Cthulhu Gonfalon

Wood was a sophisticated spy, and he had almost reached the acme of mortals in this field. Even though he had become a little insensitive over the past few years, his underlying strengths and basic quality still existed.

Now, in the midst of crisis and pain, his dullness caused by those years of relaxed living had been brushed away like dust, and he had become the best spy again.

In just a moment, he guessed roughly what was going on.

But he preferred to be as dull as before, or worse. He would rather have guessed nothing.

It already became clear that the Mifata Federation believed Wood had been bought over by the Northwest Republic because the information he had sent back to the federation over the years became less valuable. North Wind came here not to assist him, but to kill him.

In fact, he had long been aware of everything. Even if the Federation wanted to send him an assistant, they would only send a person to lead him and then reduce his status to that of a deputy. How could they send an elite spy to help him?

If the Federation really wanted to send him an assistant, they also would have sent one earlier. What’s more, Wood did not need any elite spies. As long as they could help him to cover up his work, an ordinary spy would be enough.

However, the Federation sent North Wind to help him. He was afraid that maybe after killing him, North Wind would take over his intelligence station.

As for the way she planned to assassinate him, that was even more obvious. His unbearable pain was not only due to the magical effect but also due to powerful toxins. What’s more, he was unaware of the toxin when he ate it, and he was in so much pain afterwards. It was obvious that this kind of toxin was specifically designed, maybe for him.

This really made him feel sad. Since the Federation had time to design a special kind of toxin to deal with him, why couldn’t they just send someone to help him?

If they had sent an assistant earlier, the situation would be very different now.

He smiled bitterly. Although he was heartbroken, he couldn’t help but laugh at this moment.

It must have cost a lot of manpower and resources to design such a toxin. In addition, the Federation even sent a high-level spy—North Wind! The Federation really spent a lot in order to kill him!

Ah! Since the Federation had so much time and so many people, why not send someone to make sure whether Wood had betrayed them or not?

“What is the meaning of this?” Wood murmured.

North Wind had planned to commit suicide if she failed to kill Wood, so as not to expose the secret after being caught. However, after seeing that Wood did not fight back immediately, she suddenly grasped some opportunities. Wood had probably been attacked by the toxin, and now his combat effectiveness was limited. He had to wait for reinforcements to save him, so he wanted to buy some time by talking with her.

Thinking of this, she did not answer his question. Instead, she ran out of the bedroom, brought out her usual crossbow from under the bed, and rushed towards Wood.

Wood did want to drag out his time a little. He was too poisoned. Although he tried to use Dou Qi airflow to temporarily suppress the symptoms of poisoning, its effect was not too strong. Now, he needed more time to try to use magic to suppress the toxin.

Of course, he thought that magic would not work either, but it did not matter. He had weapons and medicine in every corner of the house, including antidotes. Although it may not detoxify the toxin, it could at least alleviate his pain.

However, North Wind deserved to be called the trump spy of the Federation. She immediately judged the situation and took the right measures.

Wood sighed deeply as he watched North Wind rush towards him with a crossbow.

The crossbow was specially prepared by him. It was not large in size, but it was very powerful.

Its only disadvantage was that it could not repeatedly shoot, unlike ordinary small-handed crossbows. However, its power was not inferior to military light crossbows at all.

The name “light crossbow” did not sound powerful at first, but its strength was actually very strong. Except for those strong men who had strengthened their defenses, most adventurers would be killed if they were shot by it without armor.

Unlike heavy crossbows, such types of crossbows could penetrate anything. Specially-designed crossbows could make wounds difficult to dress and handle. Sometimes these crossbows were covered in special toxins in order to increase its lethal power.

Wood’s crossbow was poisonous, and it used a very powerful toxin—dangerous snake venom.

Every three days, this crossbow needed its toxin replenished. The last time he had changed it was yesterday. Today, it should be very toxic. As long as the crossbow cut one’s skin, it was enough to kill an ordinary strong man.

Wood was much stronger than ordinary people. Normally, if he had been shot by the crossbow, he would not die immediately. But now, since he had been attacked by a special kind of toxin, he was not sure whether he could survive or not. If he was shot by the crossbow that had the snake venom on its bolt, he would die for sure!

If he was in good health, he would be able to dodge the crossbow, but he was in poor health now, and North Wind’s shooting skills were quite good. If North Wind was going to shoot him, he could hardly escape or survive.

So he had only one choice left.

North Wind, who had raised the crossbow and was going to shoot Wood, suddenly felt a shock throughout her body. She tried very hard to raise the crossbow again, but her body fell to the ground softly and without warning. Blood gushed out from two wounds on her chest and back. In an instant, the blood had soaked into her pajamas, spread out on the floor, and turned into a large red puddle.

It was Wood’s flying knife, which had pierced her body and destroyed her heart.

She was killed by Wood’s flying knife in an instant.

There was a martial arts novel on earth in which the protagonist, who had suffered a lot, was good at throwing knives. But if he faced a fat man, his flying knife might lose its effect.

If Wood was the protagonist in the novel, his flying knife would be able to shoot through the fat man’s heart even if the fat man wore heavy military armor.

North Wind was neither a master of “Qigong” nor did she wear super-strong armor. She would certainly die after being pierced by Wood’s flying knife.

Wood couldn’t help but sigh deeply in his heart, but he had no time to feel sad.

He rushed back to his bedroom and took out a bottle of medicine from another box under the bed. After careful examination, he opened the bottle cap and drank it.

The potion that he had taken out from under his bed was light-gold and looked very beautiful. But its price was more expensive than a bottle of gold sand.

This was an advanced antidote. A bottle of such antidote would cost two thousand gold coins!

