Novel Full Chapter 263: Forbidden City/James’ Ambition
Chapter 263: Forbidden City/James’ Ambition
Three days later…
Night-time.
“We’re here, guys. Hu~ I’m nervous,” Nathan whispered while adjusting his head camera. He also held a selfie stick that showed his face.
His team worked outside the dungeon, making sure those watching the stream would have access to the split on their screens.
Above, they would see the terrain of the place through the head camera and below was Nathan’s face. His expressions and reactions were also huge selling points.
He was a big shot now, the Athens crisis and the accidental streaming of Godfrey’s battle against the limitless summon shot his popularity through the roof.
His subscribers were over a hundred million! Although the two streams that made him big were both accidental, Nathan with his new team planned to show them the most dangerous blue gate dungeon in the world.
“Alright. I’m ready.” Nathan rubbed his hands together. Six other individuals were with him, Saint Tier summoners that made up one of the best freelancing teams in China. At least they could guarantee his safety.
“Can we go now?” The leader beckoned for him to follow them.
“So guys, we’re in Beijing, the capital of China.” He followed them with a moderate pace. They walked on pavement blocks made centuries ago with buildings featuring red walls, yellow glazed-tile roofs and intricate bracket sets on the left and right sides.
This path was quite wide as the main gate was just behind him.
“We’re in the famous Forbidden City, right in the heart of Beijing. This place has existed for nearly six hundred years, is as big as a hundred football fields and has once housed twenty-four emperors, their concubines and thousands of eunuchs but now…?”
Nathan looked around. “Not so much. I’m joking. Anyone who goes through the main gate will surely arrive here, in this twisted version of the forbidden city. It’s almost the same as the actual forbidden city but this one is a graveyard and the crimson taotie army patrols often, guarding their nonexistent citizens.”
He was quite focused on his screen when he suddenly bumped into one of the freelancers. The man glared at him.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t…” the remaining words fell off his wide mouth as he gawked at a crimson armoured footman on a rooftop.
The footman was clad in crimson metal plates, like a medieval Chinese soldier only much more menacing. His helmet was also a deep, metallic red colour, a textured, almost segmented surface with no eye slit for vision.
A spiral horn-like plume holder was visible at the top rear of the helmet and a small crimson plume fluttered softly.
The footman held a great axe almost grazing the rooftop. Nathan could almost feel the soft clinks of the chainmail connecting the helmet to the chest plate and double-layered pauldrons.
Although Nathan couldn’t see it, the symbol of a taotie, the beast of gluttony, was etched onto the helmet’s face.
He gulped hard.
It stood motionless with a big, bright moon, over ten times the size of Earth’s moon loomed behind this intimidating footman.
Millions of people all over the globe watched Nathan breathe in and out several times before he regained his bearing.
He gulped once more. “That was creepy…. B-but the good news is these taotie soldiers do not move at night, unless you touch them of course. And this footman’s base tier is Throne Tier and with each kill, they devour their foes and grow stronger. It’s said their only limit is that they can’t surpass the emperor.”
Nathan sucked in a huge amount of air.
“Do you know what this means? This casual soldier might actually be a Saint or a Divine or maybe even an Origin Tier dungeon monster!”
He shuddered.
“Tsk!” One of the Saint Tier summoners brought out a gauge. It read 15.5, meaning this soldier was at the peak of Throne Tier which also meant it had been killed before.
And what else would a dungeon soldier kill aside from humans?
“We should keep moving.” Their leader said. “Will you visit the Six Eastern Palaces or the Six Western Palaces first?”
“You mean the place where the concubines and consorts stayed?” Nathan responded with a whisper.
“You don’t have to whisper. Yes, but don’t expect any concubines here. It’s either the taotie soldiers or the emperor’s ghosts,” the leader explained.
“Okay. I think I prefer looking for the taotie cavalrymen and the emperor’s ghosts. Let’s go wherever you think they’ll be.” Nathan responded with bright eyes.
His viewers had risen to twelve million! God! He was a star… if only it didn’t have to be because he was thrusting himself into the jaws of death.
“Let’s go.”
As they continued moving, Nathan began to speak to add more spookiness to his viewers who were already commenting on how eerie the place looked.
“This is the only dungeon in the world that has not been cleared, not once and it has existed for nearly seventy years! I once heard there have been expeditions to clear it and all of them have failed but were never revealed to the public. I’m telling you, this place could be even more dangerous than the two red gates that opened up in Athens.”
