Chapter 13: Punishing Evil…

They were fully armed warriors – this description was not actually accurate. To be precise, these should be considered ten sets of moving armor. With Julian’s power, the Wraith Warriors bound their souls to these armors. They used their soul power to drive these armors to move. As long as their helmets were not removed, no one would notice that these armors were actually empty inside.

But this was just a temporary measure.

Ophariel knew little about soul knowledge, but Julian was different. He knew clearly that although these Wraith Warriors could move now, they didn’t possess the powerful magic reserves like Ophariel. To give an example, maintaining a Wraith Warrior and fixing it to a tangible object required consuming 5 to 10 mana of magic power every day. These Wraith Warriors were born in the Age of the Luminous Moon, and their own magic reserves were only about 500 mana. In that era of advanced magic, people with this level of magic reserves could be seen everywhere.

Now, due to the changes of the times and the decline of magic, although people with such magic reserves were not yet considered rare species, they were on average at the level of intermediate mages. Given the current situation, as long as these Wraith Warriors didn’t engage in intense battles, they could maintain for a couple of months without problems. Even if they fought, depending on the intensity, they could at least maintain for about ten days. However, after that, these Wraith Warriors would lose enough power to maintain their physical activities. In the best case scenario, they would barely be able to return to their original form and continue their lazy existence as before. In the worst case scenario, they would dissipate completely and disappear from this world.

Julian certainly didn’t intend to do this. As Ophariel said, these Wraith Warriors were currently his most needed and loyal support. They already had a contractual connection with each other, and in his previous life, these Wraith Warriors had also followed Julian in battle, very familiar with his command and mode of action. Moreover, all these Wraith Warriors were born in the Age of the Luminous Moon and had mastered a large number of lost combat techniques. If they were merely used as servants to clean the castle, it would be too wasteful.

It was for this reason that he materialized these Wraith Warriors and brought them out of Twilight Castle. He needed to enhance the power of these Wraith Warriors and help them maintain and further solidify their bodies. Once they had sufficient magic reserves and created their bodies, these Wraith Warriors could exert their original strength.

Thinking of this, Julian couldn’t help but glance again at Ophariel standing beside him. The bright sunlight shone on her delicate and beautiful face, her light purple long hair swaying slightly in the breeze, and one could even smell the faint, flower-like fragrance from the girl. Compared to those poor Wraith Warriors who could barely move relying on armor, this princess seemed completely unaware of how lucky she was. Generally speaking, being able to barely solidify form and maintain a human shape was already considered the limit of soul body solidification, after all, their own power was limited, especially for those lacking magical power. At most, they could only use magic to solidify and shape a rough form, barely having a pair of eyes and a mouth that could be recognized was their limit. Looking at Ophariel, not only had magic perfectly shaped her body without missing even a single hair, but even the girl’s clothes were completely recreated… If those Wraith Warriors attached to armor needed to consume 5 to 10 mana of magic power to maintain their existence, then this princess consumed at least about 300 mana of magic power every day. It can be said that if those Wraith Warriors were to maintain her current form, they probably wouldn’t even see a shadow by noon the next day.

Julian was not a mage, but even so, he sensed Ophariel’s abnormality, and he had previously lied to this princess – her magic power was not just comparable to a grand mage, but far surpassed a grand mage. If Julian were to calculate Ophariel’s magic reserves, it would be at least in the seven digits.

Julian couldn’t imagine how such terrifying magic reserves could exist in a young girl. He could be sure that if Ophariel had awakened this power when she was alive, then with this exaggeratedly vast magic reserve, plus the special attributes of shadow, this princess would definitely have become the most powerful mage in this world, bar none.
But for Julian, this was not bad now. Next, as long as she learned how to use her power…

Ophariel couldn’t help but shiver.

She raised her head, squinting her eyes in confusion at the clear sky. The sunlight shining on her body was warm and comfortable, but why did she just have a feeling as if walking barefoot on an ice-cold floor?

“Are they all here?”

Julian glanced at the Wraith Warriors standing in front of him, not expecting an answer from them – all their power was used to maintain and drive this steel shell, they had no spare energy to use voice, such a wasteful and inefficient communication method, to answer Julian’s question. So Julian didn’t speak anymore, he carefully observed the surrounding terrain, then waved his hand.

“Let’s go.”

The place Julian was heading to was the outer part of Twilight Forest, but he didn’t choose to take the road directly connecting the small town to the outside world. Instead, Julian led Ophariel, making a big detour, along the border of the Twilight Mountain Range from behind, towards the edge of Twilight Forest.

His purpose was simple, just as he had told Ophariel before, to eradicate evil and eliminate bad people.

Every word was true, without any falsehood.

