"Chim, you're now my captive. Richard said with a light smile.

"Yes, yes, yes, I can pay the ransom! How much do you want, although my family is very, very rich, as long as you are willing to let me go! You are a real nobleman, and you will definitely abide by the rules of war between nobles, right? Don't kill me, don't kill me!" Chim said at the end, already crying bitterly.

In the dim and quiet forest, Sim's delicate and fat white body looked very dazzling.

"Of course the ransom is for it. Richard said slowly. His words immediately relaxed Him's tense nerves, and then the suppressed fear could no longer be suppressed, and he even cried out loud.

"But ......" Richard made another twist that made Chim's crying stop abruptly. Richard approached Sim and approached him until the two faces were less than twenty centimeters apart, and then said slowly, "I need you to remember my face and my name!" How many lashes did I give you last time? It seems like a dozen strokes, and oh, you see, my memory isn't very good. Then double it this time, thirty lashes, and it will probably make you no longer forget who I am!"

The long whip in Gangde's hand rose like a poisonous snake and then fell on the viscount's back, leaving a high swollen whip mark. Sim screamed violently, his whole body convulsed and struggled, and he began to become incontinent.

Richard took a few steps back, leaned against a large tree, closed his eyes, and counted the whips silently.

Gangde's whip is very measured, and the whip marks are never stacked between them, and none of the black, purple, swollen and shiny whip marks are broken. The hematoma will irritate the nerves more and more, making Chim's pain magnify. The whip marks were almost all over Chim's body, but they didn't really hurt him, especially anything that didn't touch him.

Finally, after thirty lashes, Sim couldn't move, only **. It wasn't until Quicksand came over and cast several healing spells on him in a row that the Viscount was barely able to lie on Gonde's back and be carried out of the forest.

After the first battle, the brood was no longer needed, so the brood returned to the turbulent land. Before returning, the brood reminded Richard that it needed a large number of mana crystals, or something similar with energy, so that it could be further strengthened. (Baidu search to win Q coin,)

Richard was also a little helpless about the requirements of the brood. Mana crystals are rare in any plane, and to put it bluntly, they are high-purity crystals rich in a lot of energy. As the brood progresses, the number of mana crystals required for each new ability increases. Now that the brood has reached the fourth order, the newly emerged ability at the fourth level requires forty magic crystals to activate.

The ability of the brood as a plane warplane is gradually being exerted, and when the size of the throwing swarm is large, the ability begins to increase exponentially. But again, in keeping with the enormity of the effect, the consumption of the brood is no less staggering. In order to raise the brood to the fourth order, Richard had invested in it all the wealth that a baron could have, and for the foreseeable future, even the duke's wealth would not be enough to feed the brood.

If the brood has no limit, or the evolution limit is very high, maybe one day in the future, the power of the entire plane will have to be mobilized to support the consumption of the brood. Thinking of this, Richard suddenly frowned, and a little ungraspable thought flashed.

Richard took the captive Chim and his guards and joined his large army. Only then did I have time to count the results.

The war lasted several days, and Viscount Chim's troops were finally wiped out, with more than a third killed and a third wounded, and the rest turned into Richard's prisoners. Richard had no intention of raiding the camp of the wounded soldiers of the Viscount's army again, which would only add a lot of burden to himself, but he would not get much more ransom for it. There were dozens of elite knights among the more than four hundred captives, but they were not worth more than Viscount Sim together.

After a day's rest, Richard gathered his troops and returned to his territory with twice as many prisoners as he had.

On the way back, quicksand and Richard walked side by side. Not far ahead of them, Viscount Chim was also on horseback, carried by several Sand Knights. Among the captives, only the viscount was given the privilege of riding horses, and the rest of the warriors had to walk. After learning that Richard was going to collect the ransom, the captives' hanging hearts fell and they had no other thoughts.

Looking at Sim's back, Quicksand frowned, and said lightly, "I don't like this guy." ”

"I like him. Richard said.

"I could feel that he wasn't completely dead yet. If you let him go this time, it won't be long before he'll come back to us for trouble. Are you going to beat him with sixty lashes next time? Isn't that the same as killing him indirectly?"