Nathan kept speaking until they arrived at a place where they could see a bridge, the Broken Rainbow Bridge. On it were four imposing taotie cavalrymen rendered immobile in their journey back to the inner court.
Their armour was similar to the taotie footmen but they had black cloaks and held long spears with black tattered flags.
The water below the bridge stirred, ripples after ripples as the wind blew.
Seeing that his viewers wanted a closer look, Nathan steeled his heart and went closer. Not even the Saint dared get too close as Nathan went on the bridge.
’I won’t die. I won’t die. I’m the camera man for God’s sake!’ He chanted in his heart.
His heart almost exploded when he was standing beside one of the taotie cavalrymen. Both Nathan and his viewers had a good view of the robust armoured horse and the terrifying soldier atop.
One of the summoners checked the gauge and his eyes widened to the limit.
“All those things are Divine Tiers. Get out of there!” He bellowed. That made Nathan shudder and he almost touched the cavalryman.
Millions globally flew away from the screen, some covered the screen, some even threw their phones away.
Nathan froze, a thousand ways he would have died flashing in his eyes. He carefully retracted his steps and collapsed on the ground, panting heavily.
He turned and saw the Saint Tier summoners had already distanced themselves greatly after using echo to transform their body parts to ensure speed.
Nathan blinked. He was still on the ground, trying to regain his composure but it wasn’t possible.
“I hope you guys have had enough because I almost died because of you. By the way, there are thousands of these taotie soldiers. We’ll find their camp another day, yeah?”
He spoke softly.
***
James Pendragon grabbed the smooth edges of his bathroom’s washbasin, staring at the mirror.
He had just finished training and taken his bath. A white bathrobe matching the colour of his short white hair covered his fit body.
“Why keep holding onto what’s not meant to be yours? Even after losing your last child, you still won’t step down.” James clenched his teeth, almost pounding the washbasin.
He took a deep breath. Now that Isolde was dead, Arthur had no next in line for the position of family head. His wife had not given birth in ages so he doubted she would be able to now.
After all, he had heard Christine talk about how she would love to give Isolde a younger brother but had not been able to become pregnant.
It was obvious Arthur’s line had come to an end.
The entire family wasn’t even in a great state since the authorities had been giving them the cold treatment.
Arthur, his wife and that dead daughter of his had dragged the Pendragon family into the mud by meddling with that golden-haired freak!
The Ouroboros family and the Bane family, the second and third most powerful family in the western region, loathed Godfrey. Bane was after Isaac and Lucy but it was obvious Godfrey would protect them.
Ouroboros was after Percival and obviously, they had to contend with Godfrey once more. It was more difficult now that he was said to be a Paragon.
James splashed water against his face, exhaled slowly as his eyes gleamed with frustration.
’I’ll continue the meetings with the leaders of the Ouroboros and Bane family. Both of them have the power to crush our family if they unite, but I can’t lose my family all because of my elder brother. I’ll just have to take out both of them. I don’t know how yet. Not with that freak on their side.’
James released the washbasin and stood upright. “I don’t know how the family will see a marriage between me and Ouroboros’ head. She’s been a widow for quite a while. I might gain more favor, after all with Isolde dead everyone will be looking forward to who would be next and who offers a greater future than one who has the second most powerful family’s head as his wife. It offers greater opportunities, even a chance to make the authorities extremely cautious.”
He walked into his room and laid on his bed. The moment James closed his eyes, sunlight fell on his face and his skin experienced the caress of the refreshing breeze.
What?!
James’s eyes snapped open and he found himself lying on the ground facing a tree taller than the skies and a trunk so vast he couldn’t see its end. The trunk was so large it was like a never-ending wall.
He was like an ant before its roots. James sat upright, his arms trembling as a fruit fell from above. For something coming from such height, it was quite gentle. He didn’t know how it evaded all those massive branches but the fruit eventually landed in his hand.
He had heard so much of it. No man at the apex of earth got there without the mana tree’s involvement.
It was the source of mana itself, the giver of power.
“Even you think I’m supposed to rule. Ehehe…” Glee shone in James’s eyes as the fruit reflected in them.
….
A/N: Last Chapter of the month! Thank you for staying with this work! It’s been ongoing for six months now and some of you have been here since the first one.
Enjoy!