Chapter 306: 306 "Sacred Codex of Sunshine
Gejiev did not enter into direct conversation with Reiger.
As he passed through the village square, he happened to see the corpses of relatives the villagers had collected.
Before this, the villagers had actually been preparing for the funeral.
Holding a funeral on the very day of the disaster seemed a bit too hasty, but in this world, it was a necessary action.
Because if the bodies were not dealt with in time, if the deceased were not consoled, they could turn into the undead.
The ones that do not fully revive, those are the undead.
They are monsters formed by the negative energy and negative life force emitted by living beings after death, condensing upon remnants or other necromantic media, existing completely opposite to the living.
The living have a lifespan, the undead do not.
The living can be healed by holy powers, but the undead would be harmed.
Magic that can heal the living, if cast upon the undead, would injure them; conversely, forces like curses that can kill the living would instead greatly nourish the undead.
Such beings as zombies, skeletons, ghouls, hungry ghosts, corpse demons, bloated ghouls, and rotting corpses are all examples of the undead, and they make up one of the largest and most numerous monster races in this world.
And in places where the living meet their end, such unclean things are often born, giving rise to the undead.
Especially those who died an unnatural death with no one to mourn them, they have a generally high probability of transforming into the undead.
Therefore, the undead often appear in places like battlefields and ruins. If left unchecked, they can easily become stronger and evolve into higher orders of the undead, eventually turning into a calamity too great for humans to handle.
In light of this, in this world, mourning and consoling the dead is a very important custom and habit, regardless of the country or race, and is taken very seriously.
Those villagers who perished in Kain Village all died from senseless slaughter, obviously filled with resentment before death, making them highly likely to transform into the undead.
Therefore, the surviving villagers could only suppress their grief and gather their dead relatives together, preparing to quickly hold a funeral.
The arrival of Gejiev and his men inadvertently interrupted this process, causing the villagers to hide inside their homes and leaving those bodies gathered in the square.
Seeing this scene, Gejiev stopped in his tracks.
"Let me also offer a flower for the dead," he said to the village chief, making Reiger glance sideways at this warrior captain.
It seemed that this captain truly had a heart that understood the common folk, the general populace.
For this, the village chief was naturally tearfully grateful, hurrying to call out the villagers hiding in their houses to continue with the funeral.
The funeral in the small village was not at all extravagant, rather it was extremely simple.
But this was already the limit of what Kain Village could do at the moment, and no one would blame them.
They even collected the bodies of Belius, Lundes, and those Disguised Knights from the Shinobu religious state, planning to find a plot to bury them, lest they turn into the undead.
This process yet again sparked waves of crying, causing Reiger, who was somewhat unaccustomed to this, to speak up for a leave, temporarily excusing himself from the scene.
Gejiev, on the other hand, offered a flower for each deceased villager at the funeral, bowing deeply for each one.
During this time, Gejiev learned of a piece of news from his subordinates.
"What?"
Gejiev expressed surprise at the words whispered by his subordinate into his ear.
"You say that young man can use Fifth-Tier Magic?"
Yes, Gejiev learned of this from his subordinate’s words.
"Isn’t it incredible?" filled with admiration and even a bit of disbelief, the subordinate said, "But when we just conversed with the villagers, they said that those knights who attacked the village, just before their death, they all exclaimed that the young man used Fifth-Tier Magic."
The villagers perhaps did not realize what it meant to be able to use Fifth-Tier Magic.
But it was different for people like Gejiev.
"Magic of the Fifth Tier, which only a Magic Singer who has stepped into the Heroic Domain can use, that young man can actually do it?"
Gejiev murmured to himself.
The Heroic Domain, that was a realm only the strongest of humanity could venture into, considered beyond the limits of human capability, and thus also known as the domain beyond humanity.
This was an existence that was rare even throughout the entire kingdom. A young man who looked to be under 20 had actually reached it?
"Could it be a mistake?" seeing Gejiev deep in thought, another subordinate spoke up somewhat incredulously, "He’s so young, how could he possibly have entered the Heroic Domain already?"
Regarding this statement, Gejiev shook his head in denial.
"Being young does not mean it’s impossible to step into the Heroic Domain," Gejiev replied. "Have you forgotten the captain of [Brilliant]?"
With these words, his subordinates fell silent.
———[Brilliant].
One of only two Adamantite-ranked adventurer teams in the Re·Yestijie Kingdom.
