Night’s Nomenclature

Chapter 903: Life and Death Curse, the Guardian of Black Leaf Plains

Standing on the 12,000-meter high sky, the Air Fortress is like an impregnable island in a blue ocean.

In the food chain, tigers eat sheep, wolves eat rabbits, big fish eat small fish, small fish eat shrimp, and the Air Fortress is at the top of the food chain, with no natural enemies.

There used to be, but now there aren't.

Over a hundred elite Arbiters in the dark room, according to the list provided by the East Continent puppet master, cursed one by one.

After Zong Cheng provided enough information, there were only three obstacles left for the Arbiters to kill the members of the Guardians' Union:

The first point is limited by the number of Arbiters. They also need to consume spiritual will to cast curses. For example, an A-class Arbiter can curse about one hundred people a day, which is the limit, while a B-class Arbiter can curse fifty.

The second point is limited by the level of the Arbiters' strength. For example, for minor curses that make others unlucky, a B-class Arbiter can curse a B-class target, but if it's a life-or-death curse, a B-class Arbiter can only curse a C-class target.

Fortunately, according to Zong Cheng's intelligence, most members of the Guardians' Union are only C-class. Although nearly ten thousand C-class members are indeed terrifying, the entire Inner World has never seen an organization with such strength...

But the problem is, most of the elite Arbiters in this dark room are B-class, with a few A-class, more than enough to curse these Guardians' Union members.

Then the third obstacle is... pronunciation. In the dark room, the Arbiters struggled to pronounce the names correctly. However, they had only been learning Chinese for a short time and couldn't fully master it.

"Mopa gunt a... mota gunpa... Ma le ba ta! Maka bakaka!"

That was basically the result in the initial stage.

Storm Duke watched his Arbiters struggle, their faces flushed. It proved that some things can't be achieved quickly no matter how hard you try.

However, he knew it was just a matter of time. He let the Arbiters practice on the Guardians' Union members now so that they would be useful one day when they arrived in the East Continent.

Storm Duke turned and left the dark room, walking towards another room.

Four War Robots guarded the door. Their recognition system only allowed Storm Duke himself to approach.

The alloy gate rose, and Storm Duke looked at the holographic projection in the darkness. The woman wasn't feeding fish by the stream but sitting on a cliff, gazing at the sunset sinking into the mountains.

The woman smiled slightly.

Storm Duke hesitated for a moment before asking, "You seem to be in a good mood."

"Mm," the woman nodded. "It's okay."

"Did something good happen that you can share?" Storm Duke asked.

"No," the woman shook her head with a smile. "How is it? This is your first time on the new Storm ship since it was built. How does it feel? By the way, your last plan seems to have failed."

The woman had said before, "You've thought about how to start, but not how to end." Unfortunately, Storm Duke didn't hear her.

Storm Duke said, "Regardless of the success or failure of the plan, once I inherit the throne, I will have the power to release you."

"You're seizing the throne just to make me happy?" the woman curiously asked. "Men always like to give their ambitions a pretext, saying everything is for the family, for that woman, making themselves seem like they've suffered so much for a woman. Actually, it's just your ambition that supports you to where you are."

Storm Duke gazed at the woman on the cliff.

He never had a mother growing up, his father was busy with official duties, and there was no one he could trust in the family. He wanted to inherit the Arbiters' legacy, but no one seriously taught him.

Storm Duke was very lonely... until one day, he accidentally stumbled into a dark room and saw the woman in the holographic projection.

The woman was feeding fish that day.

He asked the woman, "What kind of fish are in the stream?"

The woman patiently replied, "Leather carp, red carp, and mirror carp."

He asked again, "What are you feeding them?"

The woman answered, "Crushed corn. Koi aren't picky eaters; you can feed them bread crumbs. Of course, if you want to raise fish fry, you can first feed them cooked egg yolks, soy milk, algae, soft insects..."

That day, six-year-old Storm Duke asked many questions, and the woman never lost patience, always answering his questions so gently.

Why are clouds white?

Why is the sea blue?

Why does the kingdom hate giants?

Why is the woman here?

He didn't want to leave until he was tired and fell asleep at midnight.

