As a noble lord, the financial manager, the minister of internal affairs, and the foreign minister under his command all have some noble blood, or they are distant relatives of the Minster family.
Although they are not the leaders within the Minster Viscount’s territory, they hold significant power.
All matters, big and small, within the territory go through them before reaching the lord.
It can be said that under the local emperor lord, they are the next in line.
Undoubtedly, these obscure nobles without their own territories have no right to inherit the Minster territory.
But now, things are different.
The only male heir of the Minster family is bedridden and likely unable to produce offspring.
Coupled with the personal guarantee of the Minster Viscount, the nobles, who suffer from having only status but no land, see the opportunity for success right in front of them and rush forward eagerly.
Just by eliminating a commoner, they can rise in status.
Who wouldn’t want that? As for the commoner boy being protected by a noble, it doesn’t matter as long as they don’t harm the noble’s life.
What could be more exciting than a meteoric rise in status and position? So, they all emptied their family resources, calling upon family soldiers, guards, and mercenaries, crowding the entrance of the arena like sardines in a can.
“Just kill the one in the white cloak, leave the other two alive!” After receiving orders from their master, the head of the family soldiers shouted, urging his subordinates to accompany their master in achieving glory.
After all, if the master prospers, the subordinates can also benefit, which is undoubtedly a good thing.
Facing the densely packed crowd, Mo Li initially thought it was a lone battle for him and Roco, but he was gravely mistaken.
“Mo Li, step back.” Norma took off his shirt, tied it around his waist like a street thug, and cracked his knuckles, making a crunching sound.
“Uncle, you better step back, this is no joke…” Mo Li hadn’t finished his sentence when Norma took a stance and punched fiercely at the soldiers surging forward.
Suddenly, the sky changed color, the earth shook, and the air was filled with family soldiers blown away by the violent and fierce punch wind.
“Haha, refreshing, come on! Take my punch!”
“It’s been a long time since I fought! … Not strong enough, come again!”
Mo Li was dumbfounded, watching Norma wreak havoc among the crowd, and nudged the equally silent Roco beside him with his elbow.
“Is it you protecting your master or your master protecting you?”
“…I don’t know.”
“Who do you think is stronger, you or Uncle Norma?”
“I don’t know, never tried.” Whether due to shock or genuinely unable to compare, Roco didn’t give Mo Li a definite answer.
“But I think we don’t need to worry about Lord Norma’s safety for now.” Roco said seriously.
“At least, you definitely can’t beat Lord Norma.”
“…Alright, so anyone who jumps out is stronger than me.”
However, Mo Li did overlook Norma’s identity.
The latter is a noble, and one whose bloodline hasn’t declined, so he should possess bloodline power.
And anything related to bloodlines, even if not combat-type bloodline power, is not something these miscellaneous soldiers can challenge.
“Huff huff! Refreshing, exhilarating!” In the crowd, Norma, who was fighting with gusto, saw the soldiers who were previously hot-blooded retreating in fear, backing off ten meters away, and was somewhat dissatisfied.
“Fight or not? If not, turn around and leave, if you want to fight, come on!”
Another powerful punch sent five approaching family soldiers flying, bleeding from their seven orifices, and scattered.
Now in the crowd, Norma was like a war god, with ‘invincible’ written on his face.
Norma, who entered combat mode after taking off his clothes, was completely different from his usual gentle and refined self, like a hot-blooded hero sung in poems, shouting as he fought, as if the louder he shouted, the higher his output.
“I’m really curious about what your master used to do.” Throughout, Mo Li and Roco didn’t make a move, or rather, they didn’t have the chance to.
No way, Norma was too strong, with normal attacks dealing AOE damage, knocking at least five people away with one punch, leaving no room for them to intervene.
Especially Mo Li, who completely became Norma’s background, only needing to hold popcorn and cheer from behind.
“…I heard from the Pope that Lord Norma wasn’t a noble of the Papal State, and not the literary kind.
