Records of the Weakest Emperor

Chapter 177: Luring the Tiger Out of the Mountain

As soon as the veil took effect, Calvin activated the Emperor's Commandment.

"By the Emperor's Commandment, all shall obey!"

A booming voice reverberated throughout the sealed space as a majestic aura sprung up from Calvin.

At that moment, he turned into someone worthy to be called an "Emperor".

The golden robes decorated with dual dragons wrapped around his body gave him the air of nobility.

Transcendent and out of reach.

Calvin looked out of this world.

"Come out..." Calvin whispered.

A crimson light burst from his golden quill and the faint image of the Mortician appeared behind him.

The Mortician might be taller than Calvin due to the fact that he was floating over Calvin's head, but he was ultimately unable to overturn Calvin's majesty.

He looked imposing and scary, yet when compared to Calvin's air of nobility. It was as if he was a mere commoner in the presence of the Emperor.

But everything wasn't over just yet...

Calvin grasped the Bloodstone hanging around his neck and whispered.

"Stephanie..."

A blood-red light sparkled from the Bloodstone and a beam of crimson flew behind Calvin.

A half-bodied woman with pale skin and a terrifying look of resentment vaguely manifested beside the Mortician.

Monsters of great resentment hate each other similar to how magnets with similar poles repel each other. But strangely, these two monsters seemed to be in tacit understanding.

The Mortician coldly glanced at Stephanie and the latter also made a sidelong glance at the Mortician.

There seemed to be no hatred in their eyes as they stared at each other, but it didn't mean that they like each other's company.

Calvin observed the reaction of both monsters while in the presence of one another. He was ready to react to any changes. But he was pleasantly surprised to discover that they were in mutual agreement.

'That's one less thing to worry about...' Calvin let out a sigh as he continued his journey towards the village center.

The village center was only three blocks away from where the boundary of the veil was. Yet, it seemed to be so far for Calvin who walked ever so slowly.

'Looking at the village like this, there seemed to be no problems at all. The oil lamps hanging over the doors signify the presence of humans, yet why is it that I feel no warmth at all? It feels as if there are no humans in this village anymore... only monsters.' Calvin sighed.

"Hide in my shadow..." Calvin ordered.

The supernatural beings imposingly floating behind him quickly turned into two beams of light that dived into his shadow. For a moment, the shadow he was casting on the ground seemed to tremble and twitch. Did the Mortician and Stephanie finally got into an argument without his presence?

Calvin lightly chuckled and shook his head, 'That would be so silly...'

The Mortician and Stephanie failed to invoke any reaction from the owner of the woman's crying voice.

'Could it be that these two are too weak to enter the eyes of the owner of that voice? That's possible with the Mortician since he isn't even at the Purveyor rank yet. But for Stephanie? I can feel that Stephanie's at least at the Low-Purveyor Rank...' Calvin pondered.

'The presence of Corpse Eaters means that there should be no humans in this village anymore. But why do they still use oil lamps? Corpse Eaters are like fishes in the water when they are surrounded by the dark. I see no point in using oil lamps. What's more, the houses in this village doesn't seem to have any place to cook...'

'There isn't any oven, nor a furnace to place a pan or wok over...'

'Without a place to cook meals, people can't eat... Or do the villagers not need to eat? In that case, it is certain that they are not human anymore. But even Corpse Eaters need constant nutrition or they would die from either dehydration or starvation. Old Zhong told us that it has been years since someone visited this village and half a year since someone from the village came out to buy supplies...'

'Was the person who came out and bought supplies from Old Zhong's village human? Or was that person already a monster? In that case, if the monster is able to transform into a human, then he must at least be at the High-Purveyor Rank or even at the rank of Emissaries. I can still probably handle a High-Purveyor Rank supernatural being, but an Emissary?'

'There's nothing else that I can do other than run...'

Calvin lamented how weak he was at this moment, but he wasn't disheartened.

He had faced greater odds than this, so why should he be afraid?

He wasn't even afraid when he was sent by that unscrupulous general into the front lines with only a thousand men against ten thousand!

In the end, he managed to win against ten thousand albeit there was only a single survivor in his ranks.

It was him.

He was the sole survivor.

The odds that Calvin had to fight to survive in that battle back then was too overwhelming.

He had to do every shameless trick in the book to fight and survive.

In the end, he succeeded but he was still branded as a shameless man who sacrificed a thousand of his men to survive!

That fateful battle taught him a lot of things.

