Having dealt with the pursuers, Ye Ming dashed into the dense forest by the roadside.
Back when the pursuers started chasing after Ye Ming, someone had already gone to report the incident the Marquis of Arthuria, Bynum Malkavian, informing him that there was a suspicious person inside the city. It put Marquis Bynum on high alert. He sent more men to deal with the suspect. The reinforcements quickly followed after their compatriots. But when the reinforcements saw the remnants left along the trail, they were all stunned.
The leader in charge of the reinforcements counted a total of thirty-two bodies along the way, which matched the number of the first batch of pursuers.
Every last one of them were killed. There were no survivors. The leader of the reinforcements was shocked. He told the men to bring the bodies back.
Back at the Marquis’s castle, the leader ordered the men to place the thirty-two bodies neatly in front of Marquis Bynum.
Marquis Bynum walked past these corpses with a really complicated feeling. These bodies that had completely dried up reminded him of something Marquis Ollier told him:
“That man killed several of my guards and turned them into dried up corpses. Their blood was completely drained.”
Marquis Bynum scowled. His own men had died in the same manner as the one that Marquis Ollier had described to him. This must be the work of the person Marquis Ollier was hunting down.
Marquis Bynum was furious at the thought. He had never suffered such a loss before. A single man killed thirty-two of his underlings! This was an insult!
He said in a sullen voice, “Pass down my order. Every person entering the city is forbidden from covering their face, or they will be killed on the spot.”
“Yes, my lord,” his men answered in unison.
Marquis Bynum added, “Send men to look for traces of that man in the areas around Arthuria. Catch him at all cost. If he resists, bring his body back. I will reward a thousand gold coins to the person who kills or captures him. Anyone can claim this reward, including civilians. Let all the Vampires in the city help us hunt him down. I don’t care if you turn the land upside down, find this despicable coward by any means and bring him to me. I’ll cut him into pieces.”
“Yes, my lord.” The Marquis’ underlings were truly excited now. A thousand gold coins! Those are a thousand gold coins we’re tallking about! They might not earn that much in their entire lifetime. No, even the sum of their family’s earnings for the next three generations would not amount to that!
The reward also caused considerable excitement among the Vampires in the city. Many invited their friends and family to form search teams to look for Ye Ming outside the city.
Marquis Bynum’s men were also mobilized according to the Marquis’ order. They conducted a massive search effort on the outskirts of Arthuria.
The combined effort of the official army and the civilian militia formed a dragnet search operation in the Arthuria’s surroundings. Uninformed newcomers must think that the city was in a state of war when they saw this. Little did they know that this was actually the result of the citizens losing their minds and risking their lives to catch a wanted criminal for the sake of money.
Meanwhile, Ye Ming had been observing the situation from the dense forest for a while now. When he saw that there were indeed more pursuers after him, he used {Stealth} to follow the group of pursuers back to the city.
In Ye Ming’s opinion, the most dangerous place was also the safest place. Since he had killed those guards out in the wilderness, the enemy would surely think that he would not dare to return to Arthuria, so the pursuers would definitely go out into the wilderness to search for him. Why not hide in the darkness immediately around the light, so to speak? No one would expect him to hide inside the city instead.
Ye Ming casually walked into the city. He even looked around the city for treasure chests but unfortunately did not find any. He was a little disappointed by that.
While he was doing that, he found out through listening to stray conversations that there was only a Marquis’ castle in Arthuria. That made him very interested in the place. However, he did realize that sneaking into a Marquis’ castle was risky business. He had not forgotten the hardship he had to endure when he sneaked into Marquis Ollier’s castle previously.
Due to the gap in their strength level, Ye Ming’s {Stealth} skill was ineffective on Marquises.
Although he still remained invisible, a Marquis could still sense his presence and locate his position very accurately.
But then again, with high risk came high reward. He had visited almost every part of Arthuria, yet could not find a single treasure chest. Marquis Bynum’s castle was the only place he had not checked. Based on his past experiences of sneaking into Marquis’ castles, there were always treasure chests to be found inside. He never returned empty-handed from those trips.
Considering that, Ye Ming still decided to pay Marquis Bynum’s castle a visit in the end, and there was no time like now. He followed a city patrol squad all the way to where Marquis Bynum’s castle was located. After making sure the coast was clear, he leaped over the high wall and landed on the lawn.
Ye Ming did look for treasure chests right away. Instead, he flew to a relatively elevated spot to get a general overview of the Marquis’ castle. First, he had to determine where Marquis Bynum might be so that he could avoid the Marquis. By doing that, he should greatly reduce his chances of being discovered.
After a little observation, he found that the ancient castle was similarly divided into two parts – the inner and outer castle. Based on his experience, the inner castle should be where Marquis Bynum was staying at. He would try not to go to the inner castle, or at least, not the interior of the inner castle; the periphery should be relatively safe.
After formulating a rough plan in his mind, Ye Ming flew back down. He used the same routine as usual — trailing behind a patrol squad that was patrolling the outer castle. Thus began his exciting treasure-hunting activities.
Ye Ming could choose to roam freely, of course, but doing so was generally unwise for someone unfamiliar with the geographical layout of a certain place because they would likely search the same area twice, which was a major waste of time. But trailing behind a patrol squad was a different story. Ye Ming himself had once joined a patrol squad, so he knew they would normally not patrol the same area twice. By following them, Ye Ming could make sure that he would not backtrack, thereby increasing his efficiency.
Sure enough, Ye Ming found four treasure chests in the outer castle, but none of them gave him anything satisfactory. All he got were some basic ingredients.
Ye Ming changed to another patrol squad, but this time, the result was even worse – he did not find a single chest on this new route. He thus switched to another squad. Only after switching two squad in a row did he finally find a silver treasure chest, but still obtained only basic ingredients from it.
At that moment, a guard hurriedly caught up with the patrol squad he was following and told the squad leader, “Marquis Bynum is going out. He ordered all the patrol squads to start patrolling regardless of shifts. Make sure that the castle is constantly patrolled to ensure its absolute safety.”
“Understood. We’ll do our best to carry out the Marquis’ order,” the squad leader immediately promised.
The messenger left after passing the order.
Ye Ming was overjoyed to hear the news. Marquis Bynum was actually leaving the castle at such an opportune moment!
‘Is he a mind reader? Does he know what’s troubling me and is now giving me exactly what I want? This is perfect! I can now go crazy in the inner castle without having to worry about being discovered. Hehehe…’