Chapter 352 Immortal Fortress, Swain’s Plan

At the same time, on the east side of the Valoran continent, in the General's mansion of the Immortal Fortress in the imperial capital of Noxus.

The dim yellow light of a candlestick was weak, mixed with a strange and evil red light.

A middle-aged man was wearing a simple black trench coat and Noxian plate armor. The marks on it all proved that it had been baptized by war.

The man sat in front of a round table with candlesticks, his right hand placed on his left face, and his left hand tightly tucked into the hem of his clothes under the cover of his coat.

His gray hair is combed back and reaches his shoulders. His sharp eyebrows are slightly furrowed above his stern eyes. His expressionless face is tightly tensed. He is silently flipping through a heavy book with a strong historical atmosphere, which shows the character of a great noble. Gentleman and temperament.

After a while, as the window sill of the house opened without any wind, the middle-aged man turned his head and saw a raven with scarlet eyes standing on the windowsill, tilting his head to look at him.

He frowned and swung the hem of his clothes with his left hand, revealing an arm made entirely of red light.

And that hand...

Rather than saying it is a hand, it is better to describe it as a twisted claw that looks similar to the human left hand, a kind of bird's claw...

Crow's paw.

As the man's left hand clenched his fist slightly, the red magic light instantly covered the whole body of the raven standing on the window sill.

But before he could take any further action, there was a "dong-dong-dong" knock on the door of the room.

The man looked back at the window sill, narrowed his eyes slightly, and a red light flashed in his pupils.

"Your Majesty, General Darius would like to see you."

"I know, let him in."

The man put his left hand back under the hem of his coat without leaving any trace.

He thought for a moment, stood up, passed by the window sill where the window had been closed again at some point, and walked quickly towards the side of the room where the flames of the fireplace were burning without turning his eyes.

Not long after, the door was knocked again, but it was heavier than before.

The man took out a bottle of fine Ionian wine, poured wine into the wine glass that had just been placed on the table, and responded at the same time: "The door is unlocked, come in."

The door of the room was pushed open, and another middle-aged man with jet-black hair with a strand of gray hair on each side and a strong iron-blooded aura strode into the room.

He wore a specially made wide plate armor, which was also covered with battle scars embedded with endless blood spots, and trailed a brand new red cloak behind him.

A faint smell of rust emanated from his plate armor, but he didn't care at all.

"Would you like a glass of wine? Darius."

Darius stood behind the man, "No, now is not the time to drink. I have to keep my head clear."

His voice was extremely firm and rich, and every note seemed to have an undoubted meaning.

“What a pity, this is Ionia’s fine wine, which the Lanster family bought at a high price from Piltover.

"If it were Draven, he would definitely be drunk."

Lanster family...

Upon hearing the name, a sharp look flashed in Darius's eyes.

Because this family colluded with the rebellious foreign members and attempted to overthrow the rule of the new general, assassins sent by the Du Kecao family were assassinated and their homes were ransacked.

He, Darius, usually hated the pigs who rebelled against the empire, but the man in front of him who also overthrew the rule of the former emperor Brown Darkwill was different.

The Hand of Noxus' duty is to be loyal to the Empire, not to the Crown.

Under the leadership of Darkwill, the empire went from bad to worse, especially during the intense period of the Ionian War, when it almost fell apart.

If Jericho Swain had not overthrown the emperor's rule overnight and established the Trifarian Triumvirate, and promulgated the Trifarian Proclamation, reorganized power to fight against the corrupt nobles, and led the empire back on track.

From now on, the name Noxus Empire will no longer be possible.

"Jericho, I received news that the 37th Chapter led by Prescott ran to Demacia. Was it you who gave the order?" Darius was silent for a while and continued to ask.

"No."

Swain turned around, looked directly into Darius's eyes, and uttered only one word.

Staring at those scarlet eyes, Darius unconsciously felt a fleeting sense of suffocation, as if everything about him was exposed in front of him, leaving no privacy at all.