Generally speaking, even adventurers did not always have such precious and expensive medicine. They often preferred to use potions that would cost about two hundred gold coins to alleviate the toxin. Potions that could neutralize the toxin would cost them about five hundred gold coins. Such advanced antidotes were mostly used by rich or high-ranking nobles.

Wood was not a millionaire, but he had spent most of his income preparing for everything he could possibly use. A great artist’s income was very high without considering saving money. He could also afford such advanced antidotes.

After drinking the advanced antidotes, he immediately felt the toxicity in his body weakening, and the intolerable pain in his body was slightly alleviated.

But this advanced antidote could not detoxify the toxin completely.

This toxin that was specially designed by the Federal Intelligence Service was not so easy to deal with!

Wood shook his head and took all the other antidotes he had prepared, but they were far less effective than the advanced antidote. After drinking them all, he could still feel pain everywhere in his body, especially in his internal organs.

But it was better to drink them than to not.

Wood was not surprised by this result. He would have been surprised if the toxicity could be removed so easily.

Returning to the room where he had just fought with North Wind, he sighed deeply. He saw North Wind still clutching the unused crossbow after her death.

“Why? Why did you do that?” he shook his head and asked sadly. “Why didn’t you talk to me? I really did not betray the Federation!”

He was a good actor, and if necessary, he had a hundred ways to perform “sadness.”

But at the moment, his performance became pale and thin as if the color of his whole body was fading. Now standing next to the dead body of North Wind was only a black-and-white sketch.

Wood was silent for a long time, took out a special powder and sprinkled it on the body of North Wind. This powder could effectively remove the scent of blood and avoid being detected by others.

Then he cast a spell to remove the bloody smell from the house.

After that, he wondered about what to do next.

Maybe he could give himself up to the Grand Governor Felix, and he would not receive any severe punishments considering his past friendship with Felix.

But this idea was extinguished by him as soon as it arose in his mind.

No way! He was the trump spy of the Mifata Federation. Even if he died, he would die as a trump spy! He would never betray the federation!

Now, he would run away as soon as possible.

North Wind was also a public figure, and her death could not be covered up for too long.

But... where could he escape to?

Wood was at a loss.

He remembered the maps of most areas on the Main Plane, but now when he looked back at those maps, he felt that there was no place in the world to escape to.

Escape? Where could he escape?

The Federation would not let him go. When the dead body of North Wind was found, the Northwest Republic would know his true identity and would probably send someone to kill him.

He could not escape to the remotest corner of the world if he was pursued by two great powers from the South and the North. Even if he escaped from the Main Plane to other planes, or to the vast universe, he might not be able to escape successfully.

What’s more, he couldn’t find a way to escape from the Main Plane at present, but he had to run away at once.

Unless he wanted to die, he absolutely had to.

Wood was not afraid of death, but he did not want to die. He wanted to do many things. For example, he wanted to open a bookstore in a small town near the Highest Tower of the Federal Capital after retirement. He wanted to go back to his hometown, the famous Yun-ta City, and eat the most authentic home dishes. He also wanted to marry an ordinary wife who had nothing to do with politics or spies, have a few ordinary children, and live a stable life.

Above all, he wanted to understand why his superiors so easily judged that he had betrayed them. That needed to be cleared up.

That made no sense!

Thinking of this, his body regained strength.

Yes, he could not die now. He still had important things to do!

Maybe North Wind misunderstood the order, or maybe his supervisor had made a mistake when he promulgated the task. Anything was possible!

If he did not rush back to the Federation and ask his superior for truth in person, he would never die!

So before that, he could not die!

Wood acted quickly. He temporarily froze North Wind’s body with magic and hid it in the basement. Then he sealed the basement completely. He came back and carefully cleared the traces of fighting in the room to make sure that others could not see what had happened here.

By the time all of this was done, almost half of the night had passed.

Fortunately, nights in the North were much longer. Otherwise, it would be a bit embarrassing if it was daybreak now.

No one would be able to find North Wind’s dead body unless he was as powerful as Wood and searched carefully, so Wood began to pack up all the valuable things in his house and prepare the luggage for the long journey.

When everything was ready, he put on his travel suit, found a board and wrote, “Something urgent came up, we will be out for a while, and all work will begin after we return home.”

He hung the board on front of his door and then went out.

He believed that could buy him some time—maybe three or five days, maybe ten days or even longer.

By the time everything was exposed, he had mostly arrived at the Highest Tower.

It would take him four to five days to get to Void City. But since he was not in good health and could not run fast, it would take him longer.

He thought for a while. Then he went to the car shop near the city gate and bought a carriage.

It was a good carriage, light and compact. The horse that pulled the carriage had a little demon beast blood. It could pull the carriage for more than ten days as long as Wood fed it some special food every night.

Of course, he had bought the special food; at least, it was enough for the journey.

The car shop also sold passenger food and water, so he bought them all together.

Pretending that his wife was in the carriage, he drove out of the gate and headed for Void City at night.

At this time, he could not help but thank Governor Asner of Pyroxene Town who had decided not to close the gate at night. Otherwise, he would have had to wait until dawn at the gate.

In that case, the fact that North Wind was not in the carriage would be exposed.

Now he drove all the way and felt a little tired, but at least he had covered up the fact that North Wind was not in the carriage.

The night was very dark. Although Wood had the ability to see through the night, he still felt very gloomy.

Perhaps it was not the scenery around him that was gloomy but his heart.

Over Wood’s head, Sui Xiong was silent and looked at him with pity.

North Wind’s soul was cut off by Sui Xiong, so he had fully understood the cause and effect of the matter. He was not very optimistic about Wood’s journey.

He would follow Wood all the time and see what would happen in the end.