《Goddess of Blood and Dust》


 Chapter 1: A Slave from the North.

    Lucius stood in the dim corridor of the prison, covering his mouth and nose carefully with a handkerchief. The stench of feces and decaying flesh made him nauseous.


    The slave trader, with broad shoulders and a round waist, nodded and bowed beside the young noble-dressed man, eagerly guiding him to look at the cell on his left-hand side.


    The dimly lit cell offered no comfort for standing or lying down. Any prisoner thrown in here would have to sit or curl up inside.


    A few rays of sunlight shine through the small window near the ceiling, leaving two dull patches of light on the ground between the thatched bed and the cell bars.


    A white figure was curled up on the thatched bed, motionless, not knowing whether it was dead or alive.


    "Is that her?" Lucius asked, frowning.


    "That''s her, sir," the slave trader answered apprehensive, sensing the young noble''s disappointment. "Three good soldiers from the northern border, who hadn''t touched a woman in a while, went to a barbarian village to have some fun. Resulting in three to one, they were all killed! She used a cow''s jawbone!"


    He lowered his voice and put on a mysterious demeanor: "You should know, the one who sold her to me was the Governor''s Office. It''s said, she even bit the governor''s son''s... thingy."


    The slave trader brandished his stick and shouted loudly while banging on the bars, "Get up, barbarian! Meet your new master!"


    Lucius gazed with hope, but the figure in the straw pile remained motionless.


    "She couldn''t have died, could she?" Lucien said in a nasty tone, "I paid a high price, not for a dead person!"


    The slave trader wiped his shiny forehead.


    "No way, not possible," he said, "Don''t worry, don''t worry. She''s a wild one, and doesn''t understand civilized language, but there''s one thing we often say that she might understand - dinner time! Damn un-domesticated beast! Dinner time!"


    The figure in the haystack stirred.


    Lucius saw her stretch her body on the thatched pile and slowly prop herself up against the wall. As she moved, Lucius also heard a faint metallic ring, the sound of shackles clanging against each other.


    The figure slowly walked forward, dragging the shackles, and slowly walked to the patch of light formed on the ground by the sun, revealing its appearance completely in front of Lucius.


    Lucius was amazed at her height. She was almost 6 feet tall, a head taller than him. When she stood in front of the fence, the whole prison cell seemed to be divided in two. She had a slender waist, broad shoulders, long limbs, a thin and strong physique, and muscle lines like a big elephant.


    A healthy and athletic snow-white elephant, restrained by shackles.


    Lucius was struck by her height. Like all slave girls up for auction, she wore heavy shackles on her hands and feet and only a dirty brown loincloth covered her torso. Her skin was a pale white and Lucius quickly glanced at her belly. An ugly, red symbol of her slave status marked her, peeking out sinisterly from the top edge of the loincloth.


    He looked up. The tall woman was covered in dried blood and filth, emitting a pungent odor. Her fine braid split her head in half, with the left half shaved bald. Blue lines, tattooed by the northern barbarians, curved on her scalp and reached her neck, like a serpent or a rose vine. Silver-grey hair hung down the right side of her head and draped over her broad right shoulder, matted with blood.


    She gazed at Lucius expressionless.


    Lucius stepped back involuntarily after only a moment of eye contact with the woman, his heart pounding like a drum.


    The slave trader chuckled beside him, "Look at those eyes, she''s a beauty, isn''t she?"


    Lucius didn''t respond.


    What really made him lose his composure was neither her wild, athletic physique nor her cold, graceful appearance.


    But it was her gaze.


    Her gaze was too piercing.


    Sunlight shone on the back of her head and silver hair, forming two shadows in her eye sockets, with her eyes resting in each shadow. Her eye color was between light yellow and light red. Her gaze was straight and piercing, as cold as a knife blade.


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    Lucius took a deep breath and raised his head again to look at the sharp eyes, gazing at his own slightly panic-stricken face reflected in the amber-like pupils on the opposite side.


    He knew she was scrutinizing him, like a famished beast examining its prey, contemplating how to take a bite.


    Lucius reached into his money pouch and tossed it to the slave trader.


    "I''ll take her. She''s mine," he said hoarsely. "What''s her name?"


    The slave trader chuckled beside him, "As you please. Whatever you want to call her when you''re handling her, she''ll be called that. However, my good lord, I must remind you, don''t forget: a cow jawbone, to fight three, and the governor''s son''s thing."


    "I know what I''m doing," Lucius said gruffly.


    The slave trader laughed and went to register the sale of slaves, leaving Lucius alone, staring at her in a daze through the cell bars.


    He noticed a flaw on her face. Her lips were so thin that they were almost invisible, adding a hint of cold hardness to her almost perfect facial features.


    "Anada," Lucien said softly, "The meaning of ''Unlip'' in ancient dragon language, also the name of the human warrior who destroyed the city of lizard people. It''s perfect for you."


    She said nothing, staring at him quietly.


    "Usually I would think women should stay in their place, at a loom, in an orchard, with babies, and a man''s bed, but now..."


    Lucius chuckled mockingly.


    "Three days later, the city''s ruler, to celebrate his daughter''s birthday, announced a series of arena battles involving only female gladiators...you have potential, I''ll shape you. Then you will bring me the honor and maybe even reclaim the family''s arena for me."


    The sound of shuffling footsteps echoed from the direction of the corridor.


    The slave trader returned, accompanied by two burly men carrying long rods.


    Lucius''s eyes didn''t have them.


    "Unlock the cage, I''m taking her with me," he said, keeping his eyes on her.


    But with a "clink", the purse given to the slave trader was tossed back at his feet.


    The coins spilled everywhere.


    "Young Master of the Schwartzenger family," the slave trader called out the identity of Lucius, with a tone of indescribable contempt and ridicule, "I apologize, I didn''t expect a ''former'' member of the Silver Moon clan to grace us with their presence...but I''m afraid this business cannot be done."


    The woman from the North stood silently within the fence.


    She didn''t understand a word they were saying, just found them noisy.


    She saw that the face of Lucius outside the fence twisted with rage, arguing with the slave trader, and then he roared, drew his short sword, and pointed it at the slave trader. The gleaming blade of the sword illuminated her eyes in an instant.


    That sword was made with "unbelievable metal". The imperial people use it to make weapons and armor, calling it "steel".


    She remembered it clearly.


    She remembered clearly. A sword of the same material had easily shattered her wooden shield and iron ax.


    It was also that sword that slit her brother''s throat and gutted her mother, causing their steaming entrails to spill out onto the blood-soaked floor of their longhouse.


    Her breathing became slightly labored, and the shackles on her body made a faint clattering noise.


    Her mother fell to the ground in the blood, lying next to her little brother.


    She threw the shattered shield and axe handle at the Imperial facing her, then turned to tackle the killer, shouting in anger and fiercely choking the killer''s neck.


    In an instant, countless enemy shields and iron boots fell heavily onto her body and head.


    She doesn''t care.


    "Dead or alive, she wants the killer to join her in death."


    But familiar crying echoed into her ears.


    She saw her three-year-old younger sister sitting next to their mother''s body, crying and with blood flowing down her plump, white arm.


    The sword that cut the little sister''s arm slowly moved up, resting on the girl''s delicate neck.


    Her resistance and strength disappeared in an instant.


    The murderer struggled free from under her, panting and gasping, and spitting out a long tongue, like a dog.


    "Bitch," he said.


    He swung his shield, fiercely smashing it against her right temple.


    Amidst dizziness, she fell to the ground. The imperials rushed at her like starving wolves, twisting her arms behind her back, tightly tying her wrists and feet with ropes.


    "Be careful, don''t scratch her face" & "The governor''s son needs to be alive," they shouted excitedly, about like this.


    "Do you still think you''re the noble silver lord on high?"


    The slave trader outside the fence was also shouting and excited like the imperial soldiers who massacred the village.


    Just as Lucius drew his sword, the two henchmen of the slave trader crudely poked at Lucius''s chest and abdomen with long rods, knocking him down and forcing him to roll around in agony, groaning in pain.


    The slave trader spat and shouted, "The Swainson family has been expelled from the Elder Council! You''re a banished man! Get out of the city within five days!"


    Lucius groaned and tried to crawl up from the ground.


    But the henchman''s long pole poked him like a venomous snake on his wrist, forcing him to roll back on the ground.


    With a strike, Lucius lost grip on his short sword which hit the fence, making a loud "clang" sound. The sword bounced and fell into the enclosure, landing at the feet of the northern woman.


    The air suddenly stilled.


    The air suddenly became still. She noticed the slave trader and his two henchmen with long poles were nervously staring at her. Their poles were no longer pointing at Lucius but at her.


    They yelled at her with words she couldn''t understand.


    She looked at them, dragging the shackles, slowly retreating, and sat down on the rough straw bed. She gazed quietly as they reached for the short sword with their long poles, and knocked it out of the cell.


    The slave trader tested the sharp edge of the short sword and proudly tucked it into his waist. "This sword is the price you pay for causing trouble here," he said.


    Without a word, he picked up the scattered coins one by one, clutching his belly and staggering away, under the watchful gaze of the slave trader and two hired thugs.


    The Northern woman silently watched and felt the metal coolness between her two toes on her left foot.


    Before returning to the shabby straw bed, she stepped on and used her toes to pick up a copper coin.


    "Young man from the Schwartzenger family, someone has asked me to give you a word of advice," he said to the curled-up Lucius, "Miss Xinsi does not wish for you to appear at her birthday celebration - now leave my territory at once. If you dare to show yourself in front of me again, I will cut off your fingers."


    Lucius breathed heavily, slowly changing from crawling to kneeling.

 Chapter 2: Magic of the Priest

    Later that day, the slave trader arrived with another group of people.


    "Is this the barbarian woman who brought disgrace to the famous Eunriel family?" one person said with a chuckle, "the one who caused trouble for Governor Sirel''s son, Arshul?"


    The northern woman lay on a pile of straw, raised her eyelids, and looked briefly, then shifted her gaze away.


    These were several teenage boys, around 17 or 18 years old. Unlike Lucius and the slave trader, the boys'' skin was black as coal and they were all bald and had shaved eyebrows. They wore long red silk robes with wind caps, adorned with shiny silver threads and fine gold buttons on the sleeves and collar. Several people were shoulder to shoulder, giggling and laughing, not caring about the nauseating stench in the prison.


    The slave trader stood beside these frivolous young people, calling them "Your Limitless Future High Priests," nodding and bowing, even more humble than when he greeted Lucius that morning.


    "Her skin is as beautiful as salt and silver," the speaker marveled. "Is this color common among women in the North?"


    "It should be," another person said. "The High Priest says that the pale skin of the northern people is a mark of their ignorance. They do not believe in the great Katanosoa and do not understand the significance of Niyara."


    The first person gasped, "This cannot be!"


    "If you paid more attention in geography class, you wouldn''t utter such uncultured remarks," the second person sighed. "The High Priest says that the people of the North only worship two ancestral spirits. Men worship Kroam, honored as the god of land, harvest, forge, and wisdom. Women worship Freya, who is honored as the goddess of fertility, love, female warriors, and magic. According to scholars, these two names should have belonged to the chiefs of two tribal alliances of the North a long time ago."


    The first person was stunned, showing a disgusted expression.


    "What foolishness," he said, "these primitive people who don''t know the power of the real deity. They worship and pray to something nonexistent, yet they don''t know that they cannot possibly receive a response... it''s simply too ignorant."


    He rubbed his chin, staring at the body on the straw pile in a trance, "Maybe I should buy this poor mare and show her the truth, save her from ignorance, and lead her on the right path."


    The second person laughed.


    "Be careful, Ashur just made a statement, whoever buys her will become the enemy of their family."


    "That kid has too high an opinion of himself," the previous person said lazily, "what is he? Trash, a spoiled brat, brings shame to the whole family! General Xiner has just returned victorious from his southern conquest, riding in four war chariots captured from the conquered kings, along the way the streets and alleys displayed hundreds of cages filled with captive noblemen. As soon as he entered the house, he saw his beloved son, who had been cut off by a barbarian, crying loudly... If I were Xiner, I would have drowned the kid in a basin when he was born."


    So everyone burst out laughing.


    The slave trader also laughed while wiping sweat.


    "I heard it''s pretty vicious," the second person said, "I wonder if the doctor is skillful enough to take it back?"


    The previous person laughed and raised his voice, "I''m a little curious," he shouted, "Come over here, mare! Let me see that face that makes Arslan dizzy!"


    The northern woman lay there, thinking of her thoughts, indifferent to the calls from outside the fence.


    She covered her belly with her hand.


    At this moment, her belly growled, her head was dizzy, and her hands and feet were weak. For some reason, the slave trader had not given her food or water all day.


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    This made her secretly alarmed.


    "Respected elders, priests," the slave trader said respectfully, "Sir Ashel has already made arrangements for this slave. If you could kindly condescend and visit the small hall in the slave trader''s quarters, you will be able to see it soon."


    The northern woman lay hungry and tired on the pile of thatched roofing, closing her eyes and regaining her strength, listening to the group of people laughing and talking as they walked away outside the fence.


    But a slight, even breathing outside the fence reminded her that there was still one person who had not left.


    She lay there for a while longer, unable to resist rolling over, opening her jade-like eyes, and sitting up from the pile of thatched roofing.


    She saw that the outline of one person was still outside the fence, quietly standing in the shadow of the prison corridor two rows of white teeth li in the dark shadows up: "Hello, mare."


    Her muscles tensed slightly.


    This light-hearted tone was indeed the same person who had been talking for a long time before. But his voice, it seemed to have gone with the crowd just now... How did it stay behind?


    "Indeed beautiful, the mare cast in silver," the shadow spoke with a mesmerizing tone, saying words she couldn''t understand, "What does the string of runes tattooed on your back mean? Ah, you probably don''t know what you will be facing soon. You''ve offended a powerful person..."


    He stopped speaking and sighed, "Actually, the things I just said, you didn''t understand a word, right?"


    She had been staring at him coldly, but now her eyebrows rose.


    In his last sentence, she suddenly understood.


    Not really.


    She realized that his final words were not spoken in language, but rather projected directly into her mind.


    She tentatively asked, "Magic... are you a male witch from Assyria?"


    The shadow laughed.


    "Servant, I am a servant of Naelat," he answered her from the shadows, "I saw the runes of Nifl engraved on your back spine... Are you the servant of your Freyja?"


    She shook her head.


    The amber-like eyes released hatred and anger without reservation.


    "When the battle was to the death, I gave up resistance," she said calmly, "I no longer have the qualifications to go to the Einzbern Temple. I live with the only purpose of finding my family and taking her away. Servant, what do you want from me?"


    "Clever," the person in the shadows praised, "The man who came in the morning, Lucien, is my friend. He asked me to bring this to you."


    Before she could understand what he meant, the temperature from her fingertips suddenly came, making her unconsciously lower her head and then open her eyes wide.


    On the previously empty thatch beside her, there was suddenly a hot pastry.


    She was slightly moved, and when she looked back at the corner of the darkness, she found that there was no one in the darkness.


    The next moment, she grabbed the pastry, quickly stuffed it into her mouth, tore it into pieces, and swallowed it without even chewing.


    She could hear the approaching footsteps of the slave trader and his minions.


    The slave trader pulled out a large key chain and poked the gate open, then roughly pushed it open.


    There were shadows outside the fence.


    Two tall, muscular henchmen entered the prison, armed with long poles.


    "Be good and listen," said the slave trader outside, "or you''ll get a big headache."


    She appeared not to understand or even hear.


    She simply looked down, not resisting.


    The two henchmen lifted her shackles over her head and fastened them to the iron ring on the wall. One of them whistled while the other twisted her chest.


    Then her ankle shackles were also fastened to the iron ring at the bottom of the wall.


    The slave trader beckons two trembling female slaves standing outside the door. They struggled to enter the prison while carrying heavy buckets of water.


    She recognized them.


    On her first day in the small cell, they tried to approach her following the slave trader''s orders, but she kicked them out with a foot.


    Ice-cold water was poured on her.


    One bucket.


    Then another.


    She almost moaned with pleasure, quickly licking the remaining water stains on her lips, and sucking the beads of water on her arm. The greedy look made the slave trader and the thugs laugh out loud.


    The slave trader laughed loudly: "Two days without food and water, even the stubborn must submit."


    "Wash this wild horse clean for me," the slave trader commanded loudly, "from this head''s Yin and Yang''s hair to these two big feet, the top [buzz] and the bottom [buzz], give me every seam, every hole, inside and outside, rub it clean for me, don''t leave a bit of dirt."


    The woman faced the dirty words in front of her and dared not to touch her, which made the slave trader''s face red and pleased.


    He happily rubbed his hands, "The stage has been set up, it''s your turn. Lord Ashur has prepared a gorgeous revenge program for you, guaranteed to please everyone."


    She listened without a word.


    The magic spell cast by the Assyrian wizard is still in effect, and she understands every word the slave trader says.


    Two female slaves with mane brushes roughly brush their bodies. They brush their teeth with effort, the strength is so great that they almost scrape off her skin.


    She knows they are reporting their grudges, but she doesn''t care. Their strength and the short-faced bear and cave lion''s slap are too gentle.


    Despite this, she still appeared to shrink away, twisting her waist to move her hips, thighs, and arms.


    She breathed a satisfied sigh and the pastry and water she had just eaten had now transformed into strength, restoring her condition to a certain extent.


    Her eyes narrowed slightly, tinged with a reddish-yellow hue.


    Yes, I guarantee to "please" everyone.

 Chapter 3: One Hundred Wounds

    The walls were covered with scratches from nails or teeth, cold and damp.


    Walking down the prison corridor and further in, there was a narrow wooden door. It was old, dirty, and covered with deep brown spots.


    That was the dry blood of people.


    The northern woman stood in front of the wooden door, half of her silver hair was wet and sticky on her scalp, and water droplets hanging from her body.


    After washing her whole body, the female slaves retreated and took away the only two pieces of dirty cloth she used to cover her body. Then the slave traders and fighters escorted her here, along the way, countless greedy eyes lingered on her.


    She heard the cries of thirst for killing, and the roar of lions, faintly coming from the other side of the door.


    She doesn''t know when it started, but the people around her have closed their mouths tightly. She can hear their rapid heartbeats, which makes her somewhat nervous too.


    The slave trader sighed deeply and took off her handcuffs. She gently moved her wrist and looked down at the heavy ankle cuff hanging from her ankle. She looked at the slave trader in confusion.


    The slave trader seemed to see through her thoughts.


    "Don''t even think about it," he said roughly. "Wear it, you don''t need to take it off."


    The door suddenly opened, and hot air rushed in, accompanied by a strong smell of blood and the stench of death.


    A man wearing a black leather hood, holding a large iron hook, was hooked into the abdomen of a body, dragging it in.


    This was a half-sized male corpse, without a half-head. The stomach and chest were scooped out with a big hole. The edges of the wounds were strangely shaped, as if they had been torn open. The skin where it was not covered by blood was white. Dirty golden hair, blue eyes. The neck and arms were covered in tattoos.


    She recognized the tattoos of his clan and was a fellow Northerner.


    "Krom is with you," she whispered.


    "The hag has spoken," the slave trader said, "did you hear her, she said something, don''t know what she said?"


    "Maybe this dead little hag is her little lover."


    The man in black leather headgear greedily looked at her, "Uh, this [bleep-], and this [bleep-], the figure is unrepaired. Clean after stripping, just the hair is messy a little bit - why didn''t you trim her?"


    A rough man next to him rudely asked, "You mean the one on her head?"


    So all the men laughed with a vulgar and lewd smile.


    She looked at them expressionlessly.


    The man in black leather headgear shook his head, "So beautiful, wasting away, too bad."


    The slave trader sighed, "Indeed, it is a pity. With just this face and this butt, this mare, I can at least sell for fifty silver coins. But what can we do, the orders of Lord Ashure - go in."


    As he spoke, he reached out to her below the waist, wanting to twist a bit on the round and plump white flesh.


    But the next moment, his wrist seemed to fall into an iron clamp.


    She grabbed his wrist.


    In an instant, the sound of an overwhelmed wristbone echoed, and the thick hand is strangled into purple.


    The slave trader was sweating profusely and screaming in pain.


    He looked up in horror and found that his jade-like eyes had turned to him and were staring at him without looking away.


    She gently turned her wrist.


    The slave trader immediately screamed and knelt down, trying to twist her fingers and mumbling loudly: "Loosen, loosen... what are you all doing?"


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    Only the reactions of the two fighters were slightly slower.


    She lifted her left arm, her elbow striking the left fighter''s temple, causing him to roll to one side bleeding from his mouth and nose.


    Then she turned her body and quickly poked her middle and index fingers into the right nostrils of the right fighter''s body.


    The slave trader saw with tears streaming down his face as the muscles in the snow-white arm bulged and the right hand of the striking man screamed as it was poked into his nostril, lifting the finger and both feet lifted off the ground!


    She threw the striker at the black-skinned man dragging the body, and two strong men fell to the ground.


    Just as the slave trader was terrified and thought he was dead, the iron clamp on his wrist disappeared.


    The northern woman, with her thin lips pursed, moved her wrist and dragged her shackles step by step, disappearing into the wooden door.


    Beyond the wooden door is a simple and crude passage built of rough logs.


    The dazzling sunlight penetrated directly through the cracks in the logs, baking the hot sand under her feet.


    She smelled fresh blood seeping out from under the sand.


    She walks forward and arrives at an open, circular clearing surrounded by a crude wooden fence. The ground and pathway are covered in thick, yellow sand.


    A mild breeze blows by and brings a faint smell of wild animal into her nostrils.


    She stops at the inner side of the pathway, instead of rushing into the clearing.


    She squints.


    The heat from the hot sand distorts and warps the view in the clearing. From the pathway, she sees four strange-looking shadows standing in the bright clearing, reflecting the sunlight.


    Whistling sounds come and go from above the wooden fence around the clearing.


    She blinks a few times to adjust her vision to the light and realizes they are four muscular men. They wear leather shoulder armor, leg protection, and strange, helmet with long feathers. Their exposed skin is covered in sweat and blood.


    The thing that draws her attention is the weapons in their hands.


    One person is holding a spear, another is holding a sword and shield, another is holding a net and harpoon, and the last person standing the farthest away has no armor and is holding a bow and three quivers.


    She looked around and did not find anyone else, so she slowly dragged her shackles into the open space.


    What she did not notice was that the sand dune slightly bulged next to the fence behind her.


    The moment she stepped into the open space, the air echoed with a hundredfold racket.


    Standing in the open space, she finally raised her head to see the situation above the fence. The open space in the fence was like the bottom of a wooden bowl. One after another, the audience sat high on the edge of the bowl. The audience had both men and women, staring straight at her body, their eyes seeming to pierce through her, bursting out with a series of vulgar laughter.


    Aashur was sitting in the first row of the highest booth in the audience seats.


    He is just fifteen years old, a skinny young man. He has a coppery skin and dense black curly hair, with thick eyebrows and large eyes, and a four-cornered face and large nose unique to the Enriler family.


    On A-shu''s left hand side is a beautiful noble young lady, also his fianc¨¦. On his right is a middle-aged man.


    The middle-aged man has sparse hair but is neatly combed back from his temples, revealing a smooth forehead and a nice goatee around his mouth. He is wearing a brown scholar''s robe and sitting upright in a chair, holding a scabbarded sword in his left hand.


    Looking at the bright silver-like bodies below, bathing in the sun, the young man''s broad square face showed a complex expression.


    A voice suddenly penetrated into his ear: "Excuse me, the young master of Xinsi''er, is it her who bit your root of life?"


    The black priest who calls himself "Lucius'' friend," sitting in the second row of the booth with other priests, just behind the small A-shu''s seat on the right.


    A-shu''s face suddenly turned red.


    "Rumor! Shameful rumors!" The young man roared, "I was just absent-minded and kicked in the thigh root! And it''s the outside of the thigh!"


    "Yes, the thigh root," the priest said carelessly: "It is because of this that your father, Sir Xisiel, sent the Empire''s strongest swordsman, Sir Barniemel, to be your bodyguard, isn''t it?"


    Ashuel was furious and yelled, "Speak nonsense again, I will cut off your tongue that spreads rumors!"


    The black-skinned priest laughed and leaned back on the chair back, wrapping his body in the red robe, not speaking.


    Ashuel glared at him with fiery eyes and turned to look at the audience. He gritted his teeth and bit his thumb nail in hatred.


    The black priest enjoyed Ashuel''s expression from the back row. He noticed that the beautiful noble girl sitting to the left of Ashuel looked at Ashuel''s restlessness and gently placed her delicate hand on Ashuel''s back to comfort him, but was pushed aside by Ashuel''s anger.


    The noble girl withdrew her hand, looking composed as if nothing had happened.


    The black priest smiled, admiring the girl''s graceful figure, looking inside her loose and luxurious silk dress from the collar.


    At this time, the person sitting in front of the priest, Benny Mell with a beautiful goat beard, glanced back at the priest.


    In a moment of eye contact, the black priest suddenly felt intense pain all over his body, as if not hot blood was flowing in his veins, but countless sharp ice particles!


    The priest tried his best not to scream, but his lips turned white.


    Benny Mell turned back.


    "Don''t be too quick," Ashur gritted his teeth and said, "Don''t be too quick! Kill her slowly! I want to make a hundred wounds on her silver-like white flesh, not one less!"


    The priest shuddered slightly, his eyes lowered and he dared not say another word.


    The private room door was knocked rhythmically.


    The slave trader and the two beaten thugs knelt outside the private room, asking Ashur for peace.


    "Honorable Master," the slave trader said respectfully, his head not dared to raise, "I have brought the criminal in accordance with your orders, let you dispose of him."

 Chapter 4: Bloody Lions Den

    The northern woman had just entered the circular clearing and in the next moment, she quickly twisted her waist and sidestepped.


    Her heavy shackles restricted her movement speed, but this space was enough.


    At almost the same time, two arrows whistled and passed by her trembling chest, caused by the swinging of her upper body, as she shot into the dark tunnel-like entrance.


    A man''s scream came from the pitch-black tunnel, and she could tell that the voice belonged to the hook-handed corpse man with a black leather hood.


    Before the archer could draw his bow again, she struggled with her shackled feet and shifted two steps.


    The audience was screaming happily.


    "That''s it, keep shooting!"


    In the private room, Ashur was intently watching the struggle of the white meat in the yellow sand square, maliciously muttering to himself, "Shoot again, waste, shoot the barbarian woman into a wild boar!"


    The sword sorcerer Barnimere next to him suddenly exclaimed.


    The noble girl on the other side of Ashur kept her attention on the private room and softly asked, "What''s wrong, Barnimere?"


    The sword sorcerer shook his head.


    "Maybe it''s a coincidence," he said.


    When the archer pulled the short bow again, he surprisingly found that the target was gone.


    The northern woman cleverly moved her steps, successfully turning the spearman standing on the front line into her shield. In order to dodge the arrows, she also leaned forward, reducing the target.


    The spearmen among them was the strongest of all four. At the moment, his back appeared like a wall, shielding the northern woman firmly in front of him.


    The archer cursed, he could only put away his short bow.


    There was no need to shoot arrows at a woman who was unarmed and had shackles on her feet.


    The other three stood lazily in their original positions, watching as the iron giant-like spearmen roared and charged forward, with a momentum like a mountain collapsing and a tsunami!


