The Mountain of Ice and Fire

Chapter 97: The Same Goes for the Wizard

West Palace.

An Immortal Wizard walked out of the palace gate.

At the entrance of the main hall, an Unsullied flashed out: "Master, you must not leave the palace tonight."

The wizard's face was calm: "Soldier, I am Clausi Leyton, serving His Majesty the King, and I have the right to enter and leave the palace freely."

"But not tonight, Master," the Unsullied said with neither servility nor arrogance, his hand on the hilt of his sword.

"Go and call your captain here."

"Not tonight, Master," the Unsullied said calmly.

"Who gave the order?"

"King Gregor Clegane."

"I want to see King Clegane."

"Not tonight, Master."

"Either kill me, or go and call your captain here," Clausi Leyton looked at the Unsullied with contempt. His blue lips looked black under the light of the torches at night.

"Master, please wait a moment," another voice said from the shadow of a bronze statue.

*

On both sides of the passage outside the palace gate, there stood very tall and huge bronze statues, covered with reliefs of manticores, dragons, griffins, unicorns, and other creatures.

Each bronze statue was a huge torch stand, but where there is light, there is shadow.

The Unsullied soldiers guarding the gate of the West Palace were not alone, but a squad. This squad had a total of twenty-four Unsullied.

In addition to the Unsullied guarding both sides of the West Palace gate, there were also Unsullied and Dothraki cavalry squads patrolling outside the palace.

Only inside the West Palace were the areas under the responsibility of the King Hoen's guards. Once outside the palace gate, it was all guarded by the Mountain's soldiers.

An Unsullied walked out of the shadow of a bronze statue, saluted Clausi Leyton, and then walked unhurriedly to call their captain.

*

The previous Unsullied soldier blocked the Immortal Wizard's path, with no intention of yielding.

Looking around, there were no other Unsullied in the passage, but as long as you acted rashly, Unsullied would jump out of the shadows and kill you.

Wizards, priests, scholars, priests, bishops, Silent Sisters, monks, and others had extremely weak combat power. Their dark magic might be powerful, but their individual martial strength was not enough to withstand the attack of any Unsullied.

On both sides of this passage, at least ten Unsullied soldiers were on duty. These soldiers stood in the shadows and would not move until dawn. But in case of any situation, they would quickly appear and stab the troublemaker's chest with the spears in their hands.

After a while, the Unsullied who went to call the captain returned, accompanied by a woman wearing a crystal mask. This woman was Quaithe. She was Melisandre's senior sister, believed in the Red God, and practiced shadow magic.

The crystal mask on Quaithe's face looked like countless stars falling on it. With a slight movement, it was dazzling and made people feel confused.

Melisandre's symbol was a ruby on her throat, while Quaithe's symbol was the mask on her face. The most commonly used was a wooden lacquer mask, but at night, she wore a crystal mask more often.

"Master Clausi Leyton, you cannot leave the West Palace tonight," Quaithe said.

"Why?"

"King Clegane's order."

"Quaithe, you are not the captain of the Unsullied. I want to see the captain."

"I am the captain of the Unsullied squad tonight," Quaithe said coldly.

"Oh. Quaithe, if I hold King Hoen's decree, can't I leave the palace either?"

"Yes, no one can leave the royal palace."

"I want to know why?"

"King Clegane's order."

*

A small door.

This was the place where the servants entered and exited, opened on a reddish-brown wall that was one person high.

The small door opened silently, and a servant wearing a hood came out with a wooden basin, which emitted a smell of swill. It was the leftovers from the royal servants' meals.

The servant poured the leftover soup and water from the wooden basin into the sewage ditch, put down the wooden basin, and walked quickly forward along the dark path. The path was built along the wall, winding forward, twisting and turning, and extending into the streets and alleys of the city.

At a fork in the road, an Unsullied soldier appeared: "Go back!"

"Sir, I am a servant."

"Go back," the Unsullied soldier was as cold as an ice block.

"Yes, sir."

The servant turned around, suddenly turned his hand back, a flash of knife light, and cut into the Unsullied soldier's neck.

The blade was extremely sharp, it was the Eastern famous knife Shadowlight.

This knife almost cut off the Unsullied soldier's neck.

Before the soldier could fall, the servant had already flashed past, like a black shadow.

The soldier fell, his eyes wide open, blood gushing out.

A gaze stared at this shadow in the darkness as it walked into a dark alley.

For lurking and hiding, the Faceless Men were the best.

And the guy disguised as a servant in front of him obviously didn't know how to hide himself.

His attack method was also very clumsy, but his image as a servant deceived the Unsullied soldier, making the soldier caught off guard and unprepared, so he was hit by a knife.