Swain is even stronger...

Darius could feel the change in the man in front of him.

There was an indescribable feeling on his body, as if something was aberrant somewhere.

But no matter how carefully you observe, you can't find any clues.

Fortunately, we are in the same camp.

Confusing thoughts flashed through Darius's mind, which made him sigh.

"I thought you sent Prescott to Demacia to deal with him." Darius forced out an awkward smile, "Darkwill's remnants can't stay around, they will It’s like a bomb that has passed its shelf life and will suddenly explode at some point.”

"I will not send soldiers to die for no reason, that is a war group... there will always be other ways to deal with those remnants."

The figure of a former executioner of the empire appeared in Swain's mind, "He was sent by the Pale Lady."

"Black Rose again?" Darius looked solemn, "Because of them, we lost another battle group. Our situation is not good..."

"Don't worry, everything is still under my control."

Swain thought for a while, waved to Darius, and asked him to follow him back to the "study" where the bookshelves were placed.

Then, he put down the wine glass in his right hand, took out a piece of parchment rolled into a cylinder from the drawer of the table where he was reading, and handed it to Darius.

"This is?"

Darius raised an eyebrow, untied the string on the parchment, and spread it out.

This is a lifelike portrait of a character, drawn by Swain himself.

"Ionian?" Darius looked up at Swain in confusion, "Who is he?"

"You have been back to the Immortal Fortress for a few months. You must have seen the changes in the city, right?" Swain did not answer his question directly.

"Changes..." Darius thought for a moment, "You mean the Hex Flying Gate, bicycles, and those expensive power generation equipment that are different from Hex Technology?"

You know, in the past few decades, Piltover has held the secrets of Hex technology tightly in its hands, and will not sell the related Hex power generation facilities to Noxus at all.

But just in the past two years, the Gila Mann Congressman family in Pi City, for some reason, unexpectedly sold various power generation facilities to Noxus at extremely high prices.

Of course, according to Darius's little understanding of Hex technology, this power generation equipment does not require Hex crystals and can generate electricity by simply burning coal and wood.

There are even devices that can be used under the sun or placed in water.

This new type of technology has undoubtedly attracted the attention of the major families in the Immortal Fortress, but its high price has dissuaded most people.

Not to mention the Hex Flying Gate, which is strictly guarded by Piltover guards, most families who can afford power generation equipment have their brains turned to this aspect.

They bought the equipment back and wanted to have their craftsmen reverse engineer this novel technology.

If successful, they will make a fortune.

However, for various unknown reasons, this kind of power generation equipment would often be damaged with disassembly, so that the nobles no longer dared to invest in researching this new technology.

In addition, the most important thing to Noxus is the Hex Flying Gate that can travel to all parts of the world in a few seconds.

Although the price of using it is relatively expensive, compared with the equally costly and extremely risky maritime navigation, the Hex Flying Gate has absolute advantages in all aspects.

In the few months since the Hex Flying Gate was built, the trade volume of the Immortal Fortress has more than doubled, greatly increasing the empire's tax revenue.

Swain paused and said, "You must have heard of their inventor."

"Li Lin of the Gila Mann family is known as Piltover's talented craftsman and future pioneer..."

As he was speaking, Darius seemed to suddenly think of something, and his eyes moved downward again, looking at the parchment.

"Could it be him?"

"This young man really exceeded my expectations."

A rare playful smile appeared on Swain's tense face, which surprised Darius.

The next moment, he took out a document full of words from the drawer, pressed it on the table and handed it to Darius opposite.

"Look at this."

Darius had a slightly confused look on his face, still not understanding what happened.

It wasn't until he read the contents on the paper that he looked at Swain with wide eyes, shocked and speechless, "He actually..."

This document contains all kinds of information about Li Lin, as well as hand-drawn sketches of the air combat machine Storm and the mechanical engineer.

