Tang Shaoyang stood in the middle of the knight's corpses. Extending his hands to the corpses, he cast [Spirit Summoning].

The corpses burst out into a cold aura as the surrounding froze into ice. The leaves and grass froze as the atmosphere turned chilly. Tang Shaoyang even breathed cold air.

[You have summoned Grade B Spirit, Crystal the Frost Knight!]

From the thick cold air, an armored knight stepped out. The figure was covered in blue plate armor, from the head to toe. The blue armor also continuously released cold air.

Through the Y-hole on the helmet, Tang Shaoyang could see the cold, chilling gaze directed toward him. Emotionless blue-crystal eyes had a very sharp gaze.

"Let's not waste the time, shall we? You only have two choices," Tang Shaoyang was the first one to open his mouth, "First, we fight, if you lose then you will be sacrificed and you will be freed if you win. Second, we don't fight, but you will be my Contracted Spirit instead!"

Tang Shaoyang was disappointed that he just summoned Grade B spirit. He thought he could summon, at least, Grade A spirit. But he found the spirit's ability interesting, hence he wanted to form a contract with the spirit.

"You sound confident that you will win against me?" A cold voice flowed from the spirit. Her voice was toneless, void of emotion. Tang Shaoyang could tell that the spirit was a female based on her voice.

"Just make your choice, lady. You are not that special!" A voice came from the other side. Crystal turned toward the voice and met with Bronson. The thick murderous aura from the Executioner caused the knight to frown.

Next to Bronson, she noticed another two spirits like her. The two other spirits were weaker than the spirit in the middle, but they were stronger than her. As a spirit, it was easier to sense another spirit's strength, and it was hard for her to tell whether Tang Shaoyang was stronger than her or not.

Crystal glanced toward the man and looked back at the three spirits. If those three were the man's contracted spirit, then the man was telling the truth. He should easily win against her.

She did not want to die. The reason she wanted to be spirit was because of her deep vengeance. Her deep vengeance to the kingdom who had betrayed her. She did not want to die unless she achieved her vengeance.

Crystal walked toward Tang Shaoyang and knelt with her left knee and her left hand on her chest, "I am willing to be your Contracted Spirit, My Lord."

Being alive was her only choice. As long as she was alive, either as a spirit or a living being. She would always have a chance to avenge the betrayal. The intricate magical symbol appeared on her forehead.

Tang Shaoyang came forward and placed his palm on it.

[Do you want to form a contract with Grade B Spirit, Crystal the Frost Knight? Yes. No.]

[You have established a contract with Grade B Spirit, Crystal the Frost Knight!]

Crystal's figure burst out into a cold aura and entered Tang Shaoyang's forehead. After Crystal entered the spirit space, the surroundings' temperature returned normal. The freezing plant and trees were also freed from the ice.

"Alright, you three also return if you want to fight against the Lionax Kingdom tomorrow. There's a cooldown to summon you three," Tang Shaoyang motioned to the three spirits to return.

*** ***

Juan, one of the Elemental Knight sent to follow the big group, running as fast as he could. He was no longer wearing the helmet. He had a terrified expression on his face as tears flowed down from his eyes.

'I leave them… I leave them to die…' the knight was overwhelmed by guilt, thinking his comrades died because of him.

'I am sorry… I don't have other choices… I have to report this to Commander Ashley… I am sorry… I am sorry…' Juan kept repeating the same words inwardly.

'But I promise I will avenge you guys… I promise…'

Juan kept running, his feet never stopped to move. He knew that once he stopped running, he would die as well. He could not die, he had to report this discovery to his Commander.

The knight did not know how long he had been running. His vision was blurred, but he kept running.

"Juan! Juan!" He heard a voice calling his name. His vision returned and looked toward the voice. He met a group of five knights, and they were his comrades from the same squad. He stopped running and fell on his knees.

"What happened to you? What about the others?" The five knights approached Juan. Everyone knew that Commander Ashley sent a big group to pick Prince Kaiden's group. Juan was one of the knights in the pick-up group.

"Dead! Everyone is dead! They are killed! They are killed brutally!" Juan could no longer contain his emotion as he wept soundlessly. But the Elemental Knight quickly collected his emotion, "Help me to get up, I have to report this to Commander Ashley!"

The five knights looked at each other before they nodded. They helped Juan to get up and headed to Jinhua City.

Jinhua City, Steele Building

"So, they are killed by level 700 Demon and Undead? One Demon and two Undead?" Commander Ashley asked Juan who was kneeling on the ground.

"Y-yes. The demon and the undead are too powerful for us. We tried to engage, but all our skills are easily broken by them. It was a one-sided slaughter…" Juan tried to explain what happened back then.

"If the demon and the undead are powerful as you said, why did they let you alive–" Commander Ashley paused midway and immediately stood up from the chair, "Captain Morris! Captain Lucas! Alert our people to get ready to engage with the enemy!"

Commander Ashley was quite sharp, thinking the enemy used Juan as bait. However, that was not Tang Shaoyang's plan. He was cautious, fearing the Prince might lie to him so he was going to bait them to attack him instead of attacking the enemy within their turf.