The team consisted of five members, all of them women.
Yet with those five women, not only are they all top-ranked Adamantite adventurers, but the captain is also recognized as someone who has stepped into the Heroic Domain in the current kingdom.
She was the one who at the age of 19 had already completed several deeds that others could not, officially stepping into the domain of heroes.
That is to say, there are those who achieve heroic status before the age of 20—it’s not unheard of.
Gejiev’s implication was simple.
"We may have encountered a second such existence."
Upon hearing Gejiev’s words, all the subordinates could not help but exchange looks.
As for Gejiev, his words conveyed nothing but admiration, and his heart was filled with respect for the young man.
Although he was considered one of the Heroic Domain, he knew his own limitations.
Gejiev was well aware that he was still half a step away from truly entering the Heroic Domain.
There were two reasons for his being the strongest.
One was the Four Great Treasures allowed by the King, which, when Gejiev was fully equipped, elevated his strength to a realm otherwise out of his reach.
The other was a treasure he had once received from an elder of "Cang Qiongwei," which allowed him to step with his other half foot into the Heroic Domain.
In other words, Gejiev hadn’t fully stepped into the Heroic Domain, he could only be regarded as having one foot in it.
This made Gejiev hold in high esteem those who had managed to enter the Heroic Domain on their own strength.
"Let’s go," Gejiev said to his subordinates, "and have a proper talk with this young hero."
The subordinates immediately nodded in agreement.
...
In Kain Village, at the village chief’s house.
At this moment, the village chief was not in his own home but had lent it to Reiger and Gejiev for their discussion.
The two of them sat facing each other at a simple wooden table, exchanged some pleasantries, and then got down to business.
"How did Lord Brilliant learn that those knights were imposters from the Slien Teach Nation?"
It seemed that what Gejiev cared most about was this matter.
Having heard the whole story from the village chief and other villagers, Gejiev was curious as to how Reiger, the "accidental" Magic Singer passing through Kain Village, came to know of Slien Teach Nation’s plan.
However, this question was destined to go unanswered.
"What if I told you I knew all along that today’s events would happen, what would you think?"
Reiger looked at the robust man in front of him, smiled slightly, and uttered this rather intriguing statement.
"Knew all along?"
Gejiev narrowed his eyes.
There was a lot of information in these words.
The secret plans of Slien Teach Nation were definitely not known to many, but Reiger claimed to be just passing by while also stating that he knew about them from the start; whether there were other intentions hidden in his words, no one could be sure.
"Rather than that, shouldn’t the warrior chief be more concerned about his own matters?"
Reiger didn’t continue explaining but instead shifted the conversation to another topic.
"Those people came for you. Whether it’s slaughtering innocent villagers or colluding with nobles of the kingdom, it’s all for one purpose—to eliminate you."
These words made the atmosphere in the room grow heavy.
Gejiev also remembered the message his subordinates had just learned from the villagers.
Specifically, it was the intelligence Reiger had revealed himself when confronting those Disguised Knights from Slien Teach Nation.
"A special intelligence unit directly under the Slien Teach Nation’s priesthood, one of the Six Color Codices, the Sunshine Codex... huh?"
Gejiev already knew that those imposters dressed as knights from Slien Teach Nation were just bait to lure him out, but the one manipulating the fishing rod behind the scenes, ready to reel in this big fish, was the Sunshine Codex.
They were no ordinary enemy.
The Six Color Codices of Slien Teach Nation were a very terrifying entity.
Each had its own duty, specialization, and niche, responsible for different areas within Slien Teach Nation and without exception, wielded heart-wrenching power.
The most famous was the mightiest of the Six Colors, the Pitch Black Codex.
It was said that every member of the Pitch Black Codex attained the Heroic Domain, each one terrifyingly powerful.
The Sunshine Codex specialized in annihilating non-human villages and was the most frequently deployed among Slien Teach Nation’s six special intelligence units.
They were few in number. Even including the reserve members, the total was less than one hundred, but to join the Sunshine Codex, one needed to be capable of using third-degree magic, which is the highest level of magic a common Magic Singer could learn.
This alone showed just how strong the Sunshine Codex was.
"Facing an assassination attempt by such a unit, do you, warrior chief, have any chance of winning?"
Reiger’s question pointed directly at Gejiev’s Achilles’ heel.
Did he have a chance of winning?
The answer was: no.