He used to be a noble who went to war with knights.
In the past, it seems everyone called him the ‘Fist of Demon Breaker.'” Roco recalled.
“…So it turns out he really only stumbled in my place in his previous life.
If it weren’t for Minster’s poison, I probably wouldn’t have returned from that time.”
“Bullying the few with the many, what kind of skill is that? My friend, I shall lend you a hand!” At some point, Limdis had appeared beside Mo Li, arms crossed, hands covering her eyes, peering through her fingers.
“You! … What a bunch of hopeless fools, do you know what you’re doing?!” Seeing that even his last trump card couldn’t do anything to Mo Li, Viscount Minster was furious, only able to rage impotently on the spot.
“Just a mere commoner, is it worth it for you to do this? You are nobles, where is your dignity? Where has your dignity gone?!”
No one paid attention to the mad old man.
“Shoot, shoot them for me!” Viscount Minster roared.
“In that case, all of you go to hell for this Viscount!”
The archers immediately raised their bows, and sharp arrows rained down like a storm.
“Fate, severed here!” Limdis snorted, a spatial barrier appeared, absorbing all the arrows, then returning them in full.
“Ahhh!”
“Yaaah!” The infantry charging forward experienced firsthand what it meant to be surrounded by friendly fire, turned into porcupines by the arrows, fleeing in panic, abandoning their armor.
“Ah da!” Norma charged up a punch, the powerful explosive punch sent the remaining guards of Viscount Minster flying.
Perhaps realizing that it wasn’t good to be idle while his master was so brave, Roco’s longsword swept through the crowd, cutting down a swath like harvesting wheat.
Everyone was showing off their skills, only Mo Li was in the back, unable to help, holding Norma’s coat and cheering.
“How could this happen, how could this happen?!” Watching the almost crushing battle, Viscount Minster grew more desperate, clutching his head, unwilling to accept reality, and fell to his knees.
“Left punch, right punch, uppercut, lowercut!” Norma’s fists left afterimages in the air, his attack patterns completely undetectable.
With one punch, flesh went in, red came out, the whole person transformed into a ‘Thousand-Handed Kannon,’ pounding the mercenaries into disarray.
Looking at the despairing Viscount Minster, Mo Li sighed.
He could understand the latter’s feelings now, probably, completely hopeless.
This was probably the emotion he felt when facing bloodline users back then.
It can be said that a single bloodline user is equivalent to an army, and even powerful bloodline users can chase down several armies.
Bloodline power, this is the main theme of the Tain Continent.
Whether it’s countries competing for national power or various organizations’ open and covert struggles, having one more bloodline user makes a qualitative difference.
It’s not hard to see why countries value bloodline users so much.
In general, ordinary people facing bloodlines is a kind of despair, after all, ordinary people and bloodline users are not on the same level, not even in the same category.
Why did the Minster family go all out to enter Lain? Wasn’t it to find a noble family with a bloodline to marry and have offspring with a bloodline?
However, all of this ultimately became a bubble.
When Barlow took the potion that temporarily activated his dormant bloodline, everything for this family ended.
So, the things given by cultists, if you can avoid using them, don’t use them.
Finding the empty bottle Barlow had thrown away in the chaotic crowd, Mo Li put on Mirabel’s black-framed glasses to investigate, and sighed.
As expected, it was a potion from the cultists.
‘Dawn of Medea, Effect: Temporarily activates dormant potential bloodline, Side effect: Strong backlash from the bloodline, Maker: Dusk Church Maudel.’
Dusk Church… just from the name, it doesn’t sound like a legitimate church, though in the human kingdoms, except for Sera, they are all evil gods and cults.
Quietly putting the empty bottle with some remaining potion into his cloak, the other side had almost finished fighting.
“Stop, stop! We surrender, don’t hit us, we surrender, spare us, we didn’t recognize Mount Tai, spare us!” The nobles hiding behind the family soldiers were terrified.