    She expected the spearmen to charge at her, so she arched her back like a big cat, taking a light sigh.


    Her eyes, like yellow jade, focused intently on the spearmen''s shoulders and arms.


    Stab, chop, or sweep?


    The heavy shackles restricted her movements and jumps. Although a stab or chop could be lethal, they might be dodged by her, but a sweep, she could not dodge.


    The use of a spear and a staff was originally interchangeable.


    In the next second, the shoulder of the spearman moved and the heavy spear was lifted, bringing a mournful storm.


    It was a sweep!


    In the joyful roar of the audience, the spearman sneered and brandished his spear.


    He knew the weight of his strike. Before he was captured by the Assyrians and became a gladiator slave, he was one of the bravest warriors of the kingdom.


    Once wielding his round spear, he smashed the skull of a shaggy dog!


    So he thought.


    He planned to break the two legs of the northern barbarian woman and then torment her, finally impaling her on the end of his spear.


    As long as he can please Lord Ashurbanipal, he may be set free...


    While thinking this, he felt a sense of regret.


    The woman was top-notch, except for her skin that wasn''t honey brown, with a delicate and beautiful face, long legs, curvy hips and big breasts - she was a great mother for a warrior.


    It was a shame she had to die.


    With a lightning thought, the spear swept across the woman''s legs.


    With a crisp snap, her legs were swept clean. The massive force forced her feet off the ground, and she flew sideways and fell heavily in front of the spear wielder.


    The sand rose.


    The warrior under the hooded helmet had a frozen grin on his face, filled with shock. The spear in his hand had become lighter?!


    In the moment the spear hit the legs, the woman suddenly lifted her foot. With the constraint of the shackles, she could only lift her foot a little bit. But this small distance was enough to change the outcome of the strike.


    The spear, with its precise and deadly accuracy, hit the black iron shackle on the woman''s ankle.


    Sparks flew.


    The sharp edge of the shackle cut the woman''s wrist and blood gushed out.


    In the moment she was knocked back, a metal spearhead that was half the length of an arm flew into the air and spun.


    She reached out and grabbed it in her hand.


    The spearman didn''t have time to figure out what was going on with his spear when he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his groin.


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    A hand grabbed his loincloth, tightly twisting it and pulling hard.


    The spearman screamed in pain and involuntarily knelt on one knee.


    Two legs covered in dirt popped out from underground and wrapped around the spearman''s neck, causing him to fall over.


    The woman carefully turned her body and adjusted her posture, still holding the spearman''s vital spot as she sat heavily on his helmet.


    She tightened her legs with force.


    Before the spearman could appreciate the delicate smoothness of the woman''s skin, he felt the strong thigh muscles underneath the skin.


    His face turned red under the helmet. His neck bones made cracking noises, but the fatal spot was still in the woman''s hands, hurting him so much that he had no strength to resist.


    The audience gave disbelieving cries, one wave after another.


    In the private room, Ah Shu''s face turned pale, unconsciously tightening his legs. The scene in front of him brought back the deep-seated pain.


    The other three gladiators were stunned, momentarily forgetting that they were still in the death arena.


    Next second, the woman grabbed the metal spear and swung her arm with force.


    The spear with the broken spearhead flew straight through the air, piercing the archer''s chest.


    The archer''s front chest sprayed with fresh blood, falling flat on his back.


    The neck bone of the spearman made an unwilling breaking sound, and the head of the helmet wearer twisted to a strange angle.


    At this time, the sword-shield man shouted and approached the woman with the spearman''s body intertwined with her from both sides, along with the harpoon man.


    The ground was quiet and only the crows and sparrows made no sound.


    The audience held their breath and watched the battle that was about to reverse.


    Ashel tightened his fist. The black priest was also drawn to the melee, his back leaving the chair.


    The woman''s shackles entangled the neck of the spearman, and for a moment she couldn''t sit up, so she took off the spearman''s bronze helmet and held it with both hands, like holding a head.


    As the shield and sword wielding man approached, he took a step forward and swung his sword at the woman.


    The woman lifted the helmet to meet the blow, and the rusty bronze sword pierced straight into the eye socket of the helmet.


    Just in time, she grabbed the helmet and passed it.


    The man''s bronze sword immediately fell out of his hand and was left in the eye socket of the helmet in the woman''s hand.


    The woman drew out the bronze sword with her right hand and held the helmet with her left hand, standing unsteadily from the body of the spearman.


    Although she had not yet been able to unlock her shackles, she still took faltering steps, but all the spectators took a deep breath. It was as if the other two people in the arena had already become two corpses.


    The sword-shield wielder, who had lost his weapon, turned and ran, heading straight for the archer''s corpse.


    She couldn''t stop him: the harpoonist on the other side screamed sharply, sticking out the harpoon to stab at her.


    The woman stood upright again.


    She gently swung her helmet, blocking each of the harpoons that were coming in with ease, seemingly lightly.


    But she knows the truth. At this point, she was gasping for breath, sweating profusely, her limbs felt weak, and her stomach was roaring like thunder - the heat from the piece of pie was not much to begin with, and combined with the constant bleeding from her ankle, her physical strength was almost depleted.


    Ascher was absorbed in watching in the box, and couldn''t help licking his lips.


    The tall and sturdy body of the northern woman was covered in sweat, reflecting the blazing sun, like a shining silver statue.


    This made his "thigh root" gradually expand, and it became even more painful.


    Serves him right, he knows I''m powerful now. Even if you beg me now, I''ll have to consider it.


    Arshal hated to think.


    His eyes were only on the mother horse bitch who needed to be punished and tamed, completely ignoring the sadness and hatred that flashed through the eyes of the noble young girl next to him.


    The fisherman rotates the fishing net and suddenly covers the woman''s head.


    She dodged by lowering her head, but the helmet in her left hand was not grasped firmly, and was dragged away by the rope of the fishing net, flying far to the edge of the field.


    The fisherman was overjoyed.


    He knew that this woman, wearing shackles, was difficult to move, so he actively retreated two steps and moved out of the range of the bronze sword''s attack; adjusted his breathing, and changed to holding the fishing spear with both hands, taking on a posture of holding a spear.


    She took a deep breath, bent down, and also held the sword with both hands, with the sword tip diagonally pointing at her feet.


    She watched the opponent''s foot movements and expected a sliding straight thrust. She lifted her sword and stuck to the harpoon, pushing it out, and then cutting forward with the momentum.


    She didn''t wait for the opponent''s sliding straight thrust.


    The harpooner glared viciously at the woman and was about to charge forward with all his strength, when suddenly his eyes widened and he cried out, retreating.


    She heard pain and confusion from his voice.


    She raised her eyebrows and saw an arrow in the harpooner''s arm.


    Another arrow came flying. The woman watched it fly from a distance of an arm away and hit the fence.


    She cast her gaze towards where the arrow came from.


    The sword and shield bearer without the bronze sword stood next to the archer''s body, dropped his shield, picked up a short bow and quiver, and clumsily aimed at this side with the bow.


    The harpooner held his arrow-wounded arm and swore loudly.


    The spectators around the venue cheered and laughed.


    The woman also slightly curved the corners of her mouth.


    But the smile disappeared from her face in a flash: the newly converted archer kept his bow drawn, and began to approach her by running.


    Even if this guy''s aim was unreliable, she was still a still target.


    As long as he approached within ten steps, she would be dead for sure.


    However, the newly converted archer stopped.


    The woman saw that the spearman in front of her also began to retreat in a ready stance.


    She noticed that the sand behind her was rising, and something seemed to have just drilled out of the sand.


    Then, a heavy, snoring rumble came from behind.


    She took a deep breath, and the animal smell that she had smelled at the entrance of the tunnel became even stronger.


    The woman''s lips also curved slightly.


    But the smile disappeared from her face as the newly turned archer, with his bow drawn, started approaching her while running.


    Even if this guy''s aim is unreliable, she was still a motionless target.


    As long as he gets within ten steps, she''s dead for sure.


    But the new archer stopped.


    The woman saw that the harpoonist in front of her also began to retreat with a vigilant posture.


    She noticed that the sand behind her was rising, and something seemed to have just burrowed out of the sand.


    Immediately afterwards, a heavy rumble came from behind.


    She breathed in softly, and the animal smell she had smelled at the tunnel entrance became stronger.


    She slowly turned her head, catching a glimpse of the predator with her peripheral vision.


    It was a cave lion.


    A genuine giant beast. Its head was almost as big as her chest, and its shoulders were almost as tall as a person. Its fur was the same color as the sand.


    There was a lot of blood on the cave lion''s mouth and huge claws, which was the reason for the brutal and strange wounds on her fellow villagers'' bodies.


    The cave lion was staring at her intently, and suddenly its deep throat turned into a roar.


    She tensed up.


    At that moment, a roar came from another direction, as if they were echoing each other. Roars also came from the other two corners. Then three more cave lions emerged from the underground pits.


    "Nothing is more real than the moment between life and death," the black priest said in a murmur, "The false singing and drama of pretense are no match for the unstoppable reality."


    They lurked around the arena, eyeing the live prey in the middle with greedy looks.


    This is why the capital of the Assyrians was known as the "Bloody Lion''s Den". In their unique gladiatorial culture, when the host deemed the brave fight to be an ugly farce, lions were released to devour both the humiliated fighters.


    In the boxes and the stands, all the spectators sat up straight.


    Their eyes shone with excitement as they watched the upcoming grand scene with rapt attention.

 Chapter 5: The Predator

    The murky and fierce lion eyes leisurely patrol the area.


    The largest of the four lions, the giant cave lion, slowly approached the woman as if strolling in an imperial garden. As a regular visitor of the arena and a cleaner of the final death match, it is familiar with the situation at hand.


    The other three cave lions are closer to the dead archer''s body.


    They slowly walked past the body and one of the lions couldn''t resist the temptation and quickly took a big bite of flesh.


    This caused the cave lion facing the woman to let out an ear-splitting roar.


    The greedy lion immediately stopped eating.


    The three lions reluctantly moved their gaze away from the accessible food and directly crossed over the dead archer''s body, continuing to approach the living people in the center of the open space.


    The harpooner and the sword-shield picker who picked up the arrow disregarded the woman beside them. The two people back to back, slowly turning in circles, desperately watched the gradually surrounding cave lions.


    At that moment, the sword and shield wielder was so frightened that he saw his short bow trembling like a sieve, and the arrow was almost unsteady on his bow arm. The harpooner next to him wasn''t much better either, his harpoon swaying aimlessly like a lost sheep''s horn.


    Both of them panicked when they saw the four lions.


    They came from far away in the south, from the remote town of Emola. The lions in the grasslands of their hometown were much smaller than the cave lions in front of them, but even so, they were powerful creatures that could not be defeated in stories and myths. The lion''s sharp teeth and claws were a curse from the gods.


    "I shouldn''t have given up my shield for this damn bow," the sword and shield wielder thought with regret. "Then at least I could have blocked something."


    At that moment, he saw the tall northern woman next to him shrink by half.


    She knelt on one knee on the sand, her head high and her hands holding her sword in front of her knees.


    She spoke in a language they didn''t understand.


    "Look, I''ve seen my father," she said. Her voice was calm and steady, with no hint of a tremor.


    "Look, I''ve seen my mother, my brothers and sisters. Look, I''ve seen my ancestors standing in a row. They''re all calling to me, summoning me to the hall of heroes, where the grand spirit will endure."


    The words, which they didn''t understand, seemed to contain some magical power.


    The swordsman looked at her, and his heart became calm unconsciously, the short bow loaded with an arrow steadied in his sweat-covered palm.


    However, when he shifted his gaze to the lion, he felt a surge of panic again.


    He pleadingly looked to the woman, as if he could draw courage and strength from her, but he was horrified to see:


    The woman stood up again, lifted her bronze sword, dragging the ringing shackles, and walked slowly towards the nearest cave lion.


    The swordsman''s heart almost stopped.


    "Damned, it''s just a foolish old woman looking for death," he said with a crying tone.


    The woman walked towards the cave lion, which made the huge beast somewhat bewildered.


    The cave lion withdrew its outstretched giant paw, shifted its weight, and moved slightly backwards.


    The big cat is always extremely cautious and patient. It looked at the woman curiously, swung its ears, and wanted to figure out why the white two-legged creature was fearless.


    Suddenly, the Shield & Sword wielder heard the sound of the Harpoon wielder behind him, saying in a low voice: "Shoot her."


    "Wh-what?"


    "Shoot her, make her bleed, attract the lion to bite her. You''ll see, her script will come alive as she bleeds."


    The voice of the Harpoon wielder was trembling, unclear if from fear or excitement. "She''ll die, and we''ll have three bodies here... she''s big enough, the lion will be full... with the three of them, we can slowly retreat and escape this hell hole."


    "But..."


    "Screw buts!"


    The tone of the Harpoon wielder became aggressive. The Shield & Sword wielder detected a killing intent. "You shoot or what, motherf*cker?"


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    Feeling the solid handle of the harpoon against his back, the Shield & Sword wielder''s forehead was sweating profusely. He suddenly realized that in the eyes of this Harpoon companion, he could be seen as a feeding source for the lion as well.


    With gritted teeth, he turned the arrow towards the woman''s back heart.


    "That''s it," the Harpoon wielder said impatiently. "Hurry up!"


    The Shield & Sword wielder''s heart was pounding like a drum.


    The audience on the stands erupted in a chorus of boos.


    Barnimeer sneered with disdain.


    "How ugly," the black priest said with disgust, "The Emora people are always so lowly, completely unaware of what honor and reputation are."


    Even the noble girl sitting next to him couldn''t stand it.


    "This is simply a disgrace," she said to Ashel in anger, "We should end this farce and show the warrior woman the demeanor of a noble."


    Ashel was a bit confused.


    He hated that woman to the bone. But he was from the noble Ener family, and this change was not what he wanted.


    But to let her go, a woman who dared to insult the great Ener''s sacred animal?


    Even if he died, he couldn''t forget the shame that night brought.


    As the heir of the noble Ener family, the young Ashel took on the mission of the country and the family, accepting the emperor''s dispatch, leading the army north, to the territory of the Aflon people, to help them resist the raids of the northern barbarians, and to cleanse the giant''s court.


    It was a thrilling victory. After the war, in the Assyrian style, thousands of savage heads were hung on branches as trophies. Their skin was peeled and placed outside the tree bark. This was the "grove of heads" that the empire used to show off its victory.


    The grove of heads built by Ashurbanipal was several tens of miles wide, broader than any other empire general, deeply imprinting the glory and strength of the empire in the hearts of every barbarian tribe.


    The Assyrians valued their helmets as a second life and cherished them.


    Dozens of tribal leaders gathered valuable metal to make a magnificent golden helmet for him to show their loyalty and submission, displaying his unparalleled military achievements.


    As an Assyrian poet once said: the best way to comfort a warrior''s soul after bathing in blood is women and wine.


    The young general''s personal and deputy aide, as usual, prepared everything he needed in the room for him. The young general liked "tall and fair northern mares," which was known to the entire army.


    But all the glory was destroyed by that mare.


    He painfully thought.


    Just one night apart, Ashur became the laughing stock of the entire army and even the country from an unbeatable bloodthirsty commander. Ten days later, he was recalled to the capital, relieved of his duties, and idled at home.


    "Continue," Ashur said with gritted teeth.


    He decided that when everything was over, he would announce the execution of the two Emmara people and bury them for her.


    But she had to die.


    The sword and shield hand firmly held the bow and aimed at the tall figure''s back heart ahead.


    At this moment, the woman was not guarded behind and still continued to move forward firmly.


    She had a tall and slender body, with a narrow waist and broad shoulders. From the sword and shield man''s perspective, her almost perfectly inverted triangular back muscle lines were clear and the muscles were developed but not bulky. Her white skin glimmered like salt under the sun, making his eyes dizzy.


    His throat was dry and he couldn''t help swallowing. Such a large target, no more than twenty steps apart from each other. No matter who comes to shoot this arrow, it is impossible to miss.


    "Crack!" The arrow went away like a meteor!


    The flying arrow was gone in a flash.


    At the moment when his fingers left the bowstring, the sword and shield man held his breath and stared with wide eyes.


    Just as the arrow was about to hit, the woman''s feet did not change position, her waist twisted, and her body leaned to the right side. At the same time, the bronze sword drew a semi-circle obliquely.


    The sound of clanging metal filled the air as the arrow grazed the sword, producing a shower of sparks. The arrow missed its target and disappeared without a trace. The audience burst into a chorus of exclamations. The fisherman cursed under his breath, "Dammit!"


    The woman in front of him turned half her face towards him, glancing at him with a look that was half-smiling and half-serious. He was stunned, with his mouth wide open and mind in a jumbled mess, as the arrow that was almost guaranteed to hit its target missed.


    Before he had time to think any further, the man-eating lion in front of the woman suddenly exploded! The lion let out an earth-shaking roar as it slammed its paws on the ground, then sprang into action.


    The woman, still in the same position, relaxed and stood still, making no attempt to fight back.


    The sword and shield wielder let out a sigh of relief, as did the harpoon wielder behind him.


    Although lions hunt in groups, their choice of prey is often limited to one. When one lion attacks the selected prey, the other lions will follow and gather together to eat.


    Let''s curse that woman and let us go, he thought.


    However, before his thoughts could come to fruition, they were horrified to see: the raging beast swept past the woman, with a foul wind, and charged towards them!


    The other three lions seemed to have received the order, and they all attacked the two of them simultaneously!


    The sword and shield wielder screamed loudly.


    In almost an instant, the four lions violently pinned down the two men back to back, tore off their limbs, and dragged them to the ground.


    The sword and shield wielder watched as the four huge lion heads gathered over them, bit into their bellies, and buried their heads in their liver and intestines.


    Compared to this, the harpoon wielder was much luckier. When he was knocked down by the lion, he was first hit by a large paw, and his neck bones shifted immediately, and he was already dead.


    "Why? Why?"


    In the midst of the enthusiastic cheers of the surrounding audience, the sword and shield wielder cried out intermittently.


    He trembled, experiencing the double pain of torn limbs and live internal organs, his face covered in blood and tears.


    The largest of the cave lions temporarily stopped feasting, lifted its massive head from the sword and shield wielder''s belly, its hair around its jaws stained red with blood.


    The dazed lion looked at him once, then warily looked forward.


    The sword and shield wielder was stunned to see that the lion''s eye was pinned with an arrow. A bright red kept gushing from the wound and flowing down the lion''s face, converging with the blood around its jaws.


    He suddenly realized, shakily raised his head, and followed the lion''s gaze.


    The woman was still standing in place.


    At some point, she turned her body. The bald left side of her face was facing him, with blue tattoos on her scalp that looked like rose vines and more like winding snakes.


    She glared at him, a hint of mockery on her thin lips.


    Those jade-like eyes, deep in the shadows of their sockets, seemed to harmonize the brutality of beasts and the wisdom of humans.


    She was more like a predator than the lion.


    This was the last thought that appeared in the sword and shield wielder''s mind before his consciousness fell into darkness.

 Chapter 6: The Silver-White Mother Lion

    In the midst of the audience''s cheers rising higher and higher, Arthure leaned heavily against the back of his chair.


    "They love her," the black priest said with satisfaction, "Listen, the cheers of the people, they call her ''Silver White Mother Lion'', even have a nickname."


    Arthure''s face flushed red.


    He heard very clearly that the laughter and shouting from the people was not only "Silver White Mother Lion," but they also called her "Conqueror of the Ogre Conquerer."


    -- he led his troops to conquer the Ogre Court, he is the "Ogre Conquerer."


    He glared fiercely at the audience. The enemies of the Enrille family were too many. He didn''t know how many people were taking advantage of the situation to stir up trouble and tarnish his reputation and make fun of him.


    Arthure covered half his face with his hand and redirected his gaze to the towering figure in the death match, his eyes nearly spitting fire.


    A woman does not understand or care about the audience''s screams. After so much time, the black shaman''s language magic has lost its effectiveness.


    Twenty steps away, four giant beasts surrounded the spearmen and shield men who were dining. In no time, they would devour the two corpses leaving only bones.


    She faced the four lions, knelt slowly with one knee, and used her bronze sword to pry off her shackles.


    During this time, the lions curiously looked at her. When they found that she had no intention of approaching them to fight for food, they no longer paid attention to her and focused their attention on the flesh and blood in their big mouths.


    The heavy shackles were removed from the woman''s ankle.


    She stood up, moved slightly and regained her light feet. She walked two steps forward confidently. This made the leader of the lions interrupt his meal and raised his head to look at her warily.


    But she did not approach any further and stopped beside the body of the spearmen.


    The leader of the lions looked at her for two seconds, and when he saw that the woman was no longer approaching and the three other lions were gobbling down food, he reluctantly gave up the opportunity to waste time eating and buried his head to fight for food with the other lions.


    She took the opportunity to quickly and skillfully remove the spearmen''s thick-soled sandals.


    She picked up the shoes, but encountered difficulties.


    She compared her feet to the shoes. Although the spearmen was tall and burly, he had small feet. The shoes were one size smaller than her feet.


    She simply pulled off a few straps from the front of her shoes, making the opening for her toes larger, and successfully put the shoes on her feet.


    She breathed a sigh of relief, finally no longer having to step on the scorching yellow sand barefoot.


    Next were the loincloth and leather waist protector on the long spear-wielding body.


    She held the bronze sword in her mouth, quickly fastened the loincloth, and then put the leather waist protector around her waist, fastening the buckle and pulling it up to above her chest muscles. The tassels of the waist protector hung down, providing some coverage for her snow-white, toned abdominal muscles.


    The audience laughed and cheered, expressing their regret that the spring scenery was gone.


    The last thing to put on was the cowhide armguards that joined over the shoulder.


    After putting on the armor, she held the bronze sword in one hand and picked up the shackles from the ground with the other hand, maintaining her stance facing the cave lion, and slowly retreated to the locked passageway.


    Everyone in the audience shouted "open the door".


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    The scene of the muscular naked woman wearing shackles fighting with a man and the lion feasting on a live person have greatly satisfied their appetite.


    "Show mercy, my dear, even for my sake."


    The noble girl smiled gently, "I''m about to have my birthday, and my father is holding a female gladiatorial contest in the Emerald Lion Hall in my name."


    She looked down at the "silver white mother lioness" and her eyes shone, "I hope this woman can appear in my arena, compete in my name, and win the championship."


    Aschel''s face was dark as he suddenly snapped his fingers.


    The female slave responsible for serving tea in the room came over to Aschel''s side.


    "Tell your master," Aschel said coldly, "the death match entrance must not be opened until that prisoner kills a lion."


    The slave obeyed and left.


    The sword sorcerer Barnimell was silent. The black priest in the back row moved his mouth, but in the end, he said nothing.


    Aschel turned and stared at the shocked noble girl. His gaze seemed to eat people.


    "Did you hear what the audience said?"


    He looked at her, with disgust and hatred in his eyes, "You know, that prisoner humiliated me, humiliated my family. And you, Cynthia, it seems you have forgotten, you should be my fianc¨¦! You, should stand by my side!"


    In the center of the arena, the four lions finished eating the bodies of the spearman and the shieldman, and chose the easiest food to reach.


    The largest lion leader took the lead and monopolized the body of the nearest lanceman, feasting on its flesh and blood. The other three lions also wanted to come over and join in the fun, but unexpectedly, the lion leader raised his blood-filled head and roared at them.


    The other three lions retreated.


    They turned and ran towards the body of the archer in the distance.


    One of them started a little slower and was half a body behind. When it was about to catch up, it was overtaken by the other two lions and excluded from the feeding circle.


    In the moment of discord among the lions, the woman turned and ran, rushing towards the tunnel entrance. However, when she arrived at the entrance, she found a very sturdy iron gate blocking her way.


    The slave trader stood on the other side of the iron gate, looking at her with mixed emotions through the fence.


    "You have to kill a lion," he said, "I don''t want to do this either, you can make me a lot of money. But I have no choice."


    She didn''t understand a word he said.


    She examined the iron fence gate by herself and knocked on the door with force, confirming that she couldn''t open the door with her strength.


    At that moment, she heard the audience''s exclamation from behind, felt the sharp gust of wind, and smelled the strong smell of blood!


    The hungry lion roared and circled restlessly. When it turned its head, it saw the woman running towards the entrance of the tunnel.


    It pushed its four paws on the ground and leaped into the air like a gust of wind, slapping its giant paw towards the woman''s back!


    Just as the giant paw was about to feel the soft and warm skin of the prey, the lion suddenly realized that the woman in front was gone.


    Immediately, there was a sharp pain in his lower body.


    Before the slave trader could figure out what was happening, he heard a loud crash, and a massive lion''s paw slammed against the opposite side of the iron fence.


    The iron fence made a loud crash.


    The black iron gate was instantly dented and deformed, and several thick iron nails shot past him from the side and hit the wall of the corridor, making a loud noise.


    His head was buzzing, and he stood there numbly.


    He couldn''t control the flow of warm urine, wetting his pants.


    In the moment when the lion charged close, the woman fell to the ground, kicked the iron gate with her feet, and used the reaction force to roll on the spot, drilling from under the lion''s belly to behind the lion.


    She raised her hand, and a sword pierced the lion''s perineum, with the handle completely gone, and then pulled down with force.


    The roar of unbearable pain startled the other three cave lions.


    Three lions raised their heads at the same time.


    They saw their companion make an unprecedentedly mournful roar, ignoring the white food standing aside, and jumped around like a madman. When it jumped up high, the shattered testicles and intestines were thrown out of the lower body, and the bright red blood was scattered on the scorching yellow sand under the sun.


    Three cave lions put down the food in their mouths at the same time, and looked at their companion in surprise and uncertainty.


    At this time, the companion had quieted down, but the body soon became shaky.


    They watched it fall to the ground with a bang, limp in the sand, and panting weakly. The roar soon stopped, and only the left rib facing upwards was still together.


    They watched as the creature that should have been food circled to the side of the companion''s back, raised the sword, bent down, and picked up the companion''s huge head with blood-stained mane.


    The three lion ears were pressed against the sides of the head together.


    In the thunderous cheers, the woman inserted the bronze sword at her feet and raised the lion head with both hands, raising her head to drink the blood of the dead lion''s neck.


    The whole person was suddenly blood-red.


    Hunger and thirst prompted her to drink passionately.


    Until she was full in her belly and could no longer drink, she casually threw away the lion head.


    Ashuer looked blankly at the passageway. The slave trader executed his orders without fail, and the iron gate opened to her.


    The lion head thumped on the ground, splashing up a yellow sand.


    Under the scorching sun, the woman bathed her blood-stained tall body and the blood-soaked sand around the dead lion, steaming up a faint scarlet, like smoke and mist.


    She wiped her mouth and turned to look at the three lions lying in the distance, lowering their heads and growling uneasily. But none of them, including the leader of the cave lions, dared to approach her or roar.


    A creaking sound came from behind her.

 Chapter 7: Memories by the Fire

    The best memory in the woman''s life was when her father told her stories during her childhood.


    Every night when the darkness fell, the smoke of the fire rose in the long house. Her one-eyed father returned from hunting and sat down by the fire pit, drinking honey wine and holding her, who was ten years old, on his lap.


    He let her touch his long beard and the seal-skin eye patch.


