Chapter 530: Shadow Clone Technique

Through a night of frantic labor, Karolina and the others managed to transcribe fully a thousand copies of Ronin’s accusations against Garrett.

Though this number was hardly enough to blanket the entire City of Golden Feathers, it would suffice if the locations were chosen with care.

The previous evening, Ronin had already devised several strategic points for distribution, such as Horn Bay Academy, Horn Bay Port, the Royal Academy, and the trading district.

These locales were either bustling with crowds or served as gathering grounds for noble youths and refined scholars, offering an exceptional effect for the dissemination and reception of Ronin’s rhetoric.

Over the course of the next hour, Ronin scattered every single one of these papers detailing the accusations of Garrett’s crimes.

This novel method of dissemination instantly drew a crowd of onlookers, who were simultaneously stunned by the written words.

Regardless of the world they inhabited, people possessed an inherent nature for gossip; faced with such explosive news that had not yet been suppressed by the nobility, they lost no time in passing it along to those around them.

Though Ronin lacked the leisure to observe the subsequent spread of the rumors, judging by the fact that someone on the plaza of Horn Bay Academy had immediately spoken up in his defense, it was bound to bear fruit.

Having completed all of this, Ronin hovered in the skies above the Golden Feather Palace, gazing down upon the luxurious architecture below.

Pausing only briefly to compose himself, he held his breath and focused his mind, using his spiritual force and magic to meticulously draw complex, profound arcane lines.

The spell nodes of low-level magic numbered a mere three to five, but as the tier of magic ascended, not only did the nodes multiply, but the trajectories of the arcane lines shifted from simple straight paths to curves, broken lines, dynamic curves, and the like, naturally escalating the difficulty of casting.

Nearly two months had slipped away since Ronin had ascended to the rank of a Legend.

Relying on his extraordinary capacity for learning, he had not only mastered Rydal’s Blazing Void Slash but had also grasped the Mirror Image technique, a legendary spell gifted to him by Sophia.

At present, only the Dragon’s Breath technique remained to be fully comprehended.

As the name implied, the Mirror Image spell created a duplicate identical to the original body in appearance and aura, serving to confound the enemy.

However, unlike the Solar-rank combat art of the same name belonging to the wind attribute, the mirror image forged by this spell retained eighty to ninety percent of the original body's combat prowess; furthermore, as long as it remained within the sensory range of his spiritual force, it could not only be controlled remotely but could also transmit everything it saw, heard, and felt back to the caster.

It was far less rigid than the combat art, which only possessed the strength of a mid-to-high-rank knight and could not stray too far from the user.

Of course, this spell also possessed a glaring vulnerability.

It was, after all, an entity condensed from extraordinary energy, and could essentially be viewed as a unique cluster of power.

Consequently, the moment the clone cast a spell or utilized a combat art, this cluster of energy would diminish, and the strength the clone could exert would wane accordingly.

After a brief moment, the arcane lines were completed; the space trembled slightly as the wind elements rapidly converged, and in the blink of an eye, a clone identical to him appeared before his eyes.

"It begins."

The clone spoke, his voice an exact replica of Ronin's, and wasting no time, he dove downward headfirst the moment the words fell, hurtling toward the plaza of the Alduin Grand Hall below.

Buzz~

Above the plaza, a faint membrane was breached, and within a luxurious bedroom of the Moon Shadow Palace, Thranduil, who had been resting with her eyes closed, snapped them open.

"He is here, at the plaza before the Alduin Grand Hall. It appears he intends to rescue that giant dragon first."

With a flash of her form, Thranduil appeared directly in the air outside. "Blow the horn! Assemble at the plaza!"

Instantly, the heavy sound of horns echoed through the Golden Feather Palace, and countless figures surged toward the plaza from every corner.

By the time Ronin’s clone landed steadily before Carlos, Garrett’s figure had already materialized ahead.

"Hahaha, you have finally come!"

Garrett threw his head back and laughed. "I thought you would be so frightened that you would abandon even your pet and your wife!"

Accompanying his laughter, the guards and knights keeping watch over the dragon drew their weapons one after another, trapping Ronin and Carlos in the center.

