By the time Ewen awakened from his unconscious state, two days had already passed since the attack on Intelar.

There were still over 7,000 freemen left, and at the moment, they were all occupying a set of barracks within the city. Truth be told, it was far more accurate to describe the situation that they were in as imprisonment rather than occupation. The soldiers of Intelar were constantly patrolling the area around the barracks, but under Lana's instructions, they had refrained from stripping the freemen of their weapons. This was to give the freemen a sense of security. If they were ordered to surrender their weapons, there was a chance that they would revolt in a fit of desperation.

Ewen and Moustache were also both in the encampment. Moustache's injuries were less severe, so he had already woken up the day before. As soon as he had first opened his eyes, he had spotted a pair of delicate pacing back and forth within the tent. His gaze roamed upward over the woman's legs and up her waist, but as soon as he caught sight of the flowing red locks spilling down her back, he was so frightened that he immediately closed his eyes.

This was the same demonic woman who had incinerated every single hair on his body!

He didn't dare to move even a single muscle after that, and thus, he pretended to be unconscious for one more day.

Only after Ewen woke up and began croaking for water did Moustache dare to open his eyes again.

Having been tormented by Lana's arcane, Ewen was severely dehydrated. His lips were cracked, and his throat was completely parched. He took a glance at Moustache, who was also in terrible condition, and he asked in a feeble voice, "Where are we? Are we already dead?"

Moustache didn't dare to reply, and he silently pointed at the woman who was taking a nap on a reclining chair in the tent.

"Are you finally awake?" Lana asked, but her eyes remained closed.

Ewen struggled into a sitting position, then cast his gaze toward the woman on the reclining chair as he asked, "Why didn't you kill us?"

Lana opened her eyes as she cast her gaze toward Ewen with an intrigued expression. "I didn't think that heavendew could be kept and nurtured in one's body. Truly a rare sight to behold."

Ewen cast an astonished gaze toward Lana upon hearing this, while Moustache was completely perplexed, clearly unable to make heads or tails of what Lana was saying.

"I had to go through many of the books in the Ardwin Library before I finally figured out what was in your body," Lana continued.

Heavendew? What's that supposed to be? And it sounds like Ewen has that thing growing in his body? Moustache was becoming more and more confused by the second, and he could tell from Ewen's silence that Lana was correct.

The only thing that Moustache had ever felt to be inexplicable or remarkable about Ewen was the power of his arrows, which was astonishing, to say the least. Both of them were master archers, but Moustache's archery excelled in the speed of flight and accuracy. In contrast, Ewen's archery was ridiculously powerful, and the two of them offset one another perfectly.

However, everyone's cultivation methods were different, and Moustache had never asked Ewen about this. He was simply of the opinion that Ewen had just been blessed with extraordinary strength from birth.

However, judging from what Lana had just said, it seemed that things weren't so simple.

heavendew was an extremely rare type of plant that could be found in the Grand Warandele Canyon. It was a crimson vine-like plant with a crown that resembled an agave plant. It received sustenance from dew and rain, as well as the blood of animals and beast, and this plant was so rare that there were barely any throughout the entire canyon, which stretched for hundreds of kilometers. It could be used to brew a magic potion that could allow one to absorb an enormous about of matter energy from the surrounding environment in a short time. Even an elementary magician could attain power comparable with a grand magic mentor like Lana by using such a potion. Lana was only able to discern that there was such a plan in Ewen's body after learning about its effects as a magic potion ingredient. Thinking back, it became clear to her that the purple patterns that appeared on Ewen's arm every time he drew his bow were actually the roots and stem of the heavendew plant in his body.

"I have to caution you that you won't be able to live very long if you use your own body to provide sustenance to the plant," Lana said as she cast her gaze toward Ewen.

Moustache was rather alarmed to hear this. Never had he considered that each arrow fired by Ewen would be chipping away at his life force.

"If I can't make something of myself, what would it matter if I lived a long life or not? I'll just be a worthless insect anyway," Ewen said in a cold voice. "Do you think an insect would care if it lived a long life?"

Lana nodded in response, and a hint of respect welled up in her heart toward Ewen. In her eyes, the quality that nobles like Aike were sorely missing was the courage of people like Ewen, who were willing to put their lives on the line as they had nothing to lose anyway.

"You must've spared us because you think we're still valuable to you, right?" Ewen asked in a straightforward manner. "Tell us what you want."

"I want all of the freemen to follow me from now on."

"That's not possible. There's no way my brothers would follow a noble."

"Don't let your failure rob you of your ability to think rationally. I suggest you take some time to reconsider," Lana said as she looked at Ewen with an indifferent expression.

Ewen was no idiot, and upon hearing this, he immediately realized that Lana didn't seem to be approaching this situation as a noble would. Under normal circumstances, a noble would've just eradicated the entirety of the freeman organization. In that case, what she was doing would've been completely redundant.

"I heard from Yuran that the freemen is an organization with no beliefs or status, and that it's fueled solely by passion. Interestingly enough, I just so happen to be missing a bunch of bold and reckless subordinates like yourselves, so what do you say?" Lana asked with a smile.