This Faceless Man followed the servant like a shadow.

He believed that if he wanted to make a move, even ten 'servants' would be killed by him.

But Elder Tianming had ordered that if King Hoen traveled, Quaithe must be notified to deal with him. This King Hoen was Master Buli, an Immortal Wizard with powerful magical powers.

And Quaithe was a servant of the Shadow God. Wherever there was shadow, it was said to be Quaithe's world.

The Faceless Man was a disciple lurking in the city of Qarth.

He released the information through the Faceless Men's way.

Ahead at a fork in the road, the Faceless Man felt a blur in front of him, and the person in front of him suddenly split into three, turning into three identical servants, each taking a path and walking down from three directions.

Of course, only one of them was real.

The Faceless Man was proficient in disguise, a master of stealth and disguise. He quickly made a judgment, chose the one going straight and continued to follow.

Others began to appear on the road.

Ahead was another fork in the road, and the servant split into four this time. One of them turned back and walked towards the Faceless Man, while the other three continued to move forward along the three roads.

The Faceless Man stopped.

He knew that the shadows that the other party split out were also capable of killing people. Quaithe had reminded him of this.

Sure enough, the servant walked over, walked into the shadows, a flash of knife light, and stabbed the Faceless Man's chest. A narrow sword was unsheathed, facing the short knife, and his hand was empty. The opposite knife light disappeared, and the person also disappeared, leaving an empty robe falling to the ground.

This was a phantom, only the robe falling to the ground was real.

The Faceless Man ran to the fork in the road like a cat, and the three servant figures had disappeared without a trace.

The Faceless Man, who was best at tracking, lurking, disguising, and assassinating, lost track of an Immortal Wizard—Master Buli—who didn't understand lurking and disguising.

He saw more forks in the road ahead.

*

An Immortal Wizard walked out of the Immortal Temple.

His goal was to go to the palace and see King Hoen.

The sudden fire of the manticore made the Immortal Temple feel uneasy. The king violated his promise not to kill the Qartheen, and the Sorrowful Men had already recognized the legitimacy of the new king, but they were still suddenly purged by the king.

Faced with the distant fire and attack, where would the Immortal Temple go? The wizards urgently needed Master Buli's guidance.

There were no other buildings around the Immortal Temple.

This place, like Manticore Keep, was also a forbidden area for ordinary citizens.

The proverbs circulating among the people were somewhat satirical and fearful of the Immortal Temple—the wizards' temple was full of lies and bones.

No ordinary person dared to come here to see the blue-lipped wizards, unless they were believers who had something to ask for or patients who knew they were going to die.

In the small woods by the road, with a whoosh, an extremely short whistling sound rang out, and a crossbow bolt shot out, hitting the wizard's throat.

The wizard fell to the ground, and soon, a black shadow窜came out of the small woods and dragged the wizard's body into the woods.

Everything returned to normal.

This was destined to be a restless night.

When Manticore Keep was burned by dragonfire, all the citizens, nobles, and wealthy merchants in the city were shocked. The citizens were more at ease while watching the excitement, while the nobles and wealthy merchants increased their unease.

For the first time, they had a concrete impression of the new king's cruel, domineering, and murderous nature.

This was destined to be a sleepless night.

When the giant dragon suddenly appeared over the Immortal Temple, when the Mountain's dragon language of dragonfire was uttered, Sheepstealer spat out a golden-red fireball as bright as the sun.

*

The Immortal Temple, that was the belief hall of the omnipotent wizard god. How dare the new king ride a dragon to burn down the Immortal Temple? The Immortal Temple had always been an untouchable sacred place in the hearts of nobles and wealthy merchants, the embodiment of lofty miracles. No one dared to disrespect the wizard god. The Immortal Wizard God was the god of Qarth.

Although this god brought people more fear and fear than lofty faith. The people's praise for the Immortal Temple was 'lies and bones'. Lies and bones were not beautiful words.

*

The first fireball spat out by Sheepstealer broke through the glass roof of the Immortal Temple, like a fiery cannonball, and hit the faith hall of the highest floor of the Immortal Temple.

In the faith hall, there was the throne of the Immortal Leader. On both sides of the throne, there was a suspended and still beating swollen and deformed heart, said to belong to the Immortal Wizard God. The heart emitted blue rays of light as it beat; and there was also a heartless skeleton man symbolizing the wizard god. This was a living dead man. Although he could speak during the wizards' worship, and the Immortal Wizards could get so-called revelations from his mouth, he was indeed a dead man who had lost his life.

The huge golden-red fireball exploded inside the faith hall, and the flames surged like a tide, colliding in all directions, wrapping the heart, the living dead man, the skeleton man, the worshiping wizards, and the leader of the Immortal Wizards sitting on the throne.