It was to never give up so long as there was a glimmer of hope.

Calvin could still see some hope fighting against a High-Purveyor Rank supernatural being.

But Emissaries were on a whole new world than Purveyors.

They were not only stronger than Purveyors out of any attribute possible, they also had the ability to summon spirits from the spirit plane to aid them in battle. These spirits were creatures of lesser intelligence that an Emissary could easily manipulate. For example, they could create a spirit stampede consisting of a horde made out of spirits to mercilessly trample on their enemies.

But this wasn't actually the most terrifying part about Emissaries.

Calvin could still deal with a spirit stampede, but Emissaries were supernatural beings whose intelligence was equal to humans.

Fighting against monsters like that with Calvin's current strength was basically the same as suicide.

Calvin predicted that there would be no glimmer of hope at all.

This was why he had decided that the moment he discovered that the monster was an enemy that he could not hope to defeat. He would abandon everything and retreat.

Of course, he would not let such a monster grow unhindered. Upon his return to Ashmelion, he would immediately report the Village of Tulog's situation to the church so they could send a punitive force to cleanse this filthy land of impure beings.

With a contingency plan made and his current plan still in motion... Calvin continued to walk towards the village center.

it was at this moment that his eyes caught something glimmering near an alleyway.

It was half a human face staring at him behind a wooden fence.

"All right, finally there's someone else." Calvin lightly chuckled and went after the figure.

He followed and soon discovered that the figure had entered a house with an oil lamp shining over its doors.

Calvin approached the house, but he didn't enter.

Instead, he observed the house from the outside and noticed several peculiar things.

First, the house smelled like charcoal and spices.

Second, there seemed to be traces of human activity since there were panicked footsteps on the mud near the house. This was clear evidence that the person who left these footsteps was a human being and not a Corpse Eater. It was because, despite the fact that Corpse Eaters could masquerade as humans, they would forever be unable to feel any emotions.

In short, it was unthinkable for them to leave such panicked footsteps.

Lastly, Calvin couldn't feel any resentment from that gaze that stared in his direction earlier.

Instead, what he felt was uncertainty, fear, and excitement.

A mixture of emotions that could only come from a human being.

But Calvin knew not to let his guard down.

He approached the front door in a careful manner, but before he could even knock on the door.

It opened by itself and a figure wearing ash-gray graveclothes stood behind the door.

In the middle of the night, a door had opened by itself, and a figure wearing graveclothes stood alone beyond that door. Anyone would've shat their pants right at this moment, but Calvin was clearly different.

A placid look was on his face as he asked.

"Why were you staring at me earlier?"

Calvin's shadow created by the light from the oil lamp seemed to have gone alive as it subtly twitched.

Of course, no one noticed the shadow's movements.

Not even the owner of the shadow itself.

"Are you human?"

"Or are you a monster?"

The person stood still and judging from the slight tremors coursing through his body, he seemed to be struggling a lot before he finally came to a decision. The graveclothes wrapped around his body unraveled itself and a figure that looked even more monstrous than the ugliest Corpse Eater out there was revealed in front of Calvin.

The person behind the graveclothes was a man whose age seemed to be between a toddler and a middle-aged man. His height looked similar to a teenager, and his facial features were a mess. His right eye was bigger than his left eye. His nose was missing, leaving only two holes that constantly dripped with mucus.

His left ear was missing while he also had a cleft lip.

Furthermore, there was some fabric wrapped around his mutilated left arm.

Strangely enough, despite all of these deformities... The man was still alive. Although Calvin's pupils constricted the moment he saw the slab of meat on the man's cabinet. The shriveled piece of meat just looked too similar to the man's mutilated arm. It turned out that to survive, the man had cut off his own arm and rationed the rotting meat for as long as he could.

'So that was the reason why the house smelled like charcoal... He was roasting his own rotting flesh to get rid of its impurities and cook it as much as possible so it's at least edible...' Calvin was now staring seriously at this man of sheer resolve and fortitude. To be able to survive and remain human for so long in this cursed village. This feat alone was a testament to his willpower.

But just what was the reason why he was clinging to life?

With his current condition... wouldn't it be better for him to die?

Calvin's eyes narrowed.

He felt that he was slowly getting closer to the secrets behind this cursed village.

And he was right.

For when the man spoke, these were the words that he uttered...

"You..."

"You were looking for the owner of that crying voice, right...?"

Calvin stared at the man in astonishment.