The late Earl Hauss—whether father or son, the word “late” could be used on either, so there was no need for differentiation. Neither knew that a very small part of their bloodline came from an illustrious hero.

  A hero whose life was filled with tragedy.

  This hero came from a small and backward country that was located next to a big and powerful country. And on the other side lived the people of a powerful race.

  At that time, it was the early stage of the era of the great development of mankind. Under the leadership of the human gods, there was an expansion of territory, and internal strife among humans was quite intense as well. In that era, the aristocratic system was yet to be established. Many territories that later generations would merely have deemed as lands of viscounts or even barons, were proudly self-proclaimed as independent kingdoms—emerged and then died out. There was not a single day that went by without the fires of war. Steel and blood raged the ground.

  In that era, it was a sin to be weak. The strong were greedy and fierce like hungry wolves. And then these strong ones would in turn, be devoured by the even stronger ones, who were also like hungry tigers. Even the civilians had to learn some combat techniques. Whenever there were lone knights, the farmers, who looked so honest and dutiful, would instantly transform into ferocious ruffians. They would kill the knights and rob them of all their wealth.

  And the country where that hero was from, was absolutely guilty of this “sin.”

  Right from the moment he was born, his country had been in turmoil. Even before he came of age, his father, who was the king at that time, was forced to fight a battle that was of no benefit to their country at all. Although the war was won, the king died in the midst of battle. The cause of his death was said to be very suspicious. There was more than an 80% likeliness that the poisoned arrow that dealt the king with a fatal shot came from the battle array of an allied force.

  After the king’s death, another king paid them a “friendly” visit, expressing his willingness to marry the king’s widow and merge the two countries peacefully as one.

  The young prince seemed to show much indifference on the surface but launched a sudden attack at the dinner banquet hosted for the guests. Not only was the food poisoned, but they were also suddenly attacked by the elite troops. That king who had intended to fish in troubled waters was killed. Even all the knights under his command were wiped out. And the young prince acted so fast that overnight, he had set off and headed to his neighbor’s land. On the third day, he announced his marriage to that king’s daughter and completed the union of the two territories.

  As for that king’s son…… there was no mention of him in the history books since then. It was as though he had been forgotten.

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  The few decades that followed were years filled with conspiracies and war. Fresh blood and anguished lamentation were interwoven into these years. For posterity, these few decades might only be a page or more in the historical books, or might only be told in a few epic poems, or even just a few chapters in a certain epic poem, but to the young king, this was his entire lifetime.

  He racked his brains and tried all means in order to protect and strengthen his own country. And he did it with all the effort and energy he got. On countless occasions, he had shown such ingenious skills and vicious tactics that the later generations marveled at and learned from. Eventually, by the time he reached old age, his country had become very powerful. Initially, it was merely an equivalent of a baron’s hill. Now, it had developed to the point where it was better than most marquises’ lands.

  However, right at this point in time, fate played a little joke on him. A war broke out between several powerful legendary monsters in the capital of his country. The once prosperous capital was reduced to ruins in a few short hours. The king, who attempted to negotiate with the monsters, was like a wild dog that had died by the roadside. And the dead bodies of his loyal knights were strewn all over the ground in a pile of mess.

  As the news spread, this country simply collapsed. And there was no further development ensuing its fall.

  If this happened on Earth, the story would almost be approaching its ending. However, in a world where there were gods and devils, souls and the netherworld, this story would still have a little sequel to it.

  The dead king became the Holy Spirit of the God of Royalty. And later, when the God of Aristocracy replaced the God of Royalty, he became the Holy Spirit of the God of Aristocracy.

  The sequel to the story ended here. As for how the later generations carried out studies on this king’s lifetime, how the great aristocrats of the later generations used his deeds to educate their children, or how the ambitious careerists of later generations used his reputation and descendants to incite and create trouble, all these no longer carried much significance.

  There was only one noteworthy thing, though. Among his descendants, there was one family member of his bloodline that had grasped the opportunity during the human’s great reclamation of the West, and they finally managed to climb up to a high position after several twists and turns. This family became the founding fathers of the Commonwealth of Gold Coins—one of the nine earls.

  This descendant, by the name of Hauss, was good at training horses. Because his territory bred superior warhorses and also because he was fond of horseback riding competitions, he was therefore given the nickname, “Good Horse.”

  Holy Spirits were different from Oracles. They were essentially already very close to the gods. If they wanted to enter the human world, they would have to suppress their power to the point where they were practically powerless. In this form, all that remained that could be of use to them was their wisdom. However, there were many times where wisdom was not useful, or rather, not so useful. It was inconvenient for them to go without power, after all. Under such situations, the Holy Spirits would usually choose to possess the bodies of blood-related descendants, thereby evading the limitations imposed upon them by the Main Plane. This way, they could still unleash some of their power.

  Just like how the founding monarch of the Red Moon Dynasty chose to possess the body of the “Flower of Ilo,” Sophie Red Moon, that ancient king chose to possess the present earl “Good Horse,” whose name was Decken Hauss.

  At the time he was possessed, Decken Hauss was only the son of the former earl. He had yet to succeed the title of the earl. This youth only had mediocre talents. He had always been honest and knew his obligations well. Other than his love for equestrian competition events, there was nothing special about him. But after he was possessed by an ancient Holy Spirit, he immediately underwent an earth-shattering transformation…… Everything that followed originated from this transformation.

  This transformation gave rise to many things. Among which, the changes in the Hauss family, as well as the possibility of its decline in the future, were nothing more than minor matters.

  The next morning, before dawn, the troop set off.

  The troop started out with more than 200 men, but now, there were only about 120 men left. The rest, of course, were dead, partly because some of them did not have the heart to slaughter anyone, so they were sentenced to death by Earl Hauss. Some of them had also been killed in the most recent battle that they fought.

  That battle was exceptionally dangerous. Even when they had used some clever means to lay an ambush, with less than 200 men fighting against another troop with more than 300 men, it would not have been easy. This was why at the beginning of the battle, Earl Hauss had executed his legendary-level strength. With a single blow, he killed the leader of their opponent, who was a high-level paladin, as well as several officers and a dozen of the best warriors.

  Although he became vulnerable to the suppression of the Main Plane after this blow, to ensure victory, he braved the risky situation with ingenuity and determination and made several moves successively. Not only did he manage to utterly defeat the merchant party’s rapid-mobility troop, but he also preserved as much of his troop’s military power as possible.

  For this, he paid the price of being punished by Heaven—the punishment power that came from the enchantment of the Main Plane. Although the punishment he had to receive was not serious to the extent of having a space mine befalling him, the power of heaven’s punishment was absolutely not something he could bear for long. He could still walk and talk as usual for now, but in truth, he was in intense pain all the time. The scariest thing was that his soul was constantly being weakened. If this went on, it would not take long before he would completely disappear and cease to exist.

  But this did not bother him at all. Since the era of the great development up till now, he had lived for too long, simply much too long. His long life was making him tired, and so he wanted to be reduced to ashes. This might seem terrible to others, but to him, it was nothing much at all.

  Even the great God of Royalty had fallen, so what would a mere Holy Spirit be worth?

  He felt that it was worth dying for the noble cause of the human gods.

  Moreover…… he had already made plans. Even his “death” itself was part of his plan. Everything could be used altogether.

  Of course, he had made the arrangements for the soldiers of this rapid-mobility troop, whose hands were stained with the stench of blood, long ago. At the right time, they would follow in his footsteps and die with him.

  After all, this was a “necessary price.”

  But he did not know that all his plans had long been under the watchful eyes of the war gods. In fact, it was still unknown whether his plan would succeed or not.