The second, third, and fourth fireballs shot into the Immortal Temple.

The other three dragons also came, surrounding the Immortal Temple on three sides.

On the backs of the three dragons were Jon Targaryen, Commander-in-Chief of the Night's Watch, Daenerys Targaryen, and Arianne Martell.

Each fireball exploded into a feast of flames. Wherever it passed, tables and chairs turned to ashes, and lives turned to embers. The wizards who ran out from the bottom of the Immortal Temple were shot to death one by one by the crossbow bolts shot from the woods.

Everything in the Immortal Temple, the wizards and the hearts and bodies of the wizard gods they worshiped and believed in, became truly immortal—only after the flames purified everything into ashes was it truly immortal.

The three little dragons also came later. They were Knight, Lady, and Tyraxes. The three little dragons flew up and down, spewing dragonfire. They seemed to be more excited about setting fires than their parents.

The fire illuminated the other half of the sky in Qarth, and the fires of Manticore Keep, one in the east and one in the west, lit up the entire night in Qarth.

The people of the city all climbed onto the towers, rooftops, balconies, windows, and appeared in the streets and alleys. They could hardly believe that the new king dared to attack the Immortal Temple.

There were also rumors that spread quickly among the people... King Gregor Clegane was the reincarnation of Azor Ahai, the Lightbringer. He was the godson favored by the gods. For the survival of the entire human race, he killed the Night King, the servant of the Cold God, in the northern border of Westeros, ending the million-strong army of Others in the winter...

...King Gregor Clegane was invincible...

...Qarth would no longer be the Qarth of the past. There was no need to worry about the Sorrowful Men's fear of manticores. The evil shadow of the Immortal Temple could no longer shroud the sky above Qarth...

*

North City of Qarth.

In the home of a believer of the wizard god.

Master Buli, who was sitting on a chair accepting the kneeling worship of the believers, suddenly disappeared silently, leaving only a gray robe on the stool.

The believers kneeling on the ground were dumbfounded.

And in the home of another believer three streets away, the same scene happened in full view of everyone.

At the same time, in different places, more than a dozen Master Bulis, who had hidden in the homes of believers hoping to escape the pursuit of the Faceless Men, disappeared into thin air one by one, leaving only a gray wizard's robe on the stool.

*

And in the shadows at the gate of the North Gate, a young Qartheen freeman who was about to leave the city, under the gaze of the Unsullied soldiers, suddenly turned his full and handsome face into an old face full of age spots, and his head of golden long hair also turned into sparse gray hair, and his bright eyes also turned into cloudy old eyes full of crow's feet... This change was amazing... A young and handsome teenager suddenly turned into an old man who was old and weak and about to die...

Two Unsullied soldiers stepped forward, one with a long sword and the other with a long spear, blocking the old man.

"Who are you?" an Unsullied soldier shouted sharply. The long sword in his hand was held against the old man's heart, fearing that the old man would suddenly undergo some more terrifying changes and then suddenly kill someone.

"He is a friend of mine." A woman's voice suddenly rang out in the distant street. Although the distance was far, the voice reached here, making all the soldiers guarding the city gate hear it.

The sound of carriages rumbled, and a carriage came to the city gate. The driver was Grey Worm, the commander-in-chief of the Unsullied, and the co-pilot was Hero, the deputy commander of the Unsullied.

The voice came from inside the carriage, it was a woman's voice.

Who the woman was, the curtain was not lifted, and the soldiers guarding the city could not know.

Grey Worm and Hero arrived, and the Unsullied soldiers bowed together, paying tribute to the two commanders.

"The long night is full of dangers everywhere, Master Buli, I am ordered by King Gregor Clegane to ask you to go back. He has something to say to you," the woman's voice continued to say in the carriage.

The sound of horses' hooves echoed as two riders galloped in. The women on horseback were Arya's senior sister, with the long face, and Arya's junior sister, Xiao Kui.

The two Faceless Ones arrived at the city gate, wheeled their horses around, and blocked the old, sorrowful, beggar-like man to the left and right.

After the heart and the living dead in the Immortal Temple were burned to ashes by Long Yan, Grandmaster Pu Li reverted to his original, aged appearance. The over-one-hundred-year-old Pu Li wizard also lost his ability to transform, and ninety percent of his magical powers to know the past and future.

He went from being a prophet-like wizard to an ordinary wizard, his vitality depleted to the very edge.

"Are you Faceless Ones?" Grandmaster Pu Li asked, looking at Long Lian and Xiao Kui.

"All mortals must die," the long-faced senior sister said indifferently, "Wizards too."