No matter how they acted high and mighty usually, it didn’t change the fact that they were just a group of fallen nobles without bloodlines.
At this moment, they naturally knew to be wise and submit, the position of Viscount is good, but you need to be alive to enjoy it, right??
“Is it over already?” Norma stretched his arms. “I haven’t even fought to my heart’s content yet.”
“Your defeat is a predetermined part of fate, the fox god has long foreseen your defeat.” Limdis proudly indulged in her chuunibyou.
“Old man, where do you think you’re going?” Roco grabbed the hook-nosed old man who was trying to sneak away.
“Ah, ah! Spare, spare me, noble lord, it’s not my fault, it was all Viscount Minster’s orders, it really has nothing to do with me! I was also coerced and bribed by him, I had no choice, I struggled internally, condemned this Viscount’s arrogance and shamelessness, but I was lowly and dared not say anything.”
The hook-nosed old man, who was known for bullying the weak and fearing the strong, was now in tears, trying every trick in the book to appear pitiful and innocent to clear his name.
“You!…” Viscount Minster’s mouth twitched as he heard how easily the hook-nosed old man sold him out.
“Then let me ask you, who is the champion?” Norma asked the hook-nosed old man in a deep voice after putting on the clothes handed to her by Mo Li.
“You, you, you… oh no, I mean, it’s this Mo Li, it’s this Mo Li!” The hook-nosed old man quickly changed his tune, driven by the instinct to survive under a powerful threat.
“As the judge appointed by Lan Yin Academy, I declare that the final of the Minster’s Lan Yin Academy qualification competition is won by Mo Li! Mo Li is the absolute victor! Anyone who dares to disagree is out of luck!” The hook-nosed old man shouted to the crowd.
In fact, he didn’t need to shout anymore.
The discontented nobles had all been subdued, their previous arrogance completely gone, now looking like eggplants hit by frost.
The merchants, who had been grumbling about the anticlimactic end and not even seeing the power of bloodlines, were now satisfied after the ‘chaotic battle’ following the final.
They not only witnessed the qualification final but also got a free show of a bloodline wielder’s chaotic battle, witnessing the fall of a local tyrant, and were very pleased.
“Viscount, do you have anything to say now?”
“Say something?” Viscount Minster, kneeling on the ground, twitched a few times and forced a grim smile.
“What can I say? You won… you all won!” Viscount Minster roared.
“Father, are you okay…” Martha ran to Viscount Minster’s side, tears streaming down her face, holding his arm with concern.
“Okay? How could I be okay?” Viscount Minster laughed dryly twice.
“It’s all gone, everything is gone.”
“The elite guards I saved up for half my life to hire are gone, my son is gone, my reputation, my family fortune, everything is gone, ha, hahahaha!…” Viscount Minster laughed maniacally to the sky.
“The Minster family, in my generation, is completely finished, hahaha…!” Watching the insane Viscount Minster, Mo Li felt a sense of surrealism.
In his previous life, his situation was the opposite of Viscount Minster’s; he was driven to despair by him, but in this life…
Seeing the defeated Viscount Minster, Mo Li felt no sense of revenge, nor any other emotion, just a sense of disbelief.
The Minster family, which was once an insurmountable mountain to him, was now severely weakened, and the head of the family had gone mad, something that seemed almost impossible to his former self.
This life has indeed changed a lot.
“Um, Mo Li, this is your champion qualification, please take it.”
Feeling a tap on his back, Mo Li turned around to see the hook-nosed old man handing him a gold card.
Just as he was about to take it, Norma intercepted it, examined it thoroughly, and then handed it to Mo Li.
“It’s genuine, no doubt.”
“Hey, hey, how could I dare deceive you?” The hook-nosed old man laughed awkwardly.
“This is what you deserve, something you won fair and square with your strength, take it.” Norma smiled lightly.
“Congratulations, Mo Li, on taking your first step.”
“Let me offer you my congratulations as well, my friend.” Limdis, standing nearby, also offered her blessings.