    "The giants from the stars brought fire and wind to this world," her father said, gazing tenderly at her mother who was tending to the fire pit, "but Cromm and Fruya, our gods, lived in this world from the beginning."


    The firelight made her mother''s calm face red.


    "That was a long time ago, when the world was still chaos. The giants came from the unknown starry sky to the earth. They ate people and used evil magic to enslave us."


    Later, it was Kromm who discovered the secrets of forging from the earth and drew power from the flame, turning shattered rocks into "unimaginable metal." He used it to forge a sword, which was the "King''s Sword." It was Freya who discovered how to use the sword. With it, she could kill everything that could run and jump in the world.


    The giants were afraid and stole the sword from Kromm and Freya. Kromm raged, shaking the earth and sky with fire and wind. Freya led us in pursuing and killing the giants and their evil, shape-shifting followers. The giants escaped into the deep sea to hide forever and never appeared again.


    But in their anger, the gods forgot the secrets of metal and the methods of fighting with metal were lost on the battlefield. In the end, we found it.


    Father picked up the heavy, black battle axe from the ground beside him and let his daughter reach out her curious little hand to touch the icy axe face with its runic-like markings.


    "Not a deity, nor a giant," he smiled at her, "just ordinary people with flesh and blood."


    He kissed her forehead.


    "Go to sleep. Tomorrow morning, I will teach you how to use metal in combat. Right now, your mother and I have some things to do."


    Her mother''s face became even rosier.


    "Wait a minute, Dad," she remembered begging, "tell me about that stolen sword, the one stolen from Crom."


    "That sword..."


    Her father''s gaze was fleeting, as if reminiscing, and also as if sighing.


    "It was a long time after that, the Hyperboreans conquered Akkron, Poseidon''s Isle and the Mu mainland sank into the sea, and the god-breaker, Borkrug, destroyed Sarnath... During that time, the sword of the king was found by a wild Western Somerian. This person, wielding the king''s sword, killed the incarnation of the gods and exterminated the snake-men of the city of Ngyur in their entirety!"


    In the firelight, her golden-like eyes shone like gold.


    Even though she had heard the story countless times, she was still excited every time she revisited it.


    Her father smiled at his daughter.


    "This Western Meiliana barbarian," he said, "has participated in countless battles, defeating countless strong enemies. For hundreds of years, people have praised his name. He is the King of Aquilonia, the barbarian Conan."


    She longed to linger and let her father talk a little more, but her mother was impatient: "Don''t keep talking to your dad anymore! Go to sleep!"


    Before she dreamed of her mother calling her name, the woman opened her golden-like eyes.


    She still lay on the narrow prison cell''s thatched pile, her body slightly moved, and the shackles clanged.


    When she returned to the tunnel, she faced the nervous slave trader and his armed thugs for the first time.


    The woman surrendered her weapon without resistance and was shackled and returned to the prison. She did not plan to act recklessly before it was clear where she was and how many guards were around.


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    Lying on the familiar pile of straw, her tense nerves relaxed and she quickly fell into a dream.


    Footsteps echoed down the corridor.


    Soon, the slave trader and his two bruised henchmen appeared outside the fence.


    The next procedure was familiar.


    They opened the door, roughly shackled her to the iron ring on the wall. Two female slaves carrying a bucket of water entered the cell to bathe her.


    However, this time the water in the bucket was at a warm temperature, and the bristles in the slaves'' hands were no longer rough and abrasive but fine and soft cotton.


    They even brought a bottle of fragrant essential oil.


    The slave girls first pour hot water carefully over her head, wash her hair thoroughly, and massage her scalp. Using a cotton cloth dipped in slightly cooled water, they wipe off the dried lion''s blood from her body. They apply essential oil all over her body, using a black obsidian knife to remove the sand and sweat from her skin and also shave her underarm sweat hair. Their movements are cautious, as if they are afraid of hurting her.


    They repeat the washing process, finally changing to a dry cotton cloth to gently absorb moisture from every inch of her skin, even the folds in her armpits and private areas. They apply the essential oil again, stroking her torso, massaging her limbs and feet, allowing her to fully relax.


    She rolled her eyes in her heart and guessed what was going to happen. With great endurance, she restrained herself from killing them all.


    After all, this was her second time experiencing such treatment.


    The last time she had a similar bath was when her family was killed and her younger sister was taken away, she was captured into a military camp by being tied up with ropes. A few tan-skinned slave girls appeared, just as she experienced now, bathing her with hot water and shaving her sweat hair. She was bewildered and could only let them have their way, feeling like a wild boar that would be cleaned up before being gutted.


    However, they didn''t kill her or eat her. After a lot of fuss, the slave women carefully adorned her naked body with necklaces of fine gold and various gems, and sent her into the bedroom of a noble.


    The luxury of that room was something she could never have imagined in her dreams. The furnishings inside, the rare things she had never seen before in her life.


    Compared to her long house where she lived, that room was like ... she didn''t want to describe her home as a "pigpen", but reluctantly admitted that it was the most factual vocabulary.


    But she knew that even the most powerful earl in the north couldn''t live in a house like that.


    She didn''t remember much about the young noble''s appearance, only remembered that he was a southern man with a tanned complexion, but she still remembered clearly what he did next to her.


    She easily broke free of the ropes, waiting in the room - outside were all fully armed soldiers, and she didn''t know where to run.


    She calculated, first grab an important person in the military camp, blackmail him, and force the soldiers to let her escape.


    Laying on the soft and comfortable bed for an unknown amount of time, she was drowsy and almost falling asleep. At this moment, a man, more accurately, a boy, drunkenly walked in and climbed onto the bed.


    Between being half asleep and half awake, she felt someone touching her and woke up. She turned over and faced the naked dog-like thing next to her. She saw that his age was similar to that of her murdered younger brother, with no beard yet, only delicate down.


    This is why she did not immediately strangle him to death.


    She first slapped him and knocked him off the bed, got off the bed slowly, and flew a kick at him before he could get up, aiming at the tent between his legs. She watched him spit white foam, rolling his eyes and shrinking on the ground. She then tore off her thin gold chain and tied him up tightly, just like tying up a wild pig in the black forest near her home.


    When the boy regained consciousness, she punched him again and then ate all the food she found in the bedroom. A roasted pork leg, a roasted wild chicken, and some nuts and figs... barely filled seven tenths of her stomach.


    It might have been that the food was too mixed at once, and she felt discomfort in her stomach and could not go out to relieve herself.


    She clutched her stomach, looked around, and finally settled on the golden helmet studded with dozens of gems in the corner of the room.


    She had never seen such a beautiful golden helmet, and was slightly reluctant... but there are three emergencies.


    Under the gaze of the little boy in terror and grief, she picked up the golden helmet, inserted it back into the wooden floor in the corner of the room, squatting on the neck of the golden helmet and solving the problem with a crack.


    Then, there was a little surprise.


    She was thirsty, and found two large jars of wine in the room.


    The wine brought by the southern nobles is different from the honey wine brewed by the local people. It has a sweet and soft taste. She took a sip, felt it was sour and sweet, very delicious, not too intoxicating, and wanted to have another sip after drinking one. As a result, she drank all of one big jar of wine, sip by sip.


    After that, she couldn''t remember some things clearly.


    Feeling tipsy, she admired the tough guy and drank a second glass of wine while he was serving his second sentence. After drinking the wine, she found herself unsteady and gradually slumped against the captive, using his belly as a pillow and entering the dreamland.


    When she woke up, she found that her hands and feet were shackled, and she was locked in the prison.


    She vaguely remembered that she was drinking and her body was floating, so she interrogated the captive while drinking the second glass of wine and asking him if he had seen her little sister being taken away.


    She didn''t expect that the captive, although young and unspoken, was actually a tough bone.


    She used various non-bloody punishments on him, but he didn''t cooperate - well, now looking back, it''s more likely that he didn''t understand what she was saying because of the language barrier.

 Chapter 8: The Bright Future

    After bathing, the woman was dressed up and sent to the second floor of the prison. The so-called dressing up was putting on a brand new loincloth and chest wrap.


    Both the chest wrap and loincloth were camel color, with delicate texture and beautifully embroidered patterns. There were half-foot long cloth tassels hanging at the hem.


    She was surprised to find that the cloth was actually fine linen.


    She had only seen this kind of cloth once before. That was when she went with her father to the upper reaches of the river to trade furs and honey with the Scythians there.


    The linen cloth looked thick, but felt light and cool when worn. The only drawback was that the surface of the cloth was uneven and had some fluff, and her towering chest muscles lightly rubbed against the chest wrap, standing out in two places.


    The slave trader feared that she would lash out and hurt someone. Before departing from the prison cell, he ordered his henchmen to tighten the chains between her shackles, binding her tall and athletic body into a bundle, making it almost impossible for her to stand upright.


    Next, one of the henchmen led the way, pulling her like cattle, while the other followed behind, occasionally whipping her back and buttocks with a small whip. She gritted her teeth and silently sentenced both men to death in her mind.


    Bent over and tottering, she made her way through the corridor and up the stairs to a large room.


    As she was escorted along the way, she secretly memorized the route.


    When the slave trader pushed open the door to the room, the thick, pungent incense made her sneeze.


    They pulled her to the wall of the large room and made her stand against the wall. Only then did the slave trader loosen the chains on her shackles. They nailed the shackles of her hands and feet to the iron rings embedded in the wall.


    It looks like they''ve taken the lesson from last time to heart.


    No matter. She thinks coldly.


    Her expression is blank and her arms are slightly bulging, she quietly tests the strength of the iron ring and the brick wall.


    This won''t stop her.


    The slave trader waved for the thugs to leave the room, leaving only himself, waiting respectfully in the room.


    She looked around, noticing rough wooden walls with paintings of gladiators and lions, and several stone sculptures standing in the room.


    She relaxed.


    No bed, no food, this shouldn''t be a bedroom.


    She hoped the person who called her here wasn''t thinking of sleeping with her again.


    She thought disgustingly of the half-sized rascal she had dealt with before.


    Before she could understand her situation, she didn''t want to kill. But if faced with someone seeking death, she wouldn''t show mercy.


    This time, there were no men in the room.


    Soon after, a Southern girl with a purple veil appeared before her.


    The pure purple long-sleeved tight dress, showing her slender and graceful figure, also revealing her two smooth wheat-colored arms. Her arms were adorned with several golden bracelets and necklaces. Over the tight dress was a green spiral jacket with tassels, decorated with swallows and green birds embroidered with gold thread, which was very rich and imposing.


    Two strong and robust female slaves followed the young girl, each holding a tray with wine bottles and wine utensils.


    Assyrian nobles are always strict in terms of rank: household slaves are lowly, akin to pigs and dogs, and cannot wear clothes. Therefore, both female slaves were naked, only tied with a cloth cord tied around the waist. But that waist cord was intertwined with silver and gold threads. To the northern woman''s eyes, the one on the left, the waist cord was woven with silver thread, and her skin was black as coal; the one on the right, the waist cord was woven with gold thread, black hair, blue eyes, and skin as white as hers.


    The slave trader knelt beside him with his head bowed deeply, not daring to look more.


    The golden collar worn on the chests of these two female slaves was enough to buy all of his belongings with just one of them.


    This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.


    "Beautiful and noble mistress," he said loudly, "Please allow me to show you ''the silver-white lioness''."


    The woman felt that his exaggerated demeanor looked like a fool. That was the kind of vulgar clowning around at home, offered for everyone to beat up and enjoy.


    The girl ignored the slave trader and came to the woman''s face, standing there with her face mask aligned with her large breasts.


    The girl looked up at her and said a few words she couldn''t understand. Her voice was soft and clear, but with a hoarse sandiness.


    The woman only saw the wine bottle on the tray in the slave girl''s hand.


    In any case, she couldn''t drink the fruit wine made by southern people again.


    The wine made by southern people. As cunning as they are. When it first entered the mouth, it felt like juice, and there wasn''t much alcohol flavor besides the sour and sweet. But drinking and drinking, people unconsciously got drunk. Translated into English in sections.


    "Yes, can''t drink anymore," she licked her lips. "Just a taste."


    "The master is asking," the white-skinned slave girl with a golden waist cord said in a language a woman could understand. "Before having a good relationship with Ashur, were you a ''virgin''?"


    She raised her silver-gray eyebrows.


    She asked, "Which tribe are you from?"


    "Answer the master''s question," the white-skinned slave girl said.


    The woman looked blank, "What is a ''virgin''?"


    The white-skinned slave girl frowned slightly. She had lived in Assyria for too long and almost forgot that the word "virgin" was an Assyrian word and did not exist in the native language of the northern people.


    The white-skinned slave girl thought for a moment and said, "It means have you remained pure for Pallas Athena."


    The woman understood.


    However, the first half sentence "before being in a relationship with Ashur" confused her. In fact, she had no idea what the name was of the southern boy she had punished.


    She was too lazy to find out.


    "I don''t know, I rarely pray to the gods," she said. "Why are you asking?"


    The white-skinned slave girl translated her words into Assyrian for the girl to hear.


    The girl chuckled shyly from under her veil, "Why would she say she doesn''t know? Can you not know something like that?"


    The white-skinned slave girl said, "Yes, my master."


    "Why?"


    "That woman is a looter from the Ice Sea, belonging to the northern barbarian tribe farthest north-"


    The girl interrupted her: "Farther north than your Seleucid?"


    "Farther north," said the white-skinned slave. "Please note her hair color and her eyes. In our legends, the people of the Ice Sea are no longer fully human. They are descendants of dragons conquered by Ishtar or giants of frost."


    The girl listened, approached the northern woman a few more steps, stretched out her wheat-colored hand and gently touched her solid, smooth white belly, then retracted her hand like lightning.


    The girl muttered, "Her skin is truly crystal-clear and white, whiter than your Seleucids...feels cool to the touch, like salt crystals and silver."


    The slave said, "The people of the Ice Sea also believe in Crom and Ishtar. But they live recklessly, either soaking in blood or soaking in alcohol."


    "What does that mean?"


    "Brawling and drinking," said the fair-skinned slave girl.


    The woman was shackled to the wall, and although she didn''t understand the Assyrian language of the fair-skinned slave girl, she could feel her malicious intent.


    "North men all know, if they want to sleep with a woman from the Ice Sea, they have to either defeat her or get her drunk. Getting drunk and being violated is very common over there, and even she herself doesn''t remember or care."


    "So she says she doesn''t know."


    The girl let out a sigh and her spirits fell.


    "Oh well," the girl said regretfully.


    "I was originally going to take her as my personal slave and have her serve exclusively as my bed warmer after I get married to Ashur. Ashur probably likes her, I can tell."


    "I never would have thought that his kink would be so strange..."


    This was a thought the young woman didn''t voice.


    The young woman was, of course, Xena, the fianc¨¦ of Asher.


    As the daughter of the city''s lord, she knew more reliable insider information than the rumors outside:


    The next morning, the soldiers of the Assyrian Empire knocked on the door of their general''s bedroom, but no one responded. The soldiers felt something was wrong, so they broke in.


    What they saw was a naked man and woman intertwined. Their young commander was tightly bound by four horses, with cloth stuffed in his mouth, and his body was covered in bruises, especially the purple and bright lower body, which seemed to have been trampled by someone''s foot.


    The woman was snoring, her head resting on their commander''s stomach, and one foot still hanging off the bed.


    Not only that, soldiers found signs of submission from many tribal elders in the northern region in the golden helmets in their beds, which were made for the commanding officer with unparalleled magnificence, and the indescribable items in the half-helmets in the golden helmets.


    The first thing Aschur did after being rescued was to announce to the entire army that everything was normal and he had nothing to do with it, just a small mistake in the game. Then he privately found the vice-commander and asked him to quickly "handle" the woman.


    The vice-commander thought he was "smart" and quickly found the slave trader who was with the army, and commissioned him to send her to the capital, Niniwei.


    The young woman spoke seriously with a motherly air: "Since Aschur has such a strange hobby, I feel that I cannot fulfill my wife''s duty to make my husband happy. So, I thought, maybe this woman could satisfy Aschur...but since she was not a virgin before she was intimate with Aschur, she is not qualified to be my personal slave - let''s go, I don''t want to see her again."


    The young woman turned and left.


    "Wait, wait a minute, your noble mistress."


    The slave trader, who was kneeling by the side with aching waist and legs but was ignored, stammered, "So, for the female gladiatorial contest on your birthday, you don''t plan to let her win in your name?"


    "No," the young girl said lightly without turning her head, "Ashur doesn''t like it."


    The slave trader was stunned.


    The white-skinned female slave held the wine cup, followed the master''s pace with ease, and was filled with a joyful flame in her heart:


    She was also a "tall white mare", matching the aesthetic of the future master, and now, she had also obtained the secret of pleasing the future master. Why should she rely on this rough woman?


    There was no doubt that her future was bright.

 Chapter 9: The Man Swallowed by the Lions Mouth

    The woman was shackled to the wall, unaware that her fate was almost turned.


    She gazed intently at the departing bottle of wine and the slave trader, regretfully puckering her lips.


    The slave trader knelt in place, dispirited and dejected.


    He listened as the footsteps of the young master and slave faded away, growing increasingly distant until they completely disappeared. He then gasped for breath and struggled to get up.


    It took a while before his eyes came back into focus.


    He looked at the woman shackled to the wall, his forehead blue with veins throbbing. Suddenly, he tore off his round hat and pounded it on the ground with force, yanking on his beard and hair with all his might.


    "It''s all over! Everything has been destroyed by you!"


    He roared at the woman with a tinge of crying, "Stupid savage woman, can''t even lie properly? Just say one sentence ''a virgin'' and that''s it!"


    The slave trader with tanned-red skin is named Anan-diyebu.


    Anan-diyebu''s grandfather was a nobleman of the Akkadian people. His family was said to be directly related to the king of all kings of Akkad, Sargon, and had their tribe and vast mountain pasture.


    Anan-diyebu''s fate was originally to be a prince or lord, but since the Assyrian Empire destroyed his family''s tribe, cut off the heads of his grandfather and great-grandfather, and hung them on tree branches, he is no longer. His father became a prisoner of war of the Assyrians and then a slave before he turned ten. He was born into slavery, just like his father.


    Anan-diyebu struggled for forty years and, through his intelligence and bravery, finally inherited the master''s household and became an Assyrian in the registry of the capital. After that, he had six wives and a small business as a slave trader accompanying the army.


    However, forty years of slavery life made Anan-diyebu forever lose a sense of security. Until now, he still has nightmares from time to time. He dreamed that one day if he accidentally angered the powerful, he would be degraded back to slavery.


    Now, the slave trader Anan-diyebu is horrified to think that this nightmare seems to be about to become a reality.


    To avoid this kind of thing from happening, Anandiebunu worked hard to climb up and grab onto any thigh he could grab. For example, the prestigious Tengo family, the young star of the empire, and the Ashur family of the Ereler family.


    Anandiebunu, the active slave trader, gave up a large amount of war loot and cheap slaves and personally escorted the northern woman back to the capital.


    What does a small profit matter? As long as he can use this woman to get into the Ereler family, he can achieve social mobility.


    Anandiebunu''s calculations were good. As soon as he arrived in the capital, he immediately sought credit from the Ereler family and then he was tragic.


    He only realized that he and the deputy had made a mistake. Ashur lied about the woman to save face, and the enemy of the Ereler family who knew the inside story exposed Ashur.


    At the critical moment, when he brought the woman to the capital, he not only failed to appease Ashur and the Ereler family but instead greatly offended them.


    Anndyeb was almost beaten to death. Furthermore, the Enlier family also sent people to kill half of his family members: three wives and two children, who were killed in their sleep by having their throats cut.


    Anndyeb woke up early and found the bodies of his loved ones lying beside him. He was devastated and could only swallow his tears and humiliation, using all means to prove his loyalty to the Enlier family.


    He sent the woman to the death arena. To ensure that the disaster star could die tragically in front of everyone, he did not provide food and water to her and even made her fight with lions while wearing shackles, following A-Shuler''s orders.


    However, the woman survived the death match and returned with honors, becoming the "silver-white mother lion". This caused A-Shuler to lose even more face.


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    This pushed Anndyeb to the brink of despair.


    He lacked the courage to ally himself with the enemies of the Enriel family, and so he had no choice but to have his entire family killed by assassins in their sleep.


    The only option was to ally himself with Ansel''s fianc¨¦, Cynthia of the Minies family, who was from a prominent family equal to the Enriels and was a generations-long in-law of the Enriels.


    If he could gain the protection of the Minies family and reach a reconciliation with Ansel, the Enriel family might take him into consideration as a small player and even recognize his worth, making him a useful pawn.


    Slave trader Annediye was filled with despair.


    Just as he was about to achieve great success, this disaster only took one sentence to make his entire plan go down the drain and the lives of his entire family might also go down the drain.


    The woman shackled to the wall strangely watched the slave trader give a beast-like roar while desperately pulling at his own hair.


    His fierce determination almost made his whole scalp come off.


    The bodyguards probably heard the strange noise and stood outside the living room to look inside.


    At this moment, Annandibubu took a long breath and regained his composure.


    He threw the two clumps of hair he was holding, bent down to pick up his cylinder hat, dusted it off, and put it back on his head.


    "Go get Lucius," the slave trader said wearily.


    The contract craftsman took a chunk of clay the size of a head from the rack and put it with a "bang" on the stove.


    He picked up a round piece of wood the size of an arm and pressed it down on the clay. The round wood rolled back and forth from one end to the other, then turned direction and rolled back. After rolling a few times, the clay expanded into a large brown cake.


    Then he pulled out a small knife and cut off the edge of the cake.


    A square piece of soft clay appeared in front of everyone.


    Lucius showed a friendly smile with a hint of excitement, even raising his arm to wipe his eyes. The slave trader beside him had lost the initial humility, with a dark complexion, standing with his back turned, thinking about something.


    The contract artisan pulled out a sharp reed pen from the pen holder and began to deftly write one beautiful wedge-shaped letter after another on the soft mud board.


    This is a property transfer contract.


    The contract proves that the slave trader Anandiyebu has evaluated his property, priced at three percent, and sold it to the Schwartzenger family''s Lucius. Lucius must pay cash to Anandiyebu within one day. From the moment the book is written, the crude arena, slave prison, and the remaining beasts and slaves in the prison, including the "silver-white mother lion," are all changed to a new owner.


    Lucius held his breath and watched the mud board being written with an intense gaze. He couldn''t help but rub his hands.


    The contract artisan finished the clay tablet and turned around to sternly survey the parties to the contract.


    "You can still back out now," he said, "once the tablet hardens and is deposited in the library for safekeeping, there will be no more opportunity to change your mind."


    Lucius and Anandiyebub looked at each other.


    "No regrets," Lucius said.


    He reached out first and left his palm prints on the blank space on the tablet.


    "It''s your turn, dear Akkadian."


    "I am Assyrian."


    The slave trader Anandiyebub grunted and also followed Lucius'' example, leaving his palm prints on the tablet.


    The contract artisan checked the clarity of the palm prints of the two men again and nodded.


    "Agreed."


    The contractor said, took out his flint, and lit a fire under the stove with quick movements. The stove was already filled with coal.


    As the heat radiated from the stove, the room gradually filled with a strange odor. It was the smell of decaying mud being heated by high temperatures.


    The only thing left was to wait for the tablet to dry and harden.


    The contractor knocked his back, limped to the next stove, and hastened to prepare the next tablet for two other parties.


    Taking advantage of the moment when no one was around, Lucius asked the slave trader, "What are your plans next? Have you sold all your property? Are you planning to escape from Niniveh?"


    The slave trader glanced at Lucius. This impassive man was clearly asking with full knowledge.


    "Although the capital of the empire is good, the air here is not good for my health."


    The slave trader said unhappily, "I will travel, to Babylon to try my luck, or to Kish, to Uruk, even to the Dead Sea''s Sodom or Gomorrah. It''s said that slave trading is better there."


    Lucius smiled: "Then you take care, the journey is long and very difficult."


    The slave trader looked at Lucius with cold eyes, and the young man was no longer trying to hide the smile on his face.


    He was well aware of Lucius'' calculations:


    A gamble, putting fate on that female disaster, to win the gladiatorial contest of the birthday of Lady Xenia before being expelled, using the champion''s right to petition the Menes City Lord, lifting the ban on the Schlesinger family.


    "Take care of yourself, banished Lucius."


    The slave trader sneered.


    "Don''t think your actions are seamless... When did the Schwarzenegger family receive a banishment order and be stripped of their noble title? When did rumors about Lord Ashur spread throughout the city? There are plenty of cunning people, but no one has yet connected these threads.


    "Because no one would have thought that a young scion from a declining family, who is about to be banished, would be so crazy as to dare to reach out to two behemoths, Ernil and Menis, for a tiny profit!


    Lucius turned to the slave trader.


    The fire in the stove lit up the young man''s handsome other half of his face, while the other half, facing Anandibub, was in the shadow and cruel like a ghost.


    The slave trader swallowed hard and a sudden realization hit him.


    Lucius calmly said, "I''m sorry, I don''t understand what you''re saying."


    "What I mean is, for those who have chosen to stay, I hope you will take care of your health too, young and promising Lucius."


    The slave trader Anandiebus chuckled coldly.


    "Nimwee, this great city is like the open jaws of a lion. Too many people fail to see their fate and are devoured."

 Chapter 10: Shackles

    Lucius sent away the slave trader Anandieb and returned to the slave market, feeling much lighter on his feet.


    He walked alone under the scorching sun in the empty arena, then climbed the steps along the spectator seats and entered a simple VIP box, sitting in the chair that Ashur had once sat in, overlooking the arena floor covered with yellow sand.


    Countless blood from gladiators and beasts soaked the arena.


    Even the layers of yellow sand covering it could not hide the faint scent.


    Lucius smirked and greedily breathed in the air with this scent.


    Lucius was from the Schwartz family, a fallen silver family.


    The ancestors of the Schwartz family were priests of the ancient gods, managing the most fertile lands between the two rivers on behalf of the temple, and planting tens of thousands of acres of "Forget-Me-Not" for the temple.


    Thousands of years later, this plant has a more daunting name: opium. But in the era before the pyramids, its extract was the medium for priests to communicate with the divine and for doctors to cure various ailments.


    The glory of the ancestors has arisen, and this is the reason for their rapid decline now.


    Two months ago, the Ber family, who had held the position of head priest for generations, were defeated in a political struggle and were charged with "improperly touching the wrath of the righteous gods" and "embezzling temple property." In the Lion Capital of the Empire, this is the only outcome of such a defeat- a collective attack by numerous prestigious families, resulting in the extermination of the entire family.


    That day, the capital of the empire ran red with blood.


    Imperial soldiers who hunted down members of the Ber family roamed the streets and executed anyone they deemed suspicious before confirming their identity.


    The massacre lasted an entire month and banners made of human skin were flying all over Niniwe.


    If it wasn''t for Lucius''s idea given to his black priest friend, the Schwartzenegers would have already fallen behind the Bells.


    The Bells secretly funded street children to change their appearance and enter the priest schools, using this method to spy on anti-Bells among the priests and ensuring that the power of the priesthood would never fall out of the hands of the family.


    These street children are known as "The Shadows of Bell".


    One of the black priests who appeared to be strongly anti-Bells was actually one of them.


    Before the outbreak of the massacre, he reported to Lucius. Lucius also acted quickly and returned the favor.


    One night, the sky-burning fire illuminated Niniwe.