The clone cast a glance at several massive spikes driven into Carlos, which exuded an energy as black as ink; it was precisely these that had sealed Carlos’s movements.

Otherwise, the dragon could have melted the chains binding it with its breath and could never have been trapped.

Ronin maneuvered the clone, intending to pull the spikes out, but Garrett interjected to stop him.

"I advise you not to do that. Extracting these black spikes requires a great deal of battle qi, and during that process, I would have more than enough time to slay you."

The clone halted his movements and looked toward Garrett, his gaze brimming with anger and disdain.

"I did not expect that you, as the crown prince, would actually murder your own father, making a mockery of His Majesty's regard and expectations for you."

Garrett sneered. "Save your futile struggles, Ronin. Everyone now knows that you are the murderer of my royal father, and I, the sole crown prince of the Alduin Kingdom and its future king, shall slay you here with my own hands to appease my father's heroic spirit!"

As he spoke, the flame brand at the center of his brow flashed violently, and crimson, magma-like patterns surfaced upon his face, looking as though he had received a peculiar tattoo.

"To tell you the truth, I am not merely a Solar Knight now; after activating the flame brand, my combat strength rivals even that of the fabled Legendary Knights!"

He tightly gripped the longsword in his hand, the blade gleaming with a cold light as its tip pointed directly at Ronin.

"Well? Are you afraid?"

The clone’s expression remained utterly cold, though his eyes held a touch of pity—pity for the man before him.

For a crown prince of a kingdom to cooperate with a foreign race was one thing, but to think he had actually joined them and accepted their power.

Though the minds and behaviors of Flame Brand Knights were not altered like those of the Witch Soul Knights, utilizing the power of the flame brand would cause one to gradually sink into corruption, and the nightmare malice invoked through it would invisibly serve as nourishment to feed the demon god.

"I am terrified!"

Ronin spoke through the clone. "I fear that with the slightest lapse of attention, I might exert too much force and send you straight to hell."

"Ignorant, arrogant fool!"

Garrett’s expression darkened; what he despised most was Ronin’s composed, effortless demeanor that betrayed not a shred of fear.

"Today, it is not just you; as traitors to the kingdom, your father, your grandfather, and your entire Wushan family shall be buried alongside you for your actions!"

Just as the two stood in confrontation, Thranduil arrived at the plaza with her elite troop.

This was her first time laying eyes on Ronin in person, and judging from the man’s aura, he did not seem quite as formidable as she had imagined.

Following closely behind were Ference, Andrea, and many other nobles who had received the summons and rushed to the royal capital.

Many of them clamored to have Ronin executed to avenge Bruno, though a fair number remained silent.

Among them, Ronin spotted the greater and lesser nobles who had negotiated cooperation with Moonlight Valley not long ago, utilizing dispatched laborers to earn coin there.

When their eyes met Ronin’s, they looked somewhat awkward and gave imperceptible nods.

The clone's gaze ultimately came to rest upon Thranduil.

He inquired, "The Envoy of Storms has already arrived at the Golden Feather Palace; I wonder where the Envoy of Blazing Flames is hiding at this moment?"

Thranduil’s voice was exceedingly beautiful, bearing an almost seductive quality that, paired with her comely appearance, held no small attraction for the opposite sex.

Yet the words she uttered were utterly overbearing: "Do you truly believe that slaying you requires the intervention of the Blazing Flames?"

The clone nodded noncommittally. "Alas, the outcome may well leave you disappointed."

Simultaneously, Ronin’s true body was flying swiftly toward the Moon Shadow Palace.

Before taking action, he had discerned that the Moon Shadow Palace was heavily guarded, and that even Thranduil had been present.

To prevent the enemy from using Blanche and Elrond as hostages when he attempted their rescue, Ronin had deployed the clone to lure the enemy away.

Thranduil had not disappointed, indeed leading her forces away from the Moon Shadow Palace, leaving only a few individuals behind to guard Blanche and Elrond.

In any case, escorting Blanche out of this perilous place was the primary concern; Ronin had no desire to let his wife and the unborn child in her womb suffer even the slightest mishap.