As the former owner of Twilight Castle, Julian was more than familiar with the terrain here. He knew very well that although this fief of Twilight Forest had no economic or transportation value, within this nearly invincible barrier, there was an extremely prosperous and rich trade route – the Golden Trade Route. It was located on the edge of Twilight Forest, an important transportation hub spanning several countries and major cities including the Kingdom of Wester, the Kingdom of Hiro, and the New Moon Federation. In fact, one of the original purposes of building Twilight Castle was to protect the flank of the Golden Trade Route, to prevent it from being destroyed or cut off. The Golden Trade Route was almost one of the largest trade lifelines for these cities, and each country was sparing no effort to protect the part of the Golden Trade Route within their borders.

And because of this, it also gathered the most brutal bandit groups on the continent. They were composed of wandering soldiers, escaped criminals, fallen mercenaries, and desperate poor farmers, distributed and hidden in this forest. In fact, although various countries had tried to severely crack down on these criminals, the effect was minimal. After all, this Golden Trade Route was too long, and with the manpower of various countries, it was impossible to have a guard every three steps and a sentry every five steps. Because of this, this Golden Trade Route was full of murder, robbery and plunder. Those merchants either hired powerful mercenary groups to protect themselves or spent a large sum of money to buy off those guards and the villains behind them for safety. And those merchants with weak forces and no background would choose to form groups to travel to mitigate risks.

Even in Julian’s previous era, he knew that there were many mountain bandits hidden in the outskirts of Twilight Forest, but Julian had no interest in those guys. And the mountain bandits had no interest in causing trouble for Julian, their target was the wealth on the Golden Trade Route, they wouldn’t be stupid enough to use their little military power to clash head-on with the most powerful knight on the continent at that time. Julian’s mission at that time was to guard against the barbarian armies on the outer border, so naturally he couldn’t divert any military power to do things like bandit suppression. And in the days that followed, the threat was eliminated, the situation changed, Twilight Castle lost its former use, but these mountain bandits never disappeared – the only fortunate thing was that they had no interest in Twilight Town, after all, a small town with a monthly income of only one hundred gold coins was really not worth mentioning in the eyes of those mountain bandits.

Sometimes being too poor is not bad.

But now, Julian had changed his mind.

“My lord, why do we have to be so sneaky to eliminate those mountain bandits?” Walking beside Julian, Ophariel couldn’t hide her confusion. Although she wasn’t unfamiliar with Julian’s plan, in Ophariel’s view, they were after all the “official army”, but looking at Julian now, sneaking through the forest, moving through the shadows, not only requiring to make no sound, but also requiring to hide their forms, this was really too different from the “bandit suppression” situation Ophariel had imagined. How did she feel that their group seemed more like bandits than the mountain bandits?

“From a military perspective, we don’t have enough troops,” Julian walked at the front, parting the leaves in front of him with his hand while answering Ophariel’s question without turning his head.

“If I had more than a hundred soldiers, I could raise my own flag, walk out directly, then surround these mountain bandits, and slowly digest them, while killing the chicken to scare the monkey, intimidating other mountain bandits. But now I only have these ten warriors in my hand.”
Saying this, Julian shrugged.

“So we must be careful, in order to catch all these guys in one net, and the best way is to find the lair of these guys without attracting their attention, then eliminate them cleanly. And if we are discovered by these guys, even if we have the ability to eliminate most of the mountain bandits, it will alert them, leading to a loss that outweighs the gain… These guys are very familiar with the mountains and forests, once we let them run away, with the few people I have now, it’s impossible to completely deal with them.”

“But…” Ophariel frowned, she felt confused, but didn’t know what to say. After all, this princess had never been exposed to war and combat. In her imagination, as long as there was a well-trained elite unit, then waving flags and walking into the forest would be enough to drive away those mountain bandits. And like many noble ladies, Ophariel herself didn’t seek to understand the process of such combat. Noticing this, Julian sighed, then changed to another way of speaking.

“Well, let’s put it another way… It’s already written in the official documents that I can only be responsible for managing Twilight Town and Twilight Castle. Although the area where these mountain bandits are located is also in Twilight Forest, it’s not within the range I have the right to manage and dispose of…”

“So once we are discovered by others, there will be suspicion of unauthorized action beyond our authority. At that time, you, my lord, will be in big trouble.”

Although completely ignorant about military affairs, when it came to political issues, Ophariel was still very sensitive.
“But, my lord, the forest is so big, and we don’t know where those mountain bandits are hiding, how are we going to find them?”

“Good question,” hearing this question, Julian stopped in his tracks. He turned to look at Ophariel, reaching out to press on her shoulder.

“So, I need your assistance, Miss Ophariel.”