    The largest temple in Lion City, Niyara Temple, built by the Bel family, was broken into by masked thieves who stole all the gold silver, and ritual vessels and set the temple on fire.


    Everyone was stunned.


    No one thought the Bel family would burn down their own temple, as the temple was home to not only the deity''s seat but also the spirits of numerous Bel family ancestors.


    The blame was naturally placed on the anti-Bel priest.


    Everyone was worried that such madness would anger the gods.


    As a result, all actions against the Bel family and its affiliated families were called off.


    The Schedvin family''s name was also crossed off the list of planned massacres and eventually ended with the outcome of having their land and property confiscated and exiled.


    "You''re truly a mad mixed breed." When the government hall announced the final punishment for the Bel subsidiary families, the black priest said this to Lucius in amazement.


    "How dare you use the gods to play tricks and fool the entire Niniwei."


    "Wrong, ''mad mixed breed'' isn''t me, it''s us," Lucius corrected him.


    Lucius coldly laughed, "Do you think eternal gods will care about our ant-like lives? Do they have the same values as us? You, me, this empire, all lives, and the entire world, since it all belongs to the gods, why would they care about a mere temple and its possessions?"


    "Besides, do you think all the wealthy are fools and no one would realize it was done by the Bel faction themselves?"


    "The powerful all desire the destruction of the Bell family, to share power and wealth, but none want to see complete chaos, which means the situation is completely out of control. So once the situation begins to spiral out of control, they will call a halt, ease the situation, and reassess. The powerful themselves are order."


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    The black priest had no words for his "fallacy."


    "Chaos will eventually be resolved," Lucius smiled as he does now, "Believe me, I''m not fooling anyone, I''m just riding the tide."


    Standing in the death match arena''s VIP room, Lucius patted his face, stopping himself from further reminiscing about the difficult journey he took to protect his family.


    Now is not the time for grand reflections, the plan is far from over...


    Lucius silently calculated.


    Suddenly, the tall, slender, and white-bodied northern woman appeared in Lucius''s mind, making him feel a burst of heat.


    The silver-white mother lioness...


    He determined to reward himself properly.


    After the slave trader Anandiyebu liquidated his assets, he quickly left, taking all of the hired hands with him except for a few female slaves he transferred to Lucius.


    Lucius walks alone in the prison, his footsteps echoing in the chilly corridor.


    He has a false impression as if he is heading towards the lair of the lion.


    It is still that narrow cell.


    Lucius sees that in the corner of the cell, a massive snow-white body is curled up in the pile of straw, without a single strand of clothing on. The finely woven linen that women wear to see Cynthia is very expensive, and no slave trader would let a slave wear such expensive clothing in a dirty and smelly prison.


    He coughed once.


    "It''s me," he said, "You''re mine now."


    His pronunciation was odd, but he spoke pure Northern language.


    A metallic clanging sound echoed in the straw pile as the woman slowly rolled over and sat up.


    In the darkness, a pair of yellow-red eyes glimmered.


    She didn''t say anything, just stared at him.


    Lucius felt the same feeling as when they first met: that suffocating gaze, straight at his face, cold as a blade.


    "I know a little of your language," Lucius said.


    The woman remained silent.


    He had to continue: "I didn''t speak Northern with you last time because that slave trader might have overheard. I didn''t want him to know."


    "Anandiebube, that''s the name of the slave trader. The last time I came to see you, my goal was actually him.


    "He''s the henchman of those who killed your family, so he wants you dead to appease others. I came to sabotage his plan. I asked my priest friend for help, and he gave me a little bit of help... Of course, for this to be successfully resolved, you still have to rely on your own bravery and skill in battle. I heard later that it was a thrilling fight. You also refused Cinxia and saved me from having to use my backup plans...


    "Anyway..."


    As Lucius spoke, he carefully observed the woman''s eyes and expression.


    Unfortunately, he did not receive any information.


    "It''s okay now, I''ve bought this place, and you, too," he said. "You are mine, I own you."


    The woman lay back onto the straw pile without a word, turned over, and faced Lucius with her back and butt.


    "But the next moment, a sentence from outside the fence made her muscles stiff all over:


    "I can help you find your younger sister."


    She was silent, stretched her limbs from the straw pile, propped herself up against the wall, dragging her shackles, accompanied by the crisp and fine metal ringing, slowly crossed the light spots left on the ground by the sun, until she came to the front of the cell fence and stopped, facing Lucius one barrier apart.


    Lucius looked up at the towering and oppressive body and swallowed involuntarily.


    "You''ve seen my priest friend, he gave you food, remember? It was I who asked him for help. He told me- I can help you find your younger sister."


    "What do you want?" The woman asked Lucius for the first time.


    Her tone was low, perhaps because of dehydration, and her voice was hoarse.


    "You came here specifically to talk to me about nonsense like ''possession,'' but I''m already your slave- captured by you, unable to give you a ransom, and unable to escape, I have to be your slave. This is also the custom of the people of the glacier."


    Lucius stared into the opposite jade-like eyes."


    "I want you to be more than just my slave," he said dizzily, "I want you to completely submit to me and give me everything. I want to be your master, to control your life and will!"


    Her expression was somewhat surprised, and then her yellow eyes narrowed dangerously.


    "No one can be my master, not even Freya," she said.


    Lucius was sweating profusely as she stared at him, but he still gritted his teeth and said, "I want to try."


    Hearing Lucius'' answer, the killing intent condenses in her eyes, and her originally yellow-red pupil gradually becomes redder.


    "You are very brave..." she said softly.


    "I can agree with you. Help me find my sister and let my family reunite... you, are my ''master''."


    Somehow, this extremely peaceful tone made Lucius feel the urge to run away.


    Lucius said, "A word is enough. But I need you to do one thing."


    He fumbled with the keys, thrusting them into the keyhole of the gate. The key turned creakily in the lock a couple of times, but the door didn''t open.


    While Lucius was focused on the gate lock, she moved her hands and gently pulled out a small piece of metal from a small, inconspicuous wound at the edge of her palm.


    This metal originally belonged to a copper coin Lucius lost in the prison last time.


    She strongly folded the coin in half, breaking it into two pieces. She kept the smaller piece, tirelessly grinding its broken edge, eventually forming the small metal thin slice in the shape of a crescent moon now.


    She poked her palm with it, hiding it under the skin.


    Although this small piece of metal is not yet sharp, it is already enough to pry open her shackles. Translated into English in sections.


    The southern boy may be more cunning than anyone she has ever seen. But after only two brief encounters, she has already noticed a fatal flaw in him.


    He is too confident and loves taking risks.


    So much so that he came here alone, without even bringing an assistant, to open her prison cell.


    Maybe ... the reason he came alone was to do something with her without interference.


    This thought made her more eager to kill.


    The metal piece quietly pierced the lock of her handcuffs, gently turning.


    Lucius is still turning the key back and forth, the more he turns the key, the more he can''t open the prison door.


    "I seem to have made a mistake in the direction of unlocking," he explained to her, sweating profusely.


    She narrowed her nearly half-red yellow eyes and smiled at him without any humor.


    Just then, two "clicks" sounded simultaneously, as if one voice.


    The handcuffs on her wrist loosened slightly.


    The cell door opened.


    She comfortably blinked and watched Lucius carefully crawl into the cell, counting her heartbeat at the same time.


    The heartbeat was as steady and calm as always.


    Just like when she kills as usual.

 Chapter 11: Life and Death, Male and Female

    Lucius carefully stepped over the prison door and entered the cell.


    Sunlight shone into the cell through a narrow window, forming a bright spot on the woman''s nearly perfect waist curve. Along the undulating muscles, it drew deep and shallow shadows on the pure white torso.


    He held his breath.


    Without the barrier of the iron bars, he found that one side of her body that was facing away from the light was like a snowfield bathed in cool moonlight, while the side facing the light was like a bright and moist riverbank jade.


    "They shouldn''t call you the ''silver-white mother lioness,'' " he said with wide eyes and a dry throat. "It should be ''ivory mother lioness'' that''s right."


    The tall figure stood there firmly, motionless.


    She turned her head slightly and looked at him calmly, as if waiting or inviting.


    Feeling encouraged, he stepped towards her, mesmerized. He raised his arm and reached towards her upper abdomen, like Xena did in the living room.


    He didn''t realize that the pair of yellow-jade-like eyes above his head had almost turned into two blood-red gems.


    The woman was too lazy to act submissively and decided to take action.


    This angle was good, just one move, and she could snap the soft and fragile neck of this southern man... no, she changed her mind, she would first twist his arm and force him to ask some information about here.


    "I have sent someone to inquire."


    Just then, the southern man who seemed to be out of his mind suddenly spoke, "About the person who abducted your sister."


    She was slightly shocked.


    "That person is named Massayer, the most notorious Akkadian mercenary and the shrewdest scout."


    Massayer...


    She repeated the name twice in her heart, determined to remember it firmly.


    But she suddenly realized that the speaker''s palm had somehow climbed up her belly, and the warm feeling was gently moving upward...


    Lucius took a deep breath.


    "One good news, one bad news," he said to himself.


    The good news was that her skin, as white as snow, was smooth and full of elasticity and the feel was so beautiful that he was addicted and unable to extricate himself.


    As for the bad news...


    Lucius took a deep breath.


    At the moment when his hand touched her upper abdomen, he suddenly realized that the "ivory mother lion''s shackles" were just decorations on her wrist and were not even fastened!


    And his own hand was still on the mother lion''s belly, unconsciously touching her soft spot...


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    Sweat beads poured out of his forehead.


    Lucius felt like his heart was about to stop.


    However, he neither dared to wipe the sweat nor dared to look at her face.


    At this moment, he noticed that under the fake wrist cuff, those fair hands that could crack lions and tigers, were clenched into two fists. The blue blood vessels on the back of his hands were bulging because of his exertion.


    Sweat soaked through Lucien''s clothes and heart.


    "Masayes..." He quickly licked his lips and said.


    Just when she was about to raise her hand and punch him, causing his skull to fracture, his whisper drilled into her ear.


    "Masayes''s men always acted as eyes and pioneers for the empire''s army, killing, setting fire, robbing, and selling women and children as slaves along the way.


    "It was also his orders, under his deputy''s command, to search for northern women and attack your village."


    Her gaze was blank.


    The sword that was hung on the neck of her younger sister after she killed her mother and younger brother.


    She closed her eyes, and her chest rose and fell unsteadily.


    Horrible images swirled in her mind, as if with just one glance, she would see the bodies of her loved ones lying close by.


    Lucius exhaled softly.


    Taking advantage of her distracted state, he continued to lightly manipulate his hands on the ivory lion.


    In fact, he just wanted to stop immediately and run as far as he could.


    At this moment, he was sweating profusely, his legs were weak, and he was struggling to stay upright and not collapse like a puppet.


    The little bit of glamour he had when he first entered prison had long since disappeared. Now he just wanted to survive.


    But he had to be consistent with his previous foolish actions.


    If anything was different, she would suspect that he had noticed the secret of the handcuffs and would kill immediately.


    He continued to touch her slowly, while quietly shifting the direction of his hand''s movement, sliding down along her tight, firm abdominal muscles, touching her navel, and slowly reaching down to the ugly slave brand below her belly.


    At the moment when his fingertips touched the brand, he felt that her body slightly twitched, and her skin and flesh tightened slightly.


    --The lion woke up.


    He withdrew his hand like an electric shock.


    At this moment, Lucius seemed to have forgotten the heavy dangers he was facing and asked regretfully, "Does it still hurt?"


    She was silent, as if she was hesitating.


    And he could only wait for his death sentence in this silence.


    After a few seconds, she opened her mouth again: "You continue to talk, where is Masayes, and where is my sister?"


    Her tone couldn''t show her emotions of joy or anger.


    Lucius took a deep breath. He knew he had just barely managed to come back to his senses. But it wasn''t enough. As he entered the cell, he raised his face to her for the first time and firmly shook his head.


    "Masayes is a mercenary, he could be anywhere where there''s war," he said. "Nobody knows where he is now, including me."


    She looked somewhat surprised at his serious expression, but also found it appealing.


    "As for your sister," Lucius said, "my men found out she and you were both sold to Anandibub, the slave trader, by a lieutenant."


    Lucius let out a sigh.


    He knew he had just barely returned from the underworld.


    But it wasn''t enough.


    Upon entering the cell, he looked at her for the first time and firmly shook his head.


    "Masayes is nowhere to be found, no one knows where he is. I don''t know either. But he''s a mercenary, wherever there''s war, that''s where he''ll be."


    His serious demeanor surprised and pleased her.


    "As for your sister," Lucius said, "my people found out that the deputy sold you and your sister to Anandiyebu, the slave trader.


    ¡°But when I took over Anandiyebu¡¯s slave market, I found out that your sister had already been resold to someone else.


    "Who the buyer is, my people are still investigating¡­ I will inform you as soon as I have news."


    Her face softened.


    This was indeed something she couldn''t do. She wasn''t like Lucius. Even if she regained her freedom, in this unfamiliar city, she was still a stranger with nothing. She couldn''t speak the language and didn''t know anyone. Finding her sister was like finding a needle in a haystack.


    She lowered her eyes and looked at him seriously for the first time.


    He looked back at her with sincerity and determination in his dark brown eyes.


    The blood slowly faded from the golden irises.


    "Go out and let me be quiet for a while," she whispered.


    And after a moment of hesitation, "¡­ and, thank you."


    Lucius stumbled out of the slave prison. He barely remembered how he got out.


    The moment he bathed in the sun again, he felt weightless.


    His clothes were damp and dry, and there was a layer of white salt on them.


    He felt as if he had just had a deadly fight.

 Chapter 12: Rejection of the Name

    Since Lucius and the woman had a friendly exchange in the prison cell, their relationship became somewhat strange.


    Lucius still kept the woman in chains in a locked slave prison, pretending he never noticed she managed to unlock the shackles.


    The woman was also willing to continue living in the prison cell as if unlocking the shackles never happened.


    The cell had changed greatly, however.


    Lucius had someone thoroughly clean the cell and hallway, reducing the smell greatly. In the corner of the cell, a pile of thatched grass was replaced by a wide and large bed, covered with thick fur mattresses. One could sink into the fur when lying on it, even more comfortable than the large bed prepared by Arandiebu, the former owner of the slave prison, on the second floor.


    The woman didn''t say anything about this.


    But Lucius could see that she was most satisfied with it: finally, she could stretch her legs while sleeping.


    Lucius commands two slave girls to wait outside the fence gate, serving the woman''s food and drink, and waiting for her orders at all times.


    Behind the seemingly warm hospitality, there is a man''s cunning plan: with these two slave girls serving her day and night, if the mother lioness does not want to let him know that she can remove the shackles, she first has to deceive the slave girls, in that case, she can only reattach the lock of the shackles and may even have to shackle herself.


    This morning, Lucius came to see her and found that his cunning plan was successful.


    The heavy shackles were still hanging on the woman, and she had re-tightened them, tightly bounding her hands and feet.


    Not bad. This is a good start.


    Lucius thought happily.


    At this time, the woman had finished her bath, biting her head rope, letting the two slave girls dry her half-silver hair, carefully tying it up, tying it up on her head, and dividing the shining bald head and dense silver hair obliquely.


    Slaves carefully anointed the tall figure of the "Silver White Mother Lioness" with fragrant oil, making her shine white like the sacrifice to be offered to the gods.


    Their hands moved gently on her body, and she closed her eyes comfortably.


    This fragrant oil was not only visually and aromatically pleasing, but also protected the skin from being scorched by the sun.


    So she judged that her next bout of combat was probably scheduled for noon, and possibly in the courtyard of the aristocracy.


    She sighed softly, calming the restless urge to try.


    At this time, the slaves began to tie the waist rope twisted from black cloth with dark golden patterns around her.


    They helped her tie the waist rope at the top of her hips, and the black tassels hanging from the front and back of the crotch were level with her knees, covering the lower body and exposing the ugly slave brand on her belly.


    She frowned and glanced at Lucius.


    Lucius almost instantly understood her thoughts.


    "Let me warn you, this waist rope is not my doing. Today, we''re going to the Minis family to participate in their female gladiator competition. They are a famous household in the sky.¡±


    Lucius sighed, "The rules of the famous household are strict, even stricter than the pharaohs of Kem. In their courtyard, low-status people can only wear a waist rope, nothing else is allowed. Haven''t you seen the two personal female slaves of Cynthia? They wear that outfit."


    She coldly replied, "I''m not your slave."


    "You are," Lucius said indifferently, his heart pounding, "Forgotten what you said yourself? ''Captured, unable to pay ransom, and not escaping, then you have to be a slave. That''s the tradition of the Ice People.''"


    He cleverly changed "couldn''t escape" to "not escaping".


    The woman was speechless.


    She felt a little wrong, but couldn''t say it. It seemed that the words were indeed spoken by herself.


    Lucius concealed the joy in his heart.


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    As he thought, the language of the northern barbarians was very rough and the woman could not distinguish the difference between the two meanings.


    But being countered by Lucius made her a little unhappy, and she reached out to him with her shackled hands, glaring at him with eyes like yellow jade.


    He quickly walked into the prison cell and unlocked her shackles and handcuffs with a key.


    The woman moved her hands and feet and said, "At least I need a chest binding cloth."


    She raised her toes and then regained her footing, then lightly jumped a couple of times.


    The two huge mounds of snow in front of her chest also bounced up and down, quivering, and heavy.


    Lucius''s eyes also jumped with them.


    "See, it hurts to stretch while jumping," she said with distress, "unless like the Black Sea woman, cut off this pair of things, I can''t fight without a chest binding cloth."


    Lucius shrugged his shoulders.


    "Since it''s the arena in the Minis family courtyard, the other female slaves shouldn''t have any chest bindings, and your fighting conditions are still equal."


    However, the huge difference in volume and weight from birth can''t be compensated.


    He didn''t dare to say this out loud.


    He said, "I know you don''t like the waist rope, but bear with it for now. When we come back, I promise you can wear any linen clothes you like--the front and rear tassels on this waist rope are still what I had someone add last night."


    She snorted.


    Her amber-like eyes seemed a bit displeased, but she didn''t say anything in the end.


    That''s how it is. You haven''t noticed yet, but the second round has already begun.


    Lucius said to himself.


    You have a strong physique and are good at using it to fight, while I am good at manipulating people''s hearts and wills... Compared to you, I am so weak, but all I need to do is guide you, let the identity of the slave take root in your heart and grow gradually, and let you gradually become familiar and accept it.


    Facing her cold demeanor with a disdainful gaze, he replied with a smile.


    "I''ve said it, I am your master. Sooner or later, you will be mine."


    The shoes, leg bindings, wristbands with tassels, and armlets with fringe, all black with dark gold patterns, match the waist rope color.


    The woman signaled for the female slave to step back.


    She was used to doing everything herself and didn''t want anyone else''s help.


    Seeing that Lucius was still standing in the cell, she asked, "Do you have anything to say to me?"


    "Today''s gladiatorial games are all one-on-one, with no lions or other animals. With your abilities, there should be few opponents among the female gladiators."


    Lucius says, "However, many people are participating in the arena battles this time, and there are four people worth paying attention to."


    The woman listened to him while carefully putting on her arm guard.


    "The first opponent is named Dipola, an Eland woman. I''ve seen her fight, she''s not tall, uses two swords, and moves like the wind. She killed three opponents one by one in a battle. However, all her opponents were women, and she has no record of defeating a man."


    "The second one is a black female arena slave from the Kiman tribe, named Chichikova. I haven''t seen her, but I heard that she followed her master to participate in the five-city tour in the Moab Plains and won the city champion in Sodom, Yamah, and Bilah. Her nickname is ''Black Sun''."


    "The third is a female arena slave from the Akkad people, Isis. She is a physically strong and muscular female warrior who is not inferior to you. She once killed a big hyena with bare hands...um, do you know what a big hyena is? It''s a four-legged carnivore with short hind legs and a head slightly smaller than a lion."


    "She keenly sensed the hesitation in his tone."


    "Is there something you haven''t told me about this Isis?"


    Lucius sighed.


    His words made her pause, "She is Masayes''s person, representing Masayes in the war for glory."


    She pulled tightly on the bindings on her legs.


    "Masayes, I understand," she said, "Anything else?"


    "The last one is the Assyrian," he sighed, "A former princess, the pearl of the dust, the wild horse of the Bell family. Please allow me not to mention her name directly. Her sword skills and combat skills are remarkable, on the night the Bell family perished, at least six outstanding Assyrian warriors died trying to capture her."


    The woman didn''t speak.


    Now, she was dressed neatly.


    She moved her limbs slightly, posed a few times, felt that her movements were not hindered, and then extended her hands to Lucius again.


    Lucius asked knowingly, "What does it mean?"


    "Cuffs, put them on for me," she said calmly.


    "In my opinion, the so-called ''famous houses of heaven'' are just some cowards and rodents who maintain their status by belittling others. But they also know that in front of swords and knives, everyone is equal - if I don''t wear shackles, I''m afraid they wouldn''t even let us in."


    "I didn''t know you had such sharp words, but I hope you''ll keep your mouth shut in the courtyard of Menis. There are all big shots inside, one word can decide our life or death."


    Lucius was also straightforward and put the shackles on her feet and wrists, locking them tightly.


    Maybe it was the aftermath of yesterday''s incident. Whenever he stood beside her, who was not shackled, he felt nervous, always felt uncomfortable, had difficulty breathing, and was afraid. Only after seeing that the mother lion was locked up securely, did he feel more comfortable.


    "Until now, I still don''t know your name." Translated into English in sections.


    Lucus asked her, "How should I introduce you to others?"


    She opened her mouth, but didn''t speak.


    After a few seconds of silence, she asked, "What do you want to call me?"


    "Uh, let me think," he didn''t expect her to ask this question, "I think ''Anada'' would be good, the name of an ancient warrior..."


    She nodded casually.


    "Let''s call it that then, Anada. When you introduce me to others, use it: Anada of the Schwartz family."


    Lucus awkwardly laughed.


    He curiously asked, "What''s your real name, can you tell me?"


    Anada was silent for a moment.


    "I no longer use it, and you don''t need to know," she said.


    "O great Fruya, after finding my little sister, I will fight until death and offer my bravery to you. I willingly give up all in the mortal world and the privilege of eternal life in your sacred halls. Please bless me and turn my rage into a death hawk to descend upon my enemies and avenge my family. Before that day comes, I swear to abandon my birth name."


    "The former home burns with raging flames and the blood flowed like rivers."


    The vow echoes in his ears once more.


    "I, Uldred-Mi''mir Sotirel, swear to the ravens soaring in the night sky, and to the broken sword and shattered shield in my hand. I will find my little sister, Chocoti, even if I fall into hellfire or ice and endure countless hardships."

 Chapter 13: The Lion Hall of Jade

    The oxcart slowly passes through the bustling market.


    The "silver-white lioness" sits on the oxcart with her legs crossed, wearing heavy shackles on her hands and feet, and a metal collar around her neck. In addition, her body is wrapped in a black iron chain, the size of a teacup, with one end attached to the metal collar and the other end attached to the iron ring of the oxcart.


    She looks around curiously.


    When she was captured by Anandibub, she was drunk and when she woke up she found herself in a prison cell. Besides the prison cell and the arena, she has never seen any other sights in this city.


    Such a dense crowd, and such dense houses.


    Under the blue sky, the oxcart walks through the bustling crowd. The scorching sun shines on her, making her squint her eyes.


    On either side of the flow of people are high and low houses that are close together.


    The houses here are different from the long houses in my hometown.


    The houses are square and have flat roofs, and the walls are made of dried mud bricks, either light brown or beige. They look unremarkable, but against the endless blue sky, they look beautiful.


    Sometimes, Anada can see walls with wonderful paintings as they pass by in the oxcart.


    Soon, Anada can tell that the walls are painted with people, swords, weaving, war chariots, and animals.


    The most painted animal is the lion, with sharp teeth and claws, looking very fierce. There are also spotted four-legged beasts, with short hind legs and long front legs. That must be the hyenas that Lucius mentioned.


    She also found two animals that she was familiar with in the paintings, the mammoth and the rhinoceros, but the artist painted them without fur, and even without a single hair, which is a bit distorted.


    Lucius rides his horse slowly beside the oxcart.


    "The courtyard of the Menes family are on the opposite side of the west bottom of the Graciosa River in the city."


    Lucius told Aradia, "We first go north, cross the ruins of the Bell family temple, exit the city from the north wall''s Rich God''s Gate, then turn west, cross the Lionhead Bridge, and we''ll arrive."


    Aradia asked, "Why don''t we just go west?"


    "We can''t take the water-bearer''s gate," Lucius said calmly, "That is the path for the humble, and House of Silver Fangs is noble. Any Silver Fang will not degrade themselves."


    She looked at his profile and saw intense light in his eyes.


    The old cattle driver who was driving the cattle laughed out loud.


    The old cattle driver had white hair, wrinkled face, a bronze-colored skin that had been tanned by the sun, and only a white eye ball without a pupil in his right eye. He was wrapped in a black cloak and wore a wide-brimmed sun hat on his head.


    Lucius''s face fell.


    "Is there a problem?" he asked.


    "No," the old cattle driver shrugged, speaking in the unfamiliar northern language, "Noble young master of the House of Silver Fangs, you sure have a big mouth, but since that''s the case, why did you come to hire me, a humble water-bearer?"


    The old man turned his head back, exaggeratedly put his hand on the shade, and looked back with his only eye.


    "Your Excellency, Silver Watch Clan''s Young Master, why are you out here with only a slave, where are your followers and guards?"


    Blood rose to Lucius''s ears.


    Anada watched the two people calmly. She did not expect the old coachman to understand their language, and it was clear that Lucius was being provoked.


    Lucius''s face turned red, but he finally gave the old coachman a smile.


    "Pride is a stubborn thing, I deserve to be ridiculed. That''s me."


    He said lightly, "But I can''t help it, people have to have some persistence in their hearts. Old man, if you want to laugh, go ahead and laugh."


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    The old coachman looked at him in surprise and did not say any more. He hummed a tune and continued to drive the car.


    The wheels rumbled, and the crowd gradually thinned.


    The mud houses crowded on both sides of the street in the market were also replaced by large patches of scorched earth ruins.


    They traveled by horse and carriage.


    Anada sees that the remaining stone pillars on both sides are covered in burnt black, and the broken reliefs are full of marks from sharp blades.


    The dry bloodstains remain in the cracks of the floor''s square bricks and stone steps.


    She listens. The wind penetrates the gaps between the broken walls and ruins, wailing, like tears and complaints, and as if countless people are murmuring in her ear.


    ''Fame and status, magnificent attire and cuisine, there will always be a time for extinction, centuries of extravagance will eventually disappear like smoke in the wind.''


    The old coachman hummed a tune, ''With the power of the boundless deity, even its palace can hardly escape the wickedness of human hearts.''


    Anada glanced at Lucius. At this time, he was riding on horseback, with a stiff face, pursed lips, and a gloomy expression.


    She remembered that he had said, ''Pass through the ruins of the temple of the Bell family,'' and this must be it.


    She asked the old coachman, ''Which clan are you the elder of?''


    ''The icy blizzard that sweeps across the eight directions and the ever-growing weeds are with you, child.''"


