The Path to Lordship Begins in the North

In the capital of Anjou, Cassius was searching precisely for the caged girl who was trying to escape.

Since he could sell her, Cassius was naturally not worried that the caged girl would reveal any important secrets, but if she was sold to spies from an enemy country, that was another story.

This incident prompted Cassius to personally apologize to Alberto, as he had recently devoted all his energy to research and had become increasingly neglectful of the intelligence services.

Alberto only took a lenient approach, as he had recently become too concerned about the situation of the nobles in the country and thus relaxed his efforts.

Of course, Herbert was recommended by Caron, so Caron was also punished.

To be honest, Alberto had done a thorough investigation into Herbert. His account of how his family's property was abandoned by the Northern Governor's troops was largely true, and he had indeed brought many advanced artillery weapons to Anjou and Avar. That's why Alberto hadn't devoted much attention to this smuggler.

After all, the weapons Herbert smuggled in, though old, were indeed very useful, and some were even among the main weapons that Albert remembered Capet using.

Is it really possible that the Governor of the North would go to such lengths to allow a simple undercover agent to smuggle his own core weapons? Or has the pace of weapon evolution in the North reached a point that Alberto can no longer comprehend?

Even Alberto was completely bewildered, let alone Caron. After all, in Caron's eyes, Herbert was not only a benefactor, but the weapons he sent were also so advanced that Avar could not believe it. How could such a person be a spy?

It's too late to say all this now. Fortunately, the other party took the caged girl with them when they escaped.

In addition to helping Alberto gather intelligence over the years, Cassius has also conducted in-depth research on the technology of the bards of the old empire. At least among his companions, Cassius's ideas are quite advanced.

At this point, Cassius had already constructed a special frequency band, which was the prototype of a "large local area network". With Cassius and other record-keeping bards as the core, all the gene warriors of Anjou were connected, and other bards such as Lucanus could be excluded.

Cassius called this great project the Spiritual Network, because this spiritual frequency band was like a densely woven net, connecting all the people who had undergone the surgery.

This was even more advanced than the technology of the old empire. Cassius was incredibly proud of the network he had created. He even had a premonition that the First Web he had created would be something that could change the world.

If Lind knew about Cassius's plan, he would surely be amazed that Cassius not only created the network, but also had the rudiments of a network security concept. Cassius had even set up something like a gateway between the bards' consciousness network and the genetic warriors of Anjou to ensure that the two sides would not get confused and that a problem on one side would not affect the other.

Firewalls were a major concern for Cassius, as he disliked his epic-faction colleagues and worried that they might "follow the network cable" to find him and infiltrate the new consciousness network of gene warriors that Anjou had painstakingly built.

Locating these caged girls is merely a basic function of the network woven by Cassius. In theory, Cassius could even know what the wealthy merchants who bought the caged girls were talking about with each other, which was one of the purposes of Cassius selling the caged girls.

For Cassius, the caged girl was a conspicuous signal transmitter, moving nimbly and darting around Anjou, making it easy for him to pinpoint her location.

It can only be said that Cassius truly lived up to his reputation as a more pragmatic recorder, meticulous in his work and thorough in every aspect.

But the more Cassius sent people to investigate and suppress them, the more uneasy he felt.

How come it seems like the other side also has a way of knowing the movements of our forces?

Was it the caged girl who directed it? No, impossible! The caged girl should be a mindless human toy.

Although the other party could not always evade the people Cassius had arranged, and coincidence could be explained away, this speculation lingered in Cassius's mind for a long time.

It seems we'll have to rewrite this consciousness frequency band to ensure the other side can't counter-track us.

In any case, it's all over now. Cassius used this frequency network to issue orders to the gene warriors on the front lines. Herbert has nowhere to escape.

If anyone's to blame, it's Herbert for having a brain fart and insisting on taking a human toy with him on the road.

Just as Cassius was trying to pinpoint the location of the caged girl more precisely, a very "noisy" message suddenly came to his mind.

"Hey! Old friend, how are you? I heard you were catching rats in Anjou? Unfortunately, those little rats are ours. My king personally ordered them to return, so I'm sorry!"

Cassius, who was conducting a meticulous search, nearly coughed up blood, cursing through gritted teeth, "Lucanus!!!"

"Are you angry? Oh, you weren't doing something bad just now, were you? I'm sorry, but you haven't forgotten that although our goals are different, we are both products of the old empire, so we can communicate on the same wavelength, right?"

"Oh dear, if my king hadn't mentioned it, I would have almost forgotten about this feature."

Transmitting information over long distances is extremely energy-consuming, but Lucianos kept chattering incessantly, clearly trying to disturb Cassius.

"Shut up! I should have blocked you a long time ago. How did you manage to force your way into contacting me?"

"I was going to tell you, but you told me to shut up, so never mind."

Upon hearing this, Cassius clutched his head and coughed up a mouthful of blood.

Meanwhile, Herbert and his party, whose army in Anjou had suddenly become like headless flies for some unknown reason, finally got a chance to catch their breath and were getting closer and closer to the southern border.

However, the closer they got to the border, the more soldiers they would be around, and the border was now in a state of war preparedness, making it impossible for Herbert and his party to pass through easily.

Moreover, although the girl in the cage can predict the location of some special soldiers, it is not only very energy-consuming, but also cannot predict the actions of ordinary soldiers. So just now, Herbert experienced an encounter battle.

"Take her back."

Herbert had exhausted himself in the battle and was now somewhat delirious.

There were also Anjou soldiers nearby who had been drawn by the commotion from the earlier battle. If Anjou could accurately locate the girl in the cage, Herbert and his group would probably be found very soon.

Therefore, Herbert planned to use himself as bait to help the caged girl safely complete the last leg of her journey.

The girl in the cage seemed to have truly come to her senses, holding onto Herbert's hand and refusing to let go.

"You shouldn't have become like this, the world shouldn't be like this."

Herbert pushed the caged girl toward the guards, then walked toward the approaching search soldiers.

Just then, a shout came from the direction of the searching soldiers: "Oh no! The Capets are attacking!"

The surrounding soldiers immediately dispersed, and as the armored forces rolled in, Herbert relaxed and sat down on the ground with a thud.

The armored units drove toward Herbert while clearing out the soldiers on the road.

Judith, who was in the lead, jumped out of the tank and shouted urgently, "Get in!"