Including that he grew up in Ionia, his parents were killed in an attack by the Noxian army, he fled to Piltover alone and spent four years in misery, and then he was suddenly accepted as a craftsman by the Gila Mann family. Soaring into the sky.

Then, in less than two years, he became a pivotal figure in Piltover.

"Don't you think his rise seems strange?" Swain asked in an incomprehensible tone.

"It's a little strange..."

Darius put the documents back on the table, his face extremely solemn.

Although he was the Hand of Noxus, when the Trefari Council was established, as a representative of "force", he was able to be equal to Swain in politics.

But his resourcefulness can only be reflected on the battlefield after all.

Darius doesn't understand this kind of political issue, and he doesn't want to understand it.

However, even if Swain didn't mention it, Darius could still see the weirdness of this young man.

These novel inventions that even the outstanding craftsmen of the Piltover family couldn't come up with after racking their brains came from an Ionian who had only been exposed to mechanics for four years.

Everything was too smooth sailing.

“We sent many war masons to infiltrate Piltover, and most of them were arrested by these so-called ‘machines’.

“Not only that, according to my informant’s report, not only the 37th Chapter led by Prescott went to the Demacia border this time, but the Gray Chapter affiliated with the Black Rose also sent troops there.

"But they all lost news. It seemed that the entire army was wiped out... But on the battlefield, my eyes noticed the traces of Piltover's mechanical troops."

Swain once again dropped a bombshell.

Darius clenched his fists, "Mechanical troops... and Black Rose, what do they want?"

Swain shook his head and returned to his expressionless expression.

In fact, he had more information about Piltover that he had not told Darius.

Because this information cannot be obtained by war masons alone.

Except for the sound of crackling matches burning in the fireplace, the room fell into temporary silence.

"It seems that with this guy here, there is a high probability that we won't be able to take down Piltover." Darius paused, "Just like Shurima."

Swain's eyes flashed with an inexplicable light, "It just so happens that what we need now is to recuperate."

"By the way, I have other things to do with you at this time." Darius said in a straight tone, calming down his worries earlier, "It still has something to do with the Black Rose."

"You want to say faceless man?"

"You even know this?"

Trifari's three-person parliament adheres to the principle of separation of powers, with Swain representing "foresight", Darius representing "force", and the Faceless Man representing "cunning".

But now, the faceless man is acting very strangely, as if he is a different person.

"He has been replaced by the Pale Lady."

Darius' expression suddenly changed, "What...are we going to do next?"

"How is the construction of your Trifari Army going?" Swain asked an irrelevant topic.

"I am selecting the most outstanding and elite warriors from each battle group and expect to be able to form them early next year."

"Very good, now we don't have to worry about anything for the time being."

Swain was silent for a moment.

Darius didn't understand what he wanted to express, but since he said so, there was no need to worry about anything for the time being.

"Go and inform Du Cacault and ask him to send someone to Piltover to secretly investigate the situation of the Giraman family and Li Lin."

"Du Couture?" Darius looked stunned, "But even the war masons can't deal with the mechanical engineers. Let the assassins do it..."

"I have my own plan, just follow it." Swain waved his hand, "Remember, you should go to the Du Kecao family in person. If you have time...as soon as possible."

"Okay, I understand." Darius sighed, "If there's nothing else, I'll leave first."

"sweet Dreams."

"These days, I'm lucky if I don't have nightmares."

“Sometimes, it’s good to have expectations in your heart.”

Darius said nothing more, nodded to Swain, turned around, left the room and closed the door.

Swain watched him leave until he left. Then he stretched out his demonic left hand and heard inexplicable murmurs that no one else could hear. Scenes flashed through his mind.

His calm expression suddenly changed.

"War machines, primitive fear demons, protoss..."

Swain took a deep breath and looked toward the southwest with deep eyes.

"It seems that I still underestimated you too much...Li Lin."