    The one-eyed man sighed and said, "I am not from Ice Sea nor from Surt. I have been wandering for too long and have forgotten my own name and my tribe, but I still remember the days of chasing deer in the forest with my family and my dialect that I have not spoken in years."


    He looked at the shackles and chains on her and shook his head, waving his whip to beat the back of the oxen.


    The old driver lowered his voice, so only she could hear:


    "Remember, don''t trust those who put shackles on you. No matter how beautiful their words are, what drips from their tongues is always poison."


    After driving half the way around the capital, when they arrived at the Menis Courtyard, it was close to noon.


    The Menis Courtyard of the famous Menis family was not so much a courtyard, but more like a small town.


    The Menis city was also square in shape, with rammed earth walls slightly lower than the capital''s. Warriors patrolling and guarding the walls were as numerous as ox hair.


    The ox-drawn cart was stopped outside the city walls. Lucius removed the fetters from the mother lion''s feet and took the other end of the iron chain off the car''s iron ring, hanging it along with the handcuffs. He handed the horse over to the Menesian warrior and walked into the small town with her.


    Walking around in the small town, Anada felt a different atmosphere than the capital.


    Here, one cannot see the crowd of people, the streets are bustling with only Menesian family warriors and slaves.


    She suddenly realized that the two of them were walking side by side, but Lucius had fallen behind her half a step at some point.


    It seems that despite his hands being handcuffed, he was still not very willing to walk in front of her.


    As a result, such a strange scene appeared on the streets of the small town:


    A tall and silver-haired female slave, either bound with a black waist rope or an iron chain, carrying a shield, sword, and battle axe on her back, strode confidently down the road. Her elegant Assyrian master, on the other hand, followed her like a little follower, running behind her and sweating, sometimes shouting in northern language such as "Wrong", "Wait a minute", "Should go this way", and so on.


    Whenever she heard such panting and shouting behind her, she couldn''t help but lift the corners of her mouth slightly, slow down her pace, and wait for him to catch up.


    Lucius, who was frustrated after taking three wrong turns, called over two Menes Warriors who were passing by and asked them to lead the way.


    With the guidance and protection of the Menes Warriors, the two finally arrived safely at the central town, the Emerald Lion Hall.


    Anada had originally thought that the Emerald Lion Hall would be a beast arena built with green jade stones, with many lions being kept inside.


    But she found that it was only a grey stone hall with four sides.


    The building was very tall, extremely tall.


    The hall was supported by countless huge stone pillars. In the center was an atrium, where you could see the blue sky and the blazing sun by looking up.


    Around the stone walls, there were seats arranged in a step-like manner, and on top of the seats, there were reliefs depicting the achievements of the ancestors of Menes.


    Stone pillars and reliefs... this reminded Anada of the ruins of the Bell family temple she passed by, where she saw the broken walls and broken tiles.


    The old one-eyed coachman''s melody seemed to echo in her ear again:


    "Reputation and status, clothing and food, everything has a time to fade away, thousands of years of prosperity, eventually vanish like smoke in the wind."


    She looked up at the crystal-clear blue sky above the skylight.


    She thought to herself that perhaps the magnificent Bel Temple before its collapse looked like the Emerald Lion Hall at this moment.


    Below the skylight, countless female slave actors with various skin colors, each with only a waist cord, stood with their hands behind their backs.


    Meanwhile, the men and women of the Assyrian nobility, dressed in magnificent long robes, sat or stood in the shadows around the skylight. They whispered secretly and evaluated the female slave actors'' bodies.


    "A few hundred years ago, this was the council chamber of the Menes family, with the elders sitting around," said the masked girl, Cynthia, as she approached Anada.


    Without waiting for Cynthia''s expression, the slave girls rushed over to remove Anada''s neck ring and chains, leaving only her handcuffs, and helped her remove the weapons and shield from her back.


    Anasya didn''t even glance at Lucius, who was bowing to her.


    "Welcome, ''Silver Mother Lion'', stand beneath the ''Emerald Below''. Today''s ''Emerald Below'' is the bloody ground of warriors'' glory."


    "Those who wish to voice their opinions must go to the center of the skywell, face the crowd, and loudly announce their stance. They must stand under the emerald blue sky and make their speech loud and powerful like a lion''s roar, so that everyone can hear their words clearly. This is the origin of the name ''Emerald Lion Hall''."


    Anasya noticed that only the black-skinned slave girl was left following behind Cynthia.

 Chapter 14: The Joust at "Under the Emerald"

    Lucius watched the tall figure of the woman walking towards the central dome of the Emerald Lion Hall.


    Sunlight shone through "Under the Emerald," illuminating the floor of the hall.


    One can see that the floor of the Emerald Lion Hall was covered entirely with large black and cream-colored square tiles. Four tiles of the same color were put together to form a huge color block. Different color blocks were combined, like a giant chessboard.


    The sky dome of the four sides was divided into sixteen squares by two colors.


    At this moment, almost every square was standing side by side with two female jousters.


    Only one black square was empty, with no one on it.


    That seems to be reserved for her.


    As the "Silver-white Mother Lion" walked up to the empty black tile, standing under the blue sky and basked in golden sunlight, all the whispers around the hall stopped.


    The hall was filled with the heavy breathing of men.


    "It''s true, she''s beautiful," Cynthia said admiringly from under her veil, "Look at her shiny skin, sensual backline, elegant and robust gait... so dazzling and eye-catching, a perfect combination of strength and beauty."


    She turned to Lucius, "What''s the price for your female gladiator?"


    "Honorable Cynthia Miss," Lucius greeted her respectfully.


    He did not respond to her question.


    "Lucius, remember this, everything has its value and can be bought," Cynthia said softly from under her veil.


    "Including forgiveness for burning the temple, and the exile order for the Schwazenegger family."


    These words pierced Lucius'' ears, and he felt his back hair stand on end, his mind in turmoil.


    Cynthia turned to the sky, gazing at Anada in a trance.


    From here, the tall, long-legged Ice Sea woman, standing among many female gladiators, is like a crane standing among chickens.


    "Today is my birthday and my birthday tree is still without decorations."


    Cynthia asked softly, "How much is her hide worth?"


    Lucius shuddered, feeling as if his tongue was stuck to his mouth and unable to make a sound.


    The whale oil fire lit up one stick after another, inserted into the copper ring on the wall.


    The emerald lion hall was surrounded by dim light.


    The silver-white female lion stood alone on the black brick.


    She saw, fully armed Minis warriors circled around the atrium, forming a circle. Behind them, the female slaves wearing cat masks holding trays of copper plates filled with wine and fruit, move between the many Assyrian nobles. The Assyrians casually took food from the passing plates in front of them, including dates and grapes, and drank various light wines.


    She felt a little thirsty.


    At this time, someone clapped their hands, male slaves brought weapons for each gladiator, and opened their handcuffs.


    Anada received her right arm leather armguard, large bronze round shield, and one-foot long iron battle axe.


    As she armed herself, she watched a group of men, tied together with ropes, being escorted by warriors into the hall. They were forced to stop in a place where the sun couldn''t reach from the outside, facing the skylight and kneeling in front of the Minian warriors.


    These men were all naked, with thick black lines on their faces and their body hair shaved clean, including their eyebrows. The Minians gave them a bath and coated them with fragrant oil, shining and reflecting the faint light of torches.


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    Anada narrowed her jade-like eyes.


    These men, though mentally exhausted, looked physically strong with bulky arms and legs. Their eyes were fierce and unruly.


    At this moment, the war drums rang out in the corners of the hall, the Minian warriors around the skylight shouted in unison, their magnificent shouting echoing in the Emerald Lion Hall.


    Suddenly, sword and knife lights appeared.


    Screams echoed through the hall, and in a moment, blood flowed like a river.


    In just a few seconds, all the kneeling men were slain by the Minoan warriors.


    Anada watched as dark fluid spread from the bodies of the men around her, and when it flowed to the "Under the Emerald," the blue sky and bright sun made it bright red again.


    For the Assyrians, there was no need for a misleading speech to start the battle. Nothing was more appropriate than blood as the signal for another bloodbath.


    The combat began.


    As blood flooded into the "Under the Emerald," each female combat slave in the colored blocks began to crazily kill each other.


    Anada slightly lowered her body and protected her left half with a shield, quickly looking around.


    She saw that everyone was fighting fiercely.


    The sound of sharp blades cutting into flesh, the screams of women, one after another.


    Suddenly, she felt a heart-pounding sensation. Her instincts told her that someone was looking at her with malicious intent.


    She followed her instincts and quickly turned around, her gaze piercing through the crowd of people fighting each other. She locked onto a woman in the distance with a terrifying appearance.


    Looking down from her neck, the woman was also a white-skinned woman.


    This description was used because the woman''s nose and the lower half of her face were missing, leaving only black voids, no red flesh and skin, and the tooth socket with teeth.


    The faceless woman was about the same height as her, both wearing leather arm guards, one hand holding a round shield and the other a battle axe.


    At the moment when the two people looked at each other face-to-face, the faceless woman suddenly became furious and roared, rushing towards her wildly!


    In the blink of an eye, the faceless woman rushed into the square where two gladiators were fiercely fighting.


    Inside the square, a small-bodied Elan woman holding two daggers was like a sword dance. She had just cut several wounds on her opponent''s body, causing her opponent to fall to the ground holding his intestines in the square.


    Seeing the faceless woman rushing in straight, the Elan woman immediately spun her two daggers and went to meet her.


    In one round, the faceless woman raised her shield to block the double knives, and at the same time, crouched down and hit fiercely with the round shield. The edge of the shield hit the waist and abdomen of the Elan person, causing her to fly backwards. Before the Elan person fell to the ground, the faceless woman followed up and split the Elan person''s head into two halves with an axe.


    At this moment, Anada had no time to pay attention to the strange faceless woman.


    A white square battle nearby had ended. The winner was covered in fresh blood, with a long and short weapon in his hands, respectively a bronze sword and a single-handed sickle, and he killed into her black area while screaming.


    At the same time, she heard the faceless woman rage and scream in a northern language from a distance: "She is mine!"


    She swayed to avoid the bronze sword coming down, straightened her body and cut into the opponent''s inner circle, slightly exerting her waist and arms.


    The bronze shield hit the opponent''s cheek, making a "dong" sound.


    The opponent''s weapon was released, spinning, and flew up half a person''s height, rolling on the ground without any movement.


    She turned to look at the faceless woman.


    She saw that the faceless woman was chopping and hitting with her axe and shield, knocking over the two other female slaves who were fighting each other, and rushed into her black square.


    The two finally faced each other.


    She looked at the black-haired and blue-eyed faceless woman and felt strangely familiar.


    So she asked, "Who are you?"


    The faceless woman screamed and lunged at her, as if she was in a frenzy of rage.


    Anada took a step forward with a bow, stretching out her long arms and holding up her silver lion shield in front of her, almost touching the face of the faceless woman.


    The faceless woman stopped at her feet, tilted her body backwards, and at the same time shouted out, swinging her ax towards the edge of the shield.


    The ax and shield collided, producing a dull sound. The blade of the ax caught the silver lion shield and pulled it open, tearing through Anada''s defensive line.


    But to her surprise, behind the shield was empty.


    The faceless woman hesitated for a moment, then "crack," a sharp pain came from her left leg.


    While blocking the other''s sight with the shield, the "silver-white mother lion" bent over, her huge and shiny body crouched down, almost forming a straight line with the shield-holding arm extending forward.


    The bronze shield was hooked open by the faceless woman''s battle axe, she twisted her body, and her arms moved left and right. She chopped off the faceless woman''s left leg.


    The faceless woman screamed, fell back and rolled on the ground holding her left leg.


    The mother lion straightened up again, her massive chest trembling with each breath. She stepped on the chest of the faceless woman, almost crushing her breath.


    This time, she looked down carefully, finally having a little impression of the waist rope coiled with golden wire:


    "Spartan woman?"


    The faceless woman''s hands and mouth were full of blood, bursting into a crying and howling laughter. A long string of obscenities burst out from between her exposed teeth.


    The insults and curses came to a halt.


    The mother lion raised her axe and chopped off her head.

 Chapter 15: Battle of the Beasts

    Lucius gently swayed the golden cup, causing the blood-red wine to swirl in the cup.


    "Miss Cynthia, allow me to remind you, we Shvartzes are Frigians, Frigians never sell their own slaves."


    His tone was somewhat confused: "As for ''pardoning for burning the temple'' and ''banishment order''...I don''t understand what you mean."


    A short, abrupt laugh was heard from behind the veil.


    "Don''t pretend to be polite to me. ''We Shvartzes''? Who else is in the Shvartz family besides you now? Isn''t it you who, greedy for wedding gifts, married your widowed mother to the loan shark Midas and your younger sister to the old and ugly property developer Samarsh?"


    Lucius''s face showed no change, as if Cynthia was talking about another person.


    "Do you think you are flawless? Don''t forget, my father is the city keeper of Imperius. Do you think you can escape the eyes and ears of Menes?"


    Cynthia sighed.


    "You will always be like this. Impulsive, reckless, extreme, with a gambling nature, betting everything on one throw. Your personality will eventually destroy you."


    Lucius'' hand that was shaking the gold cup stopped.


    "You always tell me to be calm when doing things," he said. "If I become calm, can I become rich? Can I advance the family''s status? What good will it do if I become calm? Will you marry me then?"


    The veil wavered slightly.


    "I am saving money because I need it, and a lot of it. You know why," Lucius looked at her, "so when I heard of a chance to make money, I recklessly charged into it."


    He laughed self-deprecatingly, "As a result, I fell into the trap of a scam artist. All the hard-earned money was lost, and I even owed a debt. And it was pledged with this year''s peace lily planted by the family."


    "But now the Bell family has fallen, and you''re driving me to the brink. ''Forgiveness for burning the temple,'' so what? I have struggled to the best of my ability, but you still want to exile me and confiscate my family''s land. Without land, I can''t pay the debt. If I can''t pay the debt, it''s a dead end!"


    "You know all this, yet you still taught that inferior slave trader to warn me, forbidding me from coming to see you and seeking your help, hitting me like a beggar... Tell me! What do all those wonderful past times under the moon, those solemn vows by the sea and mountains, mean?"


    Looking at his stubborn and almost crazy eyes through the veil, Cynthia whispered, "I loved you, Lucius. But now I must love him."


    "Must?"


    Lucius sneered.


    "The Cynthia I know is so untouchable. But for that arrogant fool of the Enriler family, how many times have you bowed down to him in front of him?"


    Both of them fell silent.


    Just then, the fighting noise in the skywell attracted their attention.


    They turned their heads together and saw the "silver-white mother lion" galloping in the midst of a bloodbath, fighting and cutting off the head of a Sette slave.


    Under the blue sky, the ground was stained with fresh red.


    Lucius looked calmly at the tall figure that was advancing amidst the dead bodies and blood, "Now, for him, you want me to kill her and take away my only hope?"


    The blood behind his feet reflected the scorching sun on the head, rippling with shimmering golden light, reflecting a blurred figure.


    Anada raised her head and looked around.


    The bodies in the skywell were already laid out on the ground, and the seven or eight remaining winners were still fighting each other.


    "Masayes!" she shouted loudly, echoing through the clouds, "Who is Masayes'' gladiator slave? Come to die!"


    Others didn''t understand her shouting, but the name "Masayes" was understood.


    In a moment, two gazes were cast towards her.


    The mother lion was extremely sensitive.


    The malicious gaze shifted to her, and she immediately sensed it and returned the gaze.


    It was a tall and burly Akkadian woman, naked like her, only tied to a black waist rope.


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    The height of the Akkadian was a little shorter than her, but more muscular than her: the waist was thick like a huge pillar, the body was sturdy like a stone wall, and the arms and legs were like trees. The head was bald, the hair was shaved clean, the bronze head, and the scars left by the sharp blades were densely spread vertically and horizontally.


    The Akkadian held a large oval shield that could protect the whole body in one hand, and surprisingly, carried a long-handled battle hammer in the other hand, which was a weapon held by a common person with both hands.


    There is no doubt that she should be Masayes'' female power warrior, the naked Ithys who strangled the big maned dog.


    Anada took off the round shield and threw it into the bright red blood, splashing a blood flower.


    Faced with such heavy weapons as double-handed war hammers, the defense provided by the round shield was almost negligible.


    She bent down and lifted her arm, crossed the round shield floating up and down in the blood, picked up the battle axe of the Settert slave, weighed it lightly, swung it twice, and tried to see if it was possible to slip out of her hand.


    Then she held two battle axes, splashed through the blood of a day well, and walked quickly towards Isis.


    The pace gradually accelerated, the quick step became a jog.


    The snow-white soles of her feet stepped on the waves in a dazzling blood-red.


    The jog became a charge!


    Almost at the same time, when the silver-white lioness started the charge, the Akard woman on the opposite side also launched a counter-charge.


    Isis'' roar was like a bomb.


    The massive bronze-colored body flew in, unstoppable. Like a rhinoceros, like an elephant, and like a huge rock rolling down from the mountains!


    In the blink of an eye, two giant beasts, black and white, fiercely collide in one place.


    Just before the contact, two people changed their posture at the same time without agreement.


    Isis lowers her left-hand shield and swings her right-hand battle hammer forward with a "whoosh" sound echoing in the Emerald Lion Hall.


    The silver-white cat opposite jumps up, appearing light and graceful, but full of explosive power. The entire person seems like a stone, swooping over Isis''s battle hammer.


    With a loud "bang", the bright iron knee hits Isis''s face.


    Isis fiercely tilts her head back, and almost everyone can hear the crisp sound of her nose bridge and the creaking sound of her neck bones unable to bear the weight.


    However, even after being hit by such a fierce charge flying knee, the strong Akkadian has not fallen.


    Ishis eyes were blurry and teeth falling out, his face covered in blood, as he stumbled backwards, raising his large shield.


    As soon as Anaada hit the ground, she immediately launched an attack. Her double-axes attacked repeatedly, hooking and chopping. But Arkad was cleverly using his large shield to block all of Anaada''s attacks without fail.


    Anaada''s double-axes became faster and faster, but she still couldn''t break through Arkad''s defense line.


    She suddenly kicked the shield with one foot and retreated smoothly.


    ¡¤Rather than continue the attack and waste energy, it is better to regroup and be ready for the next battle.


    Arkad received the kick and stood unsteadily, slipping backwards with one foot.


    Despite this, the shield still did not lose its position, and the defense remained rock solid.


    Arkad stood up, panting, and moved his head and neck, still a little sluggish. His bronze-colored, robust body was covered in blood and looked entirely red.


    Arkad saw a pair of cold, ruthless yellow eyes staring at him.


    The desire for killing causes the yellow lion eyes to almost turn red.


    The Arcadian saw that the opponent''s bright red tongue was leaking from thin lips and lightly licked the blood splatters on the face.


    Countless blood droplets fall onto the brightly white body of the mother lion, dotted like red paint thrown carelessly on a white canvas by an absent-minded painter.


    Ishis took a deep breath.


    This was the first time she so clearly felt that she was fighting for her life.


    If she doesn''t give it her all, she will die.


    The two cautiously moved their steps, circling around each other and gradually approaching.


    Ishis suddenly yelled, swung her large shield with her left hand towards Aradia.


    At the same time, the Arcadian for the first time in his life held a war hammer with both hands in the arena.


    The next moment, the hammerhead made a mournful whistle and drew an arc in midair, catching up with the flying shield and together crashing towards the white tall figure!


    Yes, compared to wielding a shield, wielding two hammers is Isabel''s specialty!


    With a deafening roar, the fragments of the shield and the paving stones are flying around with the splashing blood.


    Anada had already retreated when the war hammer was lifted. A flying shield fragment hit her snow-white abdomen, making it painful.


    Isabel screamed sharply, and with a hammer from bottom to top, she counterattacked.


    This hammer was extremely sudden.


    The Akard people believed that the enemy''s tall body, having just stabilized their footing, would be unable to retreat again and would only be able to dodge sideways.


    Then, this damn white whore must endure my war hammer sweep.


    One hammer would take her life!


    However, before the Akard people could finish their calculations, they saw the opponent''s nimble body retreat again in a straight line.


    The movement was not like a human''s.


    Isis''s eyes widened and her hair stood on end as she watched the fairy-like steps, not only avoiding the attack, but even the follow-up attack missed.


    Before she could make any more moves, she suddenly felt a sharp pain in her right shoulder and couldn''t muster any strength in her right half of her body.


    In the split second, Ana-da jumped back and threw her battle axe with her left hand, deeply embedding it in Arkade''s right shoulder, breaking her right collarbone.


    The war hammer fell to the ground.


    The Arkade could no longer hold on and slowly knelt in the blood. Then she saw a vague white reflection in the blood in front of her.


    She still wanted to fight back and pick up her weapon, but the war hammer was already firmly stamped under the enemy''s foot.


    The next second, the Arkade let out a long scream.


    Anada split the Arkade''s left shoulder with another axe, not only breaking her left collarbone, but also amputating her left arm and chopping her chest and heart.


    Isis sat helplessly and no longer had the strength to get up.


    She felt cold all over and blood continuously poured into her abdominal cavity from the heart wound.


    Gasping for air, she raised her head and stared at the shining, tall figure in front of her with a mixture of hatred and admiration.


    "Beautiful, death, so," she said, "you..."


    She didn''t finish her sentence.


    Isyas watched as Anada pulled out the axe stuck in her left chest, blood spraying several feet high from the wound. She also watched as the blade pierced through the red mist, accurately cutting her side neck.

 Chapter 16: Eachs Own Battlefield

    Anada cuts the thick neck of Arkade with a series of six axe swings, causing the man to fall down with a loud thud.


    Breathing heavily, she presses her wide palm against her painful belly, revealing the crimson red on her snow-white palm.


    She did not come out unscathed. In the intense battle earlier, Arkade shattered the oval shield she had thrown with a single blow. Shards flew everywhere, one of which pierced her belly.


    Anada catches her breath and surveys the sky garden. Almost everyone has fallen, with only two gladiators still standing and fighting in the shadows at the other corner of the garden.


    She pushes down on the rope tied around her waist, exposing the wound in her belly. With a pained expression, she reaches inside the wound and feels around, finally touching a small piece of metal.


    With two fingers, she gently grasps the metal shard and slowly pulls it out of the wound. It''s a piece of bronze shield, half the length of a small finger, stained with her blood.


    Akardian shields are well maintained and rust-free.


    She looked at the shield fragments and sniffed them under her nose.


    Fortunately, there was only blood, no other strange smell.


    This indicates only flesh wounds. This thing didn''t hit her intestines, nor did it harm other organs.


    Anada held the fragments in her left wrist and pressed her abdomen, breathing deeply to suppress the pain, looking at the two people fighting to the death.


    One of them was retreating from her with their back facing her. That was a black woman with symmetrical muscles, slender limbs. Short sword and square shield, the classic combination.


    Surely that must be the nickname "Black Sun," Kiki Kova from Kem, a female gladiator who won the city championships in Sodom, Yama and Bira.


    The opponent of "Black Sun" was obscured by her own body, still not visible.


    Suddenly, a metal light flashed in the shadows. "Black Sun" stumbled and retreated, throwing away her short sword and shield, and fell face up in the red water.


    With the fall of "Black Sun," the killer who was previously obscured by the black woman''s figure revealed their appearance.


    This is a 16-17 year old short-haired Assyrian girl.


    She has a slender figure, but is well-proportioned, with curvaceous curves. Her wheat-colored limbs and body are strong and tight, similarly coated with oil, with shining skin.


    She holds two swords, long and short, and stands barefoot in the blood pool, wearing only a grass rope tied around her waist.


    Including the "Black Sun", there are seven female gladiators lying dead around the girl.


    Looking at the positions of their bodies, Anada suddenly remembered the children in her hometown who drew the sun on the rocks and snow and added lines representing the rays around the sun.


    They lay stiffly in the red liquid that was rippling with waves, all with swords in their abdomens, with wounds that were long and deep, cutting open the body cavity and exposing the internal organs.


    Especially the three bodies behind the girl, the sword wounds in the abdomen even formed two cross lines that were sometimes continuous and sometimes interrupted.


    Anada can imagine what kind of scene it was: the enemy swarmed from all directions. When she forced the enemy in front of her to retreat, the girl suddenly circled her swords and cut the three people behind her into pieces with their intestines and stomachs flowing out.


    The girl was shorter than the others, and for her, it was easiest to attack the enemy''s soft abdomen, not to mention the large abdominal area and many important organs inside, without the rib cage interfering, piercing and cutting was faster and more efficient.


    However, it is precisely because of these reasons that the abdomen has always been the top priority in protection.


    Ahanada closed her eyes.


    Out of the seven corpses, five of them were holding shields of different sizes made of bronze. The girl tore apart the defense line, slaughtering the enemies like a fierce beast, and her sword skills were extraordinary.


    The girl kept her head down, staring at the floating "Black Sun" body in the blood water. She seemed to sense Ahanada''s gaze and lifted her gaze, looking towards Ahanada.


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    She has delicate eyebrows, eyes, nose, and mouth, and her small face still has a little baby fat.


    Just a numb expression, like a lifeless puppet.


    Her eyes were round and big, with pupils that were pitch black, like two black holes stuck to her face.


    The hollow black eyes faced the yellow-tinged lion eyes.


    In the moment when the two eyes met, the two people who were still breathing in the ceiling walked towards each other unconsciously.


    "The ''silver-white mother lion'' and the ''wild horse from the Bell family''," said Cynthia, "In the end, it''s the two of them."


    Lucius''s tone was filled with disgust.


    "Why arrange for Princess Bell''s public humiliation and death as a slave? I thought you and she were friends."


    "We were," said Cynthia, "but now, Menis needs to stand with the victor. We must be clear in our allegiances."


    Lucius chuckled.


    " ''Were'' is another way of saying ''once loved''."


    Cynthia seemed not to hear his sarcasm.


    She suddenly pulled his hand.


    Lucius''s heart beat fast.


    At this moment, except for the two of them, everyone in the hall was absorbed in watching "Under the Emerald".


    Cynthia quietly led Lucius around a stone pillar.


    The black-skinned personal slave quickly followed them.


    This was an inconspicuous corner of the hall. The three stone columns around it cleverly obscured the gaze from all directions. From here, you could see the ceiling and the surrounding spectator seats, and not be noticed by anyone.


    As soon as they arrived here, Cynthia let go of his hand.


    This made Lucius feel a sense of loss.


    "You believe or not, I''m saving her, I also want to save you."


    Cynthia said.


    "I gave her a chance to live, I will fulfill the wish of the arena champion. So if Elira wins the arena on the ceiling, as long as she doesn''t say a wish like the revival of the Bell family, I will agree. For example, returning her freedom."


    Lucius sneered.


    "Isn''t this just asking her to die? What''s the use of winning freedom? The enemies of Bell, including Menis, will wait at the courtyard to tear her apart. Without the protection of the family, being a slave is actually her protection. Once she becomes a free citizen and has a political position, she won''t be able to survive in Niniwe for even a minute!"


    "Under the veil, Cynthia turned her face towards Lucius.


    "Don''t you understand yet?"


    Her tone was always gentle, "I''m giving you a chance to make up for your mistake."


    "What?"


    Cynthia lowered her voice, "The ancestors of the Schwarzenegger family were apprentices and followers of the Bell family, but you not only betrayed your master, but also burned the temple of your master''s family. The sinful Lucius, the sin you committed is so heavy that the water of the river can''t wash it away!"