"And if we refuse?" Ewen asked in a cold voice.

Moustache gulped involuntarily upon hearing this, and he couldn't help but admire Ewen for his courage.

"What else can I do? I'll just have to kill all of you," Lana said with a carefree smile, and it was as if she were telling a joke rather than making a menacing threat.

For her, wiping out the freemen was as simple as taking a stroll through the park, and it certainly wasn't going to weigh on her conscience.

Ewen and Moustache knew that she wasn't just bluffing. If they were to refuse, then she really would follow through with her threat.

Furthermore, they also knew that if she wanted all of the freemen dead, then there was no way that any of them would be able to survive.

This really wasn't a threat. Instead, it was pure intimidation from what was essentially a higher life form.

This was the most disheartening thing to Ewen. There was no hope at all, and his options were either death or surrender.

Ewen had a burning ambition to overthrow the nobles, but in the face of someone like Lana, who was unfathomably powerful to him, the only emotions that he felt toward her were awe and veneration.

"So you're not actually here to negotiate with us at all, is that right?" Ewen harrumphed coldly.

"Don't flatter yourself. When there's such a massive disparity in power, you don't have the right to negotiate with me. I've spared your life, and you're my prisoner. There's no honor for you to speak of, understood?" Lana asked.

Instead of becoming infuriated by this, Ewen felt this to be a very reasonable statement, and he nodded in response.

"But what do you need us for? Don't you have Aike wrapped around your little finger? What can we do that he can't?" Ewen asked with a puzzled expression.

"You don't need to know that," Lana replied, much to Ewen's chagrin.

"Even if we agree to follow you, will Aike really be willing to spare us?" Ewen asked with tightly furrowed brows. "We did try to kill him."

"Not only does he have to spare you all, he also has to give me the city of Intelar," Lana replied in a nonchalant voice.

"What?!" Ewen and Moustache were both astonished to hear this, and they were staring at Lana with stunned expressions.

In contrast, Lana was very calm and collected, and she said, "I saved his life, is it that much to ask him for a city in return? Don't you and your men need a place to stay after you decide to follow me?"

"This sounds way too good to be true," Ewen said in a skeptical voice. "Duke Soleil is not that easy to fool."

"We'll see if the negotiations go well. At the moment, I'm asking you what you want to do with your men," Lana said, refusing to be sidetracked.

"You already told me that you'd kill all of us if I don't agree. Do I have any other choice?" Ewen said in a resentful voice through gritted teeth.

Ewen knew what the best course of action to take here was, but for a conceited man like him, it was not so easy to suddenly make the transition from the leader of the freemen to a subordinate to someone else.

However, at the same time, he knew that there was no one more suited to act as the leader of the freemen at this moment in time.

Just because he didn't cherish the lives of his subordinates didn't mean that he was willing to sacrifice them for nothing.

A wise man had to possess the ability to adapt as the situation demanded.

Lana was well aware of what type of person Ewen was, but recruiting the freemen was only a means to an end, so she didn't care to examine Ewen's moral character.

"Catch!" Lana suddenly said as she picked up a small glass bottle before tossing it toward Ewen.

Ewen caught the bottle to find that it contained a series of crimson beads. He pulled out the wooden stopper, took a look inside, then brought the opening of the vial to his nose before taking a whiff with a perplexed look on his face. "What's this?"

"This is a medicine refined from sunsteel amaranth, and it can replace your essence to act as sustenance to the heavendew plant in your body."

Ewen shook the bottle, and the pills inside made a faint rustling sound. "Why are you giving me this?"

"Given how much of your life force you've already expended, you're most likely not going to live for much longer. I don't want you to die before you have a chance to serve me."

"What happens after I use up these pills?"

"You'll die," Lana replied in an expressionless manner.

"What?!" Ewen exclaimed.

"Once the heavendew plant has had a taste of sunsteel amaranth, there's no way it'll go back to human blood," Lana explained.

"I've already fed you one of the pills while you were unconscious. Make sure to remember to take one every 15 days. Otherwise, you can say goodbye to this life," Lana cautioned.

Ewen's eyes widened with fury upon hearing this, and he was struck by an almost irrepressible urge to attack Lana. Judging from the infuriated look on his face, he was most likely going through countless scenarios in his mind in which he slaughtered Lana in the most horrific ways imaginable.

After taking a moment to calm down, Ewen asked, "So this is how you're going to control me? I was wondering why you were suddenly being so kind to me."

"You're a snake," Lana said in a cold voice. "If I don't do this, who knows if you're going to suddenly turn around and bite me someday?"

"I thought people as powerful as yourselves were beyond stooping to unscrupulous measures like this," Ewen said with a disdainful expression.

Lana wasn't enraged to hear this. Instead, she merely chuckled, "I didn't think you were so naive."

"Well, I've certainly been taught a lesson," Ewen harrumphed coldly.

With that, Lana had the former leader of the freemen wrapped around her little finger.

With Ewen and Moustache pledging their subordination to her, the rest of the freemen would surely follow.