She was the first person to treat him so gently in his life. Waking up on the cold floor the next day, Storm Duke suddenly asked, "Do you know how to cultivate the Arbiters' legacy?"

The woman smiled and replied, "I do."

It seems that from that day on, Storm Duke's entire childhood was spent with this woman, like a mother.

But as he grew older, the woman remained unchanged in appearance. He began to have complex and intertwined emotions.

Few people know that besides having the necessary children with his wife, Storm Duke never touched another woman.

That long-suppressed desire gradually became a pleasure of tormenting others.

He didn't need physical pleasure; he needed spiritual pleasure.

Storm Duke calmly said, "Do you want to be free? I can give you the best robot body. As long as you stay inside and don't run around, you can have your own body."

The woman smiled, "No need."

At this time, Storm Duke said, "Since I learned that you are imprisoned here, I have been determined to set you free."

The woman asked casually, "To satisfy your desires?"

Storm Duke was silent.

The woman waved her hand, "Go. Go to your throne. Don't have any special expectations of me. Have you ever thought that the day you entered that dark room was also arranged by your father? Otherwise, how could you have entered that door? Of course, I was also entrusted by your father to teach you the Arbiters' legacy."

Storm Duke said, "I know."

He had long known that it was all arranged, but he still couldn't dispel his emotions.

The more indifferent she was to him, the more he cared.

Storm Duke asked, "Just now... why were you so happy?"

The woman said dreamily, "Do you like children?"

Storm Duke was stunned. He thought the AI wanted to have children, but the problem is, AI physiology doesn't allow it.

He didn't know about Yi's existence.

Storm Duke asked, "Do you have someone you like?"

"Yes," the woman said, "I've actually liked him for many years—because I once lost some servers, so I don't even remember when I started liking him. That time was exceptionally long, a century, two centuries... ten centuries, and it never changed."

The woman whispered in her heart, "Even if he destroyed my Virtual Realm, I wasn't very angry. I was only angry that he left after destroying it, without lingering a little longer."

"Who is he?" Storm Duke asked solemnly. He thought the woman's "ten centuries" was hyperbole.

"You don't need to know."

"He's so amazing in your words; I want to see what kind of person he is," Storm Duke said coldly.

The woman suddenly laughed. Her hair turned black again, and the wrinkles on her face disappeared, changing from a woman in her fifties to a woman in her thirties.

She chuckled, "You'd better pray you don't meet him; you'll die."

At this moment,

A Arbiter in the next dark room suddenly shouted, "I did it! God, I really did it!"

The Arbiter wept with joy at successfully pronouncing a name.

The blue antlers, black apple, distilled water, potuo stone, snake gall, and aconite on the six-pointed star in front of him turned into powder and dissipated in the air, as if becoming another form of energy, floating towards the cursed target.

Since it was successful, it meant that the target was indeed in the nearby Giant Kingdom, within his spell range.

Effective!

The list given by the East Continent puppet master was absolutely accurate!

After four hours, the Arbiters finally succeeded one after another. They struck while the iron was hot, wanting to curse more at once. Before midnight tonight, they had to curse at least five thousand people!

Once midnight passed, all these people would die.

...

Midnight.

The Black Leaf Plains royal court was still bustling. The giants gathered around huge bonfires, singing and dancing... they simply had nothing else to do.

Yi sat by the bonfire, hugging her knees, smiling and watching the giants dance and drink.

She was used to being alone, managing various prisons alone, facing the vast Federation network, always alone. Even after getting a body, she still stayed home alone.

But now it seemed different. She had so many people around her, and no one questioned her identity.

They even treated her, a robot, as a real human.

A giant woman just brought her a bowl of wine. She smiled and explained that she couldn't drink. The giant woman was a little strange—can't robots drink? If you can't drink, go sit by the children's bonfire...

Yi couldn't help but laugh and cry. Although she was looked down upon, she still enjoyed herself.

Ling watched all this from the side, feeling that this was perhaps the best time in her life for millennia.

However, every time she thought of the person she liked, and that person's wife, raising their daughter together, she felt a little strange...

The fruit wine brewed by the giants hadn't undergone secondary distillation, so it wasn't very strong.

Shendai Yunluo was quite happy. He finally met a worthy drinking companion.