    She observed Lucius'' expression from under her veil.


    "But at least you can save her," she said, "Schwarzenegger once guarded the gate of the Bell family, and Ilrita regarded you as a brother. As long as your mother lion wins the bullfight. You can make a wish to make Ilrita your slave, then take her away from Niniwei.


    "That way, I won''t be in your way anymore, and you can marry Enriel seriously, right?"


    Cynthia''s veil shook violently.


    "Accept my suggestion, and get out of here immediately! I admit that this is for myself. But don''t pretend to be a victim in front of me! I never intended to hurt you!"


    "Even if Elerati wins the joust and proposes the revival of the Bel family, no one will agree to it. Do you think you can use such means to revoke the exile order and take back the family''s land? With so many people involved in the worries weed, if you still refuse to give up, it will be a dead end!"


    Lucius moaned in sorrow, "So you still want me to accept exile and die under the pursuit of the creditor?"


    "Don''t bring up that damn debt to me!"


    She finally couldn''t bear it any longer and snarled through gritted teeth.


    "Don''t lie to me anymore, you liar who speaks nothing but lies! Where did the money you bought from the slave market come from? The wealth from looting the Bel temple is enough for you to repay your debt ten times over!"


    "Even fools know that ''to give is to receive'', but you, with your endless greed in your mind! As soon as you hold onto one, you go crazy and bet a hundred! When you hold onto a hundred, you dare to bet a million! You are playing with fire all the time!"


    "Do you want to know why I love Ashel? Because you are the most dangerous man I have ever seen! Every day with you is like walking on a tightrope over an abyss!"


    She was so angry that her chest was heaving.


    Lucius, however, remained calm.


    "So, you love me."


    He said softly, his gaze roaming over Cynthia''s chest, his hand slowly reaching into Cynthia''s veil, touching her smooth face, gently lifting her chin.


    Cynthia seemed to want to reject him, but in the end she was powerless and slumped in his arms.


    "You''re playing with fire again," she said vaguely.


    But her mouth was blocked by the veil.


    At this point, there was a thunderous round of applause in the hall.


    The black-skinned slave girl''s eyes widened as she watched Lucius twist Cynthia''s tight long coat, using both hands with force. The silk fabric immediately emitted a sound of tearing that could not withstand the weight.


    The black-skinned slave girl frantically turned her back to her mistress, her heart beating like thunder.


    She blindly cast her gaze to the distance, watching the blue sky and blazing sun, where the mother lion and the wild horses, one big and one small, met in a sea of blood.


    The red waves were rolling under her feet, stirring up countless blood flowers. The silver-white and wheat-colored bodies of the two muscular animals were shining brightly, exchanging positions fiercely.


    Golden iron echoes with sword light and axe shadow flashing like thunder and lightning, almost too difficult to see.


    The black-skinned slave girl watched with an unfocused mind and was scared by the intense movement behind her, causing her legs to weaken.


    In the midst of the crowds'' cheers, the man roared quietly, "Just marry the foolish pig named Enlil! I will let you, and you guys! See my amazing feat of soaring like a bird as Luciu!"


    In the audience seats, just one column away, sat many dignified figures who had come to attend the birth celebration of Cynthia. People were frantically cheering and the overwhelming noise was almost upon them.


    "You love dangerous men," the man breathed, "You love the feeling of walking on a tightrope over an abyss, don''t you?"


    The hostess of the birth celebration replied with an ambiguous throaty sound.


    "I will not follow the path you have arranged for me, I will succeed!"

 Chapter 17: Masayes

    "Kill me, or I will have to kill you."


    This was the first thing Ilirith said to Anada when they faced each other. At the time, neither of them had charged, nor were they waving their weapons anxiously. They were simply approaching each other cautiously.


    This caution was reasonable.


    Dozens of gladiators'' blood flowed, making the red inside the skylight thicker, and the foul smell of internal organs filled the Emerald Lion Hall. The weapons and shields of the dead scattered around, as well as the dirty organs, were hidden in the bright red liquid that was not yet passed.


    Leaving aside the slippery floor that makes it difficult to stand, no one can guarantee that they will not step on or stumble upon something when they take a step.


    In the face of such a great enemy, a half-step mistake could mean death.


    The two held swords and axes, and each step was strategic, trying to stabilize the base and eliminate the clutter underfoot.


    They stared intently at each other, watching the other''s eyes (yellowish and reddish lion''s eyes) grow larger in their sight and gradually enter the attack range.


    At this moment, Anada heard the words from the Assyrian girl across from her.


    "Kill me, or I''ll have to kill you."


    After speaking, the thin Assyrian girl leaped forward like a panther.


    The Bel family''s wild horse steps were nimble and fierce, and their sword moves were like the wind!


    In the splashing blood, the two exchanged positions like butterflies, trying to force each other to their own way.


    Under the dense blood that the vision could not penetrate, there was what each of them had discovered along the way, and even the carefully laid traps.


    But no one was willing to fall for it.


    Both parties, without agreement, fought and killed each other in the place where they met.


    At the beginning of the fight, Anada felt the pressure.


    She expected the Assyrian girl to adopt a tight, close-quarters fighting style, so she started with the idea of defending and counterattacking.


    Unexpectedly, the young wild horse brandished its swords so quickly and fiercely, making defense almost impossible.


    Irelia attacked frantically, with no retreat.


    The Ice Sea woman was tall and had long arms, with immense strength. If she couldn''t fight close-quarters, there was no way to win.


    However, the mother lion was so huge and her movements so delicate. Her two-handed battle axe swung slowly but in reality was fast. Defense was like water splashing against a wall, it simply couldn''t penetrate.


    In the hall, it was chaos like a mountain collapsing into the sea, one wave higher than the next.


    Cynthia and Lucius also fought recklessly between the stone pillars, gradually reaching a climax.


    "Use more strength, Lucius, use more strength!" Cynthia cried out in ecstasy, "It''s truly wonderful!"


    Just then, a deep male voice like a gong sounded near their ears, "Yes, it''s truly wonderful."


    Lucius was suddenly startled, and his army was defeated.


    In the skylight, there were flashes of sword light and axe shadow, back and forth.


    After several rounds, both sides have sustained some injuries. Ilirya felt that her energy was decreasing a bit quickly.


    Just as she was about to retreat and regroup, she suddenly noticed that the mother lion''s energy had also declined and her swinging speed of the battle axe was slightly slower. This subtle change was enough to create a vulnerability, making the mother lion''s balance a little uncoordinated during the change of offense and defense.


    Ilirya continued to attack with full force.


    Lucius peered out with a trembling heart and saw a strong man holding a golden cup on the other side of the stone pillar.


    This man was even taller than Anada.


    He was handsome, with shiny black hair tied in a ponytail behind his head, a black Assyrian-style beard hanging down his chin to his chest. He wore several gold and gem necklaces around his muscular neck, which were longer than his black beard. He wore a white Assyrian noble-style short-sleeve tight-fitting gown, but cut a circular arc-shaped ultra-low neckline in the front in an Akkadian way, exposing his chest and belly. The solid, well-defined abdominal muscles could be seen under the black beard and gold necklaces, as if cast from copper.


    Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.


    Arcadius stands alone, lost in thought as he gazes at the sky.


    Lucius struggles to cover his partner''s torn close-fitting coat with a spiraled outer coat, and replaces their veil.


    The two tidy their clothing and turn around the stone pillar, offering greetings to Arcadius nervously.


    "Salutations to you," Lucius says, "Eagle of the Empire, Lion''s Eye, King of the Calvary, General Massayus."


    Massayus intently looks at the sky and does not turn his head.


    Cynthia says, "Respected General Massayus, greetings from the Menes family."


    Massayus quickly glanced at Cynthia with a contemptuous gaze, which disappeared in an instant.


    "Is this not Princess Menis of the Menis family, and this must be your fianc¨¦, Lord Ashur?"


    Xinxia''s ears turned red under her veil, but her tone was still steady.


    "You are joking. You once swept the Demon Court under your fianc¨¦''s command. How could you recognize the wrong person? Don''t worry, Lord Ashur was slightly injured yesterday, so he did not attend my birthday party today."


    Masayes sneered.


    "It seems that our invincible commander, Ashur, will get injured for strange reasons... Little one from the Schwang family, don''t be too ''forceful'', be careful not to get the same injury."


    Lucius quickly changed the topic: "What do you think of this bout?"


    Masayes'' gaze shifted to Lucius.


    Lucius quickly lowered his head.


    Masayes'' eyes were round and his gaze was sharp like a hawk, and few people could withstand the oppressive power of his brown pupils staring directly at them.


    "Iscis and I were born and raised on the battlefield, defeating countless warriors and killing countless enemies," he said. "She just privately engaged in a few activities and where is the warrior who doesn''t plunder? But your dog''s military officials forced me to execute her! I had no choice but to demote her to a gladiator first and redeem her after winning this fight ... But you let your white lion kill her."


    "Everything is guided by fate," Lucius said, lowering his head.


    "Fate? You used tricks to swallow my fellow Anandiyebu''s property, is that also fate? Before killing Iscis, didn''t your white lion always shout my name? And isn''t it fate that you let your white lion challenge me?"


    He leaned closer to Lucius with a cold smile, lowering his head.


    "As for now, I can treat the small gossip behind the stone pillar as a joke and tell it to every guest here, isn''t that also fate?"


    Lucius was sweating profusely on his forehead.


    "That''s a huge misunderstanding."


    Lucius vehemently argued, "Your fellow countryman''s selling of his property should not be blamed on me. The poor former Silver Hopeful family wouldn''t dare to be enemies with the imperial general who has unlimited future prospects, that''s all--"


    Masayes roared, "Then show your sincerity!"


    The gold cup deformed in his huge palm and wine spilled on the ground.


    Arcad the burly man did not feel it and kept his eyes on the tall, white body shining in the sky.


    "Compensate me for your white lion."


    Masayes''s breathing became heavier, "She is the mother of warriors. She must be mine. Her womb and birth canal are destined to bear my son, Masayes!"


    "Round after round, Ilirati waits patiently, gritting her teeth and persevering in her attacks until the long-awaited flaw in her opponent appears once again.


    With a scream, Ilirati sticks her left sword to Anada''s left axe that she failed to retrieve in time, exacerbating her opponent''s unstable center of gravity. Her right sword, like a venomous snake, stabs towards Anada''s exposed left abdomen.


    Ilirati was about to once again feel the thrill of cutting flesh with her sword, witnessing the scene of her opponent''s belly being sliced open. This scene has been replayed countless times in her mind.


    However, at that moment, Ilirati realizes that Anada''s unstable center of gravity is a deception!


    In the blink of an eye, Anada lifts her left knee, blocking her abdomen, and uses her thigh to deflect Ilirati''s sword.


    Before the sword arrives, the cold sensation of the blade makes her thigh hairs stand on end.


    Anada is incredibly sharp and seizes the momentary change in sensation, spreading her knee slightly.


    Before Ilirati could even feel the sensation of her sword blade slicing through flesh and muscle, she sees her right sword being gently deflected by the white thigh in front of her."


    The outer side of the lion''s thigh had only a shallow cut.


    In an instant, Illeya''s two swords were completely forced to the outskirts, and the center line was completely empty.


    She looked at the mother lion stepping into the center palace with shudders.


    When it was said that it was late, then it was fast, the broad foot landed, stepped on the waves, Anada twisted her waist and raised her left elbow with a blow.


    With a muffled sound, the Assyrian girl''s eyes turned black and she was hit in the sunspot by the elbow.


    This elbow caused her to bleed from her mouth and nose and fly backwards, spinning, with her feet off the ground.


    Anada was unstoppable and followed up with a series of steps. She twisted her waist and leaned forward: She retracted her left elbow and swung her right hand with a circular battle axe, cutting down from above!


    At this moment, she was like a big cat, her arched body burst out and straightened, her front arm stretched to the limit, and her attack range suddenly expanded by a circle!


    At a critical moment, Elerya cross her two swords in mid-air, desperately trying to block the attack.


    The axe and the cross swords collide, sparks flying, and the sharp metallic friction sounds make teeth ache.


    The unimaginable great force pressed down through the cross swords, as if a wild bull running rampant, unstoppable!


    The empty black eyes showed fear for the first time.


    The power gap was too big.


    The cross swords resting on top of her head were pressed down without any hindrance by this force, and actually stopped at her own neck!


    Elerya felt the coldness of her own sword for the first time on her own neck.


    She saw the red-jade-like lion eyes looking down at her from above.


    Just as the situation was critical, Ilirati barely managed to cross her two swords in mid-air, desperately trying to block with a blow from above.


    The blade of the ax and the crossed swords collided, with sparks flying and the sharp metal friction sound making people''s teeth ache.


    Unimaginable immense strength pressed down through the crossed swords, as if a herd of wild bulls were rushing forward, unstoppable!


    Empty black eyes showed a look of shock for the first time.


    The difference in strength was too great.


    The crossed swords on top of her head were crushed down by this strength without any resistance, and even pressed against her neck!


    Ilirati felt the coldness of her sword tip on her neck for the first time.


    She saw the pair of lion-like ruby eyes look down at her from above.


    Just as the thought that her head was going to fall off appeared in her mind, the pressure above suddenly disappeared, and a severe shock came from her back.


    With a "thud", the thin figure of Ilirati heavily fell flat in the blood, stirring up a wave of bright red water half a person high.


    She still maintained the posture of crossing her two swords, but the sword tip only lightly cut through the skin on both sides of her neck.


    Ilirati looked up blankly and saw that the enemy''s battle ax, although still on the swords, was powerless.


    Lucius was wracking his brain, trying to find an excuse to refuse General Akard.


    Masayes suddenly let out a "eh" and wrinkled his brow.


    "Unfortunately," he said regretfully, "your white lion seems to be dying."

 Chapter 18: Struggling on the Verge of Death

    The cries of the audience seemed both close at hand and far away.


    Anada found that she was actually tinnitus.


    The scenery in front of her eyes also became blurred, gradually leaving nothing except the dazzling red. The brain became numb, and the world around her seemed to slow down.


    Fortunately, she did not forget that there was still a big enemy in front of her.


    She narrowed her eyes, spread out her double axes in a defensive posture, and stumbled backwards. She felt that her hands and feet were heavy and disobedient, her body was weak, and she involuntarily wanted to sit down on the ground.


    Not only that, she felt her throat swelling, choked her voice, couldn''t breathe, and felt a series of dizziness.


    "The mixture of black lily juice and black fat-tailed scorpion venom, it comes from the inspiration of the scorpion god, I call it ''Wrath of the Scorpion God''."


    Masayes said, "The black lily juice is the legendary spiritual medicine of the Stygian, its anesthetic effect is stronger than your forget-me-not, just smelling it, it makes people''s hands and feet numb, and drinking a bowl of it will cause loss of consciousness. Even the king of the barbarians cannot withstand its potency."


    "The most cunning thing is that the juice of the black lily can perfectly suppress the pain caused by the contact of the venom of the black-tailed scorpion with the human body, making people unconsciously poisoned.


    "I discovered the juice of the black lily when I was chasing the Xicos people. The Xicos people are like a treasure trove, full of ancient secrets. They are a mixture of various ancient peoples, and we chased them across the eastern plateau... Do you know, I once curiously tried my own potion and stuffed it into a wound on the palm of my hand-¡±


    Lucius roared to interrupt him: "I just want to know, how did your damn poison make my slaves poison?"


    Lucius''s face was like just coated with white chalk.


    He was furious and shouted at Massayes, almost forgetting how evil General Akard was.


    Massayes was not angry.


    "I gave Isis some," Massayes said, "to help her get through the days of gladiatorial slavery as soon as possible. I specifically taught her to take an extra shield during the gladiatorial games to protect herself. I suggested that she apply a little ''Rage of the Scorpion God'' to the head of the hammer. This way, when facing the enemy, just waving the hammer and letting them smell the scent can make them weak in the knees, and if they wipe off a little skin, they will certainly die without a doubt."


    He touched his black beard, leisurely saying: "Look at her face, her eyes are turning black, that''s the wound that was poisoned by the scorpion venom. To be able to survive until now and have an outbreak, this is such a strong physique, almost as good as a real lion."


    "How could this be?" Lucius was shocked and angry, "My slave wasn''t hurt at all!"


    He suddenly realized.


    "That shield fragment... the one that splattered and cut her, was shattered by that damn hammer..."


    Masayes said, "She''s finished, Eisis finally took revenge for herself."


    "Dammit!"


    Lucius painfully grabbed his hair.


    "What the hell is this! What happened to the reputation of your motherfucking Akard people being brave and good at fighting, did they all get thrown into the latrine and fed to dogs!"


    Before the words were finished, the Akard''s big hand grabbed his throat.


    Cynthia was shocked and covered her mouth, watching as Masayes used only one hand to lift Lucius off the ground by his neck.


    Lucius desperately struggled with his eyes rolling.


    Masayes was still.


    Lucius was horrified to see that a plump and black venomous scorpion was slowly crawling up his nose along Masayes'' tiger''s mouth.


    The venomous scorpion is waving its pincers and its tail is incredibly huge and exaggerated, the hook filled with venom is swinging back and forth in front of the eyes.


    Anada tries her best to breathe, but the air that enters her lungs is still pitifully small.


    Her eyes are congested, and she feels a blur of red, almost unable to see anything.


    Suddenly, she sees a faint shadow flicker in front of her.


    She swings her battle axe groggily to block, but her movements are slow - there is a sudden pain under her left ribcage, and she now has a long sword wound.


    The mighty Acard Scorpions Priest gently took the venomous scorpion back from Lucien''s nose.


    Letting go of his hand, he allowed Lucien to fall at his feet.


    This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    "Keep your mouth shut," Marasay''s voice came from Lucien''s head, "or you won''t see the sun of the day of exile."


    "I beg your pardon."


    Lucien nodded repeatedly, tears streaming down his face, as he coughed continuously.


    "Your Excellency, please allow me to rephrase¡ªyou are cheating, desecrating the duel! It is too dishonorable!"


    "Do you know what honor is?"


    Mazayus twiddled his fingers on the venomous scorpion on his hand back and sneered.


    "My men have killed countless enemies, lived to walk off the battlefield, counted their spoils, and slept in the arms of their enemy''s wives¡ªvictory is the greatest honor."


    "I have learned," Lucius said with a bitter smile.


    He coughed and turned to Xena pleading.


    "Xena... I promised you, I''ll accept banishment and leave Niniwe. I''ll leave now. Call off the duel, you''ve won!"


    Xena stood silently and looked calmly into the distance as if she hadn''t heard anything.


    Lucius looked at her and went from surprise to fierce. Suddenly, he laughed out loud with a sinister smile.


    "I know you, the son of Schwarzenegger family, you are a typical self-interested little person, so tell me," Masayes asked curiously, "Why are you so supportive of a gladiator?"


    Lucius shook his head.


    "She, she just wants to live... to fight for her survival, even to desperately find reasons, to grasp everything that can be grasped... I recognize that kind of gaze, I..."


    Masayes sighed in disappointment.


    "I heard that you escaped from the destruction of Bell, I thought you would be smarter, but you are also a fool."


    "People only see what they want to see. What you see is not the truth of that woman, but just the refraction of your own heart."


    Lucius coldly said: "I don''t know if you are still a philosopher... then what is the refraction that you see?"


    Masayes hesitated for a moment: "Steady will, tenacious life force, ambition and conquest desire, strong power - not the empty political power, but the real, from muscles and swords, the power to control life and death - and beauty.


    "What a beautiful woman, so beautiful that it makes one''s heart surge and they can''t control themselves."


    His greedy and regretful gaze was directed towards the skylight. The small, wheat-colored figure was launching another offensive, while the tall, white and bloody figure across from them was already wavering.


    "Such a wild physique, such an extraordinary body, is the best breeding ground for warriors.


    "I could have infused life essence into her womb and let her give birth and nurse more warriors for the Scorpion God... My mother of warriors, it''s a shame."


    The noble young lady standing by, who had been silently watching, could no longer tolerate the rough words of the Arkadian man: "Men, do you always look at women from this perspective? Is there only this? Breeding vessels and... bed partners?"


    Masayes retorted, "What else could there be?"


    Here we go again, Lucius thought.


    God be with her, she can always do it, using language that is contemptuous and noble to express the most decadent and captivating of airs.


    "Then how about Illeth? Isn''t she equally good at fighting and beautiful?" Xena innocently asked.


    Masayes lazily rejected.


    "No use. She is too small to bear my weight. So thin and flat, she can''t compare to the mother of warriors with enough milk."


    "She is the mother of lions."


    If looks could kill, Lucius would have eaten Masayes and turned him into excrement.


    He forced a stiff smile at the Akkadian.


    "She is not your mother of warriors, she is my ''silver-white mother of lions.''"


    Anada was gasping for breath and tottering.


    "I told you," Illeth''s non-standard northern language swayed back and forth in front of her, "Kill me, or I''ll have to kill you!"


    The enemy''s new round of attack was here again.


    Anada struggled to protect her vital areas and couldn''t help but have two new wounds. A sword on her thigh, a sword on her left arm, both on the outside, just flesh wounds.


    Illeta says, "You look like you''ve been poisoned, or stung by a scorpion. You''re going to die."


    Anada ignored him.


    This is a good thing,


    She said to herself.


    Bleeding and pain can make her more alert, clearer. Nothing is more important than staying awake now.


    But her strength has diminished greatly, and she can no longer strike like before, not even blocking the sword is a struggle.


    Illeta''s sword moves faster and faster.


    "Why don''t you just die?" Illeta says, "Once and for all, leave this painful world. How enviable is such happiness!"


    Anada can''t even judge the direction of the sword, let alone block it. She can only pant and continue to retreat.


    "Die, die, die!"


    Illeta screamed, took a sliding step, and slashed with both swords.


    The scream suddenly turned into a scream.


    Illeta stands on one leg in pain, crouching his front legs. She has been chasing Anada, attacking fiercely all the way, but never thought that the place she stepped on was a bronze sickle.


    "Did you do this?" Illeta cried out in pain and looked at Anada in disbelief.


    Without waiting for an answer, or perhaps already knowing the answer, the mother lion covered in blood roared and lunged forward!


    In the next moment, both the double-bladed axe and the double-edged sword were swept away.


    Two figures, one big and one small, rolled together in the sticky redness.


    The two people wrestled in each other in the blood.


    With her larger size, Anada took the advantage, firmly holding Illeta''s hand and suppressing her enemy.


    The almost paralyzed mother lion gasped loudly and tried to change positions, desperately lifting a white leg to trap the Assyrian girl''s neck between her two legs.


    Her legs tightened with force.


    This was the last bit of strength she could squeeze out of her muscles.


    Illeta felt that what was wrapped around her was not a person, but a white jade-like giant snake.


    "My neck and spine seem to be crushed by Anadar!"


    Finally... can I go die now...


    Illelita thought dizzily.


    "Snakes are Seth''s spirits and also messengers of Niyalat."


    Father stood in the tall and gloomy family temple, picked up a thick and long giant snake, let it coil around his arm, and turned his palm into a deep purple.


    "We are followers of Niyalat, approaching snakes is our mission. Don''t be afraid of them and there is no need to struggle. As long as you find their vital points, you can make them leave. Look..."


    Remembering, this was when he was eight years old, his father taught him the knowledge of the sacrifice...


    Illelita looked at his father''s fingers, searching for the snake''s belly near its tail.


    "Found it," Father said.


    He stretched out his fingers and aimed at the snake''s clitoris, the whole finger was poked in --


    The sudden pain penetrated Anadar''s body.


    Anadar was in such pain that her eyes were covered in gold stars, and she involuntarily loosened her grip. She curled up, knelt on the ground, and was sweating all over. This was an unbearable pain, even the anesthetic effect of the black lotus juice couldn''t suppress it.


    No sooner had Anada recovered from the weakness brought on by the severe pain than the thin figure gently pounced on her broad back.


    "It didn''t kill me again," the girl whispered hoarsely in her ear, "this time it''s my turn to kill you."


    A pair of thin arms came from behind her neck and wrapped around the white neck.


    With the terrible suffocating sensation of naked strangulation, Anada was turned over in a trance, her back was pushed against her and she was forced to raise her chest towards the blue sky while her head and neck were firmly locked and folded towards her chest.


    She was like a white fish leaving the surface of the water, suffocating and dying, with only the last bit of breath left, and a hitch in her jerking.


    The Assyrian maiden clung to Anada''s back, her delicate little face pressed against her side, blowing into her ear.

 Chapter 19: The Wish of the Victor

    Elirat had her entire body hung on Anada, tightly strangling Anada''s neck with both arms like a python clinging to a lion or a vine holding on to a tree trunk.


    Her wheat-colored chest was pressed tightly against the smooth, white and huge back, her face pressed against the face, feeling the pulsing heartbeat of the mother lion through their warm skin, transmitted into her own heart with each beat.


    This made her heart and soul drunk.


    She listened, to the heavy and powerful heartbeat like a drum, and eventually, it weakened.


    Such a strong and healthy body became a puddle of white mud in her hands.


    She tightened her grip on Anada even more.


    It was both strangling and embracing.


    She greedily absorbed the warmth from her face and chest, but also a little regretful: soon, the embrace would turn cold.


    "I''ve survived again..."


    The former Princess of the Bell family breathed a sigh of relief.


    Her head was heavily hit by a elbow strike and her foot was penetrated, causing significant blood loss. She had reached her limit and could no longer kill Anada. She was also unable to fight anymore.


    She was a bit confused.


    Being naked like a lowly slave and being watched and entertained by people who were not half as noble as herself in order to save her life was a humiliation.


    It would have been better if she had died. She always told herself this.


    But why did she still instinctively struggle for life every time, unwilling to submit to death?


    It was Anada who was supposed to die.


    Her neck was strangled by the naked garrote, deadening every gap. Not even a breath of air could get in.


    Her mind was numb, her vision dull.


    Anada had almost lost consciousness. Her eyes, like yellow jade, scattered and looked up without expression. The sky, like emerald, rapidly lost its color in her eyes. The glaring sun also quickly shrunk, becoming a flickering flame.


    The nights in my hometown are always long.


    She, named Urlde, took off her shirt and lay naked on the bear skin mattress, staring at the dim light of the lone lamp by the bed.


    Her mother sat next to her, using a bone needle to stitch together the bear and fish skins with delicate manipulation of the blue dye.


    Her mother''s silver gray hair was scattered down her back, making her feel itchy.


    Her less than one-year-old little brother crawled back and forth on the floor next to the bed.


    With a slight prickling sensation, the needle tip lightly pierced her neck''s skin.


    "This is ''Urlsi'', one of the eight ''Runis'' taught to us by the great god Fleya," her mother said softly. "It represents health, strength, intense emotions, and resistance. You can only tap into the true power of the body by using your utmost sincerity and facing your original and wild inner self.


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    "This ''Runi'' requires the strongest physique and fate to carry. Those who master ''Urlsi'' are the most violent warriors, the ''Bear Skin Wearers''... but your father says you can do it."


    As the mother sticks the runes one by one, the burning pain gradually connects underneath the skin, as if the entire spine is being reorganized.


    She groaned.


    Her mother''s voice echoed in her mind, "......The ''Kenaritz'' of fire and vitality... The ''Kibor'' of intuition and talent... The ''Ensorz'' of wisdom and speech... As for this one, this is ''Surisatz,'' it represents ''annoying thorns,'' and also represents...


