monster are you? How dare you interfere with the garrison arresting criminals!" If this were outside the city, facing this mess, the three garrison soldiers wouldn’t think twice about hightailing it out of there. But this was inside the city—backup would be here in no time. They felt pretty cocky about their chances. Stomp! Stomp! Heavy, rhythmic sounds, like massive weights hitting the ground. The three garrison soldiers watched wide-eyed as a whole team of skeleton monsters slowly marched over. Crushing presence rolled off them naturally, deadly killing intent filling the air. The three garrison soldiers felt like anvils were sitting on their chests. Monsters! A whole pack of monsters! "You... you..." "We... we are the garrison!!!" They tried to make their garrison badges more obvious, worried these skeleton monsters under some unknown master might jump them. After all, their backup hadn’t shown up yet!!! ... Just as Demi collapsed on the ground, gasping for air, a shadow fell over her. From the mysterious bronze palanquin came a calm voice: "Miss Demi?" Just hearing it, Demi’s nerves settled. "My lord! My lord! You’ve finally come!!!" Demi scrambled to her feet, looking thrilled—she’d found her savior!!! Even with wobbly legs, she still remembered to bow respectfully to the bronze palanquin. "What’s the story here?" Carlos had a soft spot for this alchemical master’s apprentice. Hearing Carlos’s question, Demi’s face immediately crumpled with misery. "My lord, we’ve been set up!!!" "Set up?" Hearing this at first, Carlos kept his poker face. Without knowing the real facts, he naturally wouldn’t just take Demi’s word for it. Demi pointed at the three garrison soldiers, saying hotly: "Someone pinned a fake story on us about working with the Black Poison Faction and murdering important Golden Sand Society bigwigs during our last trip to the Desolate Desert!!!" "Golden Sand Society bigwigs?" Now it involved the Golden Sand Society. Carlos couldn’t help but perk up. "Yeah, someone called Philomei, apparently some really big shot in the Golden Sand Society..." Seeing she’d gotten the lord’s attention, Demi immediately spilled everything. ’Philomei, why does that ring a bell?’ Carlos thought back to the Golden Sand Society members he’d run into in the Desolate Desert—he only remembered that ’brown-robed character.’ She’d spilled her identity, and her name seemed to be just that? Carlos started buying that Demi had been framed, because Philomei had clearly met her end at Purple Vortex’s hands. As she talked, Demi’s eyes slowly started getting watery: "Captain... the captain played ball and went back with them, but now nobody knows what happened to him!" "My lord, you know that last time in the Desolate Desert, if you hadn’t bailed us out, we would’ve been goners at the traitors’ hands. How could we possibly be in cahoots with them!!!" After talking, Demi looked anxiously at the bronze palanquin, waiting for the lord’s call. If the lord believed her and was willing to back her up, everything would flip around. But if... "I hear you, what you’ve told me is crystal clear." Carlos naturally couldn’t just sit back and watch such blatant framing. At the same time, he wondered which bunch had stuck such a rotten rap on Demi and the others. What’s more, it had gotten to the arrest stage, meaning the garrison had pretty much bought it. ’How interesting.’ Carlos felt sneaky currents flowing beneath Rock Sand City. Hearing this, Demi was floored. What did this mean? The lord got it crystal clear, but would he help or not! She didn’t dare ask straight out and felt wound up for a moment. Suddenly, stomp! stomp! The Shield Guards moved, escorting the bronze palanquin as they started rolling. Watching the moving group, Demi felt torn up inside. Where was the lord headed? What about her frame job? Just as the bronze palanquin cruised past her, the lord’s voice drifted out: "Tag along." "Thank... thank you, my lord!!!" How could Demi not get it? The lord had decided to help her! All fired up, she was about to follow right beside the bronze palanquin. Next to the bronze palanquin, sensing someone getting close, Purple Vortex suddenly whipped its head around: "Roar!" The freakishly put-together face showed a warning look. "Monster!!!" Suddenly catching Purple Vortex’s front face, Demi’s heart nearly shot out of her chest. ’Stay cool... stay cool, this is the lord’s right-hand man!?’ Demi clamped her mouth shut tight, scared of yelping and ticking off this seriously scary creature. Then Purple Vortex stuck out an arm: "Roar!" Blocking Demi’s path, showing she couldn’t get too close to the palanquin! "Got it! Got it!" Scared out of her wits, Demi immediately caught on. She nodded like crazy, showing she absolutely wouldn’t cross the line! Seeing Demi was sharp and immediately got its drift, Purple Vortex gave her an approving grin: "Hiss!!!" Demi sucked in air, clamped her mouth shut and carefully followed behind the bronze palanquin with her head down. After warning Demi, Purple Vortex turned back around, feeling pretty pleased with itself. From the corner of its eye, it glanced toward Red Spirit, which had been circling above the bronze palanquin. Right now, Red Spirit was totally wrapped up in circling and didn’t react to what just went down. Purple Vortex’s eyes showed smugness. Master’s safety still comes down to me in the end! That red guy isn’t a threat anymore! It would start from these little things, step by step, racking up points in master’s book. Sooner or later, when the red guy woke up, it would find out it couldn’t keep up anymore! "Roar heh heh!" "Wah?" Red Spirit looked at Purple Vortex, totally confused. Something’s fishy! It quietly crept closer and read everything from Purple Vortex’s soul vibes. "Wah!" Too sneaky!!! Its red pupils rolled as it started cooking up ways to mess with the purple guy’s ’scheme’! ... After the Shield Guards showed up, the three garrison soldiers kept their traps shut until they watched this terrifying monster crew take off. One of them spoke grudgingly: "Um, are we just letting them waltz away like this?" Another looked at his buddy like he was nuts: "What else? You want to arrest them?" Had chasing criminals fried his brain? Such an obvious thing, and he still had to ask? If there was any shot at arresting them, they wouldn’t just be standing around gawking. "Just that one skeleton monster that easily shrugged off our combo attack is way out of our league. This completely blows past what we can handle. We can only head back and fill in the squadron leader." The last guy looked grim, not just because of these tough monsters they couldn’t tangle with, but more importantly, the bronze palanquin they were guarding definitely had some big shot inside. For reasons nobody knew, that big shot had decided to stick up for Demi. This made their simple arrest job suddenly get real complicated. "Tail them and see where they’re headed."

Chapter 166: Lines Drawn

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