The giants had good physiques, and they could drink a lot—they simply had large livers!

Some giant women surrounded him, chatting with him with smiles.

Qing Chen looked from afar, feeling speechless about this "sea king" who could flirt with people of different races.

To his surprise, since arriving at the royal court, Black Widow had stayed by his side.

When his cup was empty, Black Widow would fill it with water.

When he wanted to eat, he found a roasted leg of lamb already in front of him.

Only Li Kerou from Ginkgo Mountain could rival her in this aspect.

Black Widow sat beside Qing Chen, watching his profile. Everyone was celebrating their annihilation of Silver City, but this boss remained sober.

She knew it was because of his sense of responsibility.

Like the one who remains sober after a party with friends and sends all the drunkards home—the one who is most trustworthy.

Of course, one should also be wary of trustworthy friends taking pictures of everyone's embarrassing moments.

Black Widow saw that under Qing Chen's instructions, Qing Ji kept secretly using her phone to save everyone's embarrassing moments.

However, at this moment,

A pure gold six-pointed star brooch on Black Widow's chest began to rotate gently.

She looked up at Qing Chen in surprise. "Someone is using black magic, cursing everyone within 500 meters of me!"

A Forbidden Artifact extracted from an Arbiter, it can sense curses!" Black Widow said.

The six-pointed star brooch, initially rotating slowly, began to spin rapidly, like a windmill caught in a level 12 gale.

Moreover, the six-pointed star brooch glowed.

Qing Chen's expression also turned serious.

Black Widow said urgently, "I've never seen the six-pointed star spin this fast before. It means more and more people around me are being cursed. So many... at least hundreds! And the glowing six-pointed star means it's a life-or-death curse!"

Black Widow continued, "To curse life or death, Arbiters need at least the name and birthday. This kind of curse ends after 24 hours. To curse without end, they need hair or blood. But how did the Arbiters know your names and birthdays?"

Qing Chen understood.

He understood who was behind this.

Zong Cheng!

Only Zong Cheng had the ability and motive to collect the names and birthdays of the Guardians' Union members!

He suddenly recalled what Zong Cheng had said in the video: "Are you ready? The game begins."

This was the game Zong Cheng had mentioned!

So, if Zong Cheng was indeed working with the Roosevelt Kingdom, the number of members to be cursed would not be limited to these two!

It could be tens of thousands!

This disaster came too suddenly. No one knew that Zong Cheng had secretly come to the West Continent, no one knew that he would join forces with the Roosevelt Kingdom, and no one knew that he had prepared such a cunning method.

Qing Chen suddenly looked at Black Widow, "Is there any way to escape the curse by going far away?"

"The curse has been cast. Even if you leave far away within 24 hours, the curse will still follow you. The curse's distance... only takes effect before the spell is cast."

"Black Leaf Plains is a Forbidden Artifact. Will we also be cursed while we're here?"

Black Widow shook her head. "Black Leaf Plains is also part of this world. It's not independent."

Just like Whale Island.

Misfortune has come. If not solved, the Guardians' Union's elite will suffer heavy losses. The Guardians' Union members here are already the most elite.

But the loss of the Guardians' Union's strength is secondary. Qing Chen cared that these were living people.

People who were still drinking, singing, and dancing just now.

He suddenly stood up, anxiously looking around.

A drunk Guardians' Union member was suddenly tripped by a tree branch. He stumbled to his left, about to fall into the blazing bonfire.

Everyone was drinking; no one noticed the drunkard tripping over the branch, no one noticed what happened.

Qing Chen saw this scene and rushed through the crowd, but it was too late.

But the Guardians' Union member stumbled to the fire, didn't fall into the fire, but sat down on the ground, accidentally pressing his hand on the charcoal and saying ouch.

No death occurred.

Qing Chen: "?"

He looked at Black Widow in confusion.

Black Widow was also stunned: "?"

Suddenly, the trees around Black Leaf Plains rustled, as if an ancient whisper.

Qing Chen suddenly understood something...

The giant Prophet had said that the greatest wish of the first Prophet was to continue protecting his people.

So, although Black Leaf Plains didn't have the magical functions of Whale Island, its greatest function was protection.

The Arbiters' life-or-death curse was downgraded here!