    Her dispersed pupils condensed again, and Anada''s dead fish-like eyes lit up again.


    That was not just a memory.


    Because her back really hurts, right now, as if burning!


    "......The ''Hammer of the Thunder God.''"


    A biting pain of bones and heart piercing into Illetia''s heart.


    She suddenly had the illusion that she wasn''t sticking to a person, but a lightning that struck her chest from heaven, a red-hot great sword that was just pulled out of the furnace!


    Illetia unconsciously shrank back, loosening the arm holding Ana''s neck slightly.


    Just through this slight gap, she clearly heard the Ice Sea Woman take a breath.


    Her heart cried out "not good" and she wanted to tighten her arm again, but it was too late.


    She could hear the sound of the breath being taken into the lungs through her body, just like a gust of wind blowing into the canyon with great force!


    Blood flowed violently through the blood vessels.


    The sound of her heartbeat was deafening.


    Elira''s eyes bulged.


    The silver-white lioness shook her head and the ridge of her forehead collided with Elira''s temples.


    Elira had previously been struck on this side of her temple by an elbow, and now she was hit again with a shake of the head, and she immediately felt dizzy.


    Her head was dizzy and her eyes were blurred, and she slackened her grip softly.


    Her body was lying softly in the blood, forming a cross.


    Anada slowly turned over. She felt her strength returning and the pain becoming clearer. The effects of "Scorpion''s Fury" were gradually fading.


    With her hands and feet working together, she slowly crawled, feeling for something in the blood with her hand.


    In a short time, she touched the blue-bronze sickle that pierced Illetitia''s foot, picked it up, and returned to Illetitia''s side. She sat on the two legs of the Assyrian girl with one butt.


    Illetitia could not move and only felt the metal blade touch her throat.


    The coldness of the metal made her whole body goosebumps.


    Don''t...


    Tears rolled down from the eyes of the former princess of the Bell family. She screamed in her heart.


    Don''t kill me! Please, let me go! I don''t want to die, I don''t want to die!


    But all she could do was barely move her lips and she didn''t even have the strength to speak.


    This knife never cut down.


    The small wheat-colored face and the face like a little sister''s apple in front of her eyes gradually merged.


    Anada gazed at Illeeta, silent for a long time. Finally, she stood up from the Assyrian girl and threw the bronze sickle back into the bloody red water.


    The tall and pure white figure stood proudly in the "under the emerald" of the corpse mountain and sea of blood.


    "I won," she said.


    In the emerald lion hall, few people understood the Ice Sea woman''s words, but the cheers echoed throughout the sky, lasting a long time.


    Massayer stroked his black beard and stared at the woman who could not defeat even the "Scorpion God''s wrath".


    Lucius coughed lightly and laughed hoarsely, "The outcome is determined, my ''Mother Lion'' won, I also won."


    He turned to Cynthia.


    "Now, can I declare my victory and say my request?"


    Cynthia''s expression under the veil was unreadable, and her voice was flat. "Yes, make your request, Menis speaks and does."


    Lucius laughed with a "hah".


    "I always keep my word... then I won''t be polite. Dear Cynthia, if my demand is to make you and Ashal annul the marriage, what do you say?"


    "Please be reasonable."


    Cynthia said, but her voice trembled and she could hardly suppress her anxiety and anger.


    Lucius laughed.


    "Don''t worry, I won''t destroy your marriage, my dear Cynthia."


    "As you wish, I will leave Niniwei, Miss Cynthia. I want your slave, Eirene from the Bell family, to be my gladiator slave and follow me into exile."


    This promise made Cynthia''s voice even sweeter: "Just make your request, even if it''s to repeal the exile order and regain the property of the Schwaz family, Menis will also help you."


    "There''s no need to do so,"


    Lucius said: "Just now, I saw some people clearly and understood some things, and also let go of some things-- I changed my mind."


    He cleared his throat.

 Chapter 20: Father and Daughter Heart-to-Heart

    It rained in the afternoon.


    Cynthia stood quietly by the window, looking out at the river where boats were coming and going, and watching the ants-like people bustling in the light rain.


    She didn''t wear a veil, her cheeks and brows were painted with gold powder, her long eyelashes drooped slightly and quivered slightly.


    The beautiful princess Menis''s face was so beautiful that the moon would change color for it.


    The black-skinned slave maid stood beside her.


    Footsteps approached Cynthia''s back and stopped.


    An old man''s voice asked, "Has he left?"


    "Yes," Cynthia said, "Lucius just left, father."


    The visitor was none other than the ruler of Niniwei, Ulkes. Ulkes was nearly forty years old, handsome in appearance, with a pair of bright black eyes. His skin was yellowish, the wrinkles on his forehead and the laughter lines on both sides of his nose were deeply marked like a knife cut. There was some silver in his black hair, even his temples and sideburns were neatly trimmed, only his beard and temples were almost silver.


    "Weird," Uerkash thought, "I thought he would stay, that greedy, shameless thief, he actually broke away?"


    Cynthia said, "It shows that he''s smart and decisive."


    "Of course he''s smart and decisive."


    Uerkash sneered.


    "That dog in heat who could smell a woman''s urine from ten miles away! He kept his eyes on the temple, watching the daughters of the Menes family, who were about to turn thirteen and perform the temple ceremony, and took his silver with him. He secretly followed her entourage, finding out which of the temple''s ceremonial rooms she was in. Then he found a few assassins, killed two men on the rope bridge, just so he could go find her alone, put silver in her palm in the name of Nalat!


    "After that, he spent a lot of money, bribing her maids and their families, sweet-talking that young girl who had never seen a man every day, repeatedly planting the idea in her that he would marry her. He controlled her thoughts, mastered her tastes, and caught her like a bird in his hand!


    "As long as they are in love and have enough dowry, even their parents can''t object to their marriage. He''s about to become the son-in-law of the mighty house of heaven! Isn''t this what he did to you, to my foolish daughter?"


    Cynthia said softly, "At least he''s not afraid of my ''unclean blood.''"


    The Shin people believed that the blood of defloration was unclean. So, before a woman got married, her family would deflower her. The Shin people in the south and north had different practices.


    In Southern regions such as Babylon, the custom of "sitting in the temple" involves offering a young girl''s virginity to the gods. Before getting married, a 13-year-old girl must spend a day at the temple to purify herself and sit in the sacred area. A stranger man is allowed to choose her and break her maidenhead in the name of the gods, putting a silver coin in her palm. She is not allowed to refuse this request for intimacy. After being deflowered, the girl becomes a woman and qualifies for marriage and doesn''t have to go to the temple anymore. Some women choose not to get married and continue to receive money as temple prostitutes.


    In Northern regions like Nippur, near the upper reaches of the Tigris River, the responsibility is often carried out by a brother or family elder. On the girl''s 13th birthday, her family holds a grand purification ceremony, and then her brother or uncle takes the lead in allowing the girl to release impurities and raise her from a confused child to a woman.


    Princess Menis, however, doesn''t have a brother or father, so she has to go to the temple like the people in the South and let a stranger break her maidenhead. That stranger is Lucius.


    Cynthia said, "So you went to find someone to deceive and trick him into investing, stole the betrothal gift he was preparing, and made him use his land as collateral, leaving him with a large debt?"


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    "That''s what he deserves. No one can fool Menis without paying the price."


    Ualkishen despised coldly: "And you think he''s a good person? That little cheat never told the truth from start to finish!


    "Do you remember who was sitting in the third room on the left during your visit to the Temple of Rite? Lucius had already engaged with that woman, she was the Princess of the Bell family, the elder sister of Eirelitha. On the same day, breaking the two families'' princesses, this sexually aroused dog is really not afraid of seeing blood with a gun!


    "He bet on both sides, marrying you two with the same method. He knew that the Menis family''s dowry was huge, so he first made a betrothal gift to the Bell family, to make sure that he could at least marry into a famous family. Then he tried to make money. Once he gathered enough of your dowry, he would turn back and divorce the Bell family!


    "Do you think he suddenly robbed the temple to save himself because the Bell family was destroyed? No, that was the second plan for him to gather the betrothal gift! That''s why he was so familiar with the way, looting all the property of the temple before setting it on fire. For this huge sum of money, he even burned all the hundreds of prostitutes living in the temple to death inside the temple!


    "That guy is a greedy vulture, living by eating the bodies of other animals! If it wasn''t for the impending big event and not wanting to create waves, I would cut him into pieces and feed the lions, starting from his feet!"


    "The room fell into a silence.


    "Don''t think about that Frejya evil guy anymore," Urikash said. "Marry Ashure instead. He may have shortcomings, likes to fool around with women, but he is good at fighting and is the heir of 31 legions of the Enlil family... Although they are both famous, the Enlil family originated from the city of Ashure and are Assyrians among the Assyrians. Our Menes family, on the other hand, is Hurrian, native to Niniwe, and only allowed to control six legions, less than a quarter of the Enlil. "


    "But father, have you ever thought of one thing," Xinshia sighed.


    "The reason I am inviolable is because I am a Menes. If I marry Ashure, won''t the Enlil family swallow the Menes family?"


    Urikash smiled bitterly.


    "That is only a matter of time. Since the city of Ashure expanded to Niniwe, we Hurrians have had to bow down to them and follow them to become Assyrians. We have money, pottery and bronze wares unmatched in the world, and can tame horses and cattle, but they have the ability to collect iron from fallen stars...


    "The Akkadians, the Urians, the Babylonians, between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, who does not submit to the sharp iron and chariots of the Assyrians? From the Mediterranean to the Black Sea, the eastern Xiclosians, the southern Kaimians, the western Hetians and Cretans, the northern Black Sea nomads and the plains people, even the northernmost Serretians and the giants living in the Black Forest and caves, who has not trembled under the banner of the Enlil family?"


    Uriel Kash shook his daughter''s black hair, spoke softly: "I have only one daughter like you, I don''t seek family prosperity and heritage, I just hope you can be safe and happy."


    He added in his heart:


    So I will never let that villain leave Niniwe alive.


    Rain wet Lucus''s hair, water flowed down his cheeks.


    He sat in the position of the oxcart driver, cursed the gods in his heart while awkwardly whipping the oxen.


    This was because when Lucus and Anada, carrying Iliya, returned to the entrance of the Menis courtyard, they found that the one-eyed old driver was impatiently waiting and had already returned alone by car.


    Lucius had no choice but to ask the warriors of Memnis to escort him and his group back to Niniwe, but was refused. Even when he offered to pay a high fee, no one paid attention.


    Not only that, they even intended to trouble him by asking if he was willing to exchange his good war horse for a cart.


    Since the situation was stronger than he was, Lucius agreed.


    So when Lucius drove the cart into the northern gate of Niniwe, he had already cursed the gods, Seth, Gatanoos, and Nayalater in his heart, and had a deep exchange with the mothers of the gods.


    In front was the ruins of the temple of the Bel family, and he was almost home.


    In the wind and rain, a lonely cart slowly passed by the ruins of the temple.


    The rain washed away the ashes on the broken stone columns and reliefs, revealing the pale stone color.


    Underfoot was black mud formed after the scorched earth was wetted.


    Lucius looked back.


    Both female slaves were huddled in blankets in the cart and shivering.


    Irelia is unconscious and Anada looks pale due to excessive blood loss. She has her eyes closed, and her silver gray hair is wet and sticks to the right side of her face.


    Lucius then realizes that he forgot to put shackles and collars on them.


    Is there a slave master worse than himself? Not only did he forget to lock up his own slaves, but he also has to drive the cart and take care of them carefully...


    Lucius sighed, but when he looked at Anada''s profile and the tattoos on her scalp, the depression dissipated somewhat.


    Maybe gently stroking her silver-gray hair could make him feel a little better?


    He was thinking when she suddenly opened her eyes, and her lion-like golden eyes showed a vigilant expression.


    Lucius was almost scared.


    "What''s wrong?" he asked softly.


    She listened. The mournful wind through the ruins grew louder, mixed with other noises.


    Lucius heard it too.


    That was the chaotic footsteps and the sound of fragmented metal colliding with each other. At least twenty people were surrounding them.


    Lucius drew his sword tightly, tension evident in his grip.


    "Who''s there?" he shouted, "Step forward!"


    There was only an echoing silence.


    After a moment, a familiar voice called out from the storm, it was the slave trader Anandiebub, whom he hadn''t seen in a long time.


    "Is that Lucius sir? I told you to take care of yourself, didn''t I? And look at us, we meet so soon."

 Chapter 21: Farewell to Anandiyerubu

    "Anandiyerubu?"


    Lucius wiped the rain from his face and squinted.


    "Isn''t this Anandiyerubu old man?" He yelled into the rainstorm. "I see you again! You said you were going to Sodom or Gomorrah, but you haven''t left yet?"


    He cursed silently to himself.


    "No," Anandiyerubu''s voice came from the rain, "there''s always something in my heart that I can''t settle, so I can''t leave."


    The sound of intense rain filled the surroundings, and the sound of footsteps and armor weapons collided was sometimes hidden and sometimes clear, but it clearly became clearer.


    Lucius was soaking wet and didn''t know what to do. Suddenly, he felt Anada pressing behind him, breathing into his ear, making Lucius a little dizzy.


    Her voice was low, smooth, and hoarse, "What are you waiting for? Break out!"


    Lucius woke up from a dream and put away his sword, then he whipped the cow hard and shouted loudly.


    The cart gradually accelerated forward.


    At this moment, Lucius heard Anada say something in a bad mood next to his ear.


    His Northern language was average, and he couldn''t understand the meaning of these words. But from the tone, what his Ice Sea slave said was not good.


    The next second, he saw Anada take the sword from his waist and stab it forward, piercing the cow''s buttocks.


    With a loud roar, Lucius only felt the cart shake under his butt and almost tipped him off the cart. He was in a state of shock and saw the cart run wildly like a madman!


    In the heavy rain, there were shadows of people in the ruins.


    But in the blink of an eye, the cart rushed past them, going all out.


    Lucius sees four knights standing on the road ahead. As the cart comes forward wildly, the four men immediately drive their horses away and hide by the road.


    One of them curses loudly, it is Ananadiev.


    Seeing that they have broken out of the encirclement, Lucius is overjoyed and looks back at Anada.


    Anada is tall with a big horse. He turns his head and just sees two bumps shaking with the cart... before he can focus his eyes, a big hand covers his eyes and grabs his cheekbone, turning him back. Lucius''s face involuntarily turns back to the front.


    "Watch the road," she said impatiently.


    The next sentence made Lucius sweat profusely:


    "If there''s another time, I''ll twist your head in another direction."


    ... The sword is in your hand, you have the final say.


    Lucius was angry and pulled the reins hard.


    But the hurried hoofbeats and their rapidly shrinking distance made him dare not look back.


    Lucius shouted, "What do we do now?"


    Before the words fell, the cart underneath suddenly shook violently, jolting Lucius''s butt off the seat.


    Just as his butt returned to its original position, he heard the sound of the cart being heavily loaded.


    Lucius suddenly found that the bloody, rainy cow''s butt in front of him was getting higher and higher... He glanced and just saw a cart wheel rolling quickly towards the front, surpassing him, the coachman.


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    Anada pulled Lucius over and dragged him to the flat plate behind the cart, next to herself and Eiriela.


    The three people landed on the board and slid forward for a while, hitting a stone pillar, before finally stopping.


    Looking ahead, there was a thrown spear on the left side of the wild bull, dragging half of the cart, rushing straight into the rain and running out of sight.


    Just as Lucius was about to speak, he was suddenly thrown down by Anada and choked on his breath.


    He saw another thrown spear brushing against Anada''s arm and shooting past. This thrown spear was powerful, breaking through the layers of rain and disappearing in the front.


    Lucius heard his own teeth chattering.


    If he were still in a seated position, he would have been poked through by now.


    "Yes...yes, he''s a regular soldier, a warrior of the legion! Damn it!"


    He was mumbling to himself when Anada hit his face, bringing him back to reality.


    Anada stretched her legs and pulled something back with her feet. When she pulled her legs back, she had already grabbed the silver lion round shield that was placed on the table.


    She knocked the shield with Lucius'' sword and sat up.


    Anada was drenched.


    The rain soaked her silver-grey eyebrows, making her face, which was already distinct, look more imposing.


    "I''ll go get a few horses," she said calmly, "You stay here and don''t move."


    Anada walked to the middle of the road and stopped.


    In the heavy rain, two knights came in pursuit on fast horses, while the shadows of the other two knights lingered far behind.


    Two throwing spears roared through the wind and rain and flew towards her!


    Anada swung her shield, and again.


    One throwing spear was deflected by her angled shield, while the other one hit the surface of the shield.


    The silver lion round shield shattered into several pieces and Anada''s left shoulder was covered with fresh blood.


    But the enemy''s throwing spears were also all shot.


    Two knights drew their swords and urged their horses to charge straight ahead.


    They were on her right and left.


    The one on the right was faster than the one on the left by a horse length.


    Anada threw away the broken shield, took a deep breath, leaned her body to the left side of the road to make way, and faced the right-riding knight who was charging in front.


    She leaned forward with her left shoulder, held the sword in both hands, and lifted the sword over her right shoulder.


    At this moment, the rain was coming down even harder. The rainwater flowed down the sword blade and formed a waterfall-like stream at the tip of the sword.


    The right rider slightly leaned forward and lowered his sword, positioning it at the height of Anada''s neck. This was the easiest tactic for a cavalry to kill infantry. Without having to put in much effort to swing the sword, the cavalry could cut off the enemy''s head with just the momentum of their charge and the flatness of the sword.


    The knight felt that killing Anada was even easier than killing others. Her height was too high, the angle of the sword was particularly comfortable, and he didn''t even have to bend down.


    The hooves were divided. The head of the enemy''s horse was in front of Ana in a flash! At the moment of the close-quarters fight, Anada suddenly lowered her body, turned lightning fast, and unexpectedly crossed to the other side of the road!


    Just when it seemed that the right-riding enemy would quickly pass by, she suddenly attacked and became the left-riding enemy.


    Anada shouted loudly and swung her sword horizontally with both hands!


    The left-riding enemy was behind the right-riding enemy by a horse''s body, so when the right-riding enemy charged forward, both man and horse blocked Anada completely. As a result, the knight on the back of the left-riding horse did not see Anada at all.


    Suddenly, Anada appeared on the left side of him and his horse, causing him to be shocked and quickly turned his body to stab with his sword.


    However, the enemy was on the left side, holding the sword with his right hand, and caught off guard, he was slow by one step.


    People and horses were mixed in the pouring rain.


    The right-riding enemy charged far away. The knight circled back to his warhorse and was horrified to see that the left-riding enemy had slowed down and only the lower half of the person sitting on the horse''s back was left, with blood spraying high for half a day!


    Before he could understand what was going on, he saw the tall white figure standing in place bend down to pick up something and then wave it towards him with a powerful swing of his hand.


    The right-riding knight fell from his horse.


    A thrown spear penetrated his chest.


    Slave trader Anandiebube and his bodyguards rode horses, following closely behind, eagerly waiting to see the brutal death of Lucius.


    However, they never expected to see this scene.


    Two elite warriors of the Menis family, both were killed in front of them.


    The two men immediately stopped their horses and kept a safe distance.


    She saw Lucius beckoning to her from behind the stone pillar.


    Anandiebube frantically took out the whistle and put it to his lips to blow with all his might.


    Anada wiped the water from her face and eyebrows.


    She didn''t care about the two frightened "spectators" in the distance, took control of the war horse, pushed the half-dead man from the horse''s back to the ground, got on the horse herself, and ran away to retrieve another stray war horse. Only then did she ride back to the half-stone pillar, but found that the person and weapons on the platform were gone.


    "Here!"

 Chapter 22: Betrayal

    Anada didn''t dismount and gestured to the reins of the other war horse in Lucius''s hand.


    "Let''s go back," she said.


    Lucius looked carefully at both horses and then shook his head.


    "We can''t go back," he said. "We have to leave the city and get away from Nineveh as quickly as possible."


    The golden eyes narrowed, "What do you mean?"


    Lucius said, "Look at the headwear on the war horse. It''s from the Menes family. Those two knights are Menes warriors.


    "The leader of the Menes family, Ulcai, is the governor of Nineveh, and the city is full of his people. If the Menes family intends to kill me, they will do so thoroughly, and there will definitely be an ambush in my slave market and gladiatorial arena!


    "So we can''t go back, we can''t go back."


    Anada nodded, "So you want me to leave Nineveh..."


    Lucius quickly said, "Yes, us. Let''s leave this city together and go far away, to Asia Minor, to Troy, or to Phrygia. I still have relatives in my family there. Let''s hide for a while first and wait until the time is right to..."


    She suddenly interrupts him: "What about my younger sister?"


    Lucius was tongue-tied.


    She looked at him with her head down.


    Rainwater flowed down her forehead, forming a sparse curtain of water in front of her silver-white eyebrows.


    Lucius was horrified to see that behind the curtain of water, two lion-like eyes gradually darkened with a layer of red in the shadows.


    "You promise me to search for my younger sister," Aradia said, "In exchange, I will be your gladiatorial slave, and you can put shackles on me like a bound animal. I will serve you for life and win the championship of the gladiatorial games in your name."


    She pointed to her abdomen.


    Her wet belly was full of muscles. The wound from the shield fragments that had been hit had already healed, but due to the intense movement of pulling the horse just now, it flowed out blood again.


    She showed him one by one the wounds that were still bleeding and the wounds that had once bled.


    "This, and here, and this... these bloods are what I have bled for you. Every drop of blood is what I pay you to search for my younger sister.


    "Now I have won the championship in your name and I have done everything you asked for."


    The mother lioness said harshly, "And yet you tell me that we have to leave?!"


    Lucius felt his head was blank and his whole body stiffened, as if the blood had frozen at this drink.


    At this moment, he heard the voices in the rain becoming clearer and clearer, which was Anandiebub summoned the men who were ambushed in the ruins of the temple and were pursuing this way.


    But those pursuers were nothing compared to the disaster that was close at hand.


    She sneered, "Have you got nothing to argue about?"


    The nimble tongue on weekdays was now as heavy as a piece of copper and stuck in the mouth, unable to move.


    He saw disappointment in her yellow jade-like eyes.


    He also saw that her sword-bearing hand had started to move.


    Without hesitation, he said loudly, "I will not betray my promise!"


    "I won''t break my promise," he repeated, "and I won''t abandon your sister. I promise! But now we really can''t go back!


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    "You''re right, you, you have every reason to kill me! Just because I haven''t been able to fulfill my promise yet! But I''ve been trying, for example, my friend, is still looking for news about your sister! Even if we leave, he won''t go, he will stay in Niniwei, and when there is news, he can notify us!


    "She said loudly, "Lies! I will kill you!"


    "I didn''t!"


    He gasped, spitting out the water that flowed into his mouth.


    "You can kill me, but if you kill me, it will only make things worse. Look at yourself. The brand on your little belly indicates that you are still a slave, and even if I die, it won''t change. And if I die, you will become a runaway slave. Once you become a runaway slave, everyone in the empire who sees you will catch you and have the right to possess you--"


    She laughed with a cold sword: "They also have to have that ability!"


    He nodded repeatedly.


    "You''re right, everything is right. But if you spend all your time running for your life and hiding, and use your energy to beware of every person you see, how much time and energy do you have to find your sister?"


    She glared at him viciously, and the snow-white and crystal-clear majestic peaks swayed endlessly in the heavy rain.


    He raised his hands.


    "I have no malice towards you, please believe me. We are on the same side. We are mutually beneficial and take what we need, whether you admit it or not, but the fact is, you need me."


    She gritted her teeth and said, "I am no longer your slave."


    "No, you are," he whispered, "I bought you from Anandibub, and by the laws of the empire, you are my slave. And you also said, ''Captured, no ransom, and no escape, become a slave. Our customs of the glaciers ...'' "


    He stopped talking because the sword was pressed against his neck.


    But his answer, which was more courageous than she expected, was: "Even if you kill me, I won''t agree."


    Despite the fact that he was about to pee with fear, he still held his neck firmly under the sword.


    "I bought you, paid with money and delivered you, with a contract as evidence. You are my slave. You can kill me or successfully escape and become a runaway slave. I have no power to stop you. Do as you please.


    "But I will never release your status as a slave just because you put a sword to my neck. Forget it. I will stick to what I have decided, no matter what, even if it means death."


    The sword edge pressed hard on his neck, cutting through the skin and leaving a little blood, quickly washed away by the rain.


    His throat convulsed up and down.


    "Contracts and promises are sacred, and I will never do anything that goes against them. Whether it''s your status as a slave or my promise to help you find your sister, it''s the same."


    He stammered and waited nervously.


    The cold sword slowly left his neck.


    He breathed a sigh of relief and heard her ask coldly from above, "What do you say we should do?"


    He had already been drenched and was shaking with cold, standing in the rain for half a day.


    He said, "Go this way, we will still leave from the north gate, and then go to my hometown of Virginia."


    As he spoke, he lifted Elira from behind the stone pillar and passed her to Ana da on the back of the horse.


    Anada took the skinny Assyrian girl, hugged her, tied a rope around her waist and Elira''s waist, pulled it tight to make sure she wouldn''t fall off halfway, and tied a knot.


    Lucius panted and climbed onto another war horse.


    "Believe it or not, we are descendants of Conan the Barbarian, and the blood of an ancient kingdom flows in me."


    Anada sneered, "Excuse me."


    Lucius indignantly said, "Don''t you believe me. Several thousand years ago, the Semirian people invaded Frigia, and after that, Semirian blood mixed into the Frigians. Barbarian Conan left countless illegitimate children in Frigia, and one of my ancestors was one of them."


    "Then you really have a long face for the ''Ancient King''," said Aranta coldly, and then said no more.


    Since he was a man who kept his promises, he must have helped me find my sister.


    She thought, stroking the hilt of her sword.


    Once I use this guy to find my sister, I''ll beat him up, take my sister away to a faraway place in the Ice Sea, and return to my hometown.


    Her mouth showed a hint of malicious smile.


    In honor of the great Conan, I won''t kill him, just give him two swollen eyes, and then break his right hand that touched all over my body.


    The life is saved, although temporarily.


    Lucius trembled as he gritted his teeth.


    Revenge is a dish best served cold, ten years is not too late. Now you can be arrogant, but when I find your sister, I will have another chip, and then you will have to call the master humbly lying on the ground.


    At this time, he found that the people of Arantea had surrounded him.


    She also saw it.


    ''What do we do?'' he asked nervously, ''We''re surrounded again.''


    She replied absentmindedly, ''Don''t worry about it.''


    Lucius had no idea about fighting, but she knew.


    The enemy''s ambush was originally a sure thing. But then it started raining, and their bowstrings got wet, so they couldn''t shoot arrows.


    Just this one thing would be enough to waste half of the enemy''s fighting power.


    Among the many enemies, besides Anandiyabu and his bodyguards riding horses, the rest were walking.


    And the slave traders and their thugs were scared off by the previous fighting, and didn''t dare to ride horses and fight, which means that the enemy now only has infantry, not cavalry.


    On the other hand, they now have two horses.


    Fight if you want to, leave if you want to. The victory is in my hands, and I''m already in an unbeatable position.


    What else is there to worry about.


    In the storm, the distant shouting of Anandiyabu was heard.