Richard smiled and said, "Isn't it good that he's coming to trouble us?"

"A good thing?"

"Of course it's a good thing, with Chim's character, before he takes revenge, he will definitely prevent others from coming to us for trouble, so as not to be able to take revenge with his own hands. In my case, I'd rather have an enemy like Chim. ”

After Richard commented, Quicksand was stunned, but he stared at Richard fiercely and said, "Sometimes I really feel like you're starting to look like an old man!"

Richard snorted and said, "If you talk about scheming, you're always better than me." ”

Quicksand straightened up, put on a pure and innocent expression, and said, "I grew up in the temple and didn't understand anything. ”

Seeing her appearance, Richard hated her teeth again. If it weren't for the road, most of them would have knocked her down again, and then it would have been another drama of resistance and conquest.

But for some reason, Richard suddenly thought of Su Helen. This kind of play that pretends to be innocent, kind and innocent, if it is played by a legendary mage, it is the most suitable. Thinking of her, Richard suddenly couldn't hold back the thoughts in his heart, and there was an inexplicable sourness. When he first arrived in Faro, Richard did not dare to think about her at all, because he himself did not know if it was possible to return to Norland.

It was not until now that he had passed the initial crisis and returned to Norland and finally had the first glimmer of light, and Richard dared to turn over these memories from the bottom of his heart.

Quicksand didn't notice the slight change in Richard's feelings, she was pondering something, and after a moment she said, "That Perrin, what are you going to do with it?"

"How?" Richard was stunned, he had never thought about it.

"Perrin is a true genius, and if he receives the grace of the Dragon of Eternity and Time and lifts the curse of accelerated aging, it will be possible to complete the foundation of magical mathematics. You know, the Faro plane is not much weaker than Noland, if the magical civilization goes one step further and obtains the resources of other planes, it is possible to ascend to a new main plane, although it will be an extremely long process, but the future is visible. From the immediate point of view alone, it was only because of divine punishment that Perrin failed to achieve anything in magic. But once the divine punishment was lifted, his achievements were almost limitless. It is impossible to overstate the genius of a person who can lay the foundation for an entire aspect of the plane. If we don't deal with it, maybe in another ten years, Perrin will be our worst enemy in Faro!"

This time, Richard finally confronted Palin's problem. Perrin is the key to their return to Norland, and only by relying on the Duke's strength can they get a sufficient amount of sacrifice, but as Quicksand said, in the process of returning to Norland, it is also possible to erect the most terrible enemy for themselves.

Richard pondered for a long time before he slowly said, "Quicksand, you know that we have many enemies in Akmund, many of whom want my life, and are willing to pay a great price for it. For example, the interference of the three alliances of Joseph, Mensah, and Schumpeter in our dimensional war is by far the most typical example. Do you think it's worth it?"

Quicksand was born in the Eternal Dragon Palace, and is naturally very familiar with sacrifices: "So far, they have lost a lot. Sending us to Faro, and then sending Sinclair and her men, is enough to gain a new sub-plane. As long as their luck is not too bad and they spend enough time to develop, the benefits of that plane will definitely exceed the payouts. ”

Richard smiled and said, "That's it." Today I eliminated one Perrin, and probably tomorrow I will have to eliminate another Perrin. There are hundreds of millions of people in one plane, if you count other races, there will be geniuses all the time, do I have to destroy them one by one? In fact, as long as I am strong, it is the right path and the real shortcut. Today's enemies will probably no longer be qualified to be my enemies tomorrow. It's like climbing a mountain, some people want to pull others down, while others are bent on climbing to the top. Those who are single-minded and pull others to the same level as themselves will never have a chance to reach the top. ”

Quicksand frowned and said, "But...... What if our enemy, like Palin, grows to the point where he is even more powerful than we are, and then will we not regret not destroying him when we have the chance?"

"Even if Perrin eventually grows, I'll always climb higher if I'm just focused on climbing to the top. And what is there that doesn't have to pay a price?" Richard asked with a slight smile, and then said, "I'd rather be in the middle than in the middle." ”