The populace can tolerate greed, brutality, or mediocrity of their monarchs. But when his own monarch kills his people as if they were dogs, no one is willing to kill them. In particular, the lower-class nobles under the command of Duchess Bathory turned away from Germany after realizing that they could not escape the bloody methods of the monarch.

Since the monarch he served was no longer fit to be a monarch, it was better to change the allegiance of a monarch - this was the idea of almost all the lower nobles at that time.

So, in line with the ideas of the upper and lower nobles of the Duchy of Bathory and the ordinary people, the Kingdom of Tristram, which is adjacent to the Duchy of Bathory, launched a war of annexation against the Duchy of Batholi under the banner of 'crusading against the witch'.

In the face of the invasion of the army of the Tristram Kingdom, Duchess Bathory naturally tried her best to lead the people to resist. Although the Duchess of Bathory caused the alienation of her people due to the 'Blood Sacrifice' incident, the Tristram army went straight to the duchy and invaded most of the territory. However, for hundreds of years, there are still a number of subordinates of the Principality of Bathory. More than 40,000 soldiers who remained loyal to the Bathory family and 230,000 troops from the Tristram Kingdom finally fought a decisive battle at Bathory Castle.

In that battle, the Tristram Kingdom dispatched three Saint-Rank powerhouses and more than a hundred high-level warriors, while the Principality of Bathory was a high-end combat force including Duchess Elizabeth Bathory, who was a Saint-Rank powerhouse, and more than forty high-ranking warriors under her command. The battle of Batoli Castle lasted for a total of 17 days, and the final result was that all 40,000 defenders of the Duchy of Batoli were wiped out, the Duchess's masters were almost completely killed and wounded, and the castle was burned to the ground. As the victor, the Tristram Kingdom paid the price of 50,000 soldiers killed and wounded, high-ranking warriors lost 30%, and a saint-rank powerhouse was seriously injured and disabled.

However, after the end of that battle, the Kingdom of Tristram, as the victorious side, did not find the body of the Duchess of Bathory in the ruins of the castle of Bathory. Although the high-ranking commanders and generals of the Tristram army who participated in the war were able to determine that Duchess Bathory had never escaped the siege of the army besieging the castle, the fact that the body of Duchess Bathory had never been found has always been a source of concern for the Tristram Kingdom. But no matter what, the kingdom will not be able to waste so many troops in the newly occupied territory for a long time. After all, in addition to the Kingdom of Tristram in the realm of the southern city-states back then, there were several other powerful kingdoms. Therefore, after tens of thousands of defenders were stationed in the newly occupied territory, the main army of the kingdom was transferred one after another to participate in the conquest in other places.

When the Duchy of Bathory was attacked by the Kingdom of Tristram, the Duchess of Bathory concentrated all the treasures accumulated by the Duchy over the years in the castle, and it was even more difficult to transfer it when the castle was besieged. After the end of the attack and defense of Bathory Castle, due to the rush of the transfer of the kingdom's army, the cleaning of Bathory Castle as a battlefield was naturally only hastily ended. As a result, many expeditions focused on the excavation of the treasures of the Duchy of Bathory, and many explorers delved into the ruins of the castle. In just a few years, the ruins of Castle Bathory were turned upside down by explorers. And when the castle of Batoli was excavated countless times by explorers until it could no longer be excavated, it was gradually forgotten by the world. Only the outline of the ruined castle shows that it once existed.

"But if that's the case, doesn't that mean that Bathory Castle has been explored by many explorers?" Song Fei suddenly asked. "If that's the case, then I'm afraid the treasure buried in the castle has been excavated a long time ago, right?"

"There's no need to worry." Yang Qianyu put away the codex and explained: "Castle Bathory is still a relatively famous place in this area, so it is basically difficult for the adventure team to go there to explore it to keep a low profile, and it is natural that they cannot keep any gains secret. In the first few years, although many explorers found some hidden treasures, the scale was not large, and it was completely incomparable to the national strength of the Duchy of Bathory at that time. Presumably, the most important treasure of the Bathory family has not yet been found. It's just that there are naturally very few people who know about a treasure spot like this, maybe only Duchess Bathory, who is the monarch of the Duchy of Bathory, knows about it, and ordinary people will never know about it. ”

"Since no one has found it so far, how can we find it?" Zhou Si asked.

Yang Qianyu smiled when he heard this, and replied confidently: "Maybe those explorers are more professional than us, but the unique abilities we have are definitely not what they can have. ”

－

A few days later, somewhere in the northern part of Breitnia and the border with the county.

Through searching in nearby villages and towns, everyone finally found the existence of the ruins of Batoli Castle.

The castle is now only half of the outer city walls that have been eroded and collapsed by wind and rain, and some granite buildings in the castle, which are overgrown with grass and ruined walls, which have become a habitat and amusement park for wild animals. Traces of excavations can be seen everywhere in the castle, but those excavation marks are also very old, and they look like they were left at least more than 100 years ago. If it weren't for the unscrupulous behavior of the original excavators, I'm afraid that even these traces would not have been left for so long.

"Well, this place has been destroyed like this, how can you search for clues?" Ma Jun scratched his head.

Li Xiang, who led the team, looked at Fu Bin, only to see Fu Bin take out a roll of parchment and unfold it, comparing it everywhere. "Hmm...... There are three important places to explore, one is the Duke's residence in the castle, the second is the main fortress, and finally the Caro Church Cathedral in the castle. ”

"Hey, wait a minute!" Zhao Bin interrupted: "It's easy to understand how to explore the main fortress and official residence, but why do you even want to explore the church?" ”

"Because these three places are the places where the Duchess of Bathory stayed most often in the castle." Fu Bin explained: "Elisabeth Bathory, as the monarch of the principality, is naturally also a member of the Caro Church. Of course, she may not really believe in this aristocratic god, but that doesn't stop her from going in and out of the church of the Caro church from time to time. To date, although many explorers have found the treasure, none of them have found the secret chamber where the legendary Duchess of Bathory imprisoned and tortured the maiden. The greatest treasure trove close to the Bathory family may have a connection to the secret room. ”

After everyone nodded their understanding, they began to investigate under the command of Fu Bin.