    Anada noticed that Lucius''s face suddenly changed, with a mix of hesitation and fear. She had never seen this expression on him, even when she had a sword pressed against his neck.


    Curious, she asked, "What is he saying now?"


    Lucius gave her a blank look and did not respond.


    Just as Anada was becoming suspicious, she heard a weak voice from Illetia in her arms, "He''s saying that they have a grudge against Lucius and only want his head. If we kill Lucius and surrender his head to them, they will grant us our freedom."

 Chapter 23: The Final Temple of Bel

    "...surrender to them, carrying Lucius''s head, and we will be granted our freedom."


    After saying this, Ileria turned to smile at Lucius: "Is what I said correct, ''master''?"


    Lucius didn''t say anything, just stared at her with a serious expression.


    The Assyrian girl snuggled into the soft and warm blanket, shrinking into her chest, and rubbing her head, showing a comfortable expression like a cat snuggled by the fireplace.


    "Answer her," said Anada, looking at Lucius''s neck.


    Lucius was frightened.


    But he had to respond to Anada''s request.


    "Don''t be impulsive first..."


    "Ah," Anada nodded, "so he really said that."


    "Yes, but you know, Anandiyabu," Lucius stumbled, "Anandiyabu, he did say that, but he, you, you think about it, he once wanted to kill you, send you to the death arena, make you die in the mouths of those four lions-"


    Anada calmly says, "You also sent me to the arena, just at noon today. I almost died."


    Lucius was speechless.


    Anada said, "Give me a reason not to have to trade my freedom for your life."


    Lucius, with a hoarse voice, said, "I thought we had reached a consensus."


    She gestured in the direction of Arandieyb with her chin. "Sorry, things have changed."


    "Do you believe that damn Akadian will keep his word?"


    Lucius was raging.


    "He''s playing you for a fool! Once you kill me, he''ll immediately turn you into a runaway slave, arrest you, and curry favor with that damn Enriler family''s Ashur! Don''t tell me you''ve forgotten that Ashur is one of your mortal enemies!"


    Anada was unaffected.


    "I think I can take a chance," she said.


    She drew her sword.


    "Okay, okay!"


    Lucius sat on his horse, shrinking his body back, "You win! You say, what do you want, I''ll do it."


    "Set me free and give me back my freedom."


    "You''re dreaming," his handsome face twisted in the rain, "Do you think I''m a fool? Set you free? I was exiled, hunted, and now I have nothing. Once you regain your freedom, you will leave me behind!"


    He laughed in desperation and ugliness.


    "I have nothing left, but I still have you. Don''t think you can let go of me! I will firmly hold on to you, just like the waist rope on your body and the shadow behind you!


    "Either we leave together. You protect me and leave Ninyevi, and I will do my best to help you find your sister. I will not break my word!


    "Or I die now. As for you, you are a thorn in the eyes of Ashel and meat in the flesh of Anandiyabu. Anandiyabu will not keep his promise to set you free! When I die, you can accompany me to play as a runaway slave!


    "Perhaps after you die, you can see your sister and your whole family again."


    Before he could finish his words, the sword edge heavily swung onto Lucius'' face filled with ferociousness, pulling him down from the warhorse.


    Lucius rolled into the mud and blood, spitting out blood.


    She looked down at him from above.


    "Finally telling the truth?"


    He was shaking all over, half from the cold, and half from fear, as he covered his face.


    "You forced me to," he said.


    "Just testing your worth," she said contemptuously with a laugh. "Compared to that nauseating false mask before, your current expression is even more pleasing to the eye, so I can beat you up without any burden."


    He tentatively said, "You won''t kill me, right?"


    "As long as you work hard to find my sister and continue to be my slave, there''s nothing wrong with it," the silver-white mother lioness said calmly.


    She didn''t feel that a title could have any restraint on herself, nor did she think that the odd outfits and complicated rules of the southern people, where cloth was scarce, could affect her mind. She was only loyal to the sword in her hand and to herself and her family.


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    "But this child is no good."


    She gently patted the Assyrian girl tied to her.


    "Don''t think of taking revenge on her, I won''t allow it," she tapped his head gently.


    Elira shrunk even tighter in her embrace, trembling slightly and sniffing softly.


    Lucius struggled to climb up from the underground, covered in mud.


    With a hoarse voice, he said, "Okay, I''ll release her and give her freedom."


    "Good," said Anada.


    "From now on, she''s my servant."


    Lucius looked at her, then at the Assyrian girl.


    He suddenly realized.


    Gritting his teeth, Lucius said, "Well done, Elira. I underestimated you."


    If he still couldn''t see that he had been tricked by Elira, he was not Lucius anymore.


    The girl had already awakened, and she might have never fainted at all. She had been carefully observing the two of them and waiting for an opportunity.


    She watched as he and the lioness mother had a rift because of leaving Niniwe and saw how Anada''s attitude towards him changed to suspicion. She watched as he hesitated for a moment in response to the conditions offered by Anandiebub, not immediately translating for Anada. The suspicion between the two grew.


    Elira took advantage of this fleeting opportunity, breaking the mutual trust between Anada and him and winning Anada''s trust and protection.


    Anada stripped away Elira''s relationship with him as a master and kept her by her side because she didn''t trust him and was afraid that he would take advantage of her language barrier.


    "No problem," Lucius said unwillingly, "from now on, she''s your servant."


    Elira spoke up.


    "The law does not recognize it," her voice was hoarse, "the code stipulates that a slave cannot make a free person his servant, only nobles can make free people servants."


    Anada stared at Lucius.


    Lucius shrugged.


    "I don''t know, I''ve never had a servant, the code has so many provisions, who would read them all."


    "I have finished reading it all."


    Elira weakly said, "The statute also states that senior slaves have the right to use property and can have servant slaves, who serve the slave. Unless the slave gives up the servant or she dies and the servant is taken back by the owner, the owner has no right to summon her servant.


    "I am already your captive, let me be your servant, mistress. I only request of you, do not make me serve others, especially Lucius.¡±


    There was a change in the hollow black eyes, it was the flames of anger.


    "We used to trust him, but he betrayed my sister, insulted her seating ceremony, said he would marry her, but then he went around with Menis, being cozy¡­ until she died, she was washing her face with tears. You are really greedy and foolish, that''s why you are facing such a deadly disaster now - Cynthia is the future empress of the empire decided by the two famous families of Enlier and Menis, how can you, a rat, jump up and down in the middle?"


    Even if lightning struck Lucius, he couldn''t be more surprised: "What did you say? What empire empress?"


    But Elira no longer spoke.


    Anada still stared at Lucius without blinking.


    "Alright, servant."


    Lucius said awkwardly, "When this is over, find a contract artisan and we''ll complete the transfer procedures."


    "Very good."


    The mother lioness raised her sword and gently pressed it on her left cheek. A scar appeared above her left ear.


    Blood flowed out of the wound and was diluted by the rain, staining the snow-white left face a light red.


    "This is called a ''pledge wound'', a custom of our Ice Sea."


    Anada said lightly: "Before this wound heals, you''d better keep your promise and handle her affairs, or I''ll kill you."


    Elira let out a sigh and closed her eyes tiredly. Her forehead was burning, and she could no longer hold on.


    ¡¤Thank you, mistress, please don''t give up on me, and please don''t die.


    Lucas was very unhappy.


    "Is it necessary to make things so absolute?" he asked angrily. "I promised to help you find your sister too! If you kill me because of this small matter, how can I help you find your sister?"


    Her jade-like eyes stared at him.


    She said each word slowly: "If you''re even thinking of reneging on this ''small matter.''"


    "Then I don''t have to count on you keeping other promises either."


    "I might as well kill you and find another way."


    Lucius took a deep breath.


    "There''s no need for that," he said, shaking his head and speaking weakly, "I''m not a bad person... Please forgive me for my insults just now, those were just impulsive words. Trust me, I just want to survive..."


    She interrupted him, "Do what you promised, that''s all I care about. As for whether you''re a good or bad person, what''s it got to do with me?"


    Her yellow eyes looked around, and she saw more and more figures in the rain.


    Anandebyub''s ambush team was basically complete, with a total of about thirty or forty people, but they were all standing far away and cheering, no one dared to attack.


    Anada drew back her sword and picked up the throwing spear she had retrieved from a knight''s body when she brought back her horse.


    She turned her horse''s head and charged toward the enemy''s main force. She threw the spear with all her might at the two most prominent knights.


    A scream came from far away.


    She saw a figure fall off a horse. The nearest knight rode away, and the other dozen or so soldiers scattered.


    Anada was very familiar with Anandebyub''s voice. She recognized that the person who screamed was not the slave trader Anandebyub, but one of his bodyguards.


    Unfortunately, she picked the wrong person. She thought regretfully.


    She turned her horse''s head and said to Lucius without good grace, "Why are you still lingering underground? Don''t you really want to leave?"


    Lucius hurriedly mounted the horse.


    "Don''t go to Phrygia or Troy," Illere said, "the Minor Changes of the Nineteenth will soon come, we can''t be too far from the city."


    Lucius asked hastily, "What changes? What does this have to do with Cixi as the emperor''s queen?"


    Illere ignored him.


    Anada gently stroked her hair and asked, "What do you have in mind?"


    Illere coughed and said, "In the northeast direction of the imperial city, there is a deserted area in the mountains. There is an abandoned temple of Niyat -"


    Lucius changed his face.


    Illere smiled with satisfaction.


    "No one knows, that land belongs to the Bell family, and that temple is the last refuge of our family, stored with a lot of food and water inside.


    "It''s precisely because no one dares to go there that it''s still safe. Let''s hide there for a while and heal our wounds first."


    "Don''t joke around, I don''t want to go to that haunted place!"


    He looked toward Anada and explained, "That''s a barren land! Everywhere is filled with the bones of ancient beasts, no one can survive there, and even animals and plants don''t visit there for hundreds of years! And there''s the haunted temple, my father mentioned it. The temple is said to have a history of thousands of years, it was created during the great flood, and inside is the oldest text of the Riven, recorded with mysterious square characters, which is said to be able to ''summon the poison thread at the end of time and space''."

 Chapter 24: Seizing the Divine Kingdom

    The storm cannot last forever, and the rain has gradually diminished.


    The sky clears, revealing a split beautiful scene: looking east, the sky is blue and the light is gradually fading into darkness, all the way to a dark blue in the distance; looking west, the blue gradually transitions into bright yellow, and the golden-red blazing clouds above the horizon reveal a dazzling golden sunset.


    Lucius couldn''t help but turn to look at Anada. Her eyes, yellow with a hint of red, are like the blazing clouds on the horizon, like a golden sunset.


    "What queen, she''s making things up."


    Lucius looked at Elira Titi, who was soundly asleep in Anada''s arms, and grumpily said, "The more I think about it, the more I think it''s wrong. The empire has never had an emperor, where did this queen come from?"


    At this moment, the three of them were riding side by side on the mountain road after the rain.


    The road was not at all muddy. As soon as the rain stopped, the ground dried up.


    After Anada broke through Anandije''s ambush, they did not return to the slave market but went straight to the gates of Niniwe City.


    Lucius suspected that if the Meni warriors were to intercept them, they would strictly guard the northern city gates, which was the closest exit from the city. So it''s better to walk a little further and break out of the Sun Gate of the Eastern Nini City.


    Anada immediately followed Lucius'' advice and rode east.


    When Illeira asked why she followed Lucius'' suggestion, she replied, "This guy is really sharp when it comes to survival instincts, otherwise he wouldn''t have lived until today, so I trust him when it comes to escape."


    As expected, the guards at the Sun Gate were unprepared, and the three of them escaped from the city without any unexpected incidents.


    The self-judgment of knowing everything made Lucius feel that his speaking power had increased a bit:


    " ... the more I think about it, the more I feel something''s wrong. The Empire has never had an emperor, where did the empress come from?"


    Anada asked curiously, "No emperor? Do you mean you don''t have a monarch?"


    "Of course not!" Lucius said exaggeratedly, "Woman, you really know nothing about Assyria. Do you know what ''Assyria'' means? ''Assyria'' means ''the land of God on Earth of Ashur''. We don''t have a monarch, Assyria only has one ruler, and that is the war god Ashur, he is the divine emperor of Assyria."


    Anada listened in confusion, "You mean that person from the Enlil family is your divine emperor?"


    "Of course not!" Lucius said impatiently. "He''s just named Ashur, a lot of people name their children after the gods, like ''Ashur so and so'', meaning ''the power of Ashur'', ''the blessing of Ashur'', etc. Enlil was appointed as the commander of the imperial army, so this generation of inheritors directly named themselves ''Ashur''.


    "I don''t understand," Anada said blankly.


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    Lucius rolled his eyes, "I really can''t explain it to you as a foreigner."


    "It''s our tradition here," Ilira woke up in her arms, "The earliest origin of the Assyrians is the Ashur city in the west, and the city guardian they worship is the war god Ashur. They call themselves ''Assyria'', meaning ''the land of the god Ashur''.


    "The ruler of Ashur city is the High Priest and the Priest of the Ashur temple. They call themselves ''expanders of the territory'' and organize expeditions every year to expand the land of the ''land of the gods'' and to enrich the people of the ''land of the gods'' with population. This is the obligation of the priests of the Ashur temple, and also their ritual to worship the war god Ashur. This is why the Assyrians are known for their warlike nature."


    Anada reached out and touched Illeat''s forehead.


    The forehead was still a bit hot, but the heat had subsided.


    Anada said, "These things aren''t important, if you''re feeling tired, don''t keep talking. Rest well."


    Illeat made a soft "mm" sound but continued:


    "They do this because according to the records on stone pillars and clay tablets, each of our cities was initially similar to Assyria, each with its own city guardian. Whenever Assyria conquered a city, they would plunder the statue of the guardian god and bring it to the Ashur Temple as a sacrifice to the war god Ashur. This indicated that another guardian of a city was conquered and its earthly kingdom was incorporated into the "earthly kingdom of Ashur God."


    "The Assyrian Empire was formed in this way. Among the first cities to be incorporated into Assyria was the current capital city of the empire, Nineveh.


    "Nineveh was the earliest city established by our Hurrians, and the god we worship is the king of the eternal land, the king of the Narcoleptic Dream, the faceless god, Nayalate. Our Bell family has been the ruler of Nineveh and the high priest of Nayalate Temple for generations. "


    The war between the Hurrians and the Assyrians lasted for a long time. The Hurrians knew how to smelt bronze, make pottery, raise cattle, and build cities, but the Assyrians had greater military power. Later on, at some point, the two tribes made peace. They exchanged hostages and served as high priests in each other''s temples. Lower-level people also engaged in trade and intermarriage. Gradually, the two tribes merged into one, forming the prototype of the "Assyrians."


    Because the Ashur Assyrians only knew how to wage war, while the Hurrians were more skilled in construction and daily life, the capital of the Assyrians gradually moved from Ashur to Nineveh, forming a situation in which the two major temples of the war god and the faceless god coexisted in Nineveh. The Bel and Menes families, two Hurrian families, also became the "famous families of heaven" during this period.


    Lucius muttered, "So that''s how it is... my father never told me these things."


    Elvira''s weak smile had a hint of disdain: "Your ancestors from the Schwartz family were only fleeing refugees from Phrygia who sold themselves as slaves to my family. Because they flattered their worries, they were allowed to have an independent household and were granted the status of "silver." What do you know about our Assyrian history?"


    Lucius''s face was not good.


    He grunted, "You still haven''t said what ''queen'' means."


    "Irelia''s face was filled with sorrow. Seven years ago, Xisiel, the head of the Enliel family, was honored as the president and commander-in-chief of the Assyrian Empire by the other four prestigious families during an expedition conference, and he was known as the "Father of all armies." He claimed that he named his son, Sili-Ashur, which means "Ashur''s grace," Ashur, in honor of this achievement. My father strongly opposed this. The head of the Bell family was not only the chief priest of Niyarate but also the senior priest of Ashur for generations. He could not tolerate such a blasphemy.


    "However, the enemy was too strong. Xisiel also used marriage to win over my father''s last ally, causing my family to be annihilated and my relatives to be killed."


    Irelia couldn''t help but cry.


    "Before my father died, he told me, ''Xisiel''s plan is to crown himself with divine power and make his son the emperor of Assyria, usurping the earthly kingdom of Ashur.''


    "This is related to... the destruction of the Bell family. For several generations, the ancestors of the Enliel family were the high priests of the Ashur city''s war gods. They, the Assyrians of Ashur city, always claimed to be ''Assyrians among the Assyrians.'' The Enliel family has accumulated an extraordinary amount of wealth and military forces through continuous foreign expeditions, which almost reached 60% of the total number of the empire''s military forces."

 Chapter 25: Pursuing Troops

    The mountain gradually rose, and the sky gradually darkened.


    Anada and Lucius rode their horses along a small road and climbed a small hill. Looking back, there was a sense of stepping into "the lion''s den".


    Looking out, Nineveh was like a giant lion composed of stones and bricks, backed by vast mountains, quietly perched on the banks of the Tigris. The huge city did not become completely dark due to the arrival of night, and several of the most bustling places were still brightly lit.


    "That''s the temple of Ishtar," Lucius said, looking at the lights, and licking his lips. "The goddess who oversees love and fertility, and also the place with the most temple prostitutes..."


    Anada ignored him and touched Illeta''s forehead in her arms.


    The Assyrian girl fell into a coma again, and her forehead was scorching.


    "It''s hot again," Anada said. "We must first find a place to spend the night and find a way to reduce her fever."


    "She''s injured and has been exposed to the rain, How could she not have a fever," Lucius sighed.


    "This little girl has never suffered so much, the people in the Bell family all pampered her, that''s why she''s called ''little wild horse''," he remembered the past, and his eyes became gentler. "It''s hard for her."


    Suddenly, a strange and frightening howl echoed from above.


    "Big Hyena!" exclaims Lucius, "There''s a Big Hyena on the mountain!"


    She looks back to where the sound is coming from and tilts her head back to look up.


    In front of them are two slopes that stand at an angle. The slopes are dark, steep, and barren, with large and small odd-shaped stones scattered with a few shrubs and weeds.


    The howl of the Big Hyena is coming from the slopes, the howling echoing through the valley and making it difficult to determine the direction.


    Soon, the single howl turns into a chorus.


    Anada squints her eyes, her yellow pupils shining brightly in the dark.


    Bright moonlight shines on the slope. She sees, floating in the distant sky, a pair of glowing orbs that must be the eyes of the Big Hyena.


    She saw at least six pairs of eyes.


    "It''s not good," Lucius''s voice came, with a tone of panic that could not be expressed, "Look below!"


    Anada turns her head and follows the direction of Lucius''s finger.


    Lucius was shaking, "The soldiers are coming! The Minis people are coming to kill me!"


    Anada looked down and then looked away.


    "Let''s find a campsite first," she said.


    Lucius exclaimed, "What are you talking about? There''s a large group of people coming to kill us down there!"


    Anada was indifferent.


    "So what? Once we get into the mountains, it will be completely dark. Their speed will slow down. There are wild beasts and treacherous mountains here at night. I think the soldiers will rest and it is unlikely that they will chase us all night in the mountains."


    "But they have a torch," Lucius asked, "What if they catch up with us overnight?"


    "They can''t catch us," Anada said. "I arranged a few crossroads when we went up the mountain. By the time they realize something is wrong, it should already be deep into the night."


    Lucius was surprised.


    "If it''s really like you said, they might not catch us," he said, "but how did you, I mean, when did you make arrangements ... I mean, did you prepare to deal with the soldiers from the start?"


    "I didn''t think about it," Anada said, and then she turned her horse around.


    "I don''t think, I just do what I feel needs to be done."


    Before setting out, she cast a glance at the figures howling on the mountain.


    They were still there.


    Their eyes, like floating balls of light, hung in mid-air.


    She suddenly realized that they may not be the saber-toothed tigers.


    She remembered when Lucius mentioned the female warrior, Isis of Masaya, he once described the saber-toothed tiger as "a quadruped meat-eating animal with short hind legs and long front legs, a little smaller than a lion."


    She had also seen paintings of saber-toothed tigers on the walls of the Niniwei folk houses and spotted four-legged beasts with long front legs and short hind legs.


    But the things on the hillside...


    They didn''t look spotted like the paintings of saber-toothed tigers. The moon was so bright that it lit up the distant and nearby hills, and from here they looked even blacker than the stones on the mountain.


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    Their shape was somewhat similar to the saber-toothed tiger described by Lucius:


    Their head was not much smaller than a lion, and their front legs were very long compared to their short and thick hind legs.


    But it''s a bit too long.


    At this moment, those six things were using their two long front legs to prop up the ground, making their strong bodies supported by their short and thick hind legs almost completely upright, like a person but not a person.


    These dark things were walking back and forth between the rocks on the distant high slope in this posture. They made a piercing and strange laughing-like roar, singing to each other, while lowering their huge heads and gazing down at her with their ball-like eyes.


    Their lion-like eyes with a yellowish-red tint locked gaze with them for a few seconds.


    Anada felt the back of her neck heating up, even a little warm, like a Niflheim rune.


    She withdrew her gaze.


    "Let''s go," she told Lucius, "Ilia is about to collapse."


    They rode their horses and traveled along the rugged mountain road.


    Along the way, they could hear the eerie roar rising and falling, but always lingering around them, as if those things were following them.


    Lucius, riding on his horse, was chilled to the bone by the ghostly roar.


    He drove his warhorse, almost touching Anada''s warhorse. If it wasn''t for the limited weight of the warhorse, he really wished he could run and share a ride with Anada.


    They went back and forth. Anada held Irela and it was inconvenient to get on and off the horse, so she commanded Lucius to collect dry bushes and leaves along the way, and also picked a few dandelions.


    Lucius was unwilling in his heart, eager to escape this ghost place, but dared not act alone, so he followed orders.


    They walked for a while and climbed a ridge. Here the wind was raging, blowing away the howling.


    Anada chose a windward huge rock as a camping site, carefully holding Irela down from the horse.


    Lucius also hurriedly dismounted.


    Anada dug a shallow pit on the ground and asked Lucius to pile the collected withered branches and leaves in the pit, and then took out flint from the backpack of the Minos knight, starting a pile of bonfires.


    The backpack of the Minos knight really has everything.


    Lucius took out a blanket and some coarse flour from the backpack, combined with clear water in the water bottle, and ate with relish.


    Anada checked Irela''s injury by the firelight.


    Irela had a high fever and had started talking nonsense. Fortunately, the foot palm pierced by the bronze sickle knife was well treated before, and the herbs on it were not washed away by the rain.


    The high fever was not caused by the inflammation of the wound, which relieved Anada.


    She put a dandelion in her mouth and chewed it thoroughly. Then she picked up the unconscious girl''s wheat-colored face and, to the stunned gaze of Lucius beside her, deeply kissed her. She carefully pried open Illelith''s tightly clenched teeth with her tongue and slowly transferred the chewed dandelion into the depths of her oral cavity.


    Illelith''s small face wrinkled into a ball in the state between dreaming and waking.


    "It''s bitter, too bitter..." The dizzy Assyrian girl cried and hummed.


    Anada gave Illelith a drink of water and let her swallow the dandelion, then let her lie down under the giant rock, wrapped in a blanket, and continue to sleep deeply.


    After doing all this, the mother lion breathed heavily, her tall body leaning weakly against the giant rock, raised her hand to touch her forehead, and the heat was no lower than Illelith''s.


    Lucius noticed her strange appearance.


    "What''s wrong with you?" He asked cautiously.


    Anada shook her head carelessly and drew her sword.


    "Turn around," she said.


    Lucius'' face changed greatly: "Are you going to kill me?"


    Anada carelessly extended the sword blade to the burning campfire and tilted her yellow eyes to look at him: "If you don''t turn around."


    He stammered, "We had already agreed on this..."


    She ignored his persistent nagging.


    She plucked another dandelion and chewed it into pieces, then gently undid the waist rope around her waist.


    The tassels of the waist rope were already stuck to her pure white belly with blood. She tore the tassels apart with pain, revealing a deep wound underneath.


    This was from the battle against the Arkade female warrior, Isis. Isis broke her shield, and a piece of the shield splattered onto Anada, deeply wounding her belly. The piece was accompanied by "The Wrath of the Scorpion God," which caused her great trouble. She didn''t expect this trouble to persist.


    The wound was actually deep, but on the surface, it had already formed a thin layer of scab.


    She pressed down on her belly beside the wound, and suddenly a large amount of yellow pus oozed out from around the scab.


    This journey through the mud and water made the wound become inflamed and infected.


    She took a deep breath, used a sword blade that had been heated in a fire to gently pick open the blood scab, and then cut a new small opening vertically with the wound, forming a cross.


    She squeezed hard, letting the foul yellow pus continuously flow out from the cross-cut, until what was squeezed out turned into bright red, then she stopped.


    And then she spit out the chewed dandelion into her palm and pressed it tightly against the wound that was free of pus and blood.


    After doing all this, her chest was heaving, panting like a cow, sweating like juice, and her whole body was like being washed with water.


    Lucius heard something was wrong, turned his back to her, and couldn''t help but shake his shoulder, moving his neck left and right, trying to sneak a look back.


    The intense pain from treating the wound made her limbs weak, but she still tried her best to speak calmly: "If you turn your head around again, you won''t have a head anymore."


    Hearing these words as cold as the beginning, Lucius indeed dared not move anymore.


    She caught her breath for a while and her limbs regained some strength, and then she cut a blanket with her sword and dug a hole in the middle.


    She cautiously looked at Lucius, who was motionless with his back to her, put on the blanket, sticking her head out of the hole she dug, and tied the waist with a waist rope, tying the two blankets that hung down from her front chest and back to her waist.


    She took a long breath.


    After being robbed in the South for so long, she finally put on "clothing" that was enough to cover her body.


    Although she didn''t understand fancy rhetoric, she could still feel that clothes were a symbol of civilization and the deprivation of slaves'' right to wear clothes was a serious insult to the slaves'' personality by the Assyrians.


    The best way to deal with it is to show that you don''t care about being naked, and show your nakedness and impropriety to those who are above you so that the humiliation inflicted by the enemy will become a humiliation to them.


    She did the same.


    Every time she was stared at by those Assyrian nobles, she would hold her head high and ignore them, with the fire of revenge burning more and more fiercely in her heart, wishing to burn everything down.


    At this moment, the imperial general who led the pursuit cavalry, who was also the Scorpio God High Priest of the Akkad people, Marsayas, just got off the camel, came to the side of the mountain road, and searched carefully.


    The reason why his mount was a camel instead of a warhorse was because no warhorse could bear his mountain-like body.


    Anandibujia''s anxious voice sounded next to him: "It''s been two hours already, and we haven''t found it yet... we''re lost now, what should we do?"


    Marsayas ignored him.


    He carefully stared at a small cluster of broken plants in front of him, a cluster of dandelions that had been pulled out.


    Marsayas smiled, his eyes shining in the dark, greedily licking his tongue: "I didn''t expect, my warrior mother, you are still an untainted chick."


    Next to the dandelion, he found two small pieces of soil with a pungent smell.


    Marsayas picked up a small handful from each of the two pieces of soil and tasted them in turn.


    He closed his eyes and savored carefully, then spat it out with a smile.


    "Very fresh urine, the first is a man, the other is a woman, passed by here two hours ago, not wrong."