Lord of Prayer
Chapter 446 - 285: Spinning Gold Coins
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Hospital ward.
Lying on the bed, Siegfried slowly regained consciousness. The person watching over him cried out in surprise and hurriedly pressed the intercom button. "Mr. Siegfried is awake!"
Less than ten minutes later, the Plague Doctor arrived in the ward. He waved his hand, gesturing for the others to leave, as he wanted to speak with Siegfried alone.
Once the two of them were alone in the room, the Plague Doctor pulled over a chair and sat down. He spoke slowly, "After we took over the Rusted Iron City Government, we had Sidelong and the others release false information. Now, everyone thinks the Poisonous Sore Gang has been annihilated. This has bought us precious time to develop. We expect to triple the Poisonous Sore Gang’s numbers within a week."
"Triple?"
Zhou Chen was a little surprised. Excluding the cannon fodder on the periphery used for "disguise," the true number of Poisonous Sore Gang members was at least two hundred. Tripling that would bring their numbers to eight hundred, a scale rivaling some smaller military legions.
"Yes, triple," the Plague Doctor nodded. "Although the three previous uprisings in North Carolina’s history all ended in failure, the embers of rebellion remain. There’s no shortage of like-minded individuals across the land. Plus, this Crystal Disease incident has shown many of the lower class the North Carolina Government’s true colors. I believe more and more people will awaken and join the resistance."
"You’re courting death."
Zhou Chen shook his head. "Even with hundreds of thousands of people, you can’t stand against the Government Army’s advanced weaponry. They have the Hand of the Empire, Modified Prosthetic Bodies, the Steel Torrent, and Nuclear Weapons. They have Tier Four Uncrowned and Tier Five Crowned Kings... Unless those hundreds of thousands are all Ascenders, the Rebel Army has no chance of winning.
Even Havier failed back then. I don’t believe you can succeed."
"But someone has to stand up, otherwise things will only get worse," the Plague Doctor said calmly.
Zhou Chen mulled it over for a few seconds before changing the subject. "Where’s my commission?"
"Two million US Dollars have already been transferred to your dark web account..."
The Plague Doctor pulled a few items from his coat. "...plus one bottle of Life Sacred Dew, one Alchemy Tool - Night Curtain, and one Alchemy Tool - Light Protection Sealing Sword... This is the best reward the Poisonous Sore Gang can offer."
Zhou Chen silently took the items and slipped them into an inner pocket of his clothes. Each of these artifacts was incredibly valuable, especially in a place like North Carolina. It could be said that the Poisonous Sore Gang had done everything they possibly could for him.
"—Mr. Siegfried."
Just then, the Plague Doctor sat up straight. The two pitch-black lenses of his pointed raven mask seemed to gaze out like a profound, dark abyss. Behind the mask, a pair of world-weary eyes looked at Siegfried as he asked earnestly:
"Are you interested in joining the Poisonous Sore Gang?"
"I think you’ve forgotten something," Zhou Chen said, his face devoid of expression.
"I haven’t forgotten." The Plague Doctor shook his head. "I saw the Black-robed Man while you were unconscious, but he left in the end."
Zhou Chen’s face filled with displeasure. He said coldly, "This isn’t the kind of attitude a partner should show. Mr. Plague Doctor, I went to great lengths to help you conquer Rusted Iron City, yet you can’t even handle this small matter... Or were you just lying to me from the very beginning?"
"I didn’t deceive you," the Plague Doctor said helplessly. "Things just changed faster than we planned."
"While we were making our move, the Black-robed Man went on a rampage in City 27. He destroyed seven or eight important factories, killed four Tier Three Ascender Special Agents from the Counter-Terrorism Department, a Hand of the Empire squad, and over a hundred fully-armed Government Army soldiers. The economic losses amount to hundreds of millions.
His rampage has thrown the first-tier cities of North Carolina into a panic, with everyone afraid of becoming his next target. Those upper-class people have considerable influence in politics and have put immense pressure on the Ministry of Defense, demanding they arrest the Black-robed Man as soon as possible.
Around noon, my informant sent a message—’Iron-blooded Colonel Jason’ will begin hunting the Black-robed Man, a hunt to the death.
He’s now the most-wanted criminal in all of North Carolina. He can’t stay in one place for too long."
’Iron-blooded Colonel Jason...’ Zhou Chen was inwardly stunned.
The Black-robed Man’s accomplishments didn’t seem that difficult in his eyes; he could do the same if he went all out. As the wielder of the B-Level Forbidden Object, the Wish Box, it would be strange if he *couldn’t* do something like that.
The reason for his surprise was that Iron-blooded Colonel Jason himself was hunting the Black-robed Man.
—Jason, nicknamed the Iron-blooded Colonel, served as a warzone commander many years ago, leading the Government Army in battle against the Salvation Army. He once caused the Salvation Army immense trouble, but he couldn’t overcome the incompetence of his allies in other warzones, who dragged him down and got him royally screwed over. During one battle, an adjacent warzone relayed false intelligence and also delayed the arrival of reinforcements and supplies. This led to the near-total annihilation of the army under Jason’s command, with only him and a few confidants managing to escape.
While fleeing, Jason was pursued by the Salvation Army. His right eye was injured in an explosion. It’s unknown if he had ever read *Three Kingdoms*, but he immediately reenacted the feat of "Blind Xiahou" by gouging out the eyeball dangling from his face and eating it. In reality, that was Jason casting a Curse Technique at the cost of permanently sacrificing his right eye, which caused the pursuing Salvation Army forces to suffer heavy losses.
By the time Jason retreated to a safe zone, only one of his confidants remained by his side, and that person breathed their last not long after. Jason himself had lost an eye and an arm, his chest was pierced through, and his intestines were hanging out of his stomach. The soldiers who witnessed this scene were all horrified. Even for an Ascender, such injuries were too terrifying; he should have long since passed out from the pain.
According to the book *The Iron-blooded Colonel*, Jason was covered in blood at the time, his aura as faint as a dying man’s, yet the glint in his eyes was exceptionally bright. He forced himself to the command center and executed the incompetent commander who had dragged him down on the spot. However, before those around him could apprehend him, news arrived that the Salvation Army was attacking.