Seventh Chapter 750: Unforeseen Heavenly Thunder

After his subordinates opened the wooden crate, the "gift" inside was revealed.

It was clearly a coffin.

A fine coffin.

Whether it was the gold foil trim or the lacquered paintings, it all looked exquisitely made. The pattern on the lid was a jet-black short whip, the war emblem of the Ironwhip Clan.

Rubakha Bloodwhip was first stunned, then couldn't help but sneer.

"Is that it? I thought they would put something more frightening in there," he shook his head. "Heads, ears, human skin... that's how Ironsand City does things. A coffin? The Far South doesn't need such superfluous things!"

The dead here were all thrown into the desert, then turned to white bones under the scorching heat—no matter what their status was in life, there was no difference after death.

Only northerners needed such squeamish wooden boxes.

Even in death, they still had to confine themselves, like a permanent prison.

That bitch from Aoshia thought this would scare me? He gasped for breath. After being a slave in Graycastle for so long, she probably forgot the way the sand people threatened others.

But this kind of insult still made Rubakha's blood boil.

"Bring me my axe!" he shouted.

Immediately, a clansman brought over a cast-iron great axe. The handle was nearly as tall as a man, and the dark axe head was the size of a head. Although he was the clan leader of the Ironwhip Clan, his favorite weapon was this heavy battle axe. Whether fighting desert beasts or chopping off the heads of challengers, it was very handy to wield.

In the face of absolute power, any blocking or parrying was meaningless. As long as you chopped, even wearing northern armor would be a one-hit kill.

It had certainly drunk the blood of the Aoshia Clan—of women and children, too.

He forgot to tell Zool Silvermoon that those exiles hadn't reached Endless Cape. Because he had taken a detour to the front of the escort team and then chopped them to death one by one in the yellow sand.

It wasn't because he was worried that they would one day retaliate; he simply enjoyed the pleasure of killing.

A coffin?

Fuck it.

Rubakha spat and roared, raising his battle axe with both hands and slamming it down on the lid painted with the Ironwhip war emblem—

"Crack!"

A large number of sparks burst from both sides of the axe blade, as if it had struck some iron or stone object.

The coffin did not split in two as he had expected. The feeling from the handle told him that this exquisite wooden box was by no means empty—it was filled with something!

But it was too late.

After the sparks burst out, an even more dazzling light bloomed from inside the coffin, then instantly filled the entire hall and quickly expanded outward.

However, Rubakha didn't get to see any of this.

When the light swept over his body, his eyeballs and tongue had already been crushed and torn apart by the rapidly expanding air waves, followed by his head, limbs, internal organs…

With a deafening roar, all the residents of Ironsand City saw this incredible scene!

Flames and smoke poured out from the bottom of Sunstone Fortress, like furious earth fire; the garden walls were flattened by invisible giant hands, and the entire fortress seemed to tremble violently, then fell apart in the thick smoke.

First, the walls peeled off downward, then the pillars and roof. The falling stones accelerated the eruption of smoke. Finally, the collapsing fortress allowed the smoke column to soar into the sky, connecting with the gray sky.

Ironsand City seemed to have added a "Tower of Babel."

...

Tulam in the oasis tavern also saw this scene. Only at this moment did he understand what Iron Axe's slow story was referring to.

A coffin filled with snow powder, the weight reduced by the Goddess, flint attached to the lid, a firing cord connected to the top of the board... whether violently destroying the coffin or normally opening the lid, it would bring an unparalleled thunder. Although he didn't quite understand what snow powder and firing cord were, he did understand thunder.

The muffled sound that could be heard for miles, and the smoke column observed by the Land of Blood, one could imagine how amazing this unforeseen heavenly thunder was.

If he wasn't lying to himself, and the scene in Ironsand City was really caused by that coffin, the Ironwhip clan leader should be dead.

Tulam just didn't expect that the other party would really attack the fourth-ranked Ironwhip Clan before the duel, and retaliate in such a blatant way.

"You..." He looked at Iron Axe, whose expression was as usual, and couldn't say a complete sentence for a long time.

"Rubakha Bloodwhip defiled the Sacred Duel back then, and also failed the expectations of the Three Gods. For someone who has already lost the qualification to duel, how could I possibly have a fair competition with him in the Scorching Land?" Iron Axe said calmly, "Rubakha and his clansmen are just a group of cowards. I never regarded them as duel opponents from the beginning."

"But... after all, the Ironwhip Clan is a large clan..."

"That's why such an ending is more suitable for them, rather than dying gloriously in the arena." Iron Axe shook his head. "Besides, the Aoshia Clan will not violate the rules set by the Three Gods. Once the opponent surrenders, we will put away our weapons and pardon the duelist's life." He paused here for a moment, "Think about it, if you were the Ironwhip clan leader, knowing that the Aoshia Clan has returned, what would you do?"

Tulam immediately understood what Iron Axe meant.

Indeed, breaking the rules once could lead to breaking them a second time. A transgressor who doesn't abide by the rules of the Three Gods would bring them endless trouble—even if they wanted to reverse the "defeat" of years ago through the Sacred Duel, they would be subjected to endless harassment and framing before and after the duel. It would be better to crush them completely from the beginning than to be exhausted from defending against them.

"But... if Rubakha didn't open the coffin and didn't destroy it, wouldn't your plan fail?" Only one last question remained in Tulam's head.

"The Ironwhip clan leader is naturally violent and loves destruction and killing—guessing his actions is not much harder than teasing a monkey." Iron Axe slightly raised the corner of his mouth. "Besides, the snow powder coffin is just an appetizer. Even if Rubakha manages to escape this, there are still many gifts waiting for him... but now it seems that the Three Gods will not bless a traitor who has abandoned them."

Hearing this sentence, Tulam couldn't help but shiver.

When he pledged allegiance to Zool Silvermoon and the new Aoshia Clan, he also swore in the name of the Three Gods.

Iron Axe's last sentence was also a warning to him.

"Next, we can have a good talk about business," the mixed-blood patted him on the shoulder as if nothing had happened. "Another reason I chose you is because you know Ironsand City like the back of your hand. People in the oasis say that there is nothing you don't know in the desert."

"I've just been here for a long time and heard more stories," after experiencing the defeat of the gatekeeper and easily resolving the Ironwhip Clan in one night, Tulam became much more respectful to Iron Axe, Princess Aoshia, and the Graycastle forces behind them. "But if I know anything, I will tell you in detail."

"Very good, to win the Sacred Duel, you must carefully understand the enemy... tell me about the warriors and goddesses of the major clans." Iron Axe nodded.