Revive Rome: Wait! Why not make the empress fall in love with me first?
Chapter 370 - 168 Post-Trade Transactions

Chapter 370: Chapter 168 Post-Trade Transactions

Everyone rushed to Poppsar Mountain and found, at the base of the moving signal tower, a corpse that had almost become a lump of rotten mud.

Having been shot in the head first, then landing face-first on the ground, Nora could no longer match this blurred and unrecognizable corpse with the photo that the Life School had sent over on the phone.

However, according to the extraordinary traits that had condensed on this guy’s corpse, using the Same Order Intuition for identification, it seemed to be a combination of Life IV+, Spirit Body IV+, and Mind II.

This guy was actually a Lv.10 Life Songster, it was good they had assassinated him from a distance, otherwise, a close-quarters battle would have definitely been very troublesome.

Nora collected this Lv.10 extraordinary trait and turning around, asked,

"What do we do now?"

If this guy were still alive, they could have directly searched his mind body and extracted the high-rank formulas for Life and Spirit from him.

But this guy was already dead, his mind body had disintegrated, and the "Super Self" containing his memories had sunk to the very bottom of the subconscious ocean, close to the location of the River Styx, and was no longer within the reach of Mind Power.

They would need the ability of the "Death Spirit" Sequence, which was the Main Sequence ability of the Spiritual Body Sect.

In fact, there were rumors on the forum saying that the Spiritual Body Sect had coerced this guy into stealing a Life formula and then quickly commit suicide, so that the memories would sink to the bottom of the subconscious ocean. After that, the Spiritual Body Sect would use "Death Spirit" abilities to fish him out and resurrect him as a Corpse Witch to obtain the corresponding formula information.

After all, dying was much easier than escaping. By doing this, the Life School wouldn’t stand a chance at stopping him.

The only problem was that this person apparently didn’t want to die and become a Corpse Witch, which led to his betrayal and the subsequent mission.

Aske took out a gold coin and stuffed it into the mouth of the corpse. After a moment, a small boat slowly emerged from the reflection of the pool of blood on the ground.

The Ferryman was holding the boat steady at the stern, while Apilius stepped off the small boat, stared at the corpse for a long while, and said slowly,

"You’ve done well."

"This is the agreed payment." Two bottles of magic potion, held in slender-necked, narrow-mouthed bottles, appeared on the ground next to the small boat.

"Grandpa!" Thira called out.

"I’ve taken note of the matter you mentioned last time," Apilius said, nodding. He reached out towards the corpse from afar as if grabbing something, then carefully tucked it into his sleeve.

"City Lord," Aske spoke up, "now that this mission is complete and the payment settled, may we discuss another deal?"

"What kind of deal?" Apilius asked, unfazed.

"We would like to obtain the formulas for Life Sequence III and IV, and for Spirit Sequence III and IV that you’ve extracted from this corpse’s memories," Aske replied, "In exchange, we have information."

"Key information that’s very important and possibly related to the future direction of you and other powers on the continent, relevant to what Thira previously mentioned."

Thira had warned Apilius that she suspected someone had taken advantage of the Magic Tide attack on Olympia City to bring Dark Elves into the city amid the chaos. She thought someone was trying to muddy the waters to covertly replace someone and infiltrate close to City Lord Apilius.

Judging by Apilius’s recent response and demeanor, Thira’s suspicions were not unfounded; the City Lord seemed to have noticed that something was off with some people around him, so he would probably be more interested in related information.

Moreover, formulas are not like magic potions; as knowledge, they have no inherent cost. Transcendents not of that Sequence would have no demand for the formulas, allowing for a significant fluctuation in price.

Therefore, Aske wanted to try to exchange the information for the formulas, and then, combined with the traits they had just acquired, create the magic potions that Nora would need later on.

Sure enough, Apilius gave a faint smile:

"You can start with the information, and I will judge its value."

Aske: ......

Why is it always these domineering terms?

Facing a Demigod, he currently lacked the strength to negotiate, and a flat-out refusal would only harm their relationship for no good reason. Besides, it was they who urgently needed the follow-up formulas, not the other way around.

But fortunately, this was Thira’s grandfather; at least he wouldn’t blatantly scam them. Otherwise, it would only make things awkward for Thira within the team.

So Aske said gravely,

"We have reliable information indicating that Emperor Otto of the Divine Luo Empire decided to wage war against the Church Court due to a long-term, covert bewitchment of his mind."

The girls: ......

Wait, wasn’t this the information provided to us by the Enchanting Demon Queen? You’re selling it to Thira’s grandfather just like that? Isn’t that a bit...

...a bit clever?

"Hmm," not only did Apilius fall into deep thought immediately, but even the Ferryman at the stern showed some surprise, letting out an ambiguous laugh that also resembled a sharp intake of breath.

Emperor Otto, the Emperor, was being secretly influenced over an extended period?

Without a doubt, even the slightest leak of this information would drastically change the future trajectory of the entire world and affect the judgment of the upper echelons across all continental nations.

"The value of this intelligence..." Apilius said at last, his tone shifting, "plus the reminder from Theodora before, I can offer you the recipes for Life III and Spirit Body III at most."

"But if you can find out who exactly is continually affecting the mind of Emperor Otto, then that information would be worth the recipe for Life IV."

"If you can bring this person before me, dead or alive, then you could even exchange that for a full bottle of Spirit Body IV Magic Potion. You understand the connection," he added.

Aske thought to himself that it was exactly as expected; first, dangling the tempting III recipes and then enticing everyone with the subsequent IV-level Magic Potions and recipes, all to have them continue risking the collection of more information.

Cunning indeed, quite the match for the scheming of the Enchanting Demon Queen.

However, since Apilius was willing to make this offer, it confirmed what Aske had previously surmised:

Thira’s guess was true.

There indeed was a force, taking advantage of the Dark Elves causing chaos in Olympia City, laying hidden pawns near Apilius, like replacing his confidants, attempting to continually and long-term influence his mind.

After Thira’s pointed reminder, the situation must have been discovered by Apilius.

So when Aske mentioned Emperor Otto was also being conspired against, Apilius’s first reaction was "interest" rather than "suspicion."

The reason he wanted everyone to collect further information was also to find Otto’s deceivers and trace back to the mastermind behind the curtain using them.

Of course, having already promised the Enchanting Demon Queen, Aske found it easy to agree to this one too. If Magic Potion recipes could be sold to multiple parties, why couldn’t the intelligence he collected be sold multiple times? Of course, it could.

Aske nodded and agreed. After providing two Magic Potion recipes, Apilius boarded the Ferryman’s boat and disappeared once again into the pool of blood.

The Azure Longsword members, after clearing away their traces, quickly and hastily departed.

On their way back to Hexingen Town, with consecutive victories on the frontline, the defense and alertness levels had also been relaxed quite a bit.

Aske found the mobile rental stall and said,

"Another ten minutes."

"Why don’t you just buy one to take back?" the stall owner said. "It’s not expensive."

Aske chuckled. In another 1-2 months, the second wave of the Magic Tide would come, and by that time, mobile phones will turn into useless metal; do you think I don’t know that?

Seeing he was not interested in buying, the stall owner could only silently take the money and said no more. Aske picked up the same phone he used last time and handed it to Nora.

Nora logged into her CM account and entered the group chat to look at the conversation history. As expected, Life School people had noticed the abnormality in Stuttgart, organizing swiftly and arriving in the city.

Currently, they were staring blankly at the green-skinned plant people filling the city streets.

"Online communication," said Aske, "with the group’s administrator."

Nora pressed the CM’s online communication feature, and after a moment, the call connected. A certain calm and hoarse male voice came from the earpiece,

"This is Lu Aelin."

"Aske," Aske responded in introduction.

The other side fell silent for a moment, "Squad Leader Aske, what’s the matter?"

Clearly, this Life School administrator had done a comprehensive background check on Nora, even investigating the mercenary group she belonged to.

"Didn’t you mention to Nora before that you seem to be looking for a dangerous individual near Stuttgart? We are just outside of Stuttgart and have witnessed intense fighting near the top of a mountain."

"Coordinates and direction?" the other side asked directly.

"South of Stuttgart, atop Poppsar Mountain, near a tower."

The other side didn’t respond but immediately hung up the call.

"That was swift and decisive," Aske muttered somewhat speechless.

This Lu Aelin, if he remembered correctly, was supposed to be the current leader of the Life School.

However, unlike the autocratic rule of the Spiritual Body Sect’s Bishop Apilius, the Life School was relatively decentralized and loose, with several elders above the leader and various internal factions keeping each other in check, meaning the leader’s own power was not that great.

Four factions, four different rewards, but the reward from the Life School was the least of all; Aske didn’t have much expectation, considering it as collecting